Development of a simple, low-cost device for sample collection and on-site preservation using a common oceanographic deployment platform

GSTDTAP

项目编号	1924214
	Development of a simple, low-cost device for sample collection and on-site preservation using a common oceanographic deployment platform
	Peter Girguis (Principal Investigator)
主持机构	Harvard University
项目开始年	2019
	2019-08-01
项目结束日期	2021-07-31
资助机构	US-NSF
项目类别	Standard Grant
项目经费	368828(USD)
国家	美国
语种	英语
英文摘要	Over the past two decades, advanced genetic analysis techniques have accelerated society's understanding of marine microorganisms and the roles they play in ocean chemistry. This includes the discovery of new biological capacities and the recognition of their role in previously unknown chemical processes. Particularly, research on low-oxygen marine environments - including oxygen minimum zones, deep-sea hot springs, and other chemically-similar habitats - has revealed the critical influence they have on ocean health (for better and for worse). However, when sampling from such environments, researchers face biases that may arise due to biological changes or chemical degradation resulting from current means of sample collection and transport prior to analysis. This is a particular challenge for genetic materials that can degrade rapidly between sample collection and preservation. The technology development proposed here is aimed squarely at this challenge, with a secondary objective of providing the broader community with access to this technology. The development of a sampler that is compatible with a wide variety of water sampling platforms - at a very competitive price point - democratizes ocean science, bringing sampling tools to local, state, and federal coastal resource managers, non-profit organizations, teaching-focused institutions, and any investigator with a modest equipment budget. Further, this research will provide opportunities for engaging high school students in cutting edge research and engineering. While students are often exposed to microbiology and chemistry in the classroom, they are rarely afforded the opportunity to study the relationships among living organisms and their geochemical environment. The data from this research will contribute to student projects in an existing partnership between the researchers at Harvard University at the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, a diverse public high school. Finally, in collaboration with the Harvard Museum of Natural History and CRLS, the researchers will conduct a Junior "XPRIZE" style competition. The participating students will build a water sampler to collect and preserve microbes at sea, and their devices will be tested alongside the researchers? prototype during the sea surface control experiments. The ocean is chemically and ecologically heterogeneous. For example, chemically reduced environments like those found at hydrothermal vents and hydrocarbon seeps are prominent features in the ocean. These locations host expansive microbial communities that play critical roles in processes from plankton health to planetary temperature. This is also true for the ocean's oxygen minimum zones (OMZs). There is a growing awareness of the biogeochemical connections that exist among the upper ocean and other well-oxygenated habitats, and those regions of the ocean that are depleted in or devoid of oxygen. Advancing the understanding of these relationships requires that researchers continue investigating A) the microbial diversity, distribution, and metabolic activity within these chemically-reducing environments; and B) the corresponding geochemical composition. To accomplish this, analysis of microbial gene expression products (e.g., RNA, proteins) and metabolites is essential. However, in sampling biomolecules from such environments, researchers are challenged to avoid biases that may arise due to changes in gene expression or chemical degradation during sample collection. This is especially challenging for molecules such as messenger RNA (mRNA) that can degrade rapidly between sample collection and preservation. This research aims to design, develop, and validate a low-cost, mRNA/protein/geochemical preservation system that will be "plug-n-play" with the Niskin rosettes that are found on most oceanographic research vessels. Broadly speaking, we propose an in situ sampler that can be mounted in lieu of a single Niskin bottle on a CTD rosette. Most importantly, it will be actuated via lanyard, like a standard Niskin bottle, thus eliminating the need for electrical interfacing. Once deployed to the appropriate depth and its lanyard is released, the system will begin its pre-programmed routine of collecting water samples and conducting the appropriate preservative steps. The device will also be capable of time-delayed sampling events, which will allow the user to re-position the CTD rosette to another depth and collect another sample. Deployment and operations testing will be conducted along a depth gradient at an off-shelf site in the major anoxic OMZ of the Eastern Tropical North Pacific. The sampler will be mounted onto a standard rosette and tested for successful firing, injection of preservative, and sample mixing at three depths spanning the anoxic nitrite maximum (~100-130 m), anoxic OMZ core (~300-700 m), and sub-OMZ (~1500 m). These three zones are known to support ecologically and taxonomically distinct microbial communities. In addition to system validation, effective analysis of microbial and chemical changes across this gradient will provide important information how microbes respond to changes in dissolved oxygen. Further, this will help to accurately delimit the boundaries of processes in OMZs and other redox-stratified habitats. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
文献类型	项目
条目标识符	http://119.78.100.173/C666/handle/2XK7JSWQ/213916
专题	环境与发展全球科技态势
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Peter Girguis .Development of a simple, low-cost device for sample collection and on-site preservation using a common oceanographic deployment platform.2019.