Identification and ecophysiological understanding of new microbial players, processes, and multi-scale interactions in the global methane cycle

and 4) empirically measure microorganism/microbial aggregate distribution and anabolic activity in the context of the surrounding environmental matrix (e.g. sediment particles) and model the relationship between the distribution of active methanotrophic consortia in sediment with predicted geochemical gradients and biogeochemical reactions occurring on the mm/cm-scale.

These research goals will be accomplished through the optimization and application of novel metagenomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic techniques, state-of-the-art analytical imaging (ion, electron, light, and X-ray based), high-resolution stable isotope geochemistry, and reaction-transport modeling that spans spatial scales of nanometers to many millimeters. Our research plan is scalable and designed to elucidate processes and interactions within and between individual methane-metabolizing environmental microorganisms, while also building towards increasing levels of understanding of the collective processes in microbial communities, including the spatial complexity inherent in sedimentary ecosystems. Applied in tandem, these complementary multi-disciplinary approaches have the potential to provide a new and more holistic 'eco-systems level' understanding of factors which regulate methane cycling in anoxic sedimentary ecosystems.