Please see this link for additional information and to apply:https://usm.csod.com/ats/careersite/JobDetails.aspx?id=3151&site=1

This is a full time job in the Hamdan Lab at the University of Southern Mississippi’s Gulf Coast Research Laboratory in Ocean Springs, MS.

Job Summary 
The Hamdan Lab at the University of Southern Mississippi seeks a Postdoctoral Research Scientist to support a 3-year project funded by NOAA’s Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute. This project will contribute to multidisciplinary investigation of benthic microbial communities in the Gulf of Mexico. Project work will contribute to characterizing the seafloor in areas potentially inured by the Deepwater Horizon spill. The study investigates sediment microbiomes using culture-independent techniques to investigate community composition, alpha and beta diversity and metabolic potential. These data will contribute to monitoring ecosystem state and trajectory in sediment. The position will oversee the day-to-day management of this research project, in consultation with the principal investigator, and lead research efforts in collaboration with external scientists coordinating analysis of geochemical and macrofaunal data sets. Data management, laboratory analyses, data synthesis, publication of results in peer-reviewed journals and management of a project budget will be carried out as part of this position. Individuals with experience with microbiology and biogeochemistry, with specific knowledge and molecular biological techniques (DNA extraction, amplification, sequencing) are encouraged to apply. Experience and proficiency in bioinformatics and statistical analysis are desired. All applications must be submitted through the USM career site. Please contact Leila Hamdan (Leila.hamdan@usm.edu) with specific questions.

 Primary Duties and Responsibilities  

1.  Develop experimental design and analyses to study potentially oil-impacted sediment microbiomes and metagenomes to characterize bacterial, archaeal, and fungal communities.
2. Develop expertise in deep-sea sediment microbial communities and contribute new knowledge and ideas to this area of research.
3. Develop and apply bioinformatics tools and approaches to identify communities, relevant taxa and associations. Learn and apply machine learning tools to datasets generated during the study.
4. Participate in planning and executing field work on board USM’s Research Vessel Point Sur, and other oceanographic research vessels during 2 -4 week field campaigns. 
5. Contribute to written and oral communication, including peer-reviewed manuscripts, blog posts, outreach through social media, and the public.
6. Archives data and maintains databases, and contributes to budget management.
7. Participate in student mentoring.
8. Perform other duties as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications A Ph.D. from an accredited college or university in coastal or marine sciences, microbiology, geomicrobiology, biogeochemistry or similar field.  

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities 

• Proficiency in laboratory practice, experimental design, laboratory safety procedures
• A high level of computer literacy
• Ability to read and interpret safety rules, operating and maintenance instructions, and procedure manuals
• Excellent written and oral communication skills and ability and interest in communicating with diverse groups
• Ability to write reports, correspondence, and peer-reviewed manuscripts 
• Ability and interest in contributing to outreach activities.
• Ability to contribute to a positive work environment built on trust and transparency that values different perspectives and backgrounds

Preferred Qualifications  Experience with analytical laboratory methods, experience with molecular biology methods, proficiency in bioinformatics and statistical analysis.

About The University of Southern Mississippi
The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) is a comprehensive public research institution delivering transformative programs on campuses in Hattiesburg and Long Beach, at teaching and research sites across the Mississippi Gulf Coast, as well as online. Founded in 1910, USM is one of only 131 universities in the nation to earn the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education’s “R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity” designation, and its robust research enterprise includes experts in ocean science and engineering, polymer science and engineering, and large event venue safety and security, among others.  USM is also one of only 37 institutions in the nation accredited in theatre, art and design, dance and music. As an economic driver, USM generates an annual economic impact of more than $600 million across the state. USM welcomes a diverse student body of more than 14,000, representing 71 countries, all 50 states, and every county in Mississippi. USM students have collected four Truman Scholarships and 37 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships, while also leading Mississippi with 27 Goldwater Scholarships, an honor that recognizes the next generation of great research scientists. Home to the Golden Eagles, USM competes in 17 Division I sports sponsored by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). For more information, visit www.usm.edu.

As an Affirmative Action/Equal Employment Opportunity employer/Americans with Disabilities Act institution, The University of Southern Mississippi encourages minorities, women, veterans and persons with disabilities to apply.

Rachel Mugge successfully defended her dissertation! Her dissertation titled “The expanding marine built environment and biofilm formation processes” investigated biofilm samples from metal and wood substrates from six sites in the Gulf of Mexico, including four historic shipwreck sites, and a laboratory experiment. Congratulations Dr. Mugge! Stay tuned to see the papers published from her work.

-RDM

The research article “Historic Wooden Shipwrecks Influence Dispersal of Deep-Sea Biofilms” by Rachel Moseley, Dr. Justyna Hampel, Rachel Mugge, and Dr. Leila Hamdan was published in Frontiers in Marine Science. This research was done as part of the Microbial Stowaways project.

Wood arrives on the seabed from natural and anthropogenic sources (e.g., wood falls and wooden shipwrecks, respectively) and creates seafloor habitats for macro-, meio- and microbiota. The way these habitats shape microbial communities and their biogeographic patterns in the deep sea requires study. The objective of this work was to investigate how historic wooden-hulled shipwrecks impact the dispersal of wood-colonizing microbial biofilms. The study addressed how proximity to wooden shipwrecks shapes diversity, richness, and community composition in the surrounding environment. Study sites included two historic shipwrecks in the northern Gulf of Mexico identified as wooden-hulled sailing vessels dating to the late 19^th century. Two experimental microbial recruitment arrays containing pine and oak samples were deployed by remotely operated vehicle proximate (0–200 m) to each shipwreck and used to establish new wooden habitat features to be colonized by biofilms. The experiments remained in place for approximately 4 months, were subsequently recovered, and biofilms were analyzed using 16S rRNA gene amplification and sequencing for bacteria and archaea and ITS2 region amplification and sequencing for fungi to determine alpha diversity metrics and community composition. The work examined the influence of wood type, proximity to shipwrecks, and environmental context on the biofilms formed on the surfaces. Wood type was the most significant feature shaping bacterial composition, but not archaeal or fungal composition. Proximity to shipwrecks was also a significant influence on bacterial and archaeal composition and alpha diversity, but not on fungal communities. In all 3 domains, a peak in alpha diversity and richness was observed on pine and oak samples placed ~125 m from the shipwrecks. This peak may be evidence of an ecotone, or convergence zone, between the shipwreck influenced seabed and the surrounding seafloor. This study provides evidence that historic wooden shipwrecks influence microbial biofilm dispersal in the deep sea.

For the full article: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.873445/full

This article also received media attention including this article from Newsweek: https://www.newsweek.com/under-sea-shipwrecks-expand-microbial-diversity-new-study-shows-1714833

Thanks for following our research!!

RDM

A new paper from the Hamdan Lab was published in Molecular Ecology. “Microbiomes respond predictably to built habitats on the seafloor” was led by Dr. Justyna Hampel with Rachel Moseley and Dr. Leila Hamdan. The study addresses the impact of shipwrecks on surrounding seafloor microbiomes by using 762 deep-sea sediment samples from around nine shipwrecks in the Gulf of Mexico.

The seafloor contains complex ecosystems where habitat heterogeneity influences biodiversity. Natural biological and geological features including vents, seeps and reefs create habitats that select for distinct populations of micro- and macrofauna. While largely studied for macrobiological diversity, built habitats may also select distinct microbiomes. Built habitat density on the seafloor is increasing with ocean sprawl expanding in the continental shelf and slope, potentially having widespread effects on benthic communities. This study addresses one type of built habitat, shipwrecks, on microbiomes in surrounding sediment. Using deep-sea sediment samples (762 total) from the Gulf of Mexico, we report elevated diversity and a predictable core microbiome around nine shipwrecks. We show the sphere of influence of built habitats extends up to 300 m onto the seafloor. Supervised learning made predictions of sample proximity to structures based on frequency of taxa. Strongest predictions occurred in sediments nearest and furthest from sites for archaea and mid-transect for bacteria. The response of archaea to built habitats was consistent across sites, while bacteria showed greater between site variability. The archaeal core shipwreck microbiome was enriched in taxa (e.g., Bathyarchaeia, Lokiarchaeia, Thermoplasmata) not present in the surrounding seafloor. Shipwrecks shaped microbiomes in expected ways, providing insight on how built habitats impact microbiome biodiversity in the Anthropocene.

Check out the full paper to learn more!

-RDM

Smithsonian Magazine recently released an article titled “How Shipwrecks Shape the Seafloor”. The article interviews several shipwreck researchers, including Dr. Leila Hamdan, to discuss how sunken vessels influence marine ecosystems. Shipwreck ecosystems are vitally important to understand and our lab at The University of Southern Mississippi is continuing to make discoveries in the field.

As Dr. Hamdan said at the end of the article, ‘“All you need to do is, wherever you are right now, look out your window,” Hamdan said. Consider how humans have shaped the terrestrial world and the distribution of organisms within it. We’re doing that with the seafloor as well, we just don’t see it,” she said. “We now know that human debris is changing the most fundamental units of life on the seabed, just by being there.”’

Read the full article here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/national-museum-of-natural-history/2022/05/12/how-shipwrecks-shape-the-seafloor/

Stay tuned to our website to continue learning about our research. We have two new publications coming soon!

-RDM

Popular Science published an article February 23, 2022 titled “There’s a lot we don’t know about the International Space Station’s ocean grave”. This article interviewed deep-sea scientists, including Dr. Leila Hamdan, to understand how the sinking of the International Space Station in the Pacific Ocean may impact marine life.

A highlight of Dr. Hamdan from the article: ‘“That’s going to be a really large human structure with a lot of human materials in it, that is now sitting on the seafloor,” She says. “It would be naive to think that that’s not going to change the ecology that’s present.”’

The article explores how humans continue to impact the deep sea and how important it is to continue to study these important environments. Read the full article online here: https://www.popsci.com/space/international-space-station-retire-ocean-life/

-RDM

Rachel Mugge of the Hamdan Lab passed her comprehensive exams and advanced to candidacy. Her dissertation continues to explore built environments in the deep sea and contains both environmental and experimental datasets. Congratulations, Rachel!

We have a new article published in Limnology and Oceanography titled “Deep-sea wooden shipwrecks influence sediment microbiome diversity”. The paper, by Dr. Justyna Hampel and colleagues, investigated the influence of two historic wooden shipwrecks, from the Microbial Stowaways project, on sediment microbiomes in the deep sea.

Historic shipwrecks function as habitats for benthic organisms by providing food, refuge, and structure. They also form islands of biodiversity on the seabed, shaping microbial ecology and ecosystem processes. This study examined two wooden deep-sea shipwrecks at 525 and 1800 m water depth and probed their influence on sediment microbiomes and geochemistry. Microbiomes were investigated with 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing along 60 m transects extending in four directions from the hulls of the shipwrecks. Distance from shipwrecks and sediment depth both shaped microbiome structure. Archaeal alpha diversity was significantly and positively correlated with proximity to the deeper shipwreck while bacterial diversity was not to either. Archaeal community structure differed at both sites; the deeper site had a higher proportion of Bathyarchaeia and Lokiarchaeia proximate to shipwreck compared to the shallow location. Major bacterial communities were consistent at both sites, however, at the deeper site had higher abundance of Bacteroidetes, Chloroflexi, Desulfofarculales, and Desulfobacteriales. Core microbiome and differential abundance analyses revealed unique taxa nearest the shipwrecks compared to the surrounding seabed including organoheterotrophs, and cellulolytic and sulfur cycling taxa. Sediment carbon content influenced microbiome structure near the shipwrecks (5–10 m). We show that shipwrecks have a distinct sediment microbiome and form unique habitat patches on seabed, resembling those surrounding organic falls. The shipwreck influence was more pronounced at the deeper site, further from terrestrial influences, signaling shipwrecks may be a significant source of organic matter in far-shore oligotrophic settings.

The full paper is available online now! And stay tuned, the next paper from the Microbial Stowaways project is coming soon!

-RDM

In April, we published a research article in The ISME Journal titled “Deep-sea shipwrecks represent island-like ecosystems for marine microbiomes”. The paper, by Dr. Leila Hamdan and colleagues, investigated the influence a deep-sea shipwreck, Anona, exerts on sediment microbiomes in the deep sea.

Biogeography of macro- and micro-organisms in the deep sea is, in part, shaped by naturally occurring heterogeneous habitat features of geological and biological origin such as seeps, vents, seamounts, whale and wood-falls. Artificial features including shipwrecks and energy infrastructure shape the biogeographic patterns of macro-organisms; how they influence microorganisms is unclear. Shipwrecks may function as islands of biodiversity for microbiomes, creating a patchwork of habitats with influence radiating out into the seabed. Here we show microbiome richness and diversity increase as a function of proximity to the historic deep-sea shipwreck, Anona, in the Gulf of Mexico. Diversity and richness extinction plots provide evidence of an island effect on microbiomes. A halo of core taxa on the seabed was observed up to 200 m away from the wreck indicative of the transition zone from shipwreck habitat to the surrounding environment. Transition zones around natural habitat features are often small in area compared to what was observed at Anona, indicating shipwrecks may exert a large sphere of influence on seabed microbiomes. Historic shipwrecks are abundant, isolated habitats with global distribution, providing a means to explore contemporary processes shaping biogeography on the seafloor. This work is a case study for how built environments impact microbial biodiversity and provides new information on how arrival of material to the seafloor shapes benthic microbiomes.

Check out the full paper online! Also, check out Dr. Hamdan’s “Behind the Paper” here: https://naturemicrobiologycommunity.nature.com/posts/the-shipwreck-anona-a-microbial-island-under-sea

-RDM