
Microlab@Bristol
Studying microbial life in extreme cryo-environments
MicroLab@Bristol employs a range of laboratory, field and modeling techniques to study how life excels in extreme cryo-environments and its role in globally relevant processes. We also work closer to home on several marine and freshwater topics.
Some current projects

iDAPT: examining the role of the cryosphere in driving one of the biggest transitions in Earth’s history – the evolution of land plants.

Supraglacial carbon cycling: using field data to model Greenland Ice Sheet glacier algal blooms and their contribution to global carbon cycling.

Smart Catchment Management: using machine learning to model Cyanobacterial metabolite production blooms in freshwater reservoirs.

Photophysiology: investigating the dynamics and variety of the photosynthetic mechanisms in snow and glacier algae.

Microlab@Bristol News

Nov 22: New paper out from MicroLab@Bristol in Trends in Plant Sciences on the origin and early evolution of plants

Mar 22: First R&D trip over to Photon Systems Instruments in the Czech Republic to design our iDAPT project “photosynthetron” for novel field measurements of microbial communities in glacial environments

Feb 22: Two new papers out with MicroLab@Bristol contributions – one by Alex Holland on nitrogen speciation during snowpack melt in Greenland, the other by Tris Irvine-Fynn on Greenland bare ice albedo

Dec 21: Jaz Millar accepts 3-year PDRA position with MicroLab@Bristol on the Leverhulme Trust funded iDAPT project.

New Microlab@Bristol paper in Frontiers in Plant Science, shows how the cellular nutrient content of glacier algae deviates from Redfield stoichiometry and is likely an adaptation to surface ice conditions

Another contribution from Microlab@Bristol to a great Nature Comms paper on the storage and export of microbes across the Western Greenland Ice Sheet.

MicroLab@Bristol is recruiting for both a 2.5 month research assistant role on our JGI funded machine learning project, AND a Cabot Masters by Research student on the same topic (same person could bag both!)

Alex Bowles accepts 3-year postdoc position with MicroLab@Bristol on the Leverhulme Funded iDAPT project.


MicroLab@Bristol awarded 4 year Leverhulme Trust research grant for project iDAPT.

Carmen Espinosa Angona accepts 1-year modeling PDRA project in MicroLab@Bristol

Miranda Nicholes successfully defends her PhD thesis to become Dr Nicholes!!!

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