Award Abstract # 1332912
Collaborative Research: Dissolved Phosphorus Processing by Trichodesmium Consortia: Quantitative Partitioning, Role of Microbial Coordination, and Impact on Nitrogen Fixation

NSF Org: OCE
Division Of Ocean Sciences
Recipient: THE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK
Initial Amendment Date: July 8, 2013
Latest Amendment Date: July 8, 2013
Award Number: 1332912
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: Henrietta Edmonds
hedmonds@nsf.gov
 (703)292-7427
OCE
 Division Of Ocean Sciences
GEO
 Directorate For Geosciences
Start Date: October 1, 2013
End Date: September 30, 2018 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $557,042.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $557,042.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2013 = $557,042.00
History of Investigator:
  • Sonya Dyhrman (Principal Investigator)
    sd2512@columbia.edu
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: Columbia University
615 W 131ST ST
NEW YORK
NY  US  10027-7922
(212)854-6851
Sponsor Congressional District: 13
Primary Place of Performance: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
61 Route 9W
Palisades
NY  US  10964-1707
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
17
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): F4N1QNPB95M4
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): BIOLOGICAL OCEANOGRAPHY,
Chemical Oceanography
Primary Program Source: 01001314DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 1389, 1650, 1670, 4444
Program Element Code(s): 1650, 1670
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.050

ABSTRACT

Colonies of the cyanbacterium Trichodesmium are responsible for a large fraction of N2 fixation in nutrient-poor, open-ocean ecosystems, ultimately fueling primary production in both Trichodesmium and in the broader planktonic community. However, in some parts of the ocean, the scarcity of dissolved phosphorus limits rates of Trichodesmium N2 fixation. Trichodesmium colonies employ an arsenal of strategies to mitigate the effects of phosphorus limitation, and the consortia of epibiotic bacteria in the colonies may play a significant role in phosphorus acquisition.

In this study, researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Columbia University will use metagenomic and metatranscriptomic sequencing to investigate how phosphorus metabolism is coordinated in Trichodesmium consortia, and to discern the role of quorum sensing in phosphorus acquisition and partitioning. Results from this study are expected to expand understanding of Trichodesmium from a monospecific colony whose primary function is fixing CO2 and N2 toward a unique planktonic consortium with a diverse, complex, and highly coordinated overall metabolism that exerts profound control over the cycling of inorganic and organic nutrients in the oligotrophic upper ocean.

Broader Impacts: This project will provide research experience for an under-represented ethnic graduate student and take advantage of established K-12 standards-based outreach programs to increase ocean literacy in children and amongst the public.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

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B. A. S. Van Mooy, A. Krupke, S. T. Dyhrman, H. F. Fredricks, K. R. Frischkorn, J. E. Ossolinski, D. J. Repeta, M. Rouco, J. D. Seewald, S. P. Sylva. "Major role of planktonic phosphate reduction in the marine phosphorus redox cycle." Science , v.348 , 2015
Elise M. Olson, Dennis J. McGillicuddy Jr., Glenn R. Flierl, Cabell S. Davis, Sonya T. Dyhrman and John B. Waterbury "Mesoscale Eddies and Trichodesmium spp. Distributions in the Southwestern North Atlantic." Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans , v.120 , 2015 , p.10.1002/2
Elise M. Olson, Dennis J. McGillicuddy Jr., Sonya T. Dyhrman, John B. Waterbury, Cabell S. Davis, Andrew R. Solow "The depth-distribution of nitrogen fixation by Trichodesmium spp. colonies in the tropical-subtropical North Atlantic." Deep Sea Research I , v.104 , 2015
Hansel, C., Buchwald, C., Diaz, J., Ossolinski, J., Dyhrman, S.T., and B. VanMooy "Dynamics of Extracellular Superoxide Production by Trichodesmium colonies from the Sargasso Sea." Limnol. Oceanogr. , v.61 , 2016 , p.1188-1200
Frischkorn, KR., Rouco, M., Van Mooy BAS., Dyhrman, ST. "Epibionts dominate metabolic functional potential of Trichodesmium colonies from the oligotrophic ocean." ISME , 2017
Rouco, M. Haley, ST. Dyhrman, ST. "Microbial diversity within the Trichodesmium consortia." Environmental Microbiology , 2016
Frischkorn KR, Krupke A, Guieu C, Louis J, Rouco M, Salazar-Estrada A, Van Mooy BAS, and Dyhrman ST "Trichodesmium physiological ecology and phosphate reduction in the western Tropical South Pacific" Biogeosciences , 2018
Rouco, M., Haley, ST., Alexander, H., Wilson, ST., Karl, DM., Dyhrman, ST. "Variable depth distribution of Trichodesmium clades in the North Pacific Ocean." ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY REPORTS , 2016
Hansel, CM, Buchwald, C, Diaz, JM, Ossolinski, JE, Dyhrman, ST, Van Mooy, BAS. "Dynamics of extracellular superoxide production by Trichodesmium colonies from the Sargasso Sea." Limnology and Oceanography , 2016
Frischkorn KR, Rouco M, Van Mooy BAS, and Dyhrman ST "The Trichodesmium microbiome modulates host N2 fixation" Limnology and Oceanography Letters , 2018

PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT

Disclaimer

This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.

The activities of plant-like cells called phytoplankton in the surface ocean serve as the basis for the marine food web, and they also serve an important role in the Earth?s climate by consuming the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide through photosynthesis.  Like plants, phytoplankton need resources like nitrogen and phosphorus to grow. Nitrogen and phosphorus are thought to limit the growth of phytoplankton in many ocean regions, and studying these resources, and how they are cycled, is critical to understanding phytoplankton and their crucial role in ocean food webs and carbon cycling.  This project focused on the phytoplankton genus Trichodesmium, which lives in colonies with its own attached bacteria in a community called the microbiome.   Trichodesmium serves a crucial role in low nitrogen ecosystems by converting nitrogen gas into forms of nitrogen that are bioavailable to other phytoplankton, a process called nitrogen fixation.  Through a series of field observations and experiments that leveraged new methods we determined that Trichodesmium is able to both make and use many forms of phosphorus, and that this phosphorus is likely exchanged with the microbiome.  These findings are changing our view of how phosphorus is cycled in the ocean. We took advantage of the fact that communication molecules can be produced and taken up in the microbiome, but not by Trichodesmium, to selectively change the activity of the microbiome alone and evaluate the Trichodesmium response.  Using this approach, we learned for the first time that the microbiome could change the rate of Trichodesmium nitrogen fixation.  This means that communication between microscopic cells in the ocean can change the activities of phytoplankton and their crucial role in marine food webs and the carbon cycle.


Last Modified: 11/30/2018
Modified by: Sonya Dyhrman

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