Evaluation of the Adaptation and Acclimation of Hypersaline Lithifying Microbial Mats to Salinity Disturbance in the Great Salt

Multiple capabilities at EMSL will be applied to mat microbial communities present along a salinity gradient between the North and South arms of the Great Salt Lake, UT. These lithifying microbial communities are often involved in the formation of microbialite "living" structures. The significance of these microbial ecosystems, in general, is evident in that similar fossil structures found throughout the world date back to the earliest stages of life's evolution. This long evolutionary history is a testament to these living structures' ability to adapt and acclimate to climate change. Herein, EMSL's high-performance computing capabilities will be used to evaluate how these structures have adapted to extremes in salinity through an in-depth comparison of North and South arm metagenomic databases. Previous studies have demonstrated a divergence in community structure, yet ecological functions at these salinity extremes have been preserved. The expression of these common functions to perturbations resulting from transplant experiments along this gradient will be measured using EMSL's proteomics and RNA sequencing capabilities. These omics measurements will add insight into how microbialite communities acclimate. The significance of the research is best understood when considering that the region encompassing the Great Salt Lake is anticipated to experience drier conditions resulting from an imbalance in the global cycling of Carbon. However, the sensitivity of these microbialite structures to rapid climate change is not well understood. Thus, this EMSL Science Theme proposal represents a unique opportunity to evaluate the impact of environmental change on microbial ecosystems.