SMAST Seminar - DEOS - Linking Process Rates, Genes, and Bioenergetics

Wednesday, March 25, 2026 at 12:30pm to 1:30pm

Seminar Announcement

Department of Estuarine and Ocean Sciences

"Linking Process Rates, Genes, and Bioenergetics Across the Transition from Aerobic to Anaerobic Microbial Metabolisms in Low-O₂ Marine Waters"

Julia Huggins

Postdoctoral Investigator, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI)

Wednesday, March 25, 2026

12:30 - 1:30 pm

SMAST E 101-103 and via Zoom

Abstract:

The transition from aerobic respiration to anaerobic microbial metabolisms largely determines how ocean deoxygenation will alter global biogeochemical cycling. As marine oxygen inventories decline, the outcomes depend on the low-O₂ thresholds at which anaerobic pathways engage—and, crucially, which metabolisms dominate. Multiple nitrogen- and sulfur-based processes can activate under low-oxygen conditions, yet the environmental and physiological factors governing this transition remain poorly constrained. In the first part of my talk, I will present findings from my PhD research showing that facultative aerobic microorganisms can support high rates of nitrogen recycling through dissimilatory nitrite reduction to ammonium (DNRA), which complicates canonical assumptions about the transition to nitrogen-based metabolisms in low-O₂ marine waters. In the second part of my talk, I will discuss my ongoing postdoctoral work at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution integrating nitrogen- and sulfur-based metabolic process rate measurements with genomic information and bioenergetic modeling. This work aims to mechanistically link functional genes and organisms to metabolic transitions, and to define the thresholds that govern microbial energy flexibility in a deoxygenating ocean.

Join Meeting

https://umassd.zoom.us/j/97440069270

Note: Meeting ID and passcode required. Email contact to obtain.

For additional information, please contact Callie Rumbut at c.rumbut@umassd.edu

SMAST East 101-103 : 836 S. Rodney French Boulevard, New Bedford MA 2744
Callie Rumbut
c.rumbut@umassd.edu
https://umassd.zoom.us/j/97440069270