Janet Seifert's slides from the 1st Earth Microbiome Project in Shenzhen

1. The Whole Earth Stromatolite Catalog: What Could It Tell Us?

2. Yellowstone National Park 600 Million year old Stromatolite bed In Morocco Lithification

4. Exopolymeric substances EPS

6. Whether or not a microbial mat becomes ‘lithified’, i.e. a stromatolite, depends upon the bacterial constituency and the environment.

7. 3.4 billion year old stroms Allwood 2006

8. Bahamas and Sharks Bay Australia Examples

9. As investigative targets, these biomes represent: Long term, discreet microbial entities, tractable numbers. Metabolic flux model targets, mesocosm experiment. Confined to locations that do not allow natural predation to occur Environmental dipsticks that span fresh and marine water systems. Environmental harbingers (or canaries in the coal mine) of climactic, diversity tied to geography, and environmental change

10. Cuatro Ciénegas Case in point…

11. Low in P - Total P ranges between 0.05 - .4 uM, with most of the poza's in the .1 - .3 uM range Proposed as remnant of an ancient ocean… Souza, et al PNAS 2006 Galápagan-like – >120 endemic species Contain living microbialites

13. CCB is a living laboratory where we experiment and sequence.

14. Metagenomes of the Rios Mesquites and Poza Azules Breitbart et al, 2009

15. Souza et al., 2006 PNAS 50% of the clones are affiliated with marine microbes. Total sample 16S sequence affiliation total and by valley Agricultural well subterranean superficial agricultural well Valleys samples Valle Ocampo Mina Reforma Cuatro Cienegas valle Hundido

16. Desnues et al., 2008, Nature. Even the virus kept this ancient marine ancestry

17. Stoichiometry, Redfield ratios, and ecological stoichiometry… branch of chemistry that deals with the relative quantities of reactants and products in chemical reactions C:N:P = 106:16:1 Elser and team link the elemental physiology of organisms to the their food web interactions and ecosystem function.

19. Examine ecosystem responses and changes to microbial biomass N:P

21. The problem with Phosphorus From Kansas to China's Sichuan province, farmers treat their fields with phosphorus-rich fertilizer to increase the yield of their crops. What happens next, however, receives relatively little attention. Large amounts of this resource are lost from farm fields, through soil erosion and runoff, and down swirling toilets, through our urine and feces.

22. The Catalog 150 targets in current working spread sheet, Ripe for social networks

24. Valeria Souza (microbial population biology) Luis Eguiarte and the whole UNAM crew, CINVESTAV – Gabrielle Olmedo

25. Jim Elser (ASU) and all, freshwater limnology, stoichiometry

26. Abby Allwood (NASA), Shery Cady (Portland)

27. Brendan Burns (South Wales), Pam Reid (Miami)