Session Lead: Sairah Malkin
Co-Lead(s): Sarah Preheim, Anand Gnanadesikan
Session Format: Oral presentations
Session Description:
The application of molecular biology, genetics, and genomics tools have been increasingly used to identify and understand important ecological processes and functions in aquatic systems, from biogeochemical cycling, to pathogen transmission, and faunal species distribution. Foundational studies involving these techniques in the Chesapeake Bay have made outsized contributions in our evolving understanding of microbial ecology (including pathogen ecology), biogeochemical cycling, and bioremediation of anthropogenic pollutants in estuarine and coastal ecosystems. Moreover, the recent exponential growth of both sequencing power and data analytic tools has made possible a deeper understanding of the microbial players, activities, and environmental constraints on biogeochemical transformations in the environment, as well as distribution of fauna and identification of cryptic species. These advances have potential implications for our understanding of how ecosystems respond to a multitude of environmental changes. Ongoing and future developments in sequencing power and even autonomous observatories mean that sequencing data are likely to become more available for the Chesapeake Bay.
Linking genetic sequencing information with predictive (e.g., physical-biogeochemical) models remains a sizable challenge. However, insofar as genomic patterns show strong relationships with environmental variables simulated by models, this suggests that they are potentially predictable as well. Additionally, these relationships have the potential to put constraints on existing models and to reveal where current models may be missing important processes.
The goal of this session is to bring together molecular ecologists and physical-biogeochemical modelers in the Chesapeake Bay community interested in exploring the potential for integrating observational ‘omics data with biogeochemical-physical models. We encourage molecular ecologists to bring examples of patterns of variation that they would like to see explained and modelers to highlight processes that they think might be important and need to be better constrained. We hope this session will be a useful vehicle to bring together members of the Chesapeake Bay research community who are employing ‘omics tools to foster collaborations and explore new approaches. We encourage early career scientists including students, scientists from minority serving institutions, and scientists from underrepresented groups to submit contributions to this session.
Presenters:
Louis Plough – Advancing monitoring of zooplankton communities in the Chesapeake Bay with metabarcoding: progress and comparisons with morphological-based identification
Qubin Qin – A deterministic model for understanding nonlinear viral dynamics in oysters
Feng Chen – The complexity of estuarine virioplankton community unveiled by viral metagenomics
Sairah Malkin – Mud and Microbes: Seasonal and spatial patterns in sedimentary microbial communities in Chesapeake Bay
Meng Xia – How Sediments from Chesapeake Bay Dredging Placement Sites moving?
Jinjun Kan – Planktonic microbiomes in the Chesapeake Bay: Can we predict their population structure?
Jacob Cram – Quantitative measurements of taxon-specific microbial abundances along latitudinal and particle-size gradients in the Chesapeake Bay