B33B:
Life on the Fringe: The Starving Majority I

Submit an Abstract to this Session

Session ID#: 6863

Session Description:
Microbial communities survive in extreme environments despite low energy and nutrient fluxes, thereby placing severe physiological and thermodynamic limits on life. Survival comes at the expense of growth and consequently generation times are long and growth rates exceedingly slow.  However, the majority of our information about physiology and metabolism used to model microbial activity in energy-starved environments is derived from studies of laboratory cultures characterized by rapid growth and high metabolic rates.

This session will focus on the responses of modern and ancient microorganisms to low fluxes of energy and nutrients and the implications for bioenergetic theory, reactive transport modeling, and field studies.  An important goal of this session is to advance the understanding of microbial survival in extreme environments, such as the deep biosphere and the cryosphere.

OSPA Liaison:  Christina Marie Smeaton, University of Waterloo, Ecohydrology Research Group, Waterloo, ON, Canada
Chairs:  Philippe Van Cappellen1, Christina Marie Smeaton1 and Sean Crowe2, (1)University of Waterloo, Ecohydrology Research Group, Waterloo, ON, Canada(2)University of British Columbia, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Primary Convener:  Philippe Van Cappellen, Ecohydrology Research Group, University of Waterloo, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Waterloo, ON, Canada
Conveners:  Christina Marie Smeaton, University of Waterloo, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Waterloo, ON, Canada, Sean Crowe, University of British Columbia, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Vancouver, BC, Canada and Doug LaRowe, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States
Index Terms:

0412 Biogeochemical kinetics and reaction modeling [BIOGEOSCIENCES]
0448 Geomicrobiology [BIOGEOSCIENCES]
0456 Life in extreme environments [BIOGEOSCIENCES]
0465 Microbiology: ecology, physiology and genomics [BIOGEOSCIENCES]

Abstracts Submitted to this Session:

B33B-01
Microbial Community Function at the Extremes: Isotopic Constraints on Carbon Sources and Cycling of Endolithic Communities in Extreme Environments (Invited) (33896)
Greg F Slater, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada
B33B-02
Metabolic energy-based invasibility of methanotrophic life on Mars (Invited) (34592)
Mayumi Seto and Katsuyuki Noguchi, Nara Women's University, Nara, Japan
B33B-03
Microbial Energetics and Redox Conditions within a Groundwater Flow Field of a Pristine Oligotrophic Aquifer (35781)
F. Grant Ferris and Veronika Shirokova, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
B33B-05
Long-range correlations in redox potential distinguish bacterial ferrous iron oxidation (35626)
Allison M Enright1, Pat A Hunt2, Igor Bilot2, Jeanne B. Percival2 and F. Grant Ferris1, (1)University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, (2)Geological Survey of Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada
B33B-06
Development of a Genome-Informed Trait-Based Model for Microbial Biogeochemistry within Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecosystems (Invited) (35311)
Eric King1, Sergi Molins2, Ulas Karaoz3, Jeffrey N Johnson3, Nicholas Bouskill4, Laura A Hug5, Brian C Thomas5, Cindy J Castelle5, Harry R Beller3, Jillian F Banfield3,6, Carl I Steefel7 and Eoin Brodie8,9, (1)Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Climate & Ecosystem Sciences Division, Berkeley, United States, (2)Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Berkeley, CA, United States, (3)Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, United States, (4)Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Ecology, Berkeley, CA, United States, (5)University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States, (6)University of California, Berkeley, Earth and Planetary Science, Berkeley, United States, (7)Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, United States, (8)Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Earth and Environmental Sciences Area, Berkeley, CA, United States, (9)University of California Berkeley, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, Berkeley, United States
B33B-07
Bioenergetic Limitations on Slow Microbial Growth in the Subsurface: What is the Burden of Maintenance on the Overall Energy Budget? (33658)
Christina Marie Smeaton, University of Waterloo, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Waterloo, ON, Canada, Bijendra Man Bajracharya, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany, Christine Ridenour, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada, Chris Thomas Parsons, University of Waterloo, Ecohydrology Research Group, Waterloo, ON, Canada and Philippe Van Cappellen, Ecohydrology Research Group, Water Institute and Global Water Futures Program, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada
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