Grace Martinez, University of Missouri Columbia

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Abstract:

In the Chesapeake Bay, microorganisms including bacteria and single celled eukaryotes live both free in the water column, and on various-sized particles. Through their metabolic processes, these organisms shape the chemistry of the Chesapeake Bay and surrounding natural environments. We explore the relationships between microbial cells and the particles they live on, hypothesizing that the microbial abundance is proportional to the mass of the particles on which the microorganisms live. We compare two different methods for quantifying the number of microbial cells associated with different locations and particle sizes. In the first method, microbial abundances are quantified microscopically, and the second they are calculated from DNA sequencing data. This project aims to gain a better understanding of the relationship between q microbial abundance and particle characteristics. This project can potentially be used alongside other research to see how the Bay will react in conjunction with nutrients and toxins based on how many and what sizes of microbes are present in the Bay.