The Laurentian Great Lakes hold 20 percent of Earth’s surface freshwater and provide inestimable ecosystem services, yet surprisingly little is known about the structure and activity of microbial communities in this ecosystem. This project seeks to characterize the metabolic diversity and activity of microbes across the Great Lakes, and to understand how these microbes control nutrient cycling, transformation of pollutants, and harmful algal blooms. Lakes are critical intermediaries linking terrestrial and marine carbon cycles, and the work supports DOE missions in carbon cycling and biogeochemistry.
Proposer: Maureen Coleman, University of Chicago
Proposal: Integrated ecosystem genomics across a vast and vital freshwater system