URI Astrobiology Institute

The University of Rhode Island (URI) was a member organization of
the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) from 2001-2006. This page is a
record of NAI URI activities during that time.

URI ASTROBIOLOGY PROGRAM OVERVIEW

		Program Objectives
PROGRAM OBJECTIVES TEAM MEMBERS Photomicrograph of sediment and microbes recovered from approximately 30 meters below the seafloor during Ocean Drilling Program Leg 201. The glowing green dots are the microbes, stained with fluorescent SYBR Green I. Photomicrograph courtesy of David C. Smith.		The University of Rhode Island (URI) Team works to gain a fundamental understanding of the life that inhabits Earth’s deeply buried marine sediments. Earth’s deep biosphere is a critical component of Earth’s biogeochemical cycles and serves as a model for possible life on other planets. Consequently, the team’s objectives are to understand the subsurface microbial ecosystems of marine sediments, their role in Earth’s biogeochemical cycles, and their relevance to the search for life on other planets. Individual projects of the URI Team seek to: • Explore the taxonomic composition, metabolic activity and geochemical consequences of buried microbial ecosystems in marine sediments with widely different physical and chemical characteristics. • Document the nature, extent, and perturbation-sensitivity of microbial activity in marine sediments, plus the effect of that activity on Earth’s biogeochemical cycles. • Identify signatures of present and past microbial processes in Earth’s subsurface as a guide to predicting such signatures in extraterrestrial subsurface environments. Environments of special interest include: 1) old, deeply buried sediments where life exists despite extremely low concentrations of electron donors and key nutrients, and 2) hot, deeply buried anoxic sediments where life may exist independently of the photosynthesis-based ecosystem at Earth’s surface. The ecosystems of these subsurface habitats are potentially representative of the ecosystems that may exist on other planets.
		Team Members
		University of Rhode Island Steven D’Hondt, Principal Investigator, dhondt@gso.uri.edu David C. Smith, Co-Investigator, dcsmith@gso.uri.edu Arthur J. Spivack, Co-Investigator, spivack@gso.uri.edu Robert Pockalny, E/PO Lead, rpockalny@gso.uri.edu Jens Kallmeyer, Post-Doctoral Scholar, kallmeyer@gso.uri.edu Bruno Soffientino, Post-Doctoral Scholar, bruno@gso.uri.edu James H. Miller, Collaborator, miller@oce.uri.edu Michael S. Twardowski, Collaborator, mtwardo@wetlabs2.com Carly Blair, Graduate Student, cblair@gso.uri.edu Heather Schrum, Graduate Student, hschrum@gso.uri.edu Guizhi Wang, Graduate Student, gzhwang@gso.uri.edu Dennis Graham, Marine Research Specialist III, dgraham@gso.uri.edu April Pariseault, Program Coordinator, april@gso.uri.edu Robert Sand, IT Coordinator, sand@gso.uri.edu Undergraduate Research Assistants 2003-2005 Miranda Smith (from Macalester College) 2003-2004 Ben Swanson (from the University of Rhode Island) 2002 Andrea Mullin (from the University of Akron) Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows 2005 Rika Anderson (from Carleton College) 2005 Melinda Montano (from Eckard College) 2004 Kristofer D. Carlson (from Worcester Polytechnical Institute) 2004 Kelly Hanks (from the University of Rhode Island) 2003 Beverley Chen (from Washington University in St. Louis) 2003 Uri Manor (from Saint Louis University) University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill Andreas Teske, Co-Investigator, teske@email.unc.edu Mark Lever, Graduate Student, mlever77@email.unc.edu Karen Lloyd, Graduate Student, klloyd@email.unc.edu Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution John M. Hayes, Co-Investigator, jhayes@whoi.edu Kai-Uwe Hinrichs, Co-Investigator, khinrichs@whoi.edu Helen Fredricks, Scientific Staff, hfredricks@whoi.edu Kristin Smith, Research Assistant II, ksmith@whoi.edu Max-Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology Bo Barker Jørgensen, Collaborator, bjoergen@mpi-bremen.de Massachusetts Institute of Technology Roger Summons, Collaborator, rsummons@mit.edu Roger Williams University Scott Rutherford, Collaborator, srutherford@rwu.edu

PROGRAM OVERVIEW	RESEARCH ACTIVITIES	STUDENT OPPORTUNITIES	CONTACT US
GRADUATE SCHOOL OF OCEANOGRAPHY		UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND

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