Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/T002050/1
Microbial colonisation following explosive volcanic eruptions: reinvigorating research on Krakatau
Grant Award
- Principal Investigator:
- Dr FQ Brearley, Manchester Metropolitan University, School of Science and the Environment
- Co-Investigator:
- Dr L Kelly, Manchester Metropolitan University, School of Science and the Environment
- Science Area:
- Atmospheric
- Earth
- Terrestrial
- Overall Classification:
- Panel C
- ENRIs:
- Biodiversity
- Environmental Risks and Hazards
- Global Change
- Science Topics:
- Biodiversity
- Fungal communities
- Microbes
- Nutrient limitation
- Succession
- Community Ecology
- Debris flows
- Volcanic Processes
- Microbial biodiversity
- Microbial communities
- Nutrient cycling
- Soil organic matter
- Environmental Microbiology
- Microbial communities
- Biogeochemical Cycles
- Abstract:
- The aftermath of explosive volcanism is ecologically important in Indonesia but difficult to study because of its unpredictability. In this proposal, we propose to monitor ecosystem recovery after volcanic eruptions with a specific focus on soil micro-organisms and how they can mediate initial soil development in fresh ash deposits. Whilst previous studies have examined microbial communities in 'young' volcanic environments, the age of these deposits was generally in the order of years, thereby missing the key earliest stages of succession during which microbes start to modify the initial edaphic environment. Major volcanic activity at Anak Krakatau, an iconic island volcano in Indonesia, in December 2018 led to a complete reconfiguration of the island and the rare opportunity to study microbial recolonisation and the importance of microbes in ecosystem recovery. In this urgency project, we will sample ash/soils from Anak Krakatau within a few months of the eruption producing a novel dataset. Microbial diversity will be compared with that in the spore-rain to assess if there are constraints to microbial colonisation. We will also set up a series of experiments whereby we inoculate ash/soil to determine how the colonisation of microbes can influence carbon and nutrient accumulation in the ash substrate and the growth of pioneer plant species, and conversely how constraints to colonisation might impede it. Understanding the development of soils over volcanic ash is important because they are very fertile and support high population densities as well as sequestering large amounts of carbon over decadal timescales.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/T002050/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- Standard Grant FEC
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Urgent Grant
This grant award has a total value of £40,594
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| DI - Other Costs | Indirect - Indirect Costs | DA - Investigators | DA - Estate Costs | DA - Other Directly Allocated | DI - T&S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £8,854 | £9,604 | £11,445 | £1,936 | £449 | £8,307 |
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