Environmental Microbiology goes gangbusters in the Global South
Peruvian graduate student Angélica Millán extends her hand out to grab the wrist of her colleague before he falls into the icy water of a fast-moving mountain river. “Cuidado!” she shouts above the din. The group wades through chest-deep river crossings and rappels down steep cliffsides. Their destination - boiling hot springs and the microbial mats that surround them, high atop a volcano in the Chilean Andes. This was not the latest episode of Survivor, but rather a day of instruction at the Ecology and Diversity of Marine Microorganisms Course (ECODIM). ECODIM is a three-week course for graduate students from Latin America. Students participate from many countries, including Chile, Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, México and Cuba, among others.
The main goal of ECODIM is to transfer current knowledge in scientific areas of growing interest, expand intellectual capacity, and promote unbiased thinking, with an emphasis on practical skills development and crucial teamwork for successful collaboration in scientific endeavors. The course accomplishes this through a combination of lectures, practical workshops, field work, and student research projects. The lectures and workshops are led by visiting scientists from many countries, including Chile, Norway, and the United States. Visiting scientists include experts in microbial diversity, molecular ecology, marine genomics, aquatic symbiosis, bioinformatics, and microbial signaling. This past January marked the twelfth edition of the ECODIM course. ESCI’s own Professor Jake Bailey participated as a guest scientist and instructor for his fourth time. “The ECODIM course is a fantastic opportunity both to interact with amazing students who will be future leaders in the field, and to advance my own research activities” Bailey said.
The ECODIM previously operated out of Dichato on the coast of Chile. But this year the course moved to Huinay in the Los Lagos Region of Chilean Patagonia. This region is known for its spectacular fjords, including the Comau Fjord, which the students sampled for their research projects. Among the natural environments that were investigated this past year, were volcanic springs, waters from coastal upwelling zones, underwater seeps, salmon farms, and sharp salinity gradients. The course is based out of the Huinay research station which is overseen by the San Ignacio del Huinay Foundation, and the course is directed by Matias Castro and Osvaldo Ulloa, Director of the Millennium Institute of Oceanography at the Universidad de Concepción.
The ECODIM course is the sister course of the Regional Graduate Networks of Oceanography (RGNO) Course, a related graduate education course that is held in Namibia in southern Africa. Both Namibia and Chile have major upwelling zones on their continental shelves, which contribute to the development of oxygen minimum zones. These oxygen minimum zones encourage the growth of giant sulfur bacteria that metabolize sulfur compounds and are responsible for the biogeochemical cycling of nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorus, and carbon. Professor Bailey collects samples of giant sulfur bacteria as part of his involvement in both of these courses. These bacterial samples serve as the backbone of the research program that he conducts with joint principal investigator, Dr. Beverly Flood. Flood and Bailey are studying these remarkable bacteria because their large size, complex cytoskeleton, and possession of intracellular endobionts may provide insights into the evolution of the eukaryotic cell. Bailey hopes to return to participate in these courses in years to come.
