OAST
Oceans Across Space and Time (OAST)
Faculty Advisor/PI: Prof. Britney Schmidt (Cornell); Prof. Christopher E. Carr (Co-I)
Start Date: September, 2018 to September 2025
Current Status: Active
Collaborators: OAST has an extended multi-institute team.
Oceans Across Space and Time (OAST) project is part of the Network for Life Detection (NfoLD), funded by NASA’s Astrobiology Program. Our goal is to understand how ocean worlds and their biospheres co-evolve to produce detectable signals of a past or present living world, by combining the expertise of a multidisciplinary team. This work has involved studies of hypersaline lakes in interior British Columbia, a commercial salt works at South Bay Salt Works, San Diego, a set of Western Australia transient lakes, and a robotic mission to a Deep Hypersaline Anoxic Basin (DHAB). Our lab’s part of the work involves microbial adaptation and evolution to hypersaline systems, focusing on life detection such as with biological and solid state nanopore.
Video: Sampling hypersaline lakes during winter in Interior British Columbia (YouTube)
For more information: Oceans Across Space and Time (OAST) Website
Selected Publications:
Pozarycki C, Seaton K, Noak C, Nuñez N, Castillo M, Ingall E, Klempay B, Pontefract A, Fisher L, Paris E, Buessecker S, Alansson N, Carr CE, Doran P, Bowman J, Schmidt B, Stockton A. Biosignature Molecules Persist and Accumulate in Evaporitic Brines: Implications for Planetary Exploration. Astrobiology 24(8) (2024) https://doi.org/10.1089/ast.2023.01
Klempay B, Arandia-Gorostidi N, Dekas AE, Bartlett DH, Carr CE, Doran PT, Dutta A, Erazo N, Fisher LA, Glass JB, Pontefract A, Som SM, Wilson JM, Schmidt BE, and Bowman JS. (2021), Microbial diversity and activity in Southern California salterns and bitterns: analogues for remnant ocean worlds. Environ Microbiol, 23: 3825-3839. doi: 10.1111/1462-2920.15440
Fisher LA, Pontefract A, Som SM, Carr CE, Klempay B, Schmidt BE, Bowman JS, and Bartlett DH. (2021), Current state of athalassohaline deep-sea hypersaline anoxic basin research—recommendations for future work and relevance to astrobiology. Environ Microbiol, 23: 3360-3369. doi: 10.1111/1462-2920.15414
Presentations:
McKaig J, Buessecker S, Desmarais M, Elbon CE, Hegelein V, Meister M, Mullen A, Paris ER, Pozarycki CI, Ross C, Sephus CD, Quartini E, Ingall ED, Bowman JS, Schmidt B, Carr CE, and the Oceans Across Space and Time Team. Long-Read Sequencing to Reveal Taxonomy, Function, and Genomic Modification along a Deep-Sea Salinity Gradient. 19th International Symposium on Microbial Ecology (ISME), August 18-23, 2024, Cape Town, South Africa (abstract & poster).
Fisher L, Bovee A, Klempay B, Weng MM, Som SM, Doran PT, Pontefract A, Carr CE, Glass JB, Schmidt B, Bowman JS, Bartlett DH, and the Oceans Across Space and Time Team. Surprising inverse relationship between halotolerant growth and cell integrity under extremely chaotropic conditions. Astrobiology Science Conference, Providence, RI, May 5-10, 2024 (abstract). https://agu.confex.com/agu/abscicon24/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/1500935
Bowman JS, Bartless D, Buessecker S, Dekas AE, Carr CE, Desmarais M, Doran P, Elbon CE, Fisher L, Klempay B, McKaig JM, Meister M, Mullen A, Paris ER, Pozarycki C, Quartini E, Ross C, Salcedo RR, Schartup AT, Schless P, Sephus C, Skoog E, Som SM, Stockton AM, Tfaily M, Wolf H, Schmidt B, and the Oceans Across Space and Time Team. Habitats and Life in Orca Basin: a low temperature, low water activity, low energy analog environment. Astrobiology Science Conference, Providence, RI, May 5-10, 2024 (abstract, submitted). https://agu.confex.com/agu/abscicon24/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/1498691
Funding: Supported by awards 80NSSC18K1301 and 80NSSC22K1409 (PI: Britney Schmidt).