Collaboration with Dr. David Lipson, Department of Ecology, SDSU
In arctic peat soils, iron reduction is an important pathway for respiration in anaerobic environments. We are interested in the factors that contribute to CO2 and CH4 fluxes from the arctic soil ecosystem, especially the microbial communities. We are investigating metagenomes acquired from different depths of our research site on the Arctic Coastal plain near Barrow, Alaska. The soil bacterial metagenomes were acquired from depths of 0 – 10m, 10-20m, 20-30m and 30-40m from the research site. Once the soil DNA was extracted, sequenced and assembled, they were uploaded onto the MG – RAST server (Metagenome – Rapid Annotation using Subsystems Technology) and annotated. I am currently comparing these metagenomes to look for similarities and more importantly, the differences and track the major metabolic pathways and functions at each depth in the Arctic tundra.
