Muth Lab – Brooklyn Urban Ecology and Environment Program (BUEE) https://buee.blog.brooklyn.edu A NSF-Supported Research Experiences for Undergraduates Site Mon, 02 Jan 2023 16:53:15 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 https://buee.blog.brooklyn.edu/files/2018/01/cropped-BUEELogo-32x32.png Muth Lab – Brooklyn Urban Ecology and Environment Program (BUEE) https://buee.blog.brooklyn.edu 32 32 Student Project: Disturbed and diverse: Soil and green infrastructure microbial communities of New York City (Muth Lab) https://buee.blog.brooklyn.edu/2022/12/30/student-project-disturbed-and-diverse-soil-and-green-infrastructure-microbial-communities-of-new-york-city-muth-lab/ Fri, 30 Dec 2022 21:34:45 +0000 https://buee.blog.brooklyn.edu/?p=2744 Read more Student Project: Disturbed and diverse: Soil and green infrastructure microbial communities of New York City (Muth Lab)]]> Human activity in cities alters the biodiversity of insects, plants, and animals – frequently lowering the biodiversity and replacing native species with introduced species. Changes in urban biodiversity impact the health and resilience of urban ecosystems. Urban soil microorganisms contribute to important ecosystem services, such as biogeochemical cycling, decomposition, and plant growth promotion. We and others have found that the biodiversity of soil microorganisms increases in urban soils that have been heavily impacted by human activity. This holds true for the soils present in NYC green infrastructure sites such as green roofs, tree pits and bioswales. We hypothesize that human activity increases the number of microenvironments, or tiny niches, within the urban soils, and these niches support a diverse community of microorganisms. To test this hypothesis, this BUEE project will extend beyond our initial work to include a wider range of urban soil types and expand our analyses to include fungi and cyanobacteria. We will collect and analyze soil microbiome DNA samples from multiple sites across NYC, and to employ newly developed PCR primer sets that target a wider range of microorganisms. We expect that results from this project will contribute to a better understanding of urban soil microbiome diversity and resiliency. These findings could provide urban planners with insight on how green infrastructure soils can be managed to maximize their ecosystem services.

]]> Student Project: Targeting the duckweed microbiome for improved phytoremediation of urban waters (Muth Lab) https://buee.blog.brooklyn.edu/2022/12/29/student-project-the-duckweed-microbiome-and-the-hologenome-theory-of-evolution-muth-lab/ Thu, 29 Dec 2022 22:00:48 +0000 http://buee.blog.brooklyn.edu/?p=204 Read more Student Project: Targeting the duckweed microbiome for improved phytoremediation of urban waters (Muth Lab)]]> Duckweeds, small aquatic plants that grow on the surface of still waters, are commonly observed in lakes and ponds, including those in Prospect Park, Central Park, and other NYC parks.  With 37 species and five genera, duckweeds are found on every continent except Antarctica and native to every state in the United States. Duckweeds have innovative applications that include their use in phytoremediation of polluted waters and a source for biofuel production.  Plant microbiomes affect plant growth and health, nutrient utilization, and plants’ responses to chemical, environmental, and biological stressors and pollutants. Advances in genomic sequencing and metabolomics analysis allow us to systematically study the interactions between plants, exudates, and microbiomes, and to fill gaps in our understanding of how microbiomes beneficially and antagonistically interact with plants, such as duckweeds, as they take up nutrients and respond to chemical pollutants.

Duckweeds present an excellent system to study microbiomes and the molecular interactions that shape the composition and metabolic potential of the plant and its microbiome. The goals of our research are to develop duckweeds colonized with microbiomes optimized for site-specific remediation of urban pollutants, and to manipulate microbiomes to alter the metabolic activity of host duckweeds in order to improve the composition of their biomass for as a stock for food or biofuel. The modified duckweed-microbiomes represent a novel and significant resource that has not been available previously, and it will lead to greater flexibility and specificity in remediating sites that pose a risk to urban residents and natural resources. As duckweed is globally distributed and can grow quickly in mild to extreme climates, duckweed also has great potential for intensive agricultural production to fulfill the food and fuel needs of a growing population. Our proposed research targets the goals of 1) responding to climate and energy needs, 2) sustainable intensification of urbanization, and 3) sustainable use of natural resources.

Students working on this BUEE project will spend time in the field collecting duckweeds from lakes and ponds around NYC and will work in the lab to determine if duckweed species type and location influence the duckweed microbiome. The data collected on this project will be important in determining if duckweed microbiomes can be modified to promote nutrient removal and phytoremediation of contaminants from the waters of NYC, and if changes in microbiome diversity allow duckweeds to adapt quickly to a changing climate and increasingly stressful environments associated with cities.

]]>