The Tale of Arctic Microbes and their role in Permafrost
University of Tennessee Knoxville (UTK), PI/Mentor: Dr. Andrew Steen
Permafrost is the largest reservoir for soil organic carbon.
As a graduate student I studied extracellular enzymes produced by microorganisms in permafrost, and took a dive into learning the relationship between these enzymes and soil mineralogy around them. To explore this I focused on these questions:
1. What extracellular enzymes are present in Svalbard permafrost soils?
2. How do these collections of enzymes vary among sampling sites?
3. To what degree are these sets of enzymes related to the clay mineral content of the soils?
To explore this, I joined Andrew Steen Ph.D. Arctic Research team at University of Tennessee Knoxville and investigated the types of enzymes present in Svalbard soils through a series of experiments. Additionally, I conducted clay mineralogical analysis of permafrost core samples to determine the clay mineral composition and its potential influence on enzymatic activity.
The interactions between extracellular enzymes and soil minerals are a crucial factor that is often overlooked in current models of the Arctic soil carbon cycle. By studying these interactions, we can gain valuable insights into the potential impacts of climate change on permafrost carbon release.
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