Table of Contents

• Coverage
• Dataset Description
  • Methods & Sampling
  • Data Processing Description
• Data Files
• Related Publications
• Parameters
• Instruments
• Deployments
• Project Information
• Program Information
• Funding

Presence/ absence of taxa detected with the Phylochip.

In summary, sediment cores were collected using a Furor Hydraulic Piston Corer following the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) guidelines for obtaining high quality microbiology cores. Aboard ship, whole round cores were subcored by paring the outer two cm of sediment with an alcohol and flame sterilized chisel. The sub-cores were placed into sterile Whirl Pak Bags and stored at -80C. DNA was extracted from 10g of sediment using a PowerMax Soil DNA extraction kit. DNA was amplified using 27F and 1492R (bacterial) or 4F and 1492R (archaeal) universal primers. 150ng of bacterial and 50ng of archaeal amplicons were hybridized to the PhyloChip array.

Data processing can be found in Briggs et al. (2013). 

BCO-DMO Processing:

• added conventional header with dataset name, PI name, version date
• modified parameter names to conform with BCO-DMO naming conventions
• adjusted the duplicate column header HY03682 to HY03682_A
• appended latitude and longitude fields for mapping.

The DEBI/C-DEBI research exchange gave me the opportunity to travel to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) to work with Dr. Eoin Brodie. While at LBNL, I was able to learn and adopt a new microarray technology for subseafloor microbial ecology investigations. The PhyloChip is a microarray that contains probes for Bacterial and Archaeal 16s rRNA genes and uses parallel hybridization to minimizes the influence of dominant organisms; therefore, it is highly sensitive to rare microbes. In addition, to this data the research exchange provided necessary funding for me to finish my dissertation. The research exchange funds allowed two sites in the Ulleung Basin to be fully analyzed and incorporated into my dissertation “Geomicrobiology of sediment containing methane”. This collaboration also introduced me to how research is conducted at a national laboratory. This information is valuable in deciding my future career path. Whatever that path may be the collaboration and techniques that I learned will continue beyond graduate school, as we are planning future studies using the PhyloChip. For more on this method, see Briggs, Pohlman, Torres, Reidel, Brodie and Colwell’s 2011 AEM paper Macroscopic biofilms in fracture-dominated sediment that anaerobically oxidize methane.

The mission of the Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations (C-DEBI) is to explore life beneath the seafloor and make transformative discoveries that advance science, benefit society, and inspire people of all ages and origins.

C-DEBI provides a framework for a large, multi-disciplinary group of scientists to pursue fundamental questions about life deep in the sub-surface environment of Earth. The fundamental science questions of C-DEBI involve exploration and discovery, uncovering the processes that constrain the sub-surface biosphere below the oceans, and implications to the Earth system. What type of life exists in this deep biosphere, how much, and how is it distributed and dispersed? What are the physical-chemical conditions that promote or limit life? What are the important oxidation-reduction processes and are they unique or important to humankind? How does this biosphere influence global energy and material cycles, particularly the carbon cycle? Finally, can we discern how such life evolved in geological settings beneath the ocean floor, and how this might relate to ideas about the origin of life on our planet?

C-DEBI's scientific goals are pursued with a combination of approaches:
(1) coordinate, integrate, support, and extend the research associated with four major programs—Juan de Fuca Ridge flank (JdF), South Pacific Gyre (SPG), North Pond (NP), and Dorado Outcrop (DO)—and other field sites;
(2) make substantial investments of resources to support field, laboratory, analytical, and modeling studies of the deep subseafloor ecosystems;
(3) facilitate and encourage synthesis and thematic understanding of submarine microbiological processes, through funding of scientific and technical activities, coordination and hosting of meetings and workshops, and support of (mostly junior) researchers and graduate students; and
(4) entrain, educate, inspire, and mentor an interdisciplinary community of researchers and educators, with an emphasis on undergraduate and graduate students and early-career scientists.

Note: Katrina Edwards was a former PI of C-DEBI; James Cowen is a former co-PI.

Data Management:
C-DEBI is committed to ensuring all the data generated are publically available and deposited in a data repository for long-term storage as stated in their Data Management Plan (PDF) and in compliance with the NSF Ocean Sciences Sample and Data Policy. The data types and products resulting from C-DEBI-supported research include a wide variety of geophysical, geological, geochemical, and biological information, in addition to education and outreach materials, technical documents, and samples. All data and information generated by C-DEBI-supported research projects are required to be made publically available either following publication of research results or within two (2) years of data generation.

To ensure preservation and dissemination of the diverse data-types generated, C-DEBI researchers are working with BCO-DMO Data Managers make data publicly available online. The partnership with BCO-DMO helps ensure that the C-DEBI data are discoverable and available for reuse. Some C-DEBI data is better served by specialized repositories (NCBI's GenBank for sequence data, for example) and, in those cases, BCO-DMO provides dataset documentation (metadata) that includes links to those external repositories.