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SUMMARY:EESS talk on "Biological methane sources and sinks\; two case stud
 ies"
DTSTART:20221129T121500
DTEND:20221129T131500
DTSTAMP:20260925T123639Z
UID:1cbe8797c898c688e3f5af5010d8c79588c9ff0f7d8a93b1769acee1
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Dr Ianina Altshuler\, Tenure Track Assistant professor\, Micro
 biome Adaptation to the Changing Environment (MACE)\, ALPOLE-Sion\nAbstrac
 t:\nAnthropogenically driven climate change due to emissions of greenhouse
  gasses (GHGs) has multitudes of negative impacts including increases in e
 xtreme weather events\, melting of glaciers and degradation of permafrost\
 , loss of biodiversity\, and reduction in crop yields. Methane (CH4) is of
  increasing concern as it is ~25 times stronger at trapping heat in the at
 mosphere compared to CO2. Multiple microbially driven sources and sinks of
  methane contribute to overall changes in its atmospheric concentrations. 
 Microbially driven sources of methane can be both anthropogenic and natura
 l including agricultural and livestock emissions\, decomposition permafros
 t carbon stores\, and wetland emissions. However\, biological sinks of met
 hane are more difficult to track and mainly include soil CH4 sinks. Here I
  will present two studies that demonstrate examples of CH4 sinks and sourc
 es. Through in situ field measurements\, the first study aimed to understa
 nd the fluxes of methane from permafrost affected soils and determined tha
 t oligotrophic high-Arctic soils can be sinks of CH4. Furthermore\, both c
 ultured and uncultured methanotrophic microbial organism likely responsibl
 e for the negative flux were identified via metagenomics in this study. Th
 e second study aimed to understand the relationship between microbe-host m
 olecular interactions (via metaproteomics) in relation to emissions of CH4
  from agricultural beef cattle. Ruminants such as cattle are entirely depe
 ndent on rumen microbiota for survival as it is essential in allowing the 
 host to utilise indigestible plant fibers via microbial fermentation. Howe
 ver\, often CH4 is produced in this system and constitutes both the loss o
 f energy for the host and release of CH4 to the atmosphere. Understanding 
 the relationship between microbial and host protein expression patterns co
 uld elucidate rumen microbiome-dependent mechanisms responsible for both f
 eed efficiency and CH4 production in cattle and provide future avenues of 
 better agricultural practices. Overall\, the seminar aims to demonstrate m
 icrobial studies in two different ecosystems (natural and agricultural) th
 at both contribute to atmospheric methane concentrations.\n\nShort biograp
 hy:\nDr. Ianina Altshuler is an Arctic/Alpine field and experimental micro
 bial ecologist. She holds an Honours BSc in Biological Sciences from York 
 University and an MSc in Environmental Sciences from Windsor University. D
 r. Altshuler completed her PhD in Environmental Microbiology at McGill Uni
 versity (Quebec\, Canada) working on the microbial responses to climate wa
 rming in Arctic permafrost soils and microbial contributions to biogeochem
 ical cycles. Following this she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the 
 Norwegian University of Life Sciences studying greenhouse gas mitigating s
 trategies in agriculture through engineering of specialized microbial comm
 unities. Currently\, she is a tenure track Assistant Professor at ALPOLE\,
  EPFL studying environmental adaptation strategies of cryosphere microorga
 nism
LOCATION:GC B1 10 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==GC%20B1%2010 https://epfl.zo
 om.us/j/63802032408
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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