Adam Solon joins the lab as a postdoc in soil microbial ecology. He will be  investigating seasonal processes shaping the development of Arctic soils. Welcome Adam!

James is in Svalbard with collaborators Ian Stevens (Aarhus University), Eva Doting (U Penn) and Arwyn Edwards (Aberystwyth University) sampling ice and snow from various glaciers in Kongsfjord to measure cell viability and activity at the beginning of the polar night - as part of INTERACT-funded WAVES2 and NERC-funded Cryo365 projects. 

Laura is currently in Australia visiting Monash University in Melbourne, to work with collaborators Chris Greening and Rachael Lappan, where she is carrying out a series of experiments to measure trace gas consumption in cryoconite sediment.

The Bradley lab are in Cambridge for the UK Arctic Science Conference, with a busy series of presentations including a talk from Amy and posters from Zhou, Sonia, Margaret, Laura and James.

James has been awarded an ERC Starting Grant for his project SIESTA - which will explore microbial dormancy as an ecological and biogeochemical regulator on Earth. The project will start in 2024. Several PhD and postdoc positions in experimental geomicrobiology and biogeochemical modelling will be advertised soon.

James co-authors a new paper in Nature, which looks at the role of iron and manganese in the preservation of organic carbon in marine sediments. 
Led by Oliver Moore at Leeds University, we find that the polymerisation of organic carbon in association with Fe & Mn could protect organic carbon over million-year timescales.

Read the open-access paper here:
Moore O, Curti L, Woulds C, Bradley J, Mills B, Homoky W, Xiao K, Babakhani P, Bray A , Fisher Ben, Kazemian M, Kaulich B, Dale A, Peacock C. Long-term organic carbon preservation enhanced by iron and manganese. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06325-9

Congratulations to Bradley lab undergrad Anastasia Hambi who graduated with a 1st class BSc in Environmental Science from QMUL, and won TWO prizes (best dissertation, excellence in climate and environmental change) for her outstanding research project on Svalbard soils!

James and Laura are in Arizona, USA, for the first 'all-hands' kick-off meeting for the HFSP-funded aerobiology project. They are sampling biological aerosols from a site near to Flagstaff, Arizona, together with other members of the 'AIR' (Aerobiology is real?) team: Jackie Goordial, Elisse Magnuson and Jordan Thakar from the University of Guelph, Rachael Lappan from Melbourne University, and Elizabeth Trembath-Reichert, Alexi Besser and Jon Zaloumis from Arizona State University.

We are seeking a 24-month PDRA to work on the HFSP project ‘The atmosphere: a living, breathing ecosystem?’. You will develop theoretical modelling approaches (including bioenergetics calculations, power-based ecosystem modelling) to investigate the potential habitability and ecological structure and function of microbial communities in the atmosphere. Your initial focus will be to model the habitability and ecological processes occurring in Earth's atmosphere, and then to translate the tools and knowledge generated to the atmosphere of other planetary bodies or exoplanets.
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Location: London, UK
Fixed term: 24 months (extension subject to available funds)
Closing date: 25 August 2023
Contact: Dr James Bradley (james.bradley@qmul.ac.uk)
Apply: ​https://www.qmul.ac.uk/jobs/vacancies/items/8632.html