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National Science Foundation Awards
Adam Kustka has recently received two National Science Foundation awards to study various aspects of the relationships between nutrients iron and phytoplankton, a group of organisms responsible for about half the global removal of carbon dioxide.
We have been recently funded to investigate Fe cycling and phytoplankton molecular ecology off the coast of Antarctica. This four-year multi-institutional project (Princeton, Rutgers-Newark, Rutgers-New Brunswick, Woods Hole, and U Hawai’i) is focused on understanding the links between Fe and phytoplankton in a region where Fe-rich deep water may be ‘upwelled’ to the surface and stimulate algal growth. This project has many facets, including a 6 week research cruise to Antarctica in 2011. During this cruise, this team will use underwater robots to map out the study region, evaluate the biophysical and functional responses of phytoplankton to this upwelling, employ analytical chemistry techniques to measure low level Fe, and obtain a first order constraint on the fixed carbon flux out of the upper water column. Our lab will be involved in characterizing the molecular fingerprints of phytoplankton in the study region, as well as on-deck manipulation experiments with stable isotope labeling of DNA and dissolved organic matter to a) identify those groups that respond to nutrient enrichment, b) help track the flux of C from primary producers to heterotrophic bacteria.
The second project, funded by NSF Biological Oceanography, is a collaborative effort between scientists at Rutgers Marine Sciences and Kustka’s laboratory to study both the underpinning mechanisms and triggers for cell death in diatoms and the fate of diatoms (and their ability to remain dormant in the cold, dark ocean- a prerequisite for future 'seed' populations) after they run out of nutrients iron or nitrate and sink outside of the well lit, surface ocean waters. Ultimately, we hope to understand these processes in the California Current upwelling system (characterized by a mosaic of iron or nitrate limitation along short distances).
In addition to these projects, Kustka’s group currently has projects on intracellular Fe storage in marine phytoplankton and the global transcriptomic and metabolomic responses of phytoplankton to iron and nitrate stress.