ALBERT

Description: We present the Aquatic Symbiosis Genomics Project, a global collaboration to generate high quality genome sequences for a wide range of eukaryotes and their microbial symbionts. Launched under the Symbiosis in Aquatic Systems Initiative of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the ASG Project brings together researchers from across the globe who hope to use these reference genomes to augment and extend their analyses of the dynamics, mechanisms and environmental importance of symbiosis. Applying large-scale, high-throughput sequencing and assembly technologies, the ASG collaboration will assemble and annotate the genomes of 500 symbiotic organisms – both the “hosts” and the microbial symbionts with which they associate. These data will be released openly to benefit all who work on symbiosis, from conservation geneticists to those interested in the origin of the eukaryotic cell.

Description: © The Author(s), 2021. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Leray, M., Wilkins, L. G. E., Apprill, A., Bik, H. M., Clever, F., Connolly, S. R., De Leon, M. E., Duffy, J. E., Ezzat, L., Gignoux-Wolfsohn, S., Herre, E. A., Kaye, J. Z., Kline, D. I., Kueneman, J. G., McCormick, M. K., McMillan, W. O., O’Dea, A., Pereira, T. J., Petersen, J. M., Petticord, D. F., Torchin, M. E., Thurber, R. V., Videvall, E., Wcislo, W. T., Yuen, B., Eisen, J. A. . Natural experiments and long-term monitoring are critical to understand and predict marine host-microbe ecology and evolution. Plos Biology, 19(8), (2021): e3001322, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001322.

Description: Marine multicellular organisms host a diverse collection of bacteria, archaea, microbial eukaryotes, and viruses that form their microbiome. Such host-associated microbes can significantly influence the host’s physiological capacities; however, the identity and functional role(s) of key members of the microbiome (“core microbiome”) in most marine hosts coexisting in natural settings remain obscure. Also unclear is how dynamic interactions between hosts and the immense standing pool of microbial genetic variation will affect marine ecosystems’ capacity to adjust to environmental changes. Here, we argue that significantly advancing our understanding of how host-associated microbes shape marine hosts’ plastic and adaptive responses to environmental change requires (i) recognizing that individual host–microbe systems do not exist in an ecological or evolutionary vacuum and (ii) expanding the field toward long-term, multidisciplinary research on entire communities of hosts and microbes. Natural experiments, such as time-calibrated geological events associated with well-characterized environmental gradients, provide unique ecological and evolutionary contexts to address this challenge. We focus here particularly on mutualistic interactions between hosts and microbes, but note that many of the same lessons and approaches would apply to other types of interactions.

Description: Financial support for the workshop was provided by grant GBMF5603 (https://doi.org/10.37807/GBMF5603) from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (W.T. Wcislo, J.A. Eisen, co-PIs), and additional funding from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the Office of the Provost of the Smithsonian Institution (W.T. Wcislo, J.P. Meganigal, and R.C. Fleischer, co-PIs). JP was supported by a WWTF VRG Grant and the ERC Starting Grant 'EvoLucin'. LGEW has received funding from the European Union’s Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020 (2014-2020) under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 101025649. AO was supported by the Sistema Nacional de Investigadores (SENACYT, Panamá). A. Apprill was supported by NSF award OCE-1938147. D.I. Kline, M. Leray, S.R. Connolly, and M.E. Torchin were supported by a Rohr Family Foundation grant for the Rohr Reef Resilience Project, for which this is contribution #2. This is contribution #85 from the Smithsonian’s MarineGEO and Tennenbaum Marine Observatories Network. T

Description: Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2021. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth 126(10),(2021): e2021JB022228, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JB022228.

Description: Seafloor massive sulfide deposits form in remote environments, and the assessment of deposit size and composition through drilling is technically challenging and expensive. To aid the evaluation of the resource potential of seafloor massive sulfide deposits, three-dimensional inverse modeling of geophysical potential field data (magnetic and gravity) collected near the seafloor can be carried out to further enhance geologic models interpolated from sparse drilling. Here, we present inverse modeling results of magnetic and gravity data collected from the active mound at the Trans-Atlantic Geotraverse hydrothermal vent field, located at 26°08′N on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, using autonomous underwater vehicle and submersible surveying. Both minimum-structure and surface geometry inverse modeling methods were utilized. Through deposit-scale magnetic modeling, the outer extent of a chloritized alteration zone within the basalt host rock below the mound was resolved, providing an indication of the angle of the rising hydrothermal fluid and the depth and volume of seawater/hydrothermal mixing zone. The thickness of the massive sulfide mound was determined by modeling the gravity data, enabling the tonnage of the mound to be estimated at 2.17 ± 0.44 Mt through this geophysics-based, noninvasive approach.

Description: The authors would like to thank the captain, crew, and scientific team from the 2016 R/V Meteor M127 and 1994 R/V Yokosuka MODE'94 cruises for all their work collecting the data modeled in this study. C. Galley is funded through an NSERC Discovery Grant and Memorial University's School of Graduate Studies Grant.

Description: 2022-03-29

Description: poster

Description: The Alpine mountains in central Europe are characterized by a heterogeneous crust accumulating different tectonic units and blocks in close proximity to sedimentary foreland basins. Centroid moment tensor inversion provides insight into the faulting mechanisms of earthquakes and related tectonic processes but is significantly aggravated in such an environment. Thanks to the dense AlpArray seismic network and our flexible bootstrap-based inversion tool Grond, we are able to test different setups with respect to the uncertainties of the obtained moment tensors and centroid locations. We evaluate the influence of frequency bands, azimuthal gaps, input data types, and distance ranges and study the occurrence and reliability of non-double-couple (DC) components. We infer that for most earthquakes (Mw≥3.3) a combination of time domain full waveforms and frequency domain amplitude spectra in a frequency band of 0.02–0.07 Hz is suitable. Relying on the results of our methodological tests, we perform deviatoric moment tensor (MT) inversions for events with Mw〉3.0. Here, we present 75 solutions for earthquakes between January 2016 and December 2019 and analyze our results in the seismotectonic context of historical earthquakes, seismic activity of the last 3 decades, and GNSS deformation data. We study regions of comparably high seismic activity during the last decades, namely the Western Alps, the region around Lake Garda, and the eastern Southern Alps, as well as clusters further from the study region, i.e., in the northern Dinarides and the Apennines. Seismicity is particularly low in the Eastern Alps and in parts of the Central Alps. We apply a clustering algorithm to focal mechanisms, considering additional mechanisms from existing catalogs. Related to the N–S compressional regime, E–W-to-ENE–WSW-striking thrust faulting is mainly observed in the Friuli area in the eastern Southern Alps. Strike-slip faulting with a similarly oriented pressure axis is observed along the northern margin of the Central Alps and in the northern Dinarides. NW–SE-striking normal faulting is observed in the NW Alps, showing a similar strike direction to normal faulting earthquakes in the Apennines. Both our centroid depths and hypocentral depths in existing catalogs indicate that Alpine seismicity is predominantly very shallow; about 80 % of the studied events have depths shallower than 10 km.

Description: Hydraulic fracturing is performed to enhance rock permeability, e.g. in the frame of geothermal energy production or shale gas exploitation, and can potentially trigger induced seismicity. The tracking of increased permeabilities and the fracturing extent is often based on the microseismic event distribution within the stimulated rock volume, but it is debated whether the microseismic activity adequately depicts the fracture formation. We are able to record tilt signals that appear as long-period transients (urn:x-wiley:21699313:media:jgrb55397:jgrb55397-math-0001180 s) on two broadband seismometers installed close (17-72 m) to newly formed, meter-scale hydraulic fractures. With this observation we can overcome the limitations of the microseismic monitoring alone and verify the fracture mapping. Our analysis for the first time combines a catalog of previously analysed acoustic emissions (AE durations of 20 ms), indirectly mapping the fractures, with unique tilt signals, that provide independent, direct insights into the deformation of the rock. The analysis allows to identify different phases of the fracturing process including the (re-)opening, growth and aftergrowth of fractures. Further, it helps to differentiate between the formation of complex fracture networks and single macro-fractures, and it validates the AE fracture mapping. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of the fracturing processes, which may help to reduce fluid-injection-induced seismicity and validate efficient fracture formation.

Description: The magnetospheric physics research community uses a broad array of quantitative data-model comparison methods (metrics) when conducting their research investigations. It is often the case, though, that any particular study will only use one or two metrics, with the two most common being Pearson correlation coefficient and root mean square error (RMSE). Because metrics are designed to test a specific aspect of the data-model relationship, limiting the comparison to only one or two metrics reduces the physical insights that can be gleaned from the analysis, restricting the possible findings from modeling studies. Additional physical insights can be obtained when many types of metrics are applied. We organize metrics into two primary groups: 1) fit performance metrics, often based on the data-model value difference; and 2) event detection metrics, which use a discrete event classification of data and model values determined by a specified threshold. In addition to these groups, there are several major categories of metrics based on the aspect of the data-model relationship that the metric assesses: 1) accuracy; 2) bias; 3) precision; 4) association; 5) and extremes. Another category is skill, which is a measure of any of these metrics against the performance of a reference model. These can be applied to a subset of either the data or the model values, known as reliability and discrimination assessments. In the context of magnetospheric physics examples, we discuss best practices for choosing metrics for particular studies.

Description: Centroid moment tensor inversion can provide insight into ongoing tectonic processes and active faults. In the Alpine mountains (central Europe), challenges result from low signal-to-noise ratios of earthquakes with small to moderate magnitudes and complex wave propagation effects through the heterogeneous crustal structure of the mountain belt. In this thesis, I make use of the temporary installation of the dense AlpArray seismic network (AASN) to establish a work flow to study seismic source processes and enhance the knowledge of the Alpine seismicity. The cumulative thesis comprises four publications on the topics of large seismic networks, seismic source processes in the Alps, their link to tectonics and stress field, and the inclusion of small magnitude earthquakes into studies of active faults. Dealing with hundreds of stations of the dense AASN requires the automated assessment of data and metadata quality. I developed the open source toolbox AutoStatsQ to perform an automated data quality control. Its first application to the AlpArray seismic network has revealed significant errors of amplitude gains and sensor orientations. A second application of the orientation test to the Turkish KOERI network, based on Rayleigh wave polarization, further illustrated the potential in comparison to a P wave polarization method. Taking advantage of the gain and orientation results of the AASN, I tested different inversion settings and input data types to approach the specific challenges of centroid moment tensor (CMT) inversions in the Alps. A comparative study was carried out to define the best fitting procedures. The application to 4 years of seismicity in the Alps (2016-2019) substantially enhanced the amount of moment tensor solutions in the region. We provide a list of moment tensors solutions down to magnitude Mw 3.1. Spatial patterns of typical focal mechanisms were analyzed in the seismotectonic context, by comparing them to long-term seismicity, historical earthquakes and observations of strain rates. Additionally, we use our MT solutions to investigate stress regimes and orientations along the Alpine chain. Finally, I addressed the challenge of including smaller magnitude events into the study of active faults and source processes. The open-source toolbox Clusty was developed for the clustering of earthquakes based on waveforms recorded across a network of seismic stations. The similarity of waveforms reflects both, the location and the similarity of source mechanisms. Therefore the clustering bears the opportunity to identify earthquakes of similar faulting styles, even when centroid moment tensor inversion is not possible due to low signal-to-noise ratios of surface waves or oversimplified velocity models. The toolbox is described through an application to the Zakynthos 2018 aftershock sequence and I subsequently discuss its potential application to weak earthquakes (Mw〈3.1) in the Alps.

Description: Die Erforschung der Bruchmechanismen von Erdbeben in den Alpen bietet Einblicke in aktuelle tektonische Prozesse. Typischerweise niedrige bis mittlere Erdbebenmagnituden und die heterogene Krustenstruktur des alpinischen Gebirges erschweren die zu dieser Erforschung durchgeführten Momententensorinversionen. In dieser Dissertation stelle ich einen Arbeitsablauf vor, mit dem ich die Bruchprozesse von Erdbeben zwischen 2016 und 2019 studiert habe. Datengrundlage bildet dabei das temporäre AlpArray Netzwerk (AASN - AlpArray seismic network). Die kumulative Dissertation besteht aus vier Publikationen, die sich einerseits mit den Möglichkeiten und Herausforderungen von großen seismischen Netzwerken und andererseits mit der Erforschung der Bruchprozesse beschäftigen. Dabei wird sowohl auf die Verbindung von den Herdmechanismen und anderen Informationen wie Seismizität, Tektonik und Spannungsfeld eingegangen, als auch untersucht, wie kleinere Erdbeben unser Wissen erweitern können. Die Nutzung der großen Anzahl von Sensoren des AASN erfordert eine sorgfältige Kontrolle von Wellenformdaten und Stations-Metadaten. Um diese aufwändige Aufgabe weitmöglichst zu automatisieren, habe ich die open source toolbox AutoStatsQ entwickelt. Die Verwendung von AutoStatsQ zur Überprüfung des AASN zeigte mehrere signifikante Fehler in den Wellenform-Amplituden und in den Orientierungen der Horizontalkomponenten der Sensoren. Bei einer zweiten Anwendung des Orientierungstests von AutoStatsQ auf das türkische KOERI Netzwerk zeigten sich ebenfalls zahlreiche fehlerhaft orientierte Sensoren. Ein Vergleich mit einer zweiten Methode, basierend auf P-Wellen anstatt von Rayleigh-Wellen, zeigt weitestgehend übereinstimmende Ergebnisse. Basierend auf der Datenqualitätsstudie des AASN werden in der dritten Publikation systematisch verschiedene Einstellungen (z.B. Frequenzbänder, Datentypen, Azimuthale Abdeckung) für Momententensorinversionen getestet und vergleichen. Anschließend wurden Bruchprozesse von Erdbeben zwischen 2016 und 2019 mit Magnituden ab Mw 3.1 analysiert. Zur Interpretation der Ergebnisse im seismotektonischen Zusammenhang werden zusätzlich ältere Momententensorlösungen, Seismizitätskataloge ab 1970, historische Erdbeben und Deformation basierend auf Satellitendaten betrachtet. Aufgrund des Signal-Rausch-Verhältnisses von Oberflächenwellen müssten im Falle von Erdbeben mit kleineren Magnituden (Mw〈3.1) höherfrequentere Raumwellen genutzt werden. Je höher der Frequenzbereich, desto größer sind die Einflüsse von Heterogenitäten entlang der Laufwege, sodass einfache 1-D Geschwindigkeitsmodelle nicht ausreichen. Um trotzdem kleinere Erdbeben in die Studien von aktiven Störungen einzubeziehen, haben wir die open-source toolbox Clusty entwickelt. Diese nutzt die Ähnlichkeit von Wellenformen in einem seismischen Netzwerk, um Erdbeben zu gruppieren. Die Ähnlichkeit von Wellenformen zweier Erdbeben über ein Netzwerk resultiert dabei sowohl aus der Ähnlichkeit der Herdmechanismen als auch aus der Lokation der Beben. Der Ketten-ähnliche clustering Ansatz ermöglicht es dabei, graduelle Wellenform-Unterschiede aufgrund von Lokationsänderungen entlang einer Störungszone zu berücksichtigen. Das clustering bietet folglich die Möglichkeit, Beben mit ähnlichen Herdmechanismen zu identifizieren und somit Störungszonen nachzuzeichnen. Die toolbox wird in der vierten Publikation anhand einer Anwendung auf die Nachbebensequenz des Zakynthos Bebens von 2018 beschrieben. Anschließend daran diskutiere ich, wie eine Anwendung auf die Alpen unsere Studien der Bruchprozesse und aktiven Störungen erweitern kann.