Dear colleagues and friends,
I would like to draw your attention to the XI. International Conference on Permafrost (ICOP) which will be held 20-24 June, 2016, in Potsdam, Germany and invite you to submit abstracts for session 14 on:
Microbial ecology of permafrost ecosystems: Drivers of nutrient cycles, functional resilience, and adaptation in the scope of a changing climate
Convener 1: Susanne Liebner, GFZ German Research Center for Geosciences, Germany
Convener 2: Alexander Tøsdal Tveit, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Norway
Convener 3: Marcus A. Horn, Department of Ecological Microbiology, University of Bayreuth, Germany
Session description:
Research on microbial life exposed to permanent freeze or seasonal freeze-thaw has led to astonishing findings about microbial versatility, adaptation, and diversity in permafrost ecosystems. Microorganisms thrive in cold habitats and new sequencing techniques have produced large amounts of genomic, metagenomic, and metatranscriptomic data that allow insights into the fascinating microbial ecology at low temperatures. Moreover, permafrost soil ecosystems constitute major global carbon and nitrogen storages and are sources of the greenhouse gases methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). Abiotic and biotic factors shape microbial communities and their huge genetic potential. Microbial communities ultimately influence reaction patterns of permafrost-affected soils towards global change. Altered patterns of seasonal temperature fluctuations and precipitation are expected in the Arctic and will affect the microbial turnover of soil organic carbon (SOC). Activation of nutrients by thawing and increased active layer thickness as well as erosion renders nutrient stocks accessible to microbial activities. However, the effects of these changes on the microbial mechanisms that determine greenhouse gas emissions are still poorly understood. In this context, the functional resilience of microbial communities in Arctic permafrost soils is of major interest. Particularly important is the ability of microorganisms and microbial communities to respond to changes in their surroundings by intracellular regulation and population shifts within functional niches, respectively. We ask whether environmental changes is met by a flexible microbial community retaining its function, or if the altered conditions also renders the community in a state of altered properties that affect the carbon cycle.
This session brings together research on different spatial scales and levels of complexity, spanning from ecosystem level to pure culture studies of model microbes in the laboratory. It aims to attract microbiologists, microbial ecologists and biogeochemists working with the effect of climate change and/or low temperatures on microbial nutrient cycling and communities, functions and cultivars under laboratory or in-situ conditions. We encourage submissions from research on terrestrial, marine and freshwater ecosystems in Arctic, Antarctic and alpine regions.
For further details see the ICOP website (http://www.icop2016.org).
Feel welcome to forward this mail to your colleagues.
Best, Susanne Liebner
-- Section 4.5 Geomicrobiology Helmholtz Centre Potsdam GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences Telegrafenberg C-423 14473 Potsdam, Germany Phone: +49 (0)331 288-288 17 Fax: +49 (0)331 288-288 02 Web: http://www.gfz-potsdam.de/mitarbeiter/susanne-liebner/
