Mentor: Anne Reid, Salve Regina University

Project Location

Salve Regina University

Project Description

Climate change is poised to significantly alter ocean conditions, impacting species at every trophic level. Rising temperatures and increased atmospheric CO2 levels lead to ocean warming and acidification, which have been shown to impact the composition of marine microbial communities. The aim of this research project is to isolate and characterize acid-tolerant prokaryotes from Narragansett Bay. As ocean acidification progresses, these acid-tolerant species are likely to become overrepresented in the microbial communities and to alter the function of these communities and the marine ecosystem as a whole.

Water samples will be collected from Narragansett Bay and subjected to an enrichment step at a reduced pH before filtration and plating on low-nutrient acidic media for recovery of acid-tolerant microbes. These microbes will be isolated by subculturing and identified by 16S rRNA sequencing. Isolates will be characterized with respect to growth rates under conditions of varying pH, oxygen and salinity in an effort to understand the potential for these microbes to be successful in altered ocean conditions. The metabolic abilities of these isolates will also be ascertained by screening for growth on a variety of carbon and nitrogen sources and by screening these isolates for their ability to degrade a range of compounds. These phenotypic data will be supported by genomic information obtained from genome sequencing of these isolates by Next-Generation Sequencing, and the identification of genes and pathways involved in stress tolerance, nutrient utilization and biodegradation, which will further shed light on the impact that increased numbers of these microbes might have on their communities and on the higher trophic levels that depend on and/or intersect with these communities.