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Project Reports

• Project 6. Molecular and Isotopic Biosignatures

  Co-Investigator Steele and Postdoctoral Fellow Marc Fries used the new WiTec Raman imaging system to begin the examination of in situ carbon formation in a variety of samples, including Precambrian rocks and samples from a Mars analog site in Svalbard.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 3.1 4.1 4.2 5.3 6.1 6.2 7.1 7.2

• Understanding Mars Subsurface Methane Hydrates and Brines and Potentials for Microbial Habitats

  The sub-permafrost zone of Mars is acknowledged as having the greatest potential for habitability because water is readily available. CH₄ leakage from the sub-permafrost zone would occur wherever the permafrost zone has been breached by recent fracturing due to impacts or by geothermal heating.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 4.3 5.3 6.1 6.2

• Hindcasting Ecosystems

  We investigate an analog of a biosphere and focus on hind-casting its biogeochemical cycles. The carbon cycle is most important in the biosphere and is reflected by the Net Primary Production (NPP). NPP varies with climate and life variables. We reconstruct the history of NPP in South America over the last 2,500 years at 8-km spatial resolution and 1-year time resolution in order to understand past ecosystem process and provide larger time windows for future prediction. Our model is formulated to circumvent the shortcomings of the fossil record and adjusted for prediction as the major drivers of climate vary.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 6.1

• Planetary Biology, Evolution, and Intelligence

  Chris Chyba, Cynthia Phillips, Kevin Hand- The project has two components. The first, an overview of the astrobiological potential of various geological features on Europa, is proceeding well — we are continuing the study of various proposed formation mechanisms for different feature types such as ridges, bands, and chaotic terrain.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 1.2 2.1 2.2 3.1 3.2 4.1 4.2 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 6.2 7.1

• Biosignatures in Chemosynthetic and Photosynthetic Systems

  During the past year, our team has made strong contributions in research, mission involvement, synergistic community activities, and education & public outreach.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 4.1 5.1 5.2 6.1 7.1 7.2

• Iron Oxidation – Shaping the Past and Present Environments

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 5.1 6.1 7.2

• Evolution of a Habitable Planet (Arthur)

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 5.3 6.1

• Microbial Communities and Activities in the Deep Marine Subsurface

  Active archaeal communities. We are beginning to publish the results of our rRNA survey of selected deep subsurface sediments, focusing on active archaeal communities in the subsurface (Biddle et al. 2006, Sørensen and Teske 2006). All previous subsurface community analyses were based on DNA, which included the risk of detecting and analyzing remnant and fossil DNA from inactive or dead cells.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1 5.3 6.1 6.2

• Subseafloor Basement (Basalt) Biosphere Studies

  Using UHNAI funds in 2004-2005, we began to acquire laboratory equipment and initiate the first environmental electrochemistry research effort at UH, making use of solid-state voltammetric sensors.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1

• Ecosystem to Biosphere Modeling

  The newly completed methanogenesis component of the model MBGC (MicrobialBioGeoChemistry) was used to examine the effects of competition between methanogens and sulfate-reducing bacteria on metabolism and gas flux in the microbial mat.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 5.3 6.1 7.2

• Examination of the Microbial Diversity Found in Ice Cores (Brenchley)

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 6.2

• The Evolution and Diversity of Ancient CO2-fixation Pathways in Anaerobic and Extremophilic Microorganisms: Clues to the Early Evolution of Life on Earth

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 5.3 6.1 7.1

• Identifying Microbial Life at Crustal Rock-Water Interfaces

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 4.2 5.2 5.3 6.1 7.1

• Rapid Response to Remotely Detected Seafloor Eruptions

  May 2006 – Geophysicists aboard R/V Knorr during a recent cruise to the East Pacific Rise at 9° 51’ N suspected that a recent eruption may have occurred during attempted recovery of ocean bottom seismometers (OBS)

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1

• Adaptation to Salinity in Microbial Communities

  Lake Tyrrell, Australia, has been identified as a site with considerable potential as a Mars analog (Benison and Laclair, Astrobiology, 2003). This periodically dry, pink, hypersaline lake (Figure 1) is located in northwestern Victoria, Australia

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 4.1 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1

• Synergism, Evolution, and Functional Ecogenomics of Deep-Subsurface Microbial Communities Based on Molecular Analyses

  Planktonic microbes in anaerobic fracture water and biofilm microbial communities on aerobic rock surfaces were compared from the deep subsurface of the Witwatersrand Basin, South Africa. A deep-branching clade of nearly identical Firmicutes 16S rDNA sequences (>99% homology) has been identified as the dominant microorganism in fracture water from multiple gold mines of the Witwatersrand Basin, South Africa

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1

• The Astrophysical Environment and Planetary and Lunar Habitability

  We worked to characterize the intermittent aspects of stellar radiation fields, namely flares and stellar cosmic rays, and their effects on biosignature detection, habitability, and space exploration.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 4.3 6.1 6.2

• Microbial and Biogeochemical Characterization of Terrestrial Analogue Sites for Life in the Subsurface of Mars.

  Onstott and McGown collected ground water from boreholes intersection fractures at depths of 890 and 1100 meters below the surface at the Lupin gold mine, Nunavat Territories March 2005 using 0.2 μm borosilicate filters and 0.2 μm hollow-fiber filters and running the borehole water through these filters for 2-3 day

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 2.2 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 6.2 7.1

• Leigh Project

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.2 3.3 4.1 4.2 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1

• Icelandic Subglacial Volcanic Habitats

  The Skaftárkatlar Caldera is formed by an active volcano under the ice, located on the Vatnajökull ice cap in Iceland. Through collaboration with Icelandic colleagues, Gaidos and Glazer participated on an expedition to drill through the ice cap and sample the underlying lake waters for geochemical and microbiological analyses.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1

• Origins and Signatures of Biogenic Hydrocarbons – Controls on the Transition From Abiogenic Geochemistry to Biotic Systems in the Deep Subsurface and Identification of Signature for Life

  Studies of deep subsurface, ecosystems hosted by ancient groundwater are directly relevant to the exploration for extant life in the subsurface of Mars. Laboratory investigations focus on determining the types of prebiotic compounds that form in the subsurface and assessing whether life itself could have been spawned beneath a planet’s surface. Field investigations focus on deep subsurface groundwater sampled at commercial mines in South African and Canadian Archaean rocks.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 2.1 3.1 4.1 4.2 6.1 7.1 7.2

• Geomicrobiology of Neutrophilic Iron-Oxidizing Bacteria at Loihi Seamount

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1

• Oxygen Metabolism and Oxidatie Stress in Anaerobic Microorganisms (Ferry)

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.3 4.1 4.2 5.1 6.1

• The Virtual Planetary Laboratory – The Life Modules

  Field research on the freshwater bacteria of Cuatro Cienegas, Mexico (Siefert). These communities are good proxies for early earth type bacterially-dominated systems. To understand the community dynamics that lead to microbialite (general term for structures produced by microbial precipitation) the metagenomes of two microbialites, from two separate regions of the system were performed using 454 sequencing technology.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 4.2 5.3 6.1 6.2 7.1 7.2

• Experimental Study of Radiolytic Oxidation of Pyrite: Implications for Mars-Relevant Crustal Processes

  In subsurface environments, radiolysis can produce gradients of both electron acceptors and electron donors that are possible sources of metabolic energy [2]. Radiation-induced chemical reactions have particular significance in geologic environments where molecular oxygen derived from the atmosphere is a negligible input.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.3 4.1 4.2 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 7.2

• A Cross-Platform Software Package for Efficient Data Reduction of Environmental Electrochemical Measurements

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 6.1

• Molecular Survey of Microbial Diversity in Hypersaline Ecosystems

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.1 3.2 3.4 4.1 4.2 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1

• Search for Impacts at Extinction Boundaries Using 3He

  Earlier in this grant we (PI’s Ward and Farley and UW graduate student Garrison) completed a study (Farley et al. 2005) of the Permian/Triassic Boundary at Opal Creek, Canada, and showed that a) there is no evidence for any extraterrestrial ³He at this boundary, and b) the absence of extraterrestrial ³He is fully expected for sections (like this one) that have been evenly mildly metamorphosed.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.2 4.3 6.1

• Evolution of Atmospheric O2, Climate, and Biosphere (Ohmoto)

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 2.1 4.1 4.3 5.1 5.2 6.1 7.1

• Impacts and Extinction

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.2 4.3 6.1

• Development of Laser Ablation Resonance Ionization Mass Spectrometer for Planetary Missions

  This project seeks to miniaturize and shock-harden an electrospray ionization rotating field mass spectrometer (ESI-RFMS) for high precision measurements of aqueous geochemistry on Mars (Fig. 1).

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 6.1 7.2

• Isotopic Studies of the Precambrian Earth and Element Cycling Processes (Pitt)

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 4.1 6.1

• Evolution of a Habitable Planet (Kump)

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 4.1 4.2 4.3 5.2 6.1

• Seafloor Eruptions: Access to Deep Hydrothermal Biosphere

  This project is an on-going study of the microbial and geochemical changes associated with seafloor eruptions at mid-ocean ridges. The intrusion of a magma dike into the neovolcanic zone of a mid-ocean ridge is the “quantum” event in the accretion of the upper ocean crust. Such ridge axis diking/eruptive events are episodic perturbations that trigger a sequence of interrelated and rapidly evolving physical, chemical, and biological processes associated with the formation of ocean crust.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 5.1 5.2 6.1