NSF East Asia and Pacific Summer Institute (EAPSI) for FY 2013 in Japan

Zahn Geoffrey L, Fayetteville AR

Investigators

Abstract

This action funds Geoffrey Zahn of the University of Arkansas to conduct a research project in Biological Sciences during the summer of 2013 at the National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences in Tsukuba, Japan. The project title is "The Importance of Microbial Interactions to Soil Carbon Cycling on a Warming Planet." The host scientist is Dr. Rota Wagai. This project examines the effect of microbial interactions on changes to soil carbon dynamics in response to warming conditions using microcosms with naturally-occuring bacterial populations under different temperature treatments. Soil amoebae are abundant and ubiquitous bacterial predators that play an important, yet understudied, role in regulating bacterial populations, which are vastly important for global carbon cycling. Existing climate change models have begun to examine the functions that microbial communities may play in contributing to or mitigating global warming, but they do not yet include information about how total microbial community structure impacts these predictions. Common soil amoebae are used in replicates of intact sterilized soil cores along with inoculations of naturally-occuring bacteria in a full factorial experiment. Frequent measurements of carbon dioxide emissions allow an investigation of the importance of microbial predation and food web complexity on bacterially-mediated responses to climate change. Broader impacts of an EAPSI fellowship include providing the Fellow a first-hand research experience outside the U.S.; an introduction to the science, science policy, and scientific infrastructure of the respective location; and an orientation to the society, culture and language. These activities meet the NSF goal to educate for international collaborations early in the career of its scientists, engineers, and educators, thus ensuring a globally aware U.S. scientific workforce. Furthermore, this experience and the results of this research will be broadly disseminated through peer-reviewed publication, public seminars and radio interviews, and through a multi-lingual online blog geared towards middle school students. The blog will document the experience of traveling to Japan and learning about Japanese culture, but will focus on the importance of international collaborations and cultural exchanges. It will be designed to engage students at a critical point in their education with the excitement of discovery and the scientific process, while sharing insights into another culture.