Margaret CrammPhD studentEmail: m.a.cramm@qmul.ac.ukProfilePublicationsDisseminationProfileResearch interests: extremophilic bacteria, arctic microbiology, astrobiology, biogeochemical cycles, climate change Project title: How does permafrost thaw affect microbial activity and function in Arctic soil? The Arctic is currently experiencing unprecedented change to its climate, including dramatic increases in temperature intensified by the Polar amplification effect. Rapid thawing of Arctic permafrost is expected due to rising temperatures, even under the most ambitious climate mitigation strategies currently being considered. As permafrost thaws, soil organic carbon becomes vulnerable to microbial decomposition—resulting in large and variable fluxes in greenhouse gases (GHGs), including CO2 and CH4, to the atmosphere—further contributing to global temperature rise. The overarching aim of this study is to understand the effect of permafrost thaw on microbial community activity and function, in order to improve predictions of the future fate of soil organic carbon in Arctic permafrost. This will be achieved by combining specialized -omics approaches and geochemical techniques to detect and measure microbial activity in thawing permafrost. Supervisors James Bradley, QMULKate Heppell, QMULAnne Jungblut, Natural History Museum Academic background MSc, Environmental Microbiology, University of CalgaryBSc, Cellular, Molecular, and Microbial Biology, University of Calgary Funding QMUL Principal StudentshipResearchPublicationsSelected publications Cramm, M.A., Chakraborty, A., Li, C., Ruff, S.E., Jørgensen, B.B., Hubert, C.R.J. (2019). Freezing Tolerance of Thermophilic Bacterial Endospores in Marine Sediments. Frontiers in Microbiology. 10: 945DisseminationSelected conference presentations Cramm, M., Manning, C., Neves, B., Hayes, V., Radović, J. R., Chakraborty, A., Archambault, P., Auger, V., Chen, J., Bautista, M., Bhatnagar, S., Clark, R., Izett, R., Jaggi, A., Li, C., Edinger, E., Lockhart, P., McCullock, R., Mort, A., Cyr-Parent, A., Polcwiartek, K., Zheng, Z., Stern, G., Oldenburg, T. B. P., Tortell, P., Hubert, C. R. J. (2019). Microbial methane biofilter mitigates natural greenhouse gas emissions in Canada’s Arctic. ArcticNet Annual Scientific Meeting. Cramm, M., Hubert, C. (2016) Dispersal of thermophilic endospore-forming bacteria in North Atlantic marine sediments over large geographic distances and geologic timescales. 16th International Symposium on Microbial Ecology.