Eric Collins’ seminar was on microbial communities in the arctic. His project included mapping the uncharted diversity of arctic marine microbes. In addition to the different regions of ice, microbes were also charted by what layer of ice they were found in. Microbes in ice also vary in the age of ice and with the arctic losing old ice, microbes may be going extinct.
This seminar was especially related to lecture when we learned that microbes choose their community. Microbes in this environment chose the region, layer, and age of ice. Additionally, his research backs up the lecture that there are certain bacteria for certain temperatures and these are certainly thermophilic bacteria.
Whenever there is an organism going extinct, my first thought is always what the impact will be in its community. Since we have an understanding of the importance of microbes, it makes me curious as to what can change in the arctic with old ice microbes going extinct.
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