TITLE: Assistant Professor
ACADEMIC INSTITUTION: University of Southern California

 

What is your role in Extreme 2008?
Working with my graduate student, Amy Koid, and the other scientists on board the R/V Atlantis, I will be studying the diversity, morphology, and genetic properties (DNA and gene expression) of novel single-celled eukaryotic organisms (protists) collected near deep-sea hydrothermal vents.

What sort of work will you be doing aboard Atlantis? We will use molecular methods to detect and describe protists that are understudied or unknown from this unique habitat. I will also have an environmental scanning electron microscope, which will allow a first detailed look at morphology of freshly collected hydrothermal vent organisms.

What questions are you trying to answer and why?
Microbes carry out biochemical processes that are crucial for sustaining and defining life on Earth. A subset of the microbes, the protists, play fundamental nutrient cycling roles in the oceans. Protists’ incredible diversity of physiologies and behaviors allow them to exploit virtually all habitats on our planet, even hydrothermal vents. Despite this knowledge, we have yet to understand protistian communities in the deep ocean. Studying protists that live at hydrothermal vents is an important task that can help us understand how these single-celled organisms are able to cope with the harsh environmental conditions they experience at depth (e.g., high pressure, high temperature gradients, etc.) and what ecological role single species or functional groups of protists play in the cycling of energy and material through vent habitats.

Why is this research important? What are the benefits?
Microbial communities are more than just a scientific curiosity. Microbes represent the single largest source of evolutionary and biochemical diversity on the planet and are the major agents for the cycling of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous, and other elements through the Earth’s ecosystem. The landscape of hydrothermal vents is one of the most amazing and least understood habitats on our planet. Our understanding of the composition and activities of microbial communities has improved enormously during the past decade, spurred on largely by advances in molecular biology. Using new technologies, the potential for making novel discoveries on a variety of important biogeochemical and ecological fronts working in these systems is very large.

What's your background, and what lured you into marine science/education?
As I started the process of becoming a scientist at Maryville College in Tennessee, I had no idea I would eventually end up focusing on the marine environment. One afternoon, after finishing my undergraduate education, I observed thousands upon thousands of jellyfish in the Chesapeake Bay. But I wanted more than just to observe the animals; I wanted to understand how the ocean functions and what chemical and physical factors caused observable patterns of change. This and many other observations eventually led me to pursue a Ph.D. focusing in biological oceanography at the University of Maryland. While at Maryland, I studied a variety of cnidarians (jellyfish, corals, and anemones) and the ecology of their zooplankton prey. I worked in many parts of the Caribbean Sea and participated in several saturation missions in the underwater habitat Aquarius as part of my research.

What is the focus of your work back at “the beach”?
Over time, I have now come to study microbes, both bacteria and single-celled eukaryotes. Prior to arriving at USC, I coordinated the J. Craig Venter Institute Global Ocean Sampling Sorcerer II Expedition to evaluate marine microbial biodiversity. I also study microbial communities from diverse array of habitats including a hypersaline lake in the outback of Australia, various parts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and in coastal Antarctica.