Digging into Microbial Ecosystems Deep Underground

“Microbes underpin so much of what we see on earth in terms of nutrient cycles and biogeochemical cycles…. Viruses play a pretty important role in the cycling of nutrients in these systems.” -Mike Wilkins, Colorado State University

GI users and microbiome researchers Mike Wilkins and his graduate student Kaela Amundson at Colorado State University have many questions about the microbial communities deep underground, and before the pandemic, they took the JGI on a sampling field trip. One of the questions they’re looking at: the role viral infection may play in other natural ecosystems. The video complements a recently published paper with first author Amundson in the journal Microbiome.

The work builds off a proposal approved through a collaborative science initiative called Facilities Integrating Collaborations for User Science (FICUS). Through FICUS, the researchers have tapped into the resources and capabilities of both the JGI and the Environmental Molecular Science Laboratory (EMSL) at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Letters of Intent are due March 16, 2022 to freely access resources at multiple DOE user facilities through the FICUS research support initiative proposal call.