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Introduction
We
have received funding from the National
Science Foundation to establish a Microbial Observatory for
the island of San Salvador, Bahamas. Similar to many Bahamian Islands,
San Salvador Island contains numerous hypersaline (45 to 200 ‰)
lakes and ponds. The lakes are subject to intense irradiance (µE
m-2 s-1), high temperatures
(> 30° C) and chronic nutrient depletion. Highly productive
microbial mats blanket the shallow sediments in many of the lakes.
In addition to the osmotic stress induced by the hypersaline conditions,
large areas of the mats are subjected to an additional water stress,
desiccation, as lake levels recede during the dry season (December
to April). One of our primary goals is to isolate and characterize
anhydrophilic microorganisms from the mats and lakes. The mats contain
a rich diversity of microorganisms (link to photos here). Many are
organisms found in mats throughout the world. However, the relative
isolation of San Salvador, the extreme conditions, and diversity
of organisms increases the likelihood that novel organisms possessing
unique adaptive mechanisms inhabit the mats and lakes. The overall
research objective of this study will be to assess the influence
water availability has on structural diversification, community
composition, production, and carbon sequestration in microbial mats.
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