Microbiology and Molecular Ecology of biogeochemical cycles in aquatic environments
Microbes are essential in contributing to and maintaining the health of aquatic ecosystems. They form the base of food webs and mediate essential biogeochemical processes, including the degradation of xenobiotic contaminants. We are conducting basic research on the microbially mediated geochemical transformations of organic and inorganic compounds in a variety of marine and freshwater environments in order to define the chemical and microbial processes that transform, degrade, or otherwise affect the fate and transport of contaminants and other compounds of interest.
The Microbiology/ Molecular Ecology Team at USGS, led by Mary Voytek, employs a synthesis of environmental measurements and laboratory experiments with various molecular techniques to examine changes in the microbial community in response to environmental pressures, gradients or changes.
Understanding Ecosystems and Predicting Ecosystem Change
- Research Projects to Advance understanding of ecosystem structure, function and patterns
- after a catastrophic event such as the Chesapeake Bay Impact Crater
- after chronic, non-point source loading of nutrients or contaminants.
- In nitrogen cycling along a gradient from the Chesapeake Bay to the Sargasso Sea
Climate Variability and Change
- Research project to examine how ecosystem function affects carbon storage and the release of green house gases.
Energy and Minerals for America's Future
- Research projects to understand the microbial role in generating clean renewable energy sources (i.e. methane from coal and other geopolymers)
The Role of Environment and Wildlife in Human Health
- Research projects evaluating determining the environmental distribution of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis which has been implicated in the worldwide decline of Amphibians, considered to be the harbingers of environmental health.
