Melody Lindsay, PhD

Education

A.B. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, 2013

Ph.D. Microbiology, Montana State University, 2019

Research Interests

My research interests in geomicrobiology are focused on microbial dynamics, metabolisms, and activity rates of microbial communities in low-biomass and anoxic ecosystems. I use novel, state of the art techniques to generate and analyze genomic and phenomic information of microbial community diversity and function within an evolutionary framework, integrated with geochemical and physical aspects in "extreme" environments.

My funded work centers these ecosystems, where ongoing research aims to quantify respiration of single cells in the deep biosphere (including sediment-hosted ecosystems), detect microbial activity, and reveal genomic information. I apply my methods and findings to astrobiology to better understand how life on Earth functions, and how life might function on other ocean worlds.

Current Research Projects

Life detection technologies in Ocean World ecosystems

This research aims to demonstrate new microbial life detection technologies in a low biomass Ocean World analog environment and to document the range of cellular phenotypes in this low energy ecosystem. Using new technologies demonstrated to link genomes-with-phenomes, this work will uncover the metabolic abilities and rates of respiration employed by microbial cells in the hot, anoxic, deep crustal subsurface of the eastern flank of the Juan de Fuca Ridge.

Ultra-deep subseafloor sediment and crust

Deep marine sediment and crust are some of the largest biomes by volume and host a substantial fraction of global biomass (Bacteria and Archaea), despite low biomass concentrations which can preclude detailed biological studies. Scientific ocean drilling provides a window into these vast subsurface biospheres, providing geomicrobiology samples collected from 1,000 meters below seafloor. This research leverages new technologies to understand microbial community ecology and evolutionary processes that govern life that lives in these vast subsurface biospheres.

Gulf of Maine sediment microbiology

The microbiology in the sediments of our own Gulf of Maine backyard can reveal biodiversity and physiological abilities never before studied. This research investigates coastal sediment microbial communities rich in biodiversity, the encoded (genomes) and functional (phenomes) metabolic abilities of these cells, and the biogeochemical cycling of chemicals and nutrients in this ecosystem.