Description du projet
Explorer la chimiodiversité dans la matière organique dissoute
La matière organique dissoute (DOM pour dissolved organic matter) est essentielle pour les écosystèmes d’eau douce et la vie humaine mais demeure mal comprise. Une recherche technologique récente a révélé que l’eau des lacs contient des milliers de molécules différentes d’origine et de composition variée dont le rôle reste inconnu. Le projet sEEIngDOM financé par l’UE révélera l’importance de la diversité des molécules (chimiodiversité) découverte dans la DOM pour le fonctionnement des lacs et la santé humaine. Le projet associera des techniques innovantes en chimie analytique, en génomique et en modélisation statistique avec des études minutieuses menées en laboratoire, des expériences avérées de terrain et des enquêtes d’observation réalisées à grande échelle pour expliciter comment différents microbes induisent des variations au niveau de la chimiodiversité des lacs et comment ils s’adaptent et évoluent mutuellement dans différentes DOM.
Objectif
Dissolved organic matter (DOM) is central to the functioning of freshwater ecosystems that support life on Earth. For example, DOM has a major role in global carbon (C) cycling by helping to bury four times more C in the bottom of lakes and rivers than across all of the world’s oceans. DOM also majorly influences the growth of aquatic organisms and impedes drinking water treatment for millions of people, such as by increasing microbial growth. Yet, despite its importance, DOM remains poorly understood because it has been measured with little resolution for nearly 200 years. Recent technological advances have now shown that a handful of lake water can contain thousands of different molecules of varying origin and composition. But the role of all these different molecules in aquatic ecosystems largely remains a mystery.
This project will discover the importance of the tremendous diversity of molecules – termed chemodiversity – found in DOM for lake functioning and human wellbeing. It will do so by combining cutting-edge techniques in analytical chemistry, genomics, and statistical modelling with careful lab-based studies, proven field experiments, and large-scale observational surveys. By thinking about species of molecules as we would species of organisms, this project will draw upon rich theory and methods developed for the study of biodiversity. The work will allow us to learn how variation in chemodiversity across lakes is driven by associations with different microbes and how these microbes reciprocally adapt and evolve to different DOM. In the process, we will improve predictions of how important functions and services provided by lakes, such as C cycling and drinking water, vary with chemodiversity. An exciting application of this work is to improve emerging technologies for water purification by identifying microbial consortia that can consume chemodiversity and make water clearer.
Champ scientifique
- natural scienceschemical sciencesanalytical chemistry
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringwater treatment processesdrinking water treatment processes
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesecologyecosystemsfreshwater ecosystems
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental scienceshydrologylimnology
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesgeochemistrybiogeochemistry
Mots‑clés
Programme(s)
Thème(s)
Régime de financement
ERC-STG - Starting GrantInstitution d’accueil
26129 Oldenburg
Allemagne