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Effect of Autotrophic Metabolism on Dissolved Organic Carbon in Yellowstone National Park. Kathryn Mayer Arizona State University Dept. of Chemistry & Biochemistry. Extreme environment. Geochemical variability. Biodiversity. Why Carbon in Hot Springs?. Microbial metabolism
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Effect of Autotrophic Metabolism on Dissolved Organic Carbon in Yellowstone National Park Kathryn Mayer Arizona State University Dept. of Chemistry & Biochemistry
Extreme environment Geochemical variability Biodiversity Why Carbon in Hot Springs? • Microbial metabolism • Organic Carbon trends difficult to characterize
“CH2O” + O2 CO2 + H2O Metabolism effects the organic carbon of a system • Autotrophy – primary producers, makes organic C • Photosynthetic • Chemosynthetic • Heterotrophy –uses C from autotrophs
Hot Spring Chemosynthetic Zone Photosynthetic Zone ~73ºC HS: Filtered Hot Spring Water + Zone WaterDI: Deionized Water + Zone WaterUC: Filtered Hot Spring Water Project Heterotroph ‘06 Goal: Assess metabolism in 3 different hot spring/outflow systems by measuring amount of dissolved organic carbon (DOC)
Hot Spring Chemosynthetic Zone Photosynthetic Zone ~73ºC
Conceptual Model Photosynthesis Chemosynthesis UC Control Heterotrophy DI Control
680ºC “CH2O” CO2 NDIR Detector Methods • Use TOC-V Analyzer to measure amount of DOC
Results… Not what we expected!
We should have called this Project Autotroph NOT Heterotroph • Increases in DOC concentrations • Autotrophy • C production in Dark and Light bottles • Photosynthesis & Chemosynthesis • Genomic studies tell us there are autotrophs & heterotrophs present. This experiment does not show heterotrophy.
Future Work • Study organic compound compositional changes with Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry (ESI-MS) • Experiment being planned for Summer ‘08 Thank you… Dr. Hilairy Hartnett & Katie Alexander Women & Philanthropy