nai

Project Reports

• Biosignatures in Chemosynthetic and Photosynthetic Systems

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 4.1 5.1 5.2 6.1 7.1 7.2

• Project 1. From Molecular Clouds to Habitable Planetary Systems

  Building on results described in last year’s report, Co-investigator John Chambers’s work this year has focused on models for the growth of planets in the presence of planetary migration. Inward migration of planetary orbits is widely believed to be an important process, but it is neglected in most studies of planet formation due to doubts about whether planets would survive.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 1.2 2.1 3.1 7.2

• Adaptation to Salinity in Microbial Communities

  The potential relevance of evaporative lakes as analogs for the late stage hydrosphere of Mars (see results of Manga and collaborators in the UC Berkeley team) is well established (e.g., Benison and Laclair 2003, Astrobiology v.3).

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 3.2 4.1 5.3 7.2

• Abiotic Experiments & Hydrocarbon Yielding Water/Mineral Reactions

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.1 7.1 7.2

• Planetary Biology, Evolution, and Intelligence

  The results of a two and a half day workshop on the topic of the Habitability of Planets Orbiting M Stars was published recently. Thirty scientists from nineteen institutions in the US and UK participated. Thirteen of the participants were from six other NAI Teams

  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 7.2

• Iron Oxidation – Shaping the Past and Present Environments

   

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 7.2

• Design and Assembly of a Cavity-Ring Down Spectrometer for Determination of Concentration and Isotopic Composition of Methane in Gases

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 7.1 7.2

• Ecosystem to Biosphere Modeling

   

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 5.3 6.1 7.2

• BioSignatures of Earth and Earth-Like Planets

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 7.2

• Evolution of Abiotic Environments to Ecosystems

  Field work in 2006-2007 included trips to the high Arctic and to the Precambrian Canadian Shield. Study sites were selected on the basis of temperature and contrasting levels of hydrogen. Study sites included environments impacted by permafrost and environments at latitudes south of persistent permafrost. The level of free hydrogen gas is temperature-dependent and appears to be an important controlling factor on microbial processes.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 2.2 3.1 3.2 3.3 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 6.2 7.1 7.2

• Project 6. Molecular and Isotopic Biosignatures

  Differences in carbon isotope ratios of co-occurring dolomite, carbonate fluorapatite, and organic matter in Paleoproterozoic stromatolitic phosphorites from the Aravalli Supergroup, India, suggest elevated primary productivity during sedimentation. Postdoctoral Fellow Dominic Papineau’s research provides a basis for the examination of other Paleoproterozoic phosphorites and a contribution to the identification of biosignatures in phosphatic sediments.

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

• Prebiotic Organics From Space

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 3.1 3.4 4.3 7.1 7.2

• Retentostat Studies of Subsurface Sulfate Reducing Bacterium

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 6.2 7.1 7.2

• Hydrology and Microbiology of Active Springs

  Sulfur springs have traditionally provided an excellent framework within which to study microbial communities in the contexts of their geochemical environments. We have investigated a sulfur spring network that has multiple discharge sites along a fault, focusing on two sites (MS4 and MS11) that were chosen based on flow rate, chemistry, and the presence of eye-visible white biofilms.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 5.2 5.3 7.2

• Saline Lakes and Gypsum Dunes in the Rio Grande Rift System as Analogues for Sulfate Deposits on Mars

  Sulfates appear to be a significant part of rocks and regolith exposed at or near the surface of Mars. Important occurrences of sulfate minerals have been detected at latitudes extending from the polar region to lower latitudes in Meridiani Planum and Vallis Marineris. We are pursuing, therefore, a latitudinal study of Salt Basins developed along the Rio Grande Rift as a terrestrial analog to sulfate deposition in the past on Mars.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 2.2 7.1 7.2

• Iron and Sulfur-Based Biospheres and Their Biosignatures

  This collaborative project involves many members of the UC Berkeley-led NAI team as well as members of other teams and institutions internationally.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 4.1 5.1 5.2 5.3 7.2

• Modeling Early Atmospheric Composition and Climate (Kasting)

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 7.2

• Stability of Methane Hydrates in the Presence of High Salinity Brines on Mars

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 2.2 3.1 7.1 7.2

• Rise of Oxygen, Modern Analogs for Anoxic Oceans, and Effect of Early Life on Soil Development

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 4.1 4.3 6.1 7.1 7.2