Microbial function as the new frontier: novel functional and metabolic insights for the assessment and monitoring of freshwater ecosystems at risk of exposure to agriculture-nutrient contamination

Funding period: 2020-2024
Leads: Jordyn Broadbent and Thomas Reid
Total GRDI funding: $340,000

This project incorporates novel metatranscriptomics and metabolomics in a joint approach to assess the impacts of agricultural nutrient contamination in Southwestern Ontario. The research area sits on the traditional territory of the Three Fires Confederacy of First Nations, which includes the Ojibwa, the Odawa, and the Potawatomie. In collaboration with AAFC and UWindsor, this project aims to better understand spatiotemporal microbial activity near agricultural lands. Laboratory and field experimentation will test the feasibility of identifying unique microbial genetic and metabolite signatures in response to acute vs. chronic contamination. The vast dataset gathered will provide for a set of novel functional markers to be used in assessment and monitoring of nutrient contamination, and can be interrogated by various end-users in pursuit of related research objectives (i.e. urban pollution signatures, antimicrobial resistance in the environment etc.).