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Subject: Aquatic Microbial Communities as Sources and Sinks of Climate-active Gases

Dear Colleagues,
We are organizing a session on "Aquatic Microbial Communities as Sources and Sinks of Climate-active Gases" at the ASLO meeting in Victoria June 4-9. You are all invited to submit abstracts. Please see the conference web site http://aslo.org/meetings/victoria2006/ and the session description below. We hope to present a diverse set of papers on microbial processes responsible for generating both greenhouse gases and other climate-active gases such as DMS in both fresh and salt water.
Thanks!
Jim and Tish
TS-A09 - Aquatic Microbial Communities as Sources and Sinks of Climate-active Gases Organizers: James Christian, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, jim.christian@ec.gc.ca and Patricia Yager, University of Georgia, pyager@uga.edu

Aquatic microorganisms play an important role in the Earth's climate system by regulating the atmospheric concentrations of CO2, other greenhouse gases (CH4, N2O), and reactive trace gases such as dimethylsulfide (DMS) and CH3Br. In many cases it is not the activities of individual species or taxa that determine the net exchange of such compounds, but the interactions within communities of microorganisms. For example, rates of production of DMS are determined by catabolism of precursors like dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) by bacteria that are commensal to the autotrophic producers of DMSP; net community production and the potential for oceanic uptake of atmospheric CO2 is generally much smaller than gross uptake by phytoplankton and sensitive to microbial community structure; microbial communities may also affect gas exchange rates by altering physical properties of the air-water interface. This session will examine the role of microbial communities in the production and consumption of atmospheric trace gases. Presentations on all manner of aquatic microbial processes that produce or consume trace gases are welcomed, particularly those dealing with novel metabolisms such as nitrification, denitrification, calcification, and methylotrophy.

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