In North America and worldwide, maritime communities are experiencing a disproportionate increase in population density compared to other habitable regions. An understanding of the impact these changes will have on marine and estuarine ecosystems and the repercussions for human health is predicated upon having a snapshot of the status of coastal and estuarine ecosystems before further anthropogenic impacts occur.
With support from this Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER), researchers at the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) and the University of Washington will use metagenome and transcriptome sequencing of the coastal microbial and phytoplankton communities to investigate how environmental stressors (some related to human activities) might tip the ecological balance toward an increase in harmful algal blooms (HABs). Their study area will be Puget Sound, Washington, a productive estuary that regularly experiences HABs. In particular, the HAB organisms Pseudo-nitzschia spp. and Alexandrium spp. are both prevalent in this region throughout the summer and fall months and are the objects of ongoing research programs at the University of Washington. The choice of this study area is particularly relevant because Washington state is projected to be in the top five U.S. coastal states with the greatest population growth between the years 2000 and 2030 (U.S. Census Bureau).
This exploratory research will constitute a collaborative extension of ongoing research activities at both institutions. In particular, the principal investigator at the Venter Institute is a member of the Global Ocean Sampling (GOS) program at JCVI and heads the metagenomic sampling along the west coast of the United States in the summer and fall of 2007. As part of GOS, JCVI will collect samples from Puget Sound in October 2007 for metagenomic analyses. Through the proposed collaboration, additional samples for more high risk and developmental analyses will be collected. Specifically, there will be a targeted metatranscriptomic investigation of photosynthetic cells in the larger size class (typical for Pseudo-nitzschia and Alexandrium). Ancillary oceanographic data (hydrography, nutrients, pigments, and flow cytometry data) will also be collected to help contextualize the metagenomic/transcriptomic sequence information into an environmentally meaningful framework. Through the combination of environmental, metagenomic, and transcriptomic data the research team expects to achieve new insight into the pelagic microbial communities that occur in Puget Sound during typical HAB event times of the year and to begin to tease apart the role these populations play in shaping the Puget Sound ecosystem. In particular, they will evaluate the role of various nutrient and other stressors in controlling the transcriptional activity specific HAB populations.
