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Bratina Island Ponds
2009-10 Season
History of the project: Two preliminary visits to Bratina were conducted during the 01/02 and 05/06 seasons by Prof. Cary, allowing the collection of valuable samples to develop the hypothesis put down in the existing projects. Additionally through collaboration with NIWA researchers a set of unique samples were taken during the winter freeze-up in the 07-08 extended season by Hawes and co-workers which are currently being analysed as part of the ongoing Bratina Island Project. The above projects led to the creation of my project the "Characterization of the bacterioplankton communities in the melt-water ponds of Bratina Island, Victoria Land, Antarctica" which gained funding and logistical support from Antarctica New Zealand for the 09-10 seasons. This is the first official Bratina Island pond project conducted under ICTAR but will certainly not be the last. How long it has been running: 1 Season (so far) How many person days total have been devoted to it: 9 A 200-500 word summary about the project (aims, methods, findings etc) During the 2009-10 mid-austral summer, using a specially designed micromanipulator sampling system, sets of discrete water samples were collected across the geochemical gradients of five selected ponds (Egg, P70E, Legin, Salt, and Orange). The aim of this study was to investigate the geochemical differences between and within the water column of these ponds and to understand how these differences affect the microbial populations within the water column. Bacterial DNA fingerprints of the ponds (utilising Automated Ribosomal Intergenic Spacer Analysis) appear to separate populations within each pond into the same group (based on a 2D MDS plot) as predicted. However one highly stratified pond (Egg) had two distinct bacterial communities representing the upper and lower part of the water column. A BEST analysis, which attempts to find links between population structure and the geochemistry of a pond, has shown that specific geochemical parameters (conductivity, pH, Ag109, NO2 and V51) appear to influence the structure of microbial populations in these ponds by as much as 92.7%. Future of the project: Research into Bratina ponds began for me through the offer of a Masters project (which I have just completed and is the project detailed above) by Prof. Craig Cary at the University of Waikato. For my Doctoral thesis project I have begun an investigation of these ponds under the title "Natural and simulated changes to biodiversity and metabolics between and within Antarctic meltwater ponds". Through this project I hope to expand my research into more ponds in greater detail and also follow the metabolic changes that occur within and between these unique environments so that I may correlate these biological changes to fine scale physical and chemical shifts. Furthermore through temperature manipulation experiments I hope to model potential biological changes that may occur through global climate change. A list of other researchers involved: Prof. S. Craig Cary Asso. Prof. Ian McDonald Countless others from the Thermophile Research Unit (University of Waikato) have helped in various ways.
For any more information about this project please do not hesitate to email me at sdja2@waikato.ac.nz
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