BioMetArchive - Subsurface biosphere metagenomics along the 1 Ma sedimentary archive of ferruginous Lake Towuti, Indonesia
Funding: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG, Program SPP1006 ,
International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP)
Project period: 2022 - 2025
Cooperations:
Prof. James M. Russell – Brown University, Rhode Island, USA
Dr. Hendrik Vogel – University of Bern, Switzerland
Dr. Cynthia Henny – LIPI Research Center for Limnology, Bogor, Indonesia
Prof. Satria Bijaksana - Institut Teknology Bandung, Indonesia
Lake Towuti, Sulawesi, Indonesia is a stratified ferruginous system whose deep basin experienced dynamic redox conditions with variable iron oxide inflows over geologic time. In summer 2015, the ICDP Towuti Drilling Project retrieved a stratigraphic archive spanning the last 1 Ma of climatic and depositional history. During the Late Quaternary, wet and dry periods alternated, resulting in variable trophic and redox conditions. As sediment accumulated, microbial life at the sediment surface, linked to the availability of metal and organic substrates, became entombed, archiving paleoenvironmental conditions.
The BioMetArchive project is funded through the ICDP Priority Program of the German Research Foundation (project no. VU94/3-1). It will investigate how sedimentological and geochemical conditions select for specific microbial assemblages at the time of deposition and trace them through the 1Ma chronosequence. It will further elaborate on Lake Towuti as a modern analog for microbial processes in ancient ferruginous systems. The two main hypotheses of the project are: (1) Microbial compositions initially arise from past lacustrine conditions and deposited substrates, and are partially recorded in sedimentary DNA; (2) ferruginous conditions select for specific metabolic features which allow the subsurface biosphere to persist in Lake Towuti’s deep sediment and which are similar to life processes that operated in ancient ferruginous systems.
Thanks to recent advances in metagenomics, sedimentary DNA can now be used to characterize microbial populations in terms of abundance, diversity and metabolic functions. The BioMetArchive project will utilize sediments sampled at high resolution during field operations in 2015 and since kept deeply frozen at -80°C. BioMetArchive will establish the phylogenetic distribution of microorganisms and integrate genomic data with already existing environmental and geochemical datasets to identify parameters that control microbial community composition over time. Through metagenomics the project will identify which microbial taxa and metabolic features are involved in iron reduction and organic matter remineralization throughout the sediment sequence.
Publications related to the project
Bauer KW, Byrne JM, Kenward P, Simister R, Michiels CC, Friese A, Vuillemin A, Henny C, Nomosatryo S, Kallmeyer J, Kappler A, Smit MA, Francois R, and Crowe SA (2020) Magnetite biomineralization in ferruginous waters and early Earth evolution. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 549, 116495, doi: 10.1016/j.epsl.2020.116495
Friese A, Kallmeyer J, Kitte JA, Montaño Martínez I, Bijaksana S, Wagner D, and the ICDP Lake Chalco Drilling Science Team and the ICDP Towuti Drilling Science Team (2017) A simple and inexpensive technique for assessing contamination during drilling operations. Limnology and Oceanography Methods, 15, 200–211, doi: 10.1002/lom3.10159.
Friese A, Bauer KW, Glombitza C, Ordonez LG, Ariztegui D, Heuer VB, Vuillemin A, Henny C, Nomosatryo S, Simister R, Wagner D, Bijaksana S, Vogel H, Melles M, Russell JM, Crowe SA, Kallmeyer J (2021) Organic matter mineralization in modern and ancient ferruginous sediments. Nature Communications 6, e2216, doi:10.1038/s41467-021-22453-0
Russell JM, Bijaksana S, Vogel H, Melles M, Kallmeyer J, Ariztegui D, Crowe SA, Fajar S, Hafidz A, Haffner D, Hasberg A, Ivory S, Kelly C, King J, Kirana K, Morlock M, Noren A, O'Grady R, Ordonez L, Stevenson J, von Rintelen T, Vuillemin A, Watkinson I, Wattrus N, Wicaksono S, Wonik T, Bauer KW, Deino A, Friese A, Henny C, Imran, Marwoto R, Ngkoimani LO, Nomosatryo S, Safiuddin LO, Simister R, and Tamuntuan G (2016) The Towuti Drilling Project: Paleoenvironments, biological evolution, and geomicrobiology of a tropical Pacific lake. Scientific Drilling, 21, 29-40, doi: 10.5194/sd-21-29-2016.
Vuillemin A, Horn F, Friese A, Winkel M, Alawi M, Wagner D, Henny C, Orsi WD, Crowe SA, and Kallmeyer J (2018) Metabolic potential of microbial communities from ferruginous sediments. Environmental Microbiology 20, 4297-4313. doi: 10.1111/1462-2920.1443
Vuillemin A, Wirth R, Kemnitz H, Schleicher AM, Friese A, Bauer KW, Simister R, Nomosatryo S, Ordoñez L, Ariztegui D, Henny C, Crowe SA, Benning LG, Kallmeyer J, Russell JM, Bijaksana S, Vogel H, and the Towuti Drilling Project Science Team (2019) Formation of diagenetic siderite in modern ferruginous sediments. Geology, 47, 540-544, doi: 10.1130/G46100.1.
Vuillemin A, Friese A, Wirth R, Schuessler JA, Schleicher AM, Kemnitz A, Lücke A, Bauer KW, Nomosatryo S, von Blanckenburg F, Simister R, Ordoñez LG, Ariztegui D, Henny C, Russell JM, Bijaksana S, Vogel H, Crowe SA, Kallmeyer J, and the Towuti Drilling Project Science Team (2020) Vivianite formation in ferruginous sediments from Lake Towuti, Indonesia. Biogeosciences, 17, 1955-1973, doi: 10.5194/bg-2019-426.
Vuillemin A, Mayr C, Schuessler JA, Friese A, Bauer KW, Lücke A, Heuer VB, Glombitza C, Henny C, von Blanckenburg F, Russell JM, Bijaksana S, Vogel H, Crowe SA, and Kallmeyer J (2022) A one-million-year isotope record from siderites formed in modern ferruginous sediments. GSA Bulletindoi: 10.1130/B36211.1.
