2004 Annual Science Report
Astrobiology Roadmap Objective 6.1 Reports Reporting | JUL 2003 – JUN 2004
Roadmap Objective 6.1—Environmental changes and the cycling of elements by the biota, communities, and ecosystems
Project Reports
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Planetary Biology, Evolution and Intelligence
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.2 2.1 2.2 3.1 4.1 4.2 5.1 5.3 6.1 6.2 7.1 7.2 -
Subsurface Biospheres
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 2.2 4.3 5.2 5.3 6.1 6.2 7.1 7.2 -
Biosustainable Energy and Nutrient Cycles in the Deep Subsurface of Earth and Mars
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 4.3 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 6.2 7.2 -
The Planetary Context of Biological Evolution
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 1.2 2.1 4.1 4.2 6.1 7.2 -
Enzymes of Ancient Metabolic Pathways
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 3.2 3.3 4.1 4.2 5.1 5.3 6.1 6.2 -
Biosignatures in Chemosynthetic and Photosynthetic Systems
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 4.1 5.1 5.2 6.1 7.1 7.2 -
Autonomous Sensor Networks for Hydrology Research
Co-I Kim Binsted has started a collaboration with Chris McKay (Ames NAI team) by submitting a proposal to develop a system of autonomous sensor networks in the Arctic for hydrology research. Autonomous sensor networks are desirable for conducting research on Earth, and essential on other planets. In remote locations with extreme environments, it is expensive and often hazardous to retrieve data manually.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 6.1 7.1 -
Evolution of a Habitable Planet (Arthur)
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 4.2 4.3 5.2 6.1 -
Molecular Survey of Extremophile Microbial Diversity in Hypersaline Ecosystems
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.4 4.1 4.2 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 7.1 7.2 -
Prebiotic Chemical and Isotopic Evolution on Earth
Sulfur fractionated by enzymatic catalysis has been harvested in the laboratory from living cultures of sulfur-metabolizing microbes and analyzed for 32S-33S-34S.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.1 3.2 4.1 6.1 7.1 -
Ecosystem to Biosphere Modeling
We refined the model of hypersaline mats Microbial BioGeoChemistry (MBGC). Working towards publication of the first version of the model (submitted May), we adopted many improvements into the model, or researched them as future adaptations.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 5.3 6.1 7.2 -
Origin of Multicellularity and Complex Land-Based Ecosystem
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.2 5.1 5.2 6.1 -
Evolution of a Habitable Planet (Kump)
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 4.1 6.1 -
Electrochemical Isotope Effects With Applications to Stable Isotope Fractionation in Transition Metals
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.1 4.1 4.2 6.1 7.1 -
Hindcasting Ecosystems
Using results from the previously NAI-funded study, we are developing a predictive Paleo-Net Primary Productivity model for South America (D’Antoni & Skiles 2004). The model is based on the remote sensing/ecology tradition lastly enumerated by Nemani et al. (2003) and the logic used by Monteith (1981) and Running (1990). For calibration and reference purposes we use the output of the NASA-CASA model (Potter et al. 2003) for 41 sites in South America
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 6.1 -
Post Doc Recruitment – Water and Its Relation to Life in the Universe
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 2.1 2.2 3.1 3.2 4.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 6.2 7.1 7.2 -
Biosignatures and Abiosignatures
Rare samples from the Upper Oligocene Enspel Formation in Germany have previously been shown to contain exceptionally well-preserved bacterial fossils.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.2 4.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 7.1 7.2 -
Geochemical Record of the Early Terrestrial Environment
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 6.1 -
Evolution of Biocomplexity From an Ancient Autotrophic Lineage
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.2 3.3 4.2 5.2 5.3 6.1 6.2 -
UH NAI Visiting Faculty Scholars Program
The University of Hawaii (UH)-NAI has established a Visiting Faculty Scholars program that brings external collaborators to work with local researchers.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 1.2 2.1 2.2 3.1 3.2 4.1 4.3 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 6.2 7.1 7.2 -
First-Stage Biofilm Formation Under Extreme Conditions in Ice
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1 5.3 6.1 6.2 7.2 -
The Virtual Planetary Laboratory – The Life Modules
Progress has been made with submodels and fieldwork toward supporting a coherent model of how detectable biosignatures may be produced on extrasolar planets:
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 4.1 5.3 6.1 7.2 -
Ultramafic-Hosted Springs in Subduction Zones
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 4.1 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 6.2 -
Microbial Mat Communities
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.2 3.3 4.1 4.2 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 -
Water-Rock Chemistry and Habitats for Life
An exciting development related to this NAI project is the funding of a grant to design, construct, and test a prototype instrument for contamination-free sampling of basement rock fluids from deep-sea boreholes.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 -
The Evolution of a Habitable Planet
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 2.1 3.2 4.1 4.3 5.1 5.2 6.1 -
Whole Genome Comparisons and the Evolution of Methane and Sulfur Metabolisms
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 4.2 6.1