The PIs request funding to design, develop, test, and deploy a sampler capable of recovering microbial mat samples from a variety of deep-sea ocean ecosystems with a spatial sampling resolution on the order of a centimeter or less. Compared to current deep-sea benthic sampling tools, this instrument has the potential to collect better samples, and, more significantly, expand the questions asked by researchers investigating microbial ecosystems.
Microbial mat ecosystems are critically important for a wide variety of biogeochemical transformations in an even wider variety of habitats. These productive microbial communities are highly structured into layers of activity that respond to the particular geochemical gradients that are supplying them. In the deep ocean, microbial mats abound around hydrothermal systems, as well as other sites such as cold methane seeps or organic-rich environments.
Broader Impacts:
The microbial mat sampler is a tool that is greatly needed and will have a positive impact on every researcher studying microbial mats in the deep-sea. The collaboration with the Picker Engineering Program at Smith College is innovative and seems like an excellent way of inspiring young women in the sciences. What a fantastic idea: to get young college students directly involved in the real world application/design of scientific equipment. One of the PIs is an early-career scientist with substantial expertise in the design of deep-sea samplers.
