SRA

Microbial life permeates our planet. From the atmosphere to the deep subsurface, a stunning diversity of organisms, employing a wide range of metabolisms, is able to persist, multiply, and evolve. But when does substrate colonization begin, and which organisms initiate the process? How does the community shift as ecological succession progresses in the deep subsurface? Due to the pervasiveness of microbial life on and within nearly any substrate, including the subsurface, acquiring sterile, time zero samples is a limiting factor in conducting subsurface colonization studies. Through the analysis of a unique sample set of basaltic substrate acquired from an active lava lake on Ambrym Island, Vanuatu, we will use subsurface analog material as a representative of colonization processes occurring across the bulk of the Earths habitable volume. With samples ranging in age from 30 seconds to 46 years, we are poised to address a series of fundamental questions about how life gains a foothold within our planet. PI, Jeffrey Marlow Harvard University.