WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.620 --> 00:00:02.840 - All right. Welcome, everyone. 00:00:03.520 --> 00:00:08.200 We're so pleased that you're taking your afternoon or evening to join us here for our 00:00:08.200 --> 00:00:12.240 National Marine Sanctuaries webinar series. 00:00:12.240 --> 00:00:18.200 So, this series is hosted by the NOAA office of National Marine Sanctuaries 00:00:18.200 --> 00:00:23.580 and we find that it's a great way for us to connect with formal and informal educators 00:00:23.580 --> 00:00:29.780 and other interested parties, to provide you with educational and scientific expertise. 00:00:29.780 --> 00:00:35.680 As well as resources and educational materials training, etc. to support-- 00:00:38.760 --> 00:00:43.020 literacy in your classroom or in your facilities with your different audiences. 00:00:43.840 --> 00:00:50.620 So, with that, I would like to let you all know that you've come in as an attendee. 00:00:50.620 --> 00:00:55.440 We have 114 direct registrants that have signed up for today's webinar. 00:00:55.440 --> 00:00:59.780 All attendees that are participating live will come in and listen-only mode. 00:00:59.780 --> 00:01:04.760 You're welcome to type any questions you may have into the question box 00:01:04.760 --> 00:01:08.120 in your control panel, on the right hand side of your screen. 00:01:08.120 --> 00:01:12.480 This is the same area you can let us know if you're having any technical difficulties. 00:01:12.480 --> 00:01:14.960 And I'll respond to them as soon as I can. 00:01:14.960 --> 00:01:18.360 We are recording today's live webinar presentation 00:01:18.360 --> 00:01:22.160 and we'll be sharing this archive with all registered participants. 00:01:22.160 --> 00:01:25.880 And it'll live on our webinar archive page, in perpetuity. 00:01:26.340 --> 00:01:32.000 So internet link will be provided at the end of the presentation and not to worry. 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:36.620 Typical government. It's super long, but we'll make sure to send it to you via email. 00:01:37.500 --> 00:01:40.760 So, first, I wanted to do a just brief brief introduction 00:01:40.760 --> 00:01:44.260 to the National Marine Sanctuary system, here. 00:01:44.260 --> 00:01:48.660 You're looking at a map of North America and part of South Pacific. 00:01:48.660 --> 00:01:52.440 And this is our network of underwater treasures. 00:01:52.440 --> 00:01:56.380 So, the NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, 00:01:56.380 --> 00:02:03.540 we, actually, are entrusted to manage this network of what we call underwater parks. 00:02:03.540 --> 00:02:09.000 It's about 600,000 square nautical miles of special ocean and great Lake treasures 00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:10.520 that NOAA manages. 00:02:10.520 --> 00:02:16.120 And each of these blue dots on the map represent one of our National Marine Sanctuaries. 00:02:16.120 --> 00:02:23.180 And, actually, just a few weeks ago, we had a formal designation for our first National Marine Sanctuary 00:02:23.180 --> 00:02:25.000 in nearly 20 years. 00:02:25.000 --> 00:02:30.620 This was our Mallows Bay-Potomac River National Marine Sanctuary designation. 00:02:30.620 --> 00:02:35.240 The one before that was Thunder Bay, designated in 2000, and 00:02:35.240 --> 00:02:38.480 this is the site we're going to be zooming in on on today's webinar. 00:02:38.480 --> 00:02:44.000 So from the newest and then the formerly newest, back in 2000. 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:49.240 But it's important to note that these National marine sanctuaries help protect the ocean and Great Lakes. 00:02:50.200 --> 00:02:54.800 And these areas are actually set aside for a wide variety of reasons. 00:02:54.800 --> 00:02:57.660 We do have the National Marine Sanctuaries Act 00:02:57.660 --> 00:03:03.840 which allows Congress to put aside special ocean areas or Great Lakes areas 00:03:03.840 --> 00:03:08.060 for a variety of reasons it could be recreational reasons or aesthetics, 00:03:08.060 --> 00:03:14.700 ecological, conservation value, and then even shipwrecks and archaeological significance. 00:03:14.700 --> 00:03:19.920 and so we are mandated as staff of NOAA and the National Marine Sanctuaries 00:03:19.920 --> 00:03:24.520 to conduct research and monitoring, education and outreach, active management 00:03:24.520 --> 00:03:27.540 that ultimately leads to resource protection. 00:03:27.540 --> 00:03:32.700 We also like to call these underwater parks-- they're kind of living classrooms. 00:03:32.700 --> 00:03:43.480 This is a place where you can actually go-- to explore and see and learn and touch and feel 00:03:43.480 --> 00:03:45.380 what a National Marine Sanctuary is. 00:03:45.380 --> 00:03:50.700 So here is a father/daughter kayaking in our Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary 00:03:50.700 --> 00:03:53.860 off of Santa Barbara California, which is where I am located. 00:03:53.860 --> 00:03:56.100 So my name is Clare Fackler. 00:03:56.100 --> 00:04:01.600 I am the national education liaison for the National Marine Sanctuary system. 00:04:01.600 --> 00:04:05.380 And I will be the webinar host for today's presentation. 00:04:05.380 --> 00:04:10.080 And sitting in not so sunny Santa Barbara, California, today, 00:04:10.080 --> 00:04:17.580 I will also be running the Q&A with our additional guests, today, Stephanie Gandulla. 00:04:17.580 --> 00:04:23.800 Stephanie is the acting research coordinator for NOAA's Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary 00:04:23.800 --> 00:04:28.180 and she's going to give us a little more in-depth presentation on what is 00:04:28.180 --> 00:04:30.500 the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary. 00:04:30.500 --> 00:04:35.200 And then we'll have the privilege of introducing our guest speaker. So, take it away, Stephanie. 00:04:36.480 --> 00:04:38.020 Thank you very much, Claire. 00:04:38.720 --> 00:04:43.060 As Claire said, we are coming to you from the heart of the Great Lakes. 00:04:43.060 --> 00:04:47.040 the largest fresh surface water system on the planet. 00:04:47.600 --> 00:04:52.100 And we are the only freshwater, for now, the only freshwater National Marine Sanctuary 00:04:52.100 --> 00:04:53.400 in the entire country. 00:04:53.400 --> 00:04:57.060 And we were designated, as Claire said, in the year 2000 00:04:57.060 --> 00:05:00.200 to protect a very special collection of shipwrecks. 00:05:00.960 --> 00:05:06.420 These shipwrecks are archaeological sites that tell us an important part of American history 00:05:06.420 --> 00:05:09.840 and are significant not just because of their quantity. 00:05:09.840 --> 00:05:15.740 We estimate there's over 200 within the 4,300 square miles of sanctuary waters. 00:05:16.560 --> 00:05:22.180 And not just because of their quality, frozen in time in the cold fresh waters of Lake Huron, 00:05:22.180 --> 00:05:25.180 but also for their accessibility. 00:05:25.960 --> 00:05:31.880 Many Thunder Bay shipwrecks are so shallow, you can paddle or snorkel to connect with them. 00:05:31.880 --> 00:05:37.060 As you see right here in this image of the the sunken paddle wheeler, Albany, 00:05:37.060 --> 00:05:39.480 taken by a storm in the late 1800s. 00:05:39.480 --> 00:05:42.920 In fact, you can even see shipwrecks from a glass-bottom boat. 00:05:43.640 --> 00:05:47.360 So, while we work hard to protect and preserve this this important history, 00:05:47.360 --> 00:05:51.520 we also protect the amazing natural resources of the Great Lakes. 00:05:51.520 --> 00:05:56.480 Natural resources, such as the submerged sinkholes, that you're going to be hearing about, tonight. 00:05:57.200 --> 00:06:02.780 And we encourage scientists from all over the world, like Dr. Bopi, to conduct research in the sanctuary. 00:06:02.780 --> 00:06:06.752 And were honored that he and his team are one of our longest standing partners 00:06:06.752 --> 00:06:08.280 in sanctuary science. 00:06:10.020 --> 00:06:13.560 Professor Bopi is an aquatic microbial ecologist, 00:06:13.560 --> 00:06:17.040 who studies the movement of carbon driven by microbes. 00:06:17.040 --> 00:06:22.680 and he's based out of the Annis Water Resources Institute in Grand Valley State University. 00:06:23.000 --> 00:06:27.420 He grew up in the lush tropical sub-- excuse me-- the lush subtropical mountains 00:06:27.420 --> 00:06:28.860 of Southwest India 00:06:28.860 --> 00:06:34.580 and came to the U.S. in the 1980s to get a PhD in ecology from the University of Georgia. 00:06:34.580 --> 00:06:42.300 Subsequently, he went on adventures at the Alpha Wegener Institute for polar and marine research, 00:06:42.380 --> 00:06:43.140 in Germany. 00:06:43.440 --> 00:06:46.360 the National Institute of Oceanography in India, 00:06:46.360 --> 00:06:50.500 and the University of Texas Marine Science Institute in Texas. 00:06:50.500 --> 00:06:55.540 And he's been to Brazil studying and doing research, and at the University of Minnesota. 00:06:55.540 --> 00:06:59.480 So he comes to us with a lot of background and skill and experience. 00:07:00.220 --> 00:07:03.960 For the last 15 years, he's been at Grand Valley State University 00:07:03.960 --> 00:07:08.300 and studying the microbial cycling of elements in the Great Lakes. 00:07:08.300 --> 00:07:14.760 Exploring life in extreme environments, such as the sinkholes that we're going to be exporing tonight. 00:07:15.900 --> 00:07:18.860 So, with that, I would like to hand it over to Dr. Bopi 00:07:18.860 --> 00:07:22.900 and I know you will enjoy and learn from his fascinating research and findings. 00:07:28.880 --> 00:07:30.080 - Thank you, Claire 00:07:30.660 --> 00:07:32.260 Thank you, Stephanie. 00:07:33.580 --> 00:07:38.980 In the next 30 minutes or so what I'd like to do is share with you the excitement of 00:07:38.980 --> 00:07:42.580 about 15 years of discovery and exploration 00:07:43.840 --> 00:07:49.020 of some of the most interesting and extreme ecosystems on planet Earth. 00:07:49.800 --> 00:07:54.660 All of this in the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary in Lake Huron, in the Great Lakes. 00:07:55.580 --> 00:07:57.760 Of course, I didn't do all of this by myself. 00:07:57.760 --> 00:08:02.080 I had a great bunch of collaborators from oceanographers to genomics. 00:08:02.680 --> 00:08:07.980 The first three here, you see here, Steve, Tom and Scott, were there from the very beginning 00:08:07.980 --> 00:08:13.260 and then were joined by Stephen Nold, Greg Dick and Tony Weinke 00:08:13.480 --> 00:08:18.320 who brought in their own skillsets to solve subsequent problems that we're facing. 00:08:18.320 --> 00:08:21.060 So I'll share the excitement of all that with you. 00:08:21.060 --> 00:08:23.060 I also want to acknowledge, at the very beginning, 00:08:23.060 --> 00:08:28.940 funding they received from several national federal institutions. 00:08:30.300 --> 00:08:33.380 So I'll cover in this seminar. 00:08:33.380 --> 00:08:34.620 Objectives: 00:08:35.280 --> 00:08:44.120 Do the sinkhole ecosystems resemble those of the shallow anoxic and sulfuric Seas of the early Earth? 00:08:50.480 --> 00:08:57.400 Can the life in submerged sinkholes serve as analogs in our search for ongoing life in extraterrestrial waters? 00:08:59.520 --> 00:09:01.700 When the strategy is going to be very simple. 00:09:02.220 --> 00:09:04.420 ^ search from shallow to deep sites. 00:09:05.260 --> 00:09:06.540 ^ search from near to far 00:09:07.140 --> 00:09:12.180 and this stage, I want everyone to kind of relax because it's going to be mostly a picture show. 00:09:12.600 --> 00:09:17.000 And I will share data or short data only when it's absolutely necessary. 00:09:18.800 --> 00:09:21.820 So, we're going to the heart of the Laurentian Great Lakes, 00:09:21.820 --> 00:09:24.180 the largest contiguous body of freshwater, 00:09:24.180 --> 00:09:27.760 containing nearly 20% of Earth's liquid surface water. 00:09:29.600 --> 00:09:32.380 Note it's going to northwestern Lake Huron 00:09:32.380 --> 00:09:35.100 that were the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary is. 00:09:35.100 --> 00:09:36.820 That's the study area. 00:09:36.820 --> 00:09:43.200 And this is a geological map of the bedrock aquifer of the Great Lakes basin. 00:09:43.200 --> 00:09:49.080 And one thing you can see is, apart from the Lake Superior and Upper Great Lake, 00:09:49.080 --> 00:09:54.340 all the lower Great Lakes are underlined by limestone and dolomite-- sedimentary rocks. 00:09:55.600 --> 00:10:01.180 And this is a great importance because limestone is very porous and holds lots of groundwater. 00:10:01.800 --> 00:10:04.620 The other thing you can see is that 00:10:08.680 --> 00:10:13.640 in the Michigan Peninsula the there are layers of the bedrock are bent. 00:10:13.640 --> 00:10:16.180 So consequently the aquifers are too. 00:10:16.180 --> 00:10:24.120 So focusing on the Alpena area, you can see that there is limestone karst bedrock, 00:10:24.120 --> 00:10:29.160 and also dolomite-- calcium carbonate containing limestone. 00:10:29.160 --> 00:10:32.060 And then there's gypsum, which is calcium sulfate, 00:10:32.060 --> 00:10:35.060 which is left over by Paleozoic marine evaporites. 00:10:35.060 --> 00:10:40.280 These are seas that dried up four hundred million years ago and left their salt behind. 00:10:40.280 --> 00:10:44.740 So, the groundwater washing through these ancient marine evaporites 00:10:44.740 --> 00:10:47.720 and today will carry those salts, high sulfates 00:10:48.300 --> 00:10:54.000 And the long canoe time takes out all the oxygen because everything there is respired. 00:10:54.520 --> 00:10:57.920 So, in the end, when we have water coming out of these layers, 00:10:57.920 --> 00:11:00.680 we have no oxygen and high sulfur. 00:11:00.680 --> 00:11:07.140 These are the very conditions that prevailed in the smelly shallow seas of the early Earth. 00:11:07.140 --> 00:11:11.340 One thing you will notice, here, is that in this kind of layered pattern, 00:11:11.340 --> 00:11:17.200 a groundwater that's trapped between a porous upper layer and an impervious lower layer 00:11:17.200 --> 00:11:19.280 can either try to go down 00:11:19.280 --> 00:11:25.920 or if the depth is too shallow, too deep, then it can actually emerge in a shallower areas 00:11:25.920 --> 00:11:29.860 like in the bottom of Lake Huron. That's what creates sinkholes. 00:11:31.260 --> 00:11:35.420 So, sinkholes are just gradual erosion of the bedrock, 00:11:36.460 --> 00:11:40.920 preferably limestone, which is more easy to degrade than other igneous rocks. 00:11:40.920 --> 00:11:50.200 And so, this is a schematic of how, over time, the groundwater can erode away limestone 00:11:50.200 --> 00:11:52.120 and form sinkholes. 00:11:52.120 --> 00:11:55.680 As you can see, sinkholes can also appear on the land. 00:11:55.680 --> 00:11:57.320 Those are inland sinkholes. 00:11:57.320 --> 00:12:02.900 Then you can have submerged sinkholes in the bottom of lakes, such as the Great Lakes. 00:12:02.900 --> 00:12:05.340 And the interesting thing here is that 00:12:05.340 --> 00:12:10.120 the venting waters always a steady approximately 9 degrees Celsius, 00:12:10.120 --> 00:12:16.060 which is the reflection of the average temperature at the surface of these zones, 00:12:16.060 --> 00:12:17.620 of these biomes 00:12:19.060 --> 00:12:21.940 across the last millennium, last 1,000 years. 00:12:23.260 --> 00:12:23.760 So, 00:12:24.960 --> 00:12:27.140 these areas will stink of sulfur. 00:12:27.140 --> 00:12:33.100 They're like just like pre-- very early Earth, which was full of sulfur. So fewer seas. 00:12:34.200 --> 00:12:39.300 There is a library fountain in the middle of Alpena town 00:12:39.300 --> 00:12:40.380 which stinks. 00:12:41.240 --> 00:12:44.700 here the water is tapped from 600 meters deep 00:12:44.700 --> 00:12:48.380 and it taps into that marine evaporate layer we were talking about. 00:12:48.380 --> 00:12:51.480 So it is coming out with high sulfur and low oxygen, 00:12:51.480 --> 00:12:55.040 and you can see it fuels an upside down sinkhole 00:12:55.040 --> 00:12:59.020 with purple cyanobacteria in the bottom 00:12:59.020 --> 00:13:03.640 and white chemosynthetic sulfur oxidizing bacteria at the top. 00:13:03.640 --> 00:13:11.380 We, actually, did the education and outreach poster board for the library, working with them. 00:13:11.380 --> 00:13:18.840 And here is two my students trying to see whose the first to close his nose at the smell. 00:13:19.560 --> 00:13:25.940 This is a map of-- bathymetric map of Lake Huron Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary 00:13:25.940 --> 00:13:28.100 where we have found sinkholes. 00:13:28.500 --> 00:13:31.720 The on the left are online sinkholes. 00:13:32.200 --> 00:13:39.580 There are also falls. They are usually round in shape and contain groundwater. 00:13:40.040 --> 00:13:45.860 And then there are the shallow sinkholes, ones where you can wade into, such as El Cajon Bay 00:13:45.860 --> 00:13:49.060 and a Middle Island sinkhole about 23 meters deep, 00:13:49.060 --> 00:13:52.560 where about 5% of the surface water still gets down to the bottom. 00:13:52.560 --> 00:13:55.560 And then isolated sinkholes which is 00:13:56.060 --> 00:14:01.000 which is way off offshore around, over 100, 110 meters deep. 00:14:01.000 --> 00:14:02.880 There's no light gets in. 00:14:02.880 --> 00:14:10.060 And then, in recent years, 2016 and 27 you've discovered a field of offshore karst sinkholes, 00:14:10.060 --> 00:14:13.360 which are even more deeper and aphotic. 00:14:13.360 --> 00:14:17.360 And we will look into all of these a little bit in the seminar. 00:14:18.340 --> 00:14:20.300 So, starting with the shallow sinkholes. 00:14:20.300 --> 00:14:24.380 On land sinkholes. You can see them this is an aerial photo that I took. 00:14:24.380 --> 00:14:28.160 And to off to the right corner you have Lake Huron there. 00:14:28.680 --> 00:14:33.320 Shallow Lake Huron, your Shallow Springs. 00:14:33.320 --> 00:14:38.660 Ones that are variable and ones that can be pretty deep, like 70 feet deep. 00:14:42.020 --> 00:14:45.340 So groundwater emerging from shallow submerged sinkhole springs 00:14:45.340 --> 00:14:51.400 are characterized by green algae on the surface and purple sulfur of bacteria, 00:14:51.400 --> 00:14:53.580 cyanobacteria in the depths. 00:14:53.580 --> 00:14:56.220 So that's green algae at the surface, 00:14:56.220 --> 00:15:00.820 then you have you can see the actual springs bubbling out 00:15:00.820 --> 00:15:06.540 and you can see some bits of purple here and in the very origins of that 00:15:06.540 --> 00:15:14.540 in the between about one meter deep depth you can see in low-light and pure ground water 00:15:14.540 --> 00:15:18.420 which is sulfur later, you know, as cyanobacteria. 00:15:20.260 --> 00:15:25.560 Going off in the in the increasing depth gradient, they're off to the middle island sinkhole 00:15:25.560 --> 00:15:27.580 which is 23 meters deep. 00:15:27.580 --> 00:15:34.280 And you can see there is research vessels for scale it's the areas of our a football field built. 00:15:34.280 --> 00:15:36.960 And the question what's going on inside? 00:15:38.420 --> 00:15:42.940 So we did bathymetric mapping using side-scan sonar. 00:15:42.940 --> 00:15:47.000 So you can see there are there's a shallow alcove, here. 00:15:47.000 --> 00:15:51.740 That's where groundwater fills in and then cascades out in an underwater waterfall 00:15:51.740 --> 00:15:55.020 into this broader area which we call arena. 00:15:56.160 --> 00:16:01.560 A high resolution multi-beam bathymetry showing all the details. 00:16:01.560 --> 00:16:05.780 Again can see that alcove, here, that just dissolved and gone away. 00:16:05.780 --> 00:16:07.680 And that's the source of groundwater 00:16:07.680 --> 00:16:17.180 and water comes out there 23 meters and spills over a 15 meter a ledge on to the 23 25 meter arena, here. 00:16:19.880 --> 00:16:25.380 So it is an interesting limbno oceanographic situation here. 00:16:25.380 --> 00:16:33.380 You can clearly see lake water overlain by dense groundwater, almost like a mirror effect, 00:16:33.380 --> 00:16:37.740 where turn in a pickup line the density differences and thermocline. 00:16:37.740 --> 00:16:42.760 Temperature differentials stand out very strongly in a reflective fashion. 00:16:43.940 --> 00:16:51.180 So to prove that point, we did see DD cast which is temperature conductivity and depth profiles. 00:16:51.340 --> 00:16:56.300 And you can see, the conductivity is higher, about tenfold. 00:16:56.300 --> 00:17:02.420 pH is whole unit lower in venting water, related to ground waters. Sorry about that. 00:17:02.420 --> 00:17:07.620 And then you can see also dissolved oxygen is almost zero in the venting water. 00:17:07.620 --> 00:17:13.420 It's well oxygenated in Lake Huron water and sulfate concentrations are over a hundred fold higher. 00:17:13.420 --> 00:17:18.060 So groundwater emerging at different sites has essentially the same chemical signature. 00:17:18.060 --> 00:17:23.380 Whether it be the fountain in the city center, they're tapping into the same aquifer, 00:17:23.380 --> 00:17:28.440 El Cajon Bay, or middle island are even further off offshore. 00:17:28.440 --> 00:17:33.240 So just think there's a unique, uniform, large aquifer. So common source. 00:17:34.280 --> 00:17:38.740 Early Earth's shallow seas also had low oxygen and higher sulfur conditions. 00:17:38.740 --> 00:17:40.160 Something to remember. 00:17:40.660 --> 00:17:43.580 So it profiled here, it's very interesting, 00:17:43.580 --> 00:17:50.400 and you can see there is specific conductivity increases by tenfold 00:17:50.400 --> 00:17:53.160 in when it hits the bottom groundwater. 00:17:53.160 --> 00:17:56.440 Groundwater hugs the bottom because it's very salty. 00:17:56.440 --> 00:17:59.360 That's what specific conductivity is telling you. 00:17:59.360 --> 00:18:01.780 It's more denser than the lake water. 00:18:01.780 --> 00:18:06.160 Similarly, you can see the temperature is being the summer, 00:18:06.160 --> 00:18:11.900 there's a summer thermocline in the surface and then again a very super sharp thermocline 00:18:12.080 --> 00:18:13.720 when it hits the groundwater. 00:18:14.240 --> 00:18:20.260 And then, dissolved oxygen, Vera Vera oxygenated almost saturation point 00:18:20.420 --> 00:18:23.940 goes to almost nothing in the in this oxic line. 00:18:23.940 --> 00:18:30.340 And similarly there is a there is a big change in there all kinetic acidity rasnge. 00:18:30.340 --> 00:18:34.720 pH dropped by almost one whole unit in the groundwater. 00:18:36.380 --> 00:18:39.540 So there is the shallow sunlit sinkholes, 00:18:39.540 --> 00:18:43.900 where there's sign of bacteria doing photosynthesis 00:18:43.900 --> 00:18:48.220 and then there will go on to the deep sites where there's no sunlight. 00:18:48.220 --> 00:18:50.400 there's no synthesis for layers. 00:18:50.400 --> 00:18:57.120 Chemosynthesis, organic matter is synthesized not with photosynthesis 00:18:57.120 --> 00:19:00.300 where electrons from hard water are used here. 00:19:00.300 --> 00:19:04.900 Chemosynthesis organisms use electrons from hydrogen sulfide, 00:19:04.900 --> 00:19:07.720 hydrogen, and other metallic compounds. 00:19:08.420 --> 00:19:13.320 So there's a schematic of this very simple showing photosynthesis 00:19:13.320 --> 00:19:17.580 and chemosynthesis using in the energy in chemical bonds. 00:19:18.960 --> 00:19:24.540 Well, this is important because we have to be as we go on we wonder whether 00:19:24.540 --> 00:19:30.160 whether microbial ecosystems, like this, photosynthetic ones that were dominated by cyanobacteria 00:19:30.160 --> 00:19:36.660 in modern day or have are analogous to what were there in early Earth 00:19:36.660 --> 00:19:45.180 and have had a role in oxygenating the planet and during its turbulent childhood. 00:19:46.320 --> 00:19:51.480 So the actors in this game, we can look in and you see, in under the microscope, 00:19:51.480 --> 00:19:55.360 this purple cyanobacterial cell amongst, which are photosynthetic. 00:19:55.360 --> 00:20:01.680 And this special accessory pigments called phycocyanin which help them tap sunlight 00:20:01.680 --> 00:20:03.060 and make organic matter. 00:20:03.060 --> 00:20:06.960 And then you have this chemosynthetic sulfur oxidizing bacteria elements 00:20:06.960 --> 00:20:12.540 that are dark, many of them have sulfur granules in them post sulfur sulfur oxidation. 00:20:13.960 --> 00:20:19.620 So details, here you can see a couple of types of cyanobacteria 00:20:19.620 --> 00:20:28.820 and a couple of types of dark darkly stained chemosynthetic sulfur oxidizing bacteria. 00:20:28.820 --> 00:20:34.320 Seems like that the community here is very taxonomically simple , 00:20:34.320 --> 00:20:37.800 but you'll see that they're very first functionally versified. 00:20:38.480 --> 00:20:47.400 So now then in GA it's 16 years ribosomal RNA sequencing of the bacterial portion 00:20:47.400 --> 00:20:53.000 of the community showed that cyanobacteria dominate. 00:20:53.000 --> 00:20:58.340 Okay so you can see that the community seems to be taxonomically simple, 00:20:58.340 --> 00:21:02.120 subsequently see that if we really very versatile. 00:21:03.480 --> 00:21:06.980 Alright, this is a good place to start. 00:21:06.980 --> 00:21:16.560 This is a cross-section of the intact sediment with the the surface layer of 00:21:16.560 --> 00:21:21.640 photosynthetic organisms at the purple sign of a tree at the very top. 00:21:22.160 --> 00:21:26.740 This cyanobacteria can do both oxygen and anoxygenic photosynthesis. 00:21:28.400 --> 00:21:34.360 So oxygenic photosynthesis is the common method right now in grasses to trees 00:21:34.360 --> 00:21:35.780 and phytoplankton in the sea. 00:21:35.780 --> 00:21:42.220 But anoxygenic photosynthesis was the one that was prevalent very early in early early Earth. 00:21:42.760 --> 00:21:50.520 Here, hydrogen sulfide instead of H2O is used in the end of preparation of organic matter. 00:21:51.240 --> 00:21:55.880 Okay. So there's that layer is followed by chemosynthetic sulfur oxidizing bacteria 00:21:55.880 --> 00:21:58.480 that's followed by sulfate reducing bacteria, 00:21:58.760 --> 00:22:03.100 and then a bunch of carbon rich sediments including methanogens. 00:22:03.100 --> 00:22:07.060 so this is like a strongly interconnected consortium 00:22:07.060 --> 00:22:10.000 where the waste of one is the food of the other. 00:22:10.480 --> 00:22:17.180 So, there's the so far the real biodiversity and the potential for methodical value of these of the sequences 00:22:17.280 --> 00:22:21.520 microvilli they dominated ecosystems is still unknown. 00:22:22.940 --> 00:22:24.620 So we're seeking answers to them. 00:22:24.620 --> 00:22:29.440 I mentioned very very strong functional and behavioral diversity. 00:22:29.440 --> 00:22:35.480 So, here's an example of us bringing these stamp mats into the into the lab 00:22:35.480 --> 00:22:37.980 and dispersing them in a petri dish, 00:22:37.980 --> 00:22:43.440 and putting a phone cut out of our University logo, Grand Valley State University. 00:22:43.440 --> 00:22:45.340 And then shining light on it. 00:22:45.340 --> 00:22:51.460 And then, within a couple of hours, you can see all the filaments are gathered into the lighted area. 00:22:51.460 --> 00:22:57.700 So they're phototactic so they can travel millimeters in minutes, 00:22:57.700 --> 00:23:00.140 which is like a rabbit, not a turtle, 00:23:00.140 --> 00:23:02.620 If you look at body lengths traveled per minute. 00:23:02.860 --> 00:23:03.740 So, very fast. 00:23:04.300 --> 00:23:07.500 And also we have evidence for vertical motility. 00:23:07.500 --> 00:23:14.000 Here's the case where we have we put white shelf pieces on the surface, 00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:19.980 and, after about six to eight hours, they are covered up by purple cyanobacteria 00:23:19.980 --> 00:23:23.660 which are don't like to be shaded, they are always seeking sunlight. 00:23:23.660 --> 00:23:26.020 So they come up to uncover it. 00:23:26.020 --> 00:23:28.260 So, this might be a mechanism for bearing carbon. 00:23:28.260 --> 00:23:35.380 Whatever's up there, they go over it and push it in the bottom where there's anoxic sediments 00:23:35.380 --> 00:23:36.780 which preserve organic matter. 00:23:37.580 --> 00:23:41.820 So, in fact, the importance of organic carbon burial cannot be overstated. 00:23:41.820 --> 00:23:43.960 That's the basis of the carbon pump, 00:23:43.960 --> 00:23:50.780 which takes up carbon mostly carbon dioxide in the oceans and fresh waters . 00:23:50.780 --> 00:23:54.660 This carbon gets buried an equal molar amount of oxygen gets released. 00:23:54.660 --> 00:23:58.240 That's how the earth presumably began to get oxygen. 00:23:58.240 --> 00:24:04.180 That experience net oxidation oxygenation in the in the early phases of the biosphere. 00:24:04.180 --> 00:24:07.200 So this is an acoustic sub-bottom profile, 00:24:07.200 --> 00:24:15.040 and you can see that there is lots there's this water here and that there's a lot of certain socks 00:24:15.040 --> 00:24:16.820 18 meters of sediments. 00:24:16.820 --> 00:24:20.420 This is an amazing amount of water if you take off sediment. 00:24:20.420 --> 00:24:27.020 If you think it's only been six ten or fifteen thousand years since the Great Lakes formed. 00:24:27.020 --> 00:24:32.780 So those rates, one to two liters sediment accumulation for millennium, is the highest rate anywhere. 00:24:32.780 --> 00:24:35.900 This may not surely know how to bury carbon. 00:24:40.840 --> 00:24:46.140 So, another behavioral thing we have always observed before but we never got to check 00:24:46.140 --> 00:24:51.080 he is changes in the day and nighttime coloration of these mats. 00:24:51.080 --> 00:24:55.540 From purple in the day and white in the-- at night. 00:24:55.540 --> 00:24:58.600 We observe these in the lab but not in the field. 00:24:58.600 --> 00:25:03.540 So, we deployed this GoPro camera over 48 hours. 00:25:04.420 --> 00:25:08.660 time like photography and they also collected additional course for lab studies. 00:25:08.660 --> 00:25:13.660 And you can see in this over two days sun's at sunset 00:25:13.660 --> 00:25:19.820 because during the day at the end of the day it was purple at night turned started turning white. 00:25:19.820 --> 00:25:22.520 And before pre-dawn it was mostly white. 00:25:22.520 --> 00:25:27.120 And early right no-- in the early morning it was quite white. 00:25:27.120 --> 00:25:31.840 And so it goes through this purple and white settings. 00:25:31.840 --> 00:25:35.460 From our hours our thinking is that, during the day, 00:25:35.460 --> 00:25:38.580 where a purple cyanobacteria come up to harvest the sunlight, 00:25:38.580 --> 00:25:39.920 and during the night, 00:25:39.920 --> 00:25:47.300 the white chemosynthetic sulfur oxidizing mats come to harvest the excess sulfur hydrogen sulfide 00:25:47.300 --> 00:25:48.440 that's on the surface. 00:25:49.120 --> 00:25:53.660 In fact, lab studies of intact course confirm this. 00:25:53.660 --> 00:25:59.240 That during day it's purple, but it at the end of the night, they turn white. 00:25:59.860 --> 00:26:06.900 This year, this summer, we confirmed this, again, that during sunrise, purple changing to sunset 00:26:07.780 --> 00:26:12.040 So, you know, we wonder: was this the first tango? 00:26:12.040 --> 00:26:16.960 Could this have been the largest daily synchronized mass moment of life on early Earth? 00:26:16.960 --> 00:26:19.860 Yeah, maybe it was just moment through millimeters, 00:26:19.860 --> 00:26:22.060 but that was all that might have been there. 00:26:22.060 --> 00:26:24.500 And this might have been the biggest mass moment 00:26:24.500 --> 00:26:27.560 daily mass moment of life on the planet, at one time. 00:26:27.560 --> 00:26:31.380 So we're after the deep, deep sinkholes 00:26:31.380 --> 00:26:36.940 where we deployed big ROVs and mapped at the bottom. 00:26:36.940 --> 00:26:42.320 And you can see there's this white widget or or chemosynthetic mats in the bottom. 00:26:42.320 --> 00:26:47.020 They're similar toward the Alvin sees in deep-sea vents and seeps. 00:26:49.080 --> 00:26:55.020 So you can see in a map of close to the lake floor, 00:26:55.020 --> 00:26:59.300 there's this hot spots of conductivity high conductivity water, 00:26:59.300 --> 00:27:01.960 which coincide with hot spots of temperature, 00:27:01.960 --> 00:27:07.480 which is the temperature of the ground water is warmer than the lake water at this depth. 00:27:07.780 --> 00:27:10.120 So those are the venting groundwater spots. 00:27:13.020 --> 00:27:18.240 And you can see an Nepheloid layer where this venting water comes and stabilizes. 00:27:18.240 --> 00:27:21.600 Stabilizes. And in this venting more these venting 00:27:21.600 --> 00:27:25.240 these Nepheloid layers are hotspots of microbial activity. 00:27:25.840 --> 00:27:31.180 Teeming full of life, where everything is 10 200 times faster than elsewhere. 00:27:32.560 --> 00:27:37.180 And a close-up of these maps reveals there's real structure to these mats. 00:27:37.340 --> 00:27:45.740 And there's this large cells, too, which we think are which might be Thiomargarita species, 00:27:45.760 --> 00:27:48.220 which is following around deep-sea vents. 00:27:48.220 --> 00:27:52.060 And also a large sulfur bacteria from similar to deep-sea vents. 00:27:52.060 --> 00:27:59.580 All these things make us infer that these communities are really similar to deep-sea communities, 00:28:00.160 --> 00:28:01.940 which have sulfur driven. 00:28:03.060 --> 00:28:09.140 So, in addition to this, we were fortunate to discover new field of aphotic sinkholes in offshore areas, 00:28:09.880 --> 00:28:14.800 and that is well offshore of the isolated sinkhole we just looked. 00:28:15.700 --> 00:28:16.740 Worried about that... 00:28:17.840 --> 00:28:25.280 So in 2015 and 2016, we discovered seven such sinkholes using side-scan sonar 00:28:25.280 --> 00:28:28.280 and early footage caught white mats around it. 00:28:28.280 --> 00:28:36.020 In 2017 and 18, we discovered 14 more using multi beams. 00:28:36.020 --> 00:28:40.580 That's just like wearing a new set of glasses and seen twice as much as before. 00:28:40.580 --> 00:28:46.600 And some of these sinkholes, twin sinkholes, some of them had 18 meters depth. 00:28:46.600 --> 00:28:49.560 You know, we're deep, below the lake floor . 00:28:49.560 --> 00:28:53.580 This very astonishing and some of them are actively venting. 00:28:53.580 --> 00:28:57.920 So, those will be future areas where we'll conduct explorations. 00:28:59.140 --> 00:29:02.740 So, putting that all into the context of the early Earth, 00:29:04.240 --> 00:29:10.020 you can see that this is you can the y axis here is on a log scale, so 00:29:10.020 --> 00:29:16.180 you can see that oxygen concentrations were minuscule for the longest time. 00:29:16.180 --> 00:29:22.900 And then one of our only one percent of what it is today, for about two billion years. 00:29:22.900 --> 00:29:27.160 This during this time, there was this battle between 00:29:27.160 --> 00:29:30.520 between anoxygenic and oxygen cyanobacteria. 00:29:30.520 --> 00:29:33.660 And eventually oxygen and cyanobacteria won over. 00:29:33.660 --> 00:29:40.240 And then we made this 21% accumulation in that last year. 00:29:40.240 --> 00:29:46.960 So the idea is that the modern day sink holes. 00:29:46.960 --> 00:29:53.320 there's the cyanobacteria we see are analogs of these mix it versatile communities 00:29:53.320 --> 00:29:57.520 that might have prevailed over these very long periods of Earth's history 00:29:57.520 --> 00:30:00.060 when oxygen content was very low. 00:30:00.060 --> 00:30:06.080 And today they're in refuge low oxygen, high sulfur, refugia, here and there, 00:30:06.080 --> 00:30:11.380 in different corners of the world, yeah of the earth in small to large sizes. 00:30:11.380 --> 00:30:16.360 So where on earth are such microbial communities found? 00:30:16.360 --> 00:30:20.440 These are images from the dry valley lakes of Antarctica. 00:30:20.440 --> 00:30:25.560 Okay and you have similar protrusions and this is of course Middle Island Sinkhole 00:30:25.560 --> 00:30:30.440 which we call these are we call them purple Ridge Mountains or Hills. 00:30:30.440 --> 00:30:36.500 They're just about a foot or two foot high and very similar runs in Antarctica, too. 00:30:36.500 --> 00:30:42.140 So, they're just filled by methane and hydrogen sulfide that builds up in the sediments 00:30:42.140 --> 00:30:43.260 under these mats. 00:30:43.260 --> 00:30:47.920 And then get pulled up into more ridge type, this thing. 00:30:47.920 --> 00:30:54.880 So, on the other hand, the deepwater sites resemble very much very much what the Alvin sees 00:30:54.880 --> 00:30:58.700 in the deep sea. These white chemosynthetic bacterial mats. 00:31:00.360 --> 00:31:04.740 So, there are other shadow buyers piercing in our middest. Very possible. 00:31:04.740 --> 00:31:10.140 I mean, there are similar systems in the Yellowstone National Park, for example. 00:31:11.640 --> 00:31:14.520 Then elsewhere, outside of the Earth, 00:31:14.520 --> 00:31:19.160 there they're not on Earth could such microbial mat communities be formed. 00:31:21.040 --> 00:31:25.540 There are at least nine extraterrestrial oceans in the solar system. 00:31:27.980 --> 00:31:36.960 Find just Europa alone. The Europeís oceans alone contain more water than all of the water on Earth. 00:31:36.960 --> 00:31:41.500 And spaceships buzzing by Europa 00:31:41.500 --> 00:31:46.180 have noticed them, know this water it proves that it shoots out from its ocean 00:31:46.180 --> 00:31:49.800 and it's a big target of NASA's in the next investigation. 00:31:52.040 --> 00:31:59.000 There's also, Titan has a lake district of unknown depths. 00:31:59.000 --> 00:32:05.660 Although, not purely water, it's also it's liquid and that's it may work in investigation. 00:32:08.540 --> 00:32:14.080 Back here, this is an image that we that just came out in Eos 00:32:14.080 --> 00:32:19.720 which is the Earth and space names of an american geophysical union. 00:32:22.320 --> 00:32:25.140 It's still live in the very bottom of the page. 00:32:26.960 --> 00:32:32.060 that's suggesting Lake Huron sinkholes could be very good models, 00:32:32.060 --> 00:32:39.700 moral analogues for practicing there search of Earth lakescape as 00:32:39.700 --> 00:32:42.600 a model for life in extraterrestrial waters. 00:32:47.180 --> 00:32:51.580 So what might we find under the lakes of Titan or the oceans of Europa? 00:32:52.360 --> 00:32:57.940 There's more habitable exoplanets we've been discovering in the last decade. 00:32:59.600 --> 00:33:06.320 and there's almost systems like the solar system like the TRAPPIST system 00:33:06.320 --> 00:33:11.080 with all really about three of the planets in the habitable zone 00:33:11.080 --> 00:33:12.780 or similar to earth. 00:33:12.780 --> 00:33:20.760 Fine just this the Kepler telescope discovered the K2-18 B 00:33:20.760 --> 00:33:26.540 which is orbiting at our planet orbiting around the dwarf Sun 00:33:26.540 --> 00:33:28.740 that has water in the atmosphere. 00:33:28.740 --> 00:33:30.020 And even more promise. 00:33:30.020 --> 00:33:40.340 And even find them similarly interesting is that the Gaia satellite in 2016, 00:33:40.340 --> 00:33:43.320 peering into our own Milky Way galaxy, 00:33:44.260 --> 00:33:48.420 called twice as many stars in our galaxy as we knew before. 00:33:48.420 --> 00:33:54.720 That doubles the chances of having twice the chances of habitable planet exoplanets 00:33:54.720 --> 00:33:57.820 within our galaxy. 00:33:57.820 --> 00:34:00.240 So back on our home planet, 00:34:02.160 --> 00:34:06.740 time, water, and geological forces have converged to create underwater sinkholes 00:34:06.740 --> 00:34:12.560 that oxygen for its sulfuric groundwater supports microbial mats resembling life 00:34:12.560 --> 00:34:15.720 very similar to that early Earth. 00:34:18.360 --> 00:34:22.680 Whereas the photosynthetic cyanobacteria in the shallow sinkholes may resemble 00:34:22.680 --> 00:34:25.840 the Proterozoic or the geological past, 00:34:25.840 --> 00:34:29.140 the chemosynthetic mats in the deep water eroded sinkholes. 00:34:29.140 --> 00:34:34.860 So, as the analogs of deep-sea vents and sea communities in today's oceans. 00:34:39.040 --> 00:34:43.160 Both of these types of microbial communities could be used as analogues for our search. 00:34:43.160 --> 00:34:46.800 When I searched life beyond them, beyond Earth. 00:34:48.680 --> 00:34:54.400 I want to really thank the incredible dive team of the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary 00:34:54.400 --> 00:34:56.040 that made all this possible. 00:34:56.040 --> 00:34:59.940 Russ, Wayne and Stephanie have been there from the very beginning. 00:34:59.940 --> 00:35:04.240 John, Phil, Joe, and Tane joined us along the way. 00:35:04.240 --> 00:35:09.580 What I wanna thank, thank you. This work would not have been possible without you. 00:35:10.760 --> 00:35:20.420 and I will show now a video audio video overview of the sinkhole system. 00:35:20.420 --> 00:35:25.880 Most of it should be self-explanatory based on what you what we've been through. 00:35:25.880 --> 00:35:29.320 If you have questions, be sure to ask me at the end of the seminar. 00:39:42.780 --> 00:39:43.340 Thank you. 00:39:44.500 --> 00:39:51.160 - [Claire] All right, thank you for a really interesting presentation on sinkhole ecosystems. 00:39:51.640 --> 00:39:58.700 So, we have time in our webinar here to take any questions that some of our attendees may have. 00:39:58.700 --> 00:40:01.420 There's several ways of doing this, 00:40:01.420 --> 00:40:06.020 One way is type your question into the question box in the control panel 00:40:06.020 --> 00:40:10.220 and we'll go through them and have the professor respond. 00:40:10.500 --> 00:40:16.200 If you're feeling ambitious, you can actually raise your hand in the control panel 00:40:16.200 --> 00:40:22.700 and I will unmute you and you can actually ask your question directly to Professor Bopi. 00:40:22.700 --> 00:40:29.160 So I will, in the meantime, wait to see if anyone's brave and will raise their hand, 00:40:29.160 --> 00:40:33.540 but we do have a question that has come in via the question box. 00:40:33.540 --> 00:40:35.160 So, Michael's asking: 00:40:35.160 --> 00:40:41.080 Might these sinkholes and the venting waters from them have any positive positive impact 00:40:41.080 --> 00:40:43.160 on the fishery environment? 00:40:45.740 --> 00:40:47.300 That's an interesting question. 00:40:47.300 --> 00:40:57.020 They've never never figured out if these are quantitatively significant to the Great Lakes as a whole, 00:40:57.020 --> 00:40:59.120 you know, enough to raise the water level. 00:40:59.120 --> 00:41:06.700 So, certainly, it's potentially possible. In the immediate vicinity of these sinkholes? Yes. 00:41:06.700 --> 00:41:09.620 You're correct. It does have an effect. 00:41:09.620 --> 00:41:17.220 Basically, man oxygen is so low and sulfur is so high, fishes cannot exist. 00:41:17.220 --> 00:41:19.860 Indeed, even invertebrates cannot exist. 00:41:19.860 --> 00:41:25.680 So, it's mostly microbial. So in the immediate vicinity, there is no fishes. 00:41:25.680 --> 00:41:31.540 But they hang out in the fringes because there's all this lush purple lawn of productivity 00:41:31.540 --> 00:41:36.200 that we see many of them coming and taking nibbles on them in the periphery . 00:41:36.200 --> 00:41:45.340 But in the core of the sinkholes there's no larger organisms like fish and larger invertebrates about. 00:41:45.340 --> 00:41:50.000 but because we think they're scattered here and there 00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:54.260 but there are small in quantitatively these ecosystems. 00:41:54.260 --> 00:42:00.100 The impact, the negative impact is not significant. 00:42:01.660 --> 00:42:07.440 But it's important in that particular ecosystem because it excludes all the larger organisms. 00:42:07.440 --> 00:42:11.620 And that's why it's say it's true and what totally microbial system just like 00:42:11.620 --> 00:42:17.200 maybe how it was in the shallows of yours so oxygen less water. 00:42:18.680 --> 00:42:20.200 - Okay, great. Thank you. 00:42:20.820 --> 00:42:23.280 I, I'm gonna test this. It doesn't always work out, 00:42:23.280 --> 00:42:28.460 but it looks like Ronald Young has raised his hand in the control panel. 00:42:28.460 --> 00:42:30.420 Sometimes people do that, accidentally. 00:42:31.260 --> 00:42:36.280 Oh. No. The hand has been removed so that was an accident. So I won't unmute you, Ronald. 00:42:36.280 --> 00:42:41.860 But if anyone else would like to raise their hand in the control panel, I will unmute you. 00:42:41.860 --> 00:42:46.640 You can ask your question. Otherwise, go ahead and type it into the question box. 00:42:46.640 --> 00:42:48.460 I personally had a question. 00:42:48.460 --> 00:42:53.100 In the photo and the video at the end, when it was showing the deeper sinkholes, 00:42:53.100 --> 00:42:57.320 Was that wood? Or was that bones? you know that particular-- 00:42:57.320 --> 00:43:00.480 - Oh, yeah. That is interesting. 00:43:00.480 --> 00:43:06.480 Indeed, some of the very first NOAA ocean exploration when he came into this for archaeology, 00:43:06.480 --> 00:43:08.280 not for biology or chemistry, 00:43:08.280 --> 00:43:15.480 because the idea was that, you know, yeah everywhere everywhere in the lake or the ocean, 00:43:15.480 --> 00:43:17.380 things fall from top to bottom. 00:43:17.380 --> 00:43:22.560 Okay, and in fact archaeological effects will be covered up by falling debris. 00:43:22.560 --> 00:43:27.080 But here is the situation where actually water is venting from the bottom. 00:43:27.080 --> 00:43:34.000 And so, anything that falls, like a piece of ship rags or let's say Native American canoes 00:43:34.000 --> 00:43:37.700 or things, building structures, would be exposed 00:43:37.700 --> 00:43:41.760 because ground waters rafting away any any settling particles. 00:43:41.760 --> 00:43:46.160 and those things artifacts would be visually available. 00:43:46.160 --> 00:43:54.060 you know, to a ROV or can be caught in a side-scan or a multi beam scanner. 00:43:54.060 --> 00:43:59.780 So, no. To answer your question, we were hoping there would be, but there was not. 00:43:59.780 --> 00:44:07.020 In fact it was on a on a mid-lake ridge that travels between across Lake Huron 00:44:07.020 --> 00:44:11.880 in a north from a northwest to southwest. 00:44:11.880 --> 00:44:17.500 So, we had a reason to think that those debris might be actually wood 00:44:17.500 --> 00:44:20.560 that native peoples might have used in the past. 00:44:20.560 --> 00:44:22.360 But, no such luck. Yeah. 00:44:22.360 --> 00:44:27.400 I think they're just being rounded up by tumbling around for a long time until they found a low spot 00:44:27.400 --> 00:44:28.620 and settled in. 00:44:29.600 --> 00:44:34.020 - So with an ROV, did you actually take samples through that ocean exploration work? 00:44:34.020 --> 00:44:38.100 - Yeah. Things to do for exploration actually took pieces of that. 00:44:40.040 --> 00:44:44.440 - Alright I'm gonna give folks another chance to ask your questions, here. 00:44:44.940 --> 00:44:49.260 Type them into the question box or raise your hand in the control panel. 00:44:51.980 --> 00:44:55.900 And then, Stephanie, if you're still there, if you have any questions or some food for thought, 00:44:57.120 --> 00:44:58.440 feel free to join in. 00:45:01.520 --> 00:45:03.720 All right. Well, I'm gonna go ahead. 00:45:04.220 --> 00:45:05.420 There, Stephanie. 00:45:05.420 --> 00:45:11.600 And we do-- there are some educational resources that we would like to share with the group. 00:45:11.600 --> 00:45:15.960 So, I'm going to... hold on a second. 00:45:15.960 --> 00:45:18.440 get my presentation back up and running. 00:45:19.940 --> 00:45:22.320 There is a question that has come in 00:45:22.320 --> 00:45:26.320 that is asking about: Is it possible for the PowerPoint to be emailed? 00:45:26.320 --> 00:45:31.720 And we won't actually email it to all participants. However, I will let you know that 00:45:31.720 --> 00:45:39.320 in the webinar archive page, the material the PDF of the PowerPoint will be archived there, 00:45:39.320 --> 00:45:42.120 along with the recording of this presentation. 00:45:42.120 --> 00:45:49.780 There also be a link to the video and then there's more educational materials available related to sinkholes. 00:45:49.780 --> 00:45:52.720 So I'll go through some of those, right now, 00:45:52.720 --> 00:45:58.400 and, in your control panel, I have uploaded a handout. 00:45:58.960 --> 00:46:04.740 sinkhole ecosystems educational resources. So, that'll also be in the webinar archive. 00:46:04.740 --> 00:46:08.080 But if you are itching to see what those resources are, 00:46:08.080 --> 00:46:11.300 you can download that handout from the control panel, right now. 00:46:11.300 --> 00:46:14.140 I'm gonna cover two of those that are listed in there. 00:46:14.300 --> 00:46:22.080 As the professor Dr. Bindada? Oh gosh, sorry if I butchered your last name, there. 00:46:22.080 --> 00:46:29.100 But, when the NOAA ocean exploration office did the work, I believe in 2008, 00:46:29.100 --> 00:46:32.560 they also developed a number of lesson plans and materials 00:46:32.560 --> 00:46:36.380 related to the Thunder Bay sinkholes expedition. 00:46:36.380 --> 00:46:41.420 So, the direct link is going to be in that educational handout I mentioned. 00:46:41.500 --> 00:46:45.840 But if you also get to the oceanexplorer.noaa.gov website 00:46:46.000 --> 00:46:47.700 and search for Thunder Bay sinkholes, 00:46:47.700 --> 00:46:52.760 you'll get to that expedition and can click on the education link for all the materials. 00:46:54.100 --> 00:47:02.160 I've also been informed that Michigan's Sea Grant has a number of Great Lakes science with data 00:47:02.160 --> 00:47:07.640 and if you search Lake Huron shipwrecks, you will also get a number of lesson plans 00:47:07.640 --> 00:47:13.480 and educational materials that will help you bring this into your classroom or your facility. 00:47:15.480 --> 00:47:17.980 And, again, there is that edu-- 00:47:20.580 --> 00:47:25.280 list that will be provided to all attendees and all registrants of today's webinar. 00:47:25.280 --> 00:47:29.500 No need to jot down that long URL because, as I mentioned in the beginning, 00:47:29.500 --> 00:47:32.180 you will be given that link over email. 00:47:32.180 --> 00:47:34.100 And everyone that registered will also get it. 00:47:34.100 --> 00:47:40.660 It usually takes us about four or five days to get the webinar archive materials online 00:47:40.660 --> 00:47:43.980 and in a proper fashion to be on a NOAA.gov website. 00:47:43.980 --> 00:47:48.140 So, by next week, we hope to send out that email. 00:47:48.140 --> 00:47:51.500 If you have follow-up questions that you didn't get around to, today, 00:47:51.500 --> 00:47:53.400 but you would like to address, 00:47:53.400 --> 00:47:57.900 you are welcome to send it to sanctuary.education@NOAA gov 00:47:58.460 --> 00:48:02.080 - I think there is one-- sorry, Claire, but I think, yes. 00:48:03.680 --> 00:48:05.080 But I can't read the full thing. 00:48:07.000 --> 00:48:08.360 Hold on, I'll pop out and... 00:48:10.020 --> 00:48:14.160 Okay, you said that the-- okay, so this is gonna be for you, professor. 00:48:14.160 --> 00:48:20.360 You said the one foot protrusions in the sinkhole are filled with methane. 00:48:20.360 --> 00:48:23.840 If you were to cut into them would the structure collapse? 00:48:23.840 --> 00:48:25.780 Or is it solid? This is the question. 00:48:25.780 --> 00:48:29.120 - Yes. No, it's dead, not solid, at all. 00:48:29.120 --> 00:48:32.200 It's just like a lose carpet that's been buoyed up. 00:48:32.200 --> 00:48:39.820 It's floating being floated by these bouyant gases which are fermentative gases in the arc 00:48:39.820 --> 00:48:41.840 carbons with sediment underneath. 00:48:41.840 --> 00:48:44.320 So, it's mostly methane and hydrogen sulfide. 00:48:44.320 --> 00:48:48.320 In fact, we have sampled them by just putting an nee--,you know, needle with the syringe and 00:48:48.320 --> 00:48:51.660 pulling it out and then sending it to a gas chromatograph. 00:48:51.660 --> 00:48:57.380 All right. So, during the late part of the growing season there's still some control. 00:48:57.380 --> 00:49:04.520 So like they start growing in April and during like late August/September, this peak of production, 00:49:04.520 --> 00:49:09.160 these gasses build up and they're, actually, sometimes even can get torn away. 00:49:09.640 --> 00:49:12.800 And they float on the top, in the surface. 00:49:12.800 --> 00:49:15.720 And we believe that's a natural part of the lifecycle. 00:49:15.720 --> 00:49:21.540 They get torn away, float and bob around and end up in a beach 00:49:21.540 --> 00:49:26.320 and then they dry up and get airlifted and go places. 00:49:26.320 --> 00:49:29.660 And they can fall in places like Antarctica. 00:49:29.660 --> 00:49:32.900 Populate a whole new ecosystem there. 00:49:32.900 --> 00:49:41.960 I know this may seem like just theory, but the atmospheric transport does take a lot of things. 00:49:41.960 --> 00:49:48.460 There's live microbes floating up in the atmosphere and making from one place to another. 00:49:48.460 --> 00:49:54.240 So, yeah, very good question. Yeah there you see we see torn patches all the time 00:49:54.240 --> 00:49:56.280 and sometimes, even while we are working there, 00:49:56.280 --> 00:50:04.500 you can have have small patches of mats, 00:50:04.500 --> 00:50:08.640 but bubbles of gas is still inside, bobbing away in the waves. 00:50:09.820 --> 00:50:10.900 - Oh yeah, that is great question. 00:50:10.900 --> 00:50:14.100 Actually, we have a few more that have come in since I started the wrap-up. 00:50:14.100 --> 00:50:16.000 So we have time to get to these. 00:50:16.580 --> 00:50:17.460 So... 00:50:20.320 --> 00:50:25.080 Probe be sent to one of the water planets and could it explore underwater areas 00:50:25.080 --> 00:50:27.700 and somehow send information back to us? 00:50:27.700 --> 00:50:31.920 So, talking about the extraterrestrial life on other planets is that 00:50:32.640 --> 00:50:37.580 something that either NASA or other groups are considering or already have done or plan to do? 00:50:37.580 --> 00:50:41.580 - Yeah, it's definitely considering because I was part of an NASA workshop 00:50:41.580 --> 00:50:47.640 on like imaging for life detection elsewhere in extraterrestrial waters. 00:50:47.640 --> 00:50:57.680 And part of the plan with the Europa is to actually send send a like an ROV autonomous vehicle 00:50:57.680 --> 00:51:03.040 down there to explore and send imageries and data back to us. 00:51:03.040 --> 00:51:07.280 So, how feasible all this will be is it is a big question. 00:51:07.280 --> 00:51:13.540 But we're in in the experimental stages of these sorts of explorations jumped. 00:51:13.540 --> 00:51:18.520 So, yeah. Definitely those are in the plans in the next five to ten years. 00:51:18.520 --> 00:51:27.740 They will see preliminary results of what has been it some of these seas that are in our own solar system. 00:51:29.800 --> 00:51:32.340 - Excellent. And another question, here: 00:51:32.340 --> 00:51:38.360 How do Lake Huron sinkholes compare to sinkholes and other bodies of fresh water in the world? 00:51:39.520 --> 00:51:43.980 - Really, there's very little known about underwater sinkholes 00:51:43.980 --> 00:51:47.740 because just because to find them is so difficult. 00:51:47.740 --> 00:51:49.640 It's mostly luck. 00:51:49.640 --> 00:51:52.100 A lot of sometimes a lot of hard work 00:51:52.100 --> 00:51:57.480 because they're usually such a small signature in a large body of water. 00:51:57.480 --> 00:51:59.940 Like the Lake Huron is like in the ocean 00:51:59.940 --> 00:52:09.360 and here you have table size and room size and at the most football-field-sized sinkholes. 00:52:09.360 --> 00:52:11.960 And they'll leave no surface signature. 00:52:11.960 --> 00:52:16.420 The groundwater that's coming into them is dense because it's very salty. 00:52:16.420 --> 00:52:20.840 Like, remember, said be they washed room ancient marine evaporates 00:52:20.840 --> 00:52:23.720 carry all those chlorides and sulfates with them. 00:52:23.720 --> 00:52:26.020 So it's dance and it hugs the body. 00:52:26.020 --> 00:52:34.020 In a way that's what I allows them to bathe us ecosystem so the mats can flourish. 00:52:34.020 --> 00:52:36.680 You know, because that's where the groundwater is their nutrition. 00:52:36.680 --> 00:52:40.180 But on the other hand, there's hardly any surface signature. 00:52:40.180 --> 00:52:46.020 So, this layer of one meter of ground water in a hundred meter water column is 00:52:46.020 --> 00:52:47.940 almost impossible to detect. 00:52:47.940 --> 00:52:53.040 From the surface, especially when these ecosystems are very tiny. 00:52:54.440 --> 00:52:58.320 So, that's the major main a major problem, yeah. 00:52:58.320 --> 00:53:04.240 So these were all challenge discoveries, like I said, some of them were associated with archaeology 00:53:04.240 --> 00:53:05.600 looking for shipwrecks. 00:53:05.600 --> 00:53:10.040 And the ROVs ran into hurdles of high conductivity water. 00:53:10.040 --> 00:53:16.020 And then, we, as biologists and chemists, went in and said oh look high conductivity water. 00:53:16.020 --> 00:53:18.200 That's water with very different chemistry. 00:53:18.200 --> 00:53:24.920 So, water with different chemistry's around maybe it's feeling a different type of life. 00:53:24.920 --> 00:53:26.220 Let's go take a look. 00:53:26.220 --> 00:53:28.720 And those are the that kind of follow up 00:53:28.720 --> 00:53:33.300 with and chance discoveries was what led to some of these findings. 00:53:37.040 --> 00:53:41.140 But, we think they are all over the lower Great Lakes, for example. 00:53:41.140 --> 00:53:48.000 Just because the karst caused aquifers that underlay all these lower Great Lakes 00:53:48.000 --> 00:53:50.120 which are pretty expensive. 00:53:50.120 --> 00:53:56.220 In fact, there are known reports of these by divers in in Ontario and Lake Erie 00:53:56.220 --> 00:53:59.380 and other parts of Lake Huron, as well. 00:54:00.020 --> 00:54:04.920 So they may be numerous, but not well studied or recorded. 00:54:06.260 --> 00:54:11.720 - When I think you can consider getting additional funds with that, you kind of just grazed by it. 00:54:11.720 --> 00:54:15.040 But that these sinkholes are carbon sinks. 00:54:15.040 --> 00:54:20.760 So when you think about climate change and our carbon emissions, 00:54:20.760 --> 00:54:25.780 You know, we are finding that the ocean and then specific areas like mangroves and eel grass 00:54:25.780 --> 00:54:29.920 sea beds and now these sinkholes are big sinks for carbon. 00:54:30.960 --> 00:54:35.800 - Very good point. Other than their value as biodiversity hotspots. 00:54:35.800 --> 00:54:39.500 I mean things that we don't know adding to the biodiversity of the life. 00:54:39.500 --> 00:54:41.640 And also of the physiological potential. 00:54:41.640 --> 00:54:45.640 Because they can do things that most other organisms cannot do. 00:54:45.640 --> 00:54:49.000 that for its functional versatility for the ecosystem. 00:54:49.000 --> 00:54:55.980 This attribute of theirs that they are one of the best carbon barriers is incredible. 00:54:55.980 --> 00:55:04.080 I mean if they were you-- they could exist in more aerobic and valuated waters 00:55:04.080 --> 00:55:13.720 we could industrially culture them or something and maybe they will help us out 00:55:13.720 --> 00:55:16.520 in carbon sequestration. Yeah, that's a very good point. 00:55:16.520 --> 00:55:22.280 Yeah. But as of now, I'm hesitant to put out my ship there. 00:55:22.280 --> 00:55:25.320 Yeah, but it's the potential that definitely exists. 00:55:26.180 --> 00:55:29.600 - So I'll take this one last question and then we'll continue the wrap-up. 00:55:29.600 --> 00:55:35.940 Are there ocean sinkholes? and if so are they different than submarine trenches? 00:55:36.980 --> 00:55:42.220 There are oceans sinkholes called pop marks all over, for example, the Gulf of Mexico. 00:55:42.220 --> 00:55:44.980 And they they're usually full of brine. 00:55:44.980 --> 00:55:51.420 And some of them also can-- which has more sulfur coming out 00:55:51.420 --> 00:55:54.960 can have these sulfur oxidizing bacteria around them. 00:55:54.960 --> 00:55:59.420 In fact, any sulfur losing system, 00:55:59.420 --> 00:56:05.820 like including the shallower areas of Yellowstone Lake, in the Yellowstone National Park, 00:56:05.820 --> 00:56:08.360 have the same communities, yeah. 00:56:08.360 --> 00:56:12.760 But, in the shallow sunlit areas, you can have this vibrant cyanobacteria growing. 00:56:12.760 --> 00:56:21.220 But if it's dark, you have this sul-- chemosynthetic dark loving white mats 00:56:21.220 --> 00:56:26.180 which are bacteria and archaea which are even more ancient group of organisms 00:56:27.160 --> 00:56:30.240 working together to make the best of the elements 00:56:30.240 --> 00:56:34.580 that are there in their respective extreme environments. 00:56:37.620 --> 00:56:39.980 We think they are, like I said, they are everywhere, 00:56:39.980 --> 00:56:43.840 but they're in refugia now in low oxygen, high sulfur. 00:56:43.840 --> 00:56:49.360 Here and there. hiding hiding in our midst in our midst. Yeah. 00:56:50.640 --> 00:56:53.920 - Excellent. Thank you for answering those additional questions. 00:56:53.920 --> 00:56:57.120 I will continue on, here. 00:56:57.120 --> 00:57:03.240 So, all attendees that participate actually will get a certificate of attendance. 00:57:03.240 --> 00:57:08.360 This is good for one contact hour of professional development. 00:57:08.860 --> 00:57:09.740 And... 00:57:11.420 --> 00:57:12.840 Okay, whoops. 00:57:12.840 --> 00:57:18.340 Let me just tell you about some of our exciting webinars that are coming up in 2020. 00:57:18.340 --> 00:57:20.820 In January, we have a-- 00:57:24.720 --> 00:57:26.120 learning how-- 00:57:30.340 --> 00:57:33.580 our role as climate communicators 00:57:33.580 --> 00:57:38.140 and just how we address these challenges in our sanctuaries 00:57:38.140 --> 00:57:40.160 and managing them for this changing climate. 00:57:40.160 --> 00:57:45.240 We do have a great acoustic webinar that will be scheduled in February, 00:57:45.240 --> 00:57:48.240 we just don't quite have the details available online, yet. 00:57:48.240 --> 00:57:54.280 But then we have one, in March, that will talk about our NOAA Ocean Guardian school program. 00:57:54.280 --> 00:57:59.000 And this is offered in a variety of states around the country. 00:57:59.000 --> 00:58:02.960 And you can find out how your school can potentially participate 00:58:02.960 --> 00:58:06.720 in making a commitment to environmental protection and conservation, 00:58:06.720 --> 00:58:12.520 and get some some mini grant funds up to four thousand dollars to support your work! 00:58:12.520 --> 00:58:17.880 So, most of our series is being built out for the 2020 year, 00:58:17.880 --> 00:58:21.460 but several of these webinars are already available online. 00:58:21.460 --> 00:58:27.880 A link to our current list of webinars will be included in the email that you get as a wrap-up. 00:58:27.880 --> 00:58:32.040 So with that, I would like to conclude today's webinar 00:58:32.040 --> 00:58:36.120 and thank you very much, Stephanie, for being with us, today, 00:58:36.120 --> 00:58:38.920 to talk about Thunder Bay and to introduce our host. 00:58:38.920 --> 00:58:45.080 And Bopi, thank you so much for being available this evening to give this live presentation 00:58:45.080 --> 00:58:46.420 And with that, 00:58:47.060 --> 00:58:49.800 Yeah, with that, it concludes today's webinar.Thank you.