Author Archives: Jeff

Things are looking up as the snow comes down…

Posted on November 5, 2015 by Jeff

After a tough couple of weeks things are starting to look up.  I’ve got the flow cytometer up and running, and Colleen’s instrument received a complete makeover (thanks to the über instrument tech at Palmer) and is producing good data.  … Continue reading →

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Rough Start but Smooth Ice

Posted on November 3, 2015 by Jeff

We’re off to a rough start this season!  Two of our instruments are down, including our flow cytometer – annoying, but we can deal with it – and Colleen’s instrument for measuring superoxide.  That’s a real problem.  Colleen is only … Continue reading →

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Punta Arenas to Palmer Station

Posted on November 1, 2015 by Jeff

We arrived at Palmer Station last Thursday morning after a particularly long trip down from Punta Arenas. Depending on the weather the trip across the Drake Passage and down the Peninsula to Anvers Island typically takes about four days. This … Continue reading →

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Enroute to Palmer Station

Posted on October 18, 2015 by Jeff

I’m currently sitting in the Dallas airport waiting for a flight to Santiago, Chile, enroute to Palmer Station for the 2015 spring season. Since there is no airfield at Palmer we’ll go in and out by boat (the ARSV Laurence … Continue reading →

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paprica v0.20

Posted on October 16, 2015 by Jeff

A couple of months ago I published paprica v0.11, a set of scripts for conducting a metabolic inference from a collection of 16S rRNA gene reads.  This approach allows you to estimate the functional capabilities of a microbial community if … Continue reading →

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SCAR session on microbial ecology

Posted on October 15, 2015 by Jeff

Along with colleagues from New Zealand, Argentina, and Malaysia I’m convening a session on microbial ecology and evolution at the upcoming biennial SCAR meeting in Kuala Lumpur (because there’s no better place to talk about ice than the tropics).  If … Continue reading →

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Sea ice bacteria review published

Posted on October 13, 2015 by Jeff

I’m really excited (and relieved) to report that my review on the taxonomy and function of sea ice microbial communities was recently published in the journal Elementa.  The review is part of a series on biological exchange processes at the … Continue reading →

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Microbial ecology of the cryosphere

Posted on September 23, 2015 by Jeff

A quick post on an excellent review published last week by Antje Boetius and co-authors (including Jody Deming, my PhD advisor) in Nature Reviews Microbiology, titled Microbial ecology of the cryosphere: sea ice and glacial habitats.  The review, focused on … Continue reading →

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And now…

Posted on September 16, 2015 by Jeff

…for something completely different.  My wife and I are expecting our first child in a few months, which is wonderful and all, but means that we are faced with the daunting task of coming up with a name.  Being data … Continue reading →

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Introducing PAPRICA

Posted on August 18, 2015 by Jeff

I’m very excited to report that our latest paper – Microbial communities can be described by metabolic structure: A general framework and application to a seasonally variable, depth-stratified microbial community from the coastal West Antarctic Peninsula was just published in … Continue reading →

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