RUI: Biodiversity of the terrestrial cyanobacteria of the Atacama Desert, Chile

John Carroll University, Cleveland OH

Investigators

Abstract

An award has been made to John Carroll University under the direction of Dr. Jeffrey Johansen to study the diversity and biogeography of cyanobacteria that grow in soil crusts in one of the driest habitats on earth, the high altitude deserts of Chile. The team of researchers will travel widely in this region to sample soils for analysis of the cyanobacteria (blue-green algae). Soil cyanobacteria are photosynthetic microorganisms critically important in many deserts because they help prevent soil erosion. The Atacama is one of the driest and harshest environments on the planet. We will use a combination of microbial and molecular methods to survey the majority of species in the soils of this region. This is a significant biodiversity project, as the harshness of the environment means that many of the species we isolate and describe will likely be new to science. Because the cultures will be deposited in public culture collections, they will be available to the scientific community for further research and technology development. New taxa will be described when they meet the criteria of the phylogenetic species concept, a modern approach to the study of biodiversity that will be applied to related lineages of these cyanobacteria. The project will facilitate collaboration between two North American universities, two Chilean Universities, and a German University. At least two graduate students will be supported by this project. Six undergraduate summer fellowships are included, as well as support for two high school students to conduct summer research. Cyanobacteria and soils from this project will be incorporated into science laboratories in an existing outreach program to Hispanic middle school children in Cleveland, Ohio. We will contribute to several public research depositories, including the Culture Collection of Algae at the University of Texas at Austin, the Herbarium for Nonvascular Cryptogams at BYU, the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural in Chile, the Culture Collection of Algae at the University of Göttingen, Germany. New sequences of DNA will be deposited in GenBank, an online repository widely used by biologists. Educational and research websites will be include images and descriptions of all species collected.