| National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis | Phone: (805) 892-2529 |
| Fax: (805) 892-2510 | |
| 735 State St., Suite 300 | e-mail: |
| Santa Barbara, CA 93101, USA | schmidt@nceas.ucsb.edu |
I am an oceanographer/microbial ecologist interested in bacteria living in marine sediments. The primary aim of my present research is to understand controls on benthic bacterial abundance and activity; my approach is to formulate predictive mathematical models involving the physical constraints of living in porous media and then to develop necessary methods to test them. In addition to the inherent value of my research questions to biological oceanography, e.g. in predicting patterns of organisms in the sea and understanding foraging strategies of bacteria and benthic fauna, these questions also play an important role in the mechanistic understanding of biogeochemical processes such as early diagenesis and the preservation (or lack thereof) of organic carbon in sediments. Furthermore, knowledge gained about microbial processes in "typical" sediments likely applies to other porous media, including suspended aggregates, hydrothermal vents, the subterranean biosphere, contaminated sediment, sea ice, aquifers, water filters, and metazoan tissues.
The recent discovery that bacteria engage in extensive chemical signaling and density-dependent behavior (e.g., the release of extracellular, unattched enzymes for foraging on large molecules once a "quorum" has been reached) has led to suggestions that bacteria have evolved cooperative adaptive strategies. Paralleling early ecologists who studied cooperation, microbiologists have not yet developed rigorous theory to test these ideas. My goal at NCEAS is develop testable predictions about if and how such strategies might play a role in bacterial foraging in nature. I will soon be visiting the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany to test some of these predictions.
This page was last updated February 27,2002
