The Biophysics of Nitrogen Cycling in Soils.
Event Details
- Type
- Center for Studies in Physics and Biology Seminars
- Speaker(s)
-
Seppe Kuehn, Ph.D., Associate Professor, University of Chicago
- Speaker bio(s)
-
The microbial communities that inhabit soils are one of the most complex ecological systems on the planet. The thousands of microbial species that inhabit every gram of soil reside in a complex mineral matrix that stores gigatons of organic carbon and nitrogen on a global scale. Microbial metabolic processes from degradation to respiration liberate this organic matter enabling plant growth and driving planetary scale elemental cycles. Understanding how these community-level metabolic processes emerge from microbial physiology and ecology, and depend on the environment, remains a central challenge. I present our efforts to address this question in the context of ubiquitous anaerobic respiration of oxidized nitrogen compounds in soils (nitrate, nitrite). I show that the utilization of nitrate by soil communities is characterized by a handful of distinct dynamic regimes that change with environmental pH. A phenomenological model proposes underlying mechanisms governing these regimes that are experimentally validated. I show that these dynamic regimes are a generic feature of soils across the globe. I suggest that the simplicity and regularity of community-level metabolism in soils arises from conserved metabolic interactions between microbes; an idea I support with statistical analysis of large-scale metagenomic surveys and quantitative measurements of interactions at the single-strain level.
- Open to
- Public
- Reception
- Refreshments, 3:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m., Lower Level Greenberg Building (CRC)
- Phone
- (212) 327-8636
- Sponsor
-
Melanie Lee
(212) 327-8636
leem@rockefeller.edu