Apply by June 15: MEDSALT Deep Life in Buried Salt Deposits Training School in Essex (UK), September 9-16 2018

The goal of the Deep Life in Buried Salt Deposits course is to provide training for Ph.D. students and early career researchers in the microbiology and geochemistry needed to investigate life in buried salt deposits. The course includes lectures, laboratory practicals and an underground experience at the Boulby International Subsurface Astrobiology Laboratory! The organizing committee and lecturers include Giovanni Aloisi (IPGP, France), Terry McGenity (University of Essex, UK), Tina Treude (University of California, Los Angeles, USA), Charles Cockell (University of Edinburgh, UK), Sean Paling (University of Sheffield, UK), Josefa Anton Botella (University of Alicante, Spain) and Petra Rettberg (German Aerospace Center, DLR). MEDSALT will support the participation of up to 20 trainees with a fixed grant to cover travel and subsistence costs for EU trainees. Non-EU trainees might have to cover their costs but can apply to participate.  Applications due June 15, 2018.

Apply here

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Public Exhibit on the Oxygen Minimum Zone in the Santa Monica Basin

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Within the framework of our USC Sea Grant project (PIs: William Berelson & Tina Treude) about the potential spreading of the Oxygen Minimum Zone (OMZ) in the Santa Monica Basin, we are currently presenting an exhibit hosted by the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium and Heal the Bay. If you are in the area, come by and visit. The exhibit lasts from August through September, potentially extending into October 2017. You can also watch our time-lapse video on the deoxygenation of a sediment core in the lab. The video was prepared by Sydnie Lemieux a part of her master thesis.

 

Bubble Shuttle project off Santa Barbara

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This summer we have colleagues visiting from the Institute for Baltic Sea Research (IOW) in Germany to jointly conduct field work off Santa Barbara. It is our goal to test whether methanotrophic microbes are transported by methane bubbles from the sediment into the water column. The Santa Barbara methane seep area is an ideal research target as it has shallow (SCUBA dive accessible) seeps. The team is lead by Oliver Schmale. The project is funded by the German Research Foundation. My group  at UCLA and Ira Leifer (Bubbleology Research International, Santa Barbara) support the project. Watch our video to get a feeling for the science: https://vimeo.com/229619743

Santa Monica Bay field sampling with students

As part of our USC Sea Grant project we took undergraduate students from UCLA (teacher: Tina Treude) and the Mt. San Antonio College (teacher: Tania Anders) out into the Santa Monica Bay with the R/V Yellowfin to collect sediment cores with a multicorer from a deep low oxygen zone (~900 m water depth) and from a more oxygen-rich shelf zone (~230 m water depth). Samples will be used in class as well as in an exhibition at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium starting this summer to provide information about the Santa Monica Bay oxygen minimum zone. Students and teachers enjoyed the day on the ocean. While on board, staff of the Southern California Marine Institution (SCMI) introduced classical oceanographic sampling devices. A large clam in an old  glass bottle left everyone wondering…

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New group member Sebastian Krause

Our new group member Sebastian Krause has finished his first quarter at UCLA with getting involved in processing deep biosphere samples in the glove box (see photo).

Sebastian is a new EPSS PhD student who started in the Fall of 2016. He is interested in microbial activity in deep-sea sediments. Particularly in microbes that involved in the anaerobic oxidation of methane around methane seeps and tectonic boundaries.

Sebastian received his Bachelor’s of Science at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) in Marine Biology.  On his free time, he likes swimming, camping, hiking, and scuba diving.

Welcome to UCLA, Sebastian!

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Santa Monica Bay Research on Oxygen Minimum

This summer our group successfully finished field work in the Santa Monica Basin to study the potential spreading of the Oxygen Minimum Zone (OMZ). The research is funded through a USC Sea Grant project (PIs: Will Berelsen, USC and Tina Treude, UCLA) and a UCLA Faculty Research Grand. We studied the water column and sampled sediments for biogeochemical analyzes along a transect from 70 to 900 m water depth using a CTD and a multicorer on board the R/V YELLOWFIN (Southern California Marine Institute). Students from a UCLA Fiat Lux course (teacher: Tina Treude) and from the Mt. San Antonio College (teacher: Tania Anders) joined some of the trips to become engaged in ocean research.

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PhD students graduated

Congratulations to my PhD students Jessica Gier and Sonakshi Mishra, who both successfully defended their PhD thesis at GEOMAR, University of Kiel (Germany) last week. As well as belated congrats to Johanna Maltby, who defended her thesis in October 2015.

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Seabed as a long-term deposit for plastic

Kiel marine scientists investigate the depletion of plastic bags in the sediment

10 February 2016/Kiel. Marine scientists from Kiel have examined whether and how quickly bacteria deplete plastic bags in the sediment of the seabed. The study shows that classic carrier bags made of polyethylene and biodegradable plastic bags didn’t change at all after hundred days in the seafloor. The results were recently published in the international journal Marine Pollution Bulletin.

Whether on the coasts of the Antarctic or on the sediments of the deep sea – there is barely a place on Earth without plastic waste. But how long plastic will remain in the seas until it is decomposed, is hardly investigated. A group of scientists of the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, the Kiel University and the Cluster of Excellence “The Future Ocean” now have compared the changes of standard polyethylene carrier bags with those of so-called biodegradable plastic bags in two chemical environments, which are typical for the seabed. As the team in the international journal Marine Pollution Bulletin writes, bacteria have colonized the biodegradable bags significantly faster. However, “there is no reduction or change of material detectable in both kinds of bags within hundred days,” says Alice Nauendorf, first author of the study.

The team used sediment samples from the Eckernförde Bay in the Western Baltic Sea. “In the upper layers of these sediment samples oxygen was still present, but not in the lower layers. That is typical for seafloors around the world”, says the biological oceanographer Nauendorf and adds: “These layers also differ in the types of bacteria who live therein.”

The two bags were placed in both oxic and anoxic sediments for about one hundred days in a laboratory experiment. According to the manufacturer, the biodegradable bag was made of compostbale polyester, cornstarch and undisclosed ingredients.

After the 100 days the team used a number of analytical methods such as high-precision weight measurements, scanning electron microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy to demonstrate possible changes of the material. “We could clearly see that the compostable bags were more populated with bacteria – in the oxygen-containing layers five times more, in the oxygen-free layers even eight times more than the polyethylene bag”, says Nauendorf.

The studies also showed that the material of both bags has not changed at all in the hundred days of the experiment. “We found no weight loss or chemical alteration. Therefore no decomposition of the material is suggested”, emphasizes Prof. Dr. Tina Treude, principal investigator of the study, who now works at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The exact reason for the different settlement with bacteria remains uncertain. “We found an antibacterial substance in the polyethylene bag, which could have restricted bacterial colonization “, says Nauendorf.

 

But despite the still remaining questions the study shows that plastic reduction is only a very slow process in the sediments. Even the settlement with bacteria is obviously no guarantee for the chemical conversion of a substance. “The study suggests that the seafloor would become a long-term deposit for plastic waste if we don’t stop polluting the seas. Future studies have to show what impact plastic waste has on benthic ecosystems,” says Professor Treude.

Reference:

Nauendorf, A., S. Krause, N. Bigalke, E. V. Gorb, S. N. Gorb, M. Haeckel, M. Wahl, T. Treude (2015): Microbial colonization and degradation of polyethylene and biodegradable plastic bags in temperate fine-grained organic-rich marine sediments. Marine Pollution Bulletin, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.12.024

Link to GEOMAR Website: http://www.geomar.de/en/news/article/meeresboden-als-langzeitdeponie-fuer-plastik/

New Group Member Sydnie Lemieux

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On September 22nd my new group member Sydnie Lemieux started at UCLA. Sydnie is a new Master/PhD student in AOS and will be involved in studying biogeochemical reactions at the sediment-water interface of oxygen minimum zones in the ocean basins off Los Angeles (and beyond) to better understand why these zones are intensifying and what the consequences of this intensification are.

Sydnie recently received her Bachelor of Science in Earth Systems Geoscience at the University of Arizona. While there, she worked as a Research Assistant in Dr. Julia Cole’s Paleoclimate Variability Lab studying past climate behavior using coral cores and cave speleothems. Her independent research project observed sea surface salinity and temperature in the Eastern Pacific, using a 113-year-old coral record from a Papa New Guinea atoll. Sydnie loves hiking, playing soccer, snow skiing, and spending time with family and friends. 

Welcome to UCLA, Sydnie!