DRI scientists to study Antarctic microbes during winter

Alison Murray, scientist at the Desert Research Institute, is going where few scientists have gone during the winter, to Antarctica to find clues about how microbes survive and even thrive during the coldest time of the year.

The Western Antarctic Peninsula is experiencing one of the most rapid rates of climate warming on Earth, with an increase of about 2.5 degrees Celsius (4.5 degrees Fahrenheit) in the mean annual temperature over the last 50 years—significantly faster than the rest of the world. Murray and her team will investigate the diversity of microbial life during the Antarctic Winter and the impact of warming on these microbes.

“A major limitation in predicting an impact is that we have very little information concerning bacterioplankton (archaea and bacteria that live in water) diversity, energy-generating processes and adaptive capabilities – particularly in the Antarctic winter,” Murray said. “These features are all encoded in the Antarctic bacterioplankton environmental genome.”

This collaborative study with DRI Assistant Research Professor Joseph Grzymski and Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory Professor Hugh Ducklow is a result of International Polar Year funding from the National Science Foundation and part of an ongoing environmental genome-sequencing program at the Joint Genome Institute. Murray will be collaborating on her research with scientists from around the world, including England, Canada, Australia and France.