The PIs plan to develop a new research partnership with Prof. Bahar Ince of Bogazici University and Prof. Orhan Ince of Istanbul Technical University. The goal of this partnership is to develop a new integrated study of the roles of bacteria and archaea on nitrogen transformations and other reactions in the Black Sea. A graduate student will be able to establish contacts for his current doctoral research on the Black Sea. Developing closer collaboration should also open the door to future graduate student exchanges between the University of Washington and Turkish universities. The new studies on anoxic microbial ecosystems will integrate work on bacterially mediated processes with those mediated by archaea. There are few other such integrative efforts trying to interpret the chemical distributions in the context of the biological organisms mediating the reactions. The carbonate system model studies will provide fundamental knowledge about the distribution of carbonate species in the Black Sea and how these respond to perturbations of carbon dioxide added from the atmosphere (ocean acidification) and liquid carbon dioxide injected at depth. The sequestration model results will be particularly useful if one of the Black Sea countries develops a plan to sell carbon credits for this process.
