熊猫在线视频

This summer, Memphis Hill, Ph.D., a  postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Brandon Briggs, Ph.D., professor of biological sciences, was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship through the . In late June, she led a team of researchers to collect water, ice and sediment samples from locations around Kachemak Bay. 

鈥淎n objective for the Arctic Leadership Initiative fellowships is to elevate the UA System and 熊猫在线视频ns to be leaders in Arctic research,鈥� said Hill. 鈥淪o being the people who go out and collect data and publish research about Arctic systems is within that mission statement.鈥�

Hill joined Briggs鈥� lab in October 2023 and had the opportunity to lead the lab鈥檚 annual summer fieldwork. 

鈥淓ach year I take out a group [...] of undergrads, grad students and postdocs,鈥� Briggs said. 鈥淚 think it was great this last year that Memphis was able to take the lead on this.鈥� 

Hill led the group as they drove from Anchorage, took a water taxi across Kachemak Bay to a yurt, and then hiked five miles to collect samples at Grewingk Lake, Grewingk Creek and Humpy Creek. 

鈥淚 had been down to Grewingk before,鈥� Hill said. 鈥淪o I kind of knew how to get there, figured it would be a good spot and we hadn't sampled it yet.鈥�

The team collected samples in hopes of identifying microbes living in the sediment and water, including potential 鈥榚xtreme microbes鈥� 鈥� microbes that can survive in extreme environments, like underneath glaciers. 

鈥淭here鈥檚 other research labs at UAA that have been studying this watershed for a while but they don鈥檛 look at microbes,鈥� Hill explained. 鈥淪o we were hoping to add some more data to their robust data set.鈥�

Hill hopes to compare which kinds of microbes are found in Humpy Creek with Grewingk Creek and Grewingk Lake.  

鈥淚 definitely expect to see different microbial communities in the different creeks because the source waters are so different,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he glacial lake and Grewingk Creek are fed from glacial melt versus Humpy Creek is more of a surface runoff from snow melt and precipitation, so you end up having very different chemical make ups in the water.鈥�

After being collected in the field, the samples were transported back to Briggs鈥� lab at the Anchorage campus for analysis with DNA sequencing technology. 

鈥淲e extract the DNA from the cells and then we sequence the DNA,鈥� said Hill. 鈥淚t gives us the base pairs that are present, and then we use bioinformatics to actually identify what those sequences are.鈥� 

Identifying which species of extreme microbes are living under and within 熊猫在线视频鈥檚 glaciers has some out-of-this-world implications. According to Briggs, this research may provide ideas on how microbes could survive on icy planets or moons in the solar system. 

鈥淭he type of environments that we鈥檙e seeing underneath these glaciers [are] analogs for Europa, Enceladus 鈥� maybe even the polar caps of Mars,鈥� Briggs said. 鈥淚f we鈥檙e going to find life on Mars, that鈥檚 probably where they鈥檙e at 鈥� underneath the glaciers.鈥� 

Hill sees important down-to-Earth value in the research. 

鈥淚鈥檇 say the number one thing is knowing who鈥檚 here, microbe-wise, as these glaciers continue to melt, and these ecosystems continue to change with warming,鈥� Hill said, 鈥淕rewingk Glacier has been melting. Not at as fast a rate as some other glaciers in 熊猫在线视频, but most of them are losing mass.鈥� 

While the samples the team collected have not yet been fully analyzed in the lab, according to Hill 鈥渢he sequencing is supposed to happen imminently.鈥� While Hill is interested in revisiting Grewnigk at some point in the future to collect more samples, the team has plenty of work in the lab ahead. 

鈥淲e have a lot of work to do just with the samples we collected this year,鈥� Hill said