Aquatic Microbiology at Louisiana State University
We’re going to Ocean Sciences in Portland next week. Both Celeste and Mike have posters on Thursday, February 15th from 1600-1800:
MM44A-1512: The Ecology, Physiology, and Genomic Analysis of Novel SAR11 Isolates
MM44A-1513: Cultivation, genomics, and characterization of the first isolate from the freshwater SAR11 clade LD12
Session MM44A: Functional, Ecological, and Evolutionary Implications of Microdiversity and Intraspecific Variability in Aquatic Microorganisms I.
Cameron and the lab got highlighted by LSU as a recent Featured Tiger. There are some great shots from near Lake Borgne included and solid cameos by Mike, Celeste, Emily, Anna, and of course the RV Schipperke.
Back in August, I accompanied Nancy Rabalais and LUMCON dive safety officer Ben Acker on a dive trip to station C6C. That location is an oil platform south of Terrebonne Bay with equipment for monitoring water conditions such as temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen. I’ve posted before about our work there exchanging equipment and taking samples. I’m involved with the LUMCON dive team through my continued collaboration with Nancy in researching seasonal hypoxia (a.k.a. the Dead Zone) in the region. For example, see our most recent paper on dead zone microbiology. The purpose of this particular trip was to show CBS News the heart of the Dead Zone. Nancy’s recent NOAA-sponsored hypoxia cruise (see Celeste’s trip report) revealed that this year’s zone of hypoxia was the largest ever, and it has attracted a lot of attention as a result. Below is the full-length GoPro footage of the dive, in three parts. A big chunk of the second and third parts are in blackness, at the bottom of the dive, where we searched, in vain, for a lost piece of equipment. But there is some beautiful footage of the rest of the water column if you scroll through the individual videos. A portion of this was included in the CBS News profile. UPDATE 10/4/17: Times-Picayune reporter Sara Sneath found this post and put together a cool summary and link for us at NOLA.com.
We’re looking for students interested in pursuing Ph.D. research on one of a variety of topics in marine and estuarine microbiology. Possible projects involve comparative genomics, integrative (meta)genomics and physiology, synthetic ecology, integrated transcriptomics and metabolomics, high-throughput cultivation, and host-phage interactions. Both basic and applied research avenues are available, and students will have the ability to customize their project based on their interests, including field work/ship time if desired. LSU hosts an advanced high-performance computing environment (http://hpc.lsu.edu), the Socolofsky Microscopy Center, and is an excellent institution for interdisciplinary research at the boundaries of microbiology, marine science, computer science, chemistry, and engineering.
The ideal student will have a positive, solution-minded attitude, be enthusiastic about learning, be kind and hard working, will enjoy pursing research in a collaborative environment, and meet the minimum admissions requirements for LSU. We are currently accepting students for Fall 2018. To be considered for a position, please first send a CV and a brief description of research interests to thrashc@lsu.edu.
After the research cruise in which Celeste helped Nancy Rabalais and her team measure the largest Dead Zone yet, news agencies are taking notice. Yesterday I dove with Nancy and Ben Acker of LUMCON at a site in the heart of the Dead Zone, station C6C (featured in many previous posts). Nancy maintains multiple SONDEs on a leg of the oil platform to measure dissolved oxygen, temperature, salinity, and other important parameters. Our purpose yesterday was to search for a SONDE lost on a previous dive and introduce the CBS News team to the region of hypoxia. We also wound up providing footage for the CBS News crew to use in their segment that you can watch HERE. I shot the underwater footage. We’ll be posting the full video later. Here are some shots from the R/V Acadiana yesterday.
By Paige Jarreau. LSU biological sciences graduate student Mike Henson recently conducted field research in the great big blue! Mike works in Dr. Cameron Thrash’s lab. We asked him to tell us more about his field experience at sea below. Enjoy!
Waves stretch far into the horizon. The sun’s rays pierce the crystal clear blue water. The ocean here gives no hints about its oxygen-less waters beneath its depths. Yet, about 100 miles west of Manzanillo, Mexico in the Eastern Northern Tropical Pacific is one of largest anoxic bodies of water, or oxygen minimum zones (OMZ), in Earth’s oceans.
OMZs form when nutrient rich bottom waters from the Pacific Ocean are brought up to the surface, causing large blooms or growth explosions of photosynthetic algae. As the algae begin to die, other microscopic organisms (or backterioplankton) in the water consume oxygen to metabolize organic matter produced by the algal cells. Once you reach 100 meters below the surface, oxygen levels begin to decrease. At 300 meters, the oxygen has been completely consumed. Any organisms such as fish passing through these areas that are incapable of living without oxygen will die unless they can escape to the more oxygenated surface waters.
This may sound familiar to many Louisianans. However, unlike the hypoxia (a.k.a. the “dead zone”) that occurs seasonally in the Gulf of Mexico from nutrient pollution, this naturally occurring oxygen minimum zone is present year-round.
In the Thrash lab, we study the microbiology of northern Gulf of Mexico hypoxia. We are also collaborating with Chief Scientist Dr. Frank Stewart of the Georgia Institute of Technology, who has National Science Foundation funding to study the oxygen minimum zone in the Eastern Northern Tropical Pacific. Scientists from eight different countries, including USA, Canada, Mexico, Iceland, Denmark, Austria, Spain, and Germany, myself included, recently spent three weeks aboard the R/V Oceanus collecting water and sediment to elucidate the organisms and processes involved in forming this peculiar area of the ocean….
See the full interview with Mike and Paige Jarreau, including some epic photos, at The Pursuit LSU College of Science Blog HERE.
Congratulations go to Mike for being awarded a Lerner-Gray Grant for Marine Research from the American Museum of Natural History. Mike will use the grant to explore the use of Oxford Nanopore sequencing to conduct coastal gene expression surveys for various abundant SAR11 bacteria, including LD12. An excellent accomplishment!
