First Microbe Group Post

My name is Dr. Kathryn (Katie) Howe and I am a postdoc at the University of South Alabama (USA) and the Dauphin Island Sea Lab (DISL). I work with Dr Brandi Kiel Reese and her lab to explore microbial cycling of methane hydrates in the Ross Sea, which is why I’m on this expedition. The Kiel Reese lab group also includes Lydia Hayes-Guastella (PhD researcher) and Kristen Lamprecht (PhD researcher).

Methane gas hydrates are pockets of methane gas that become trapped in a crystal structure of water; the resulting solid is similar to ice. These hydrates are formed under high pressure, low temperature conditions and can be found in the ocean sediments of the Ross Sea. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas with a warming capacity 25 times that of carbon dioxide, so knowing what microbes consume it and the metabolisms they utilize is critical in a changing climate.

We will collect sediments using a mixture of gravity coring and piston coring, which essentially give us a cylinder of sediment to sample from. Our samples will be used for future metagenomic (e.g., all DNA in a sample that tells us what microbes are there) and metatranscriptomic (e.g., all RNA in a sample to tell us what the microbes are doing) analyses of the microbial communities that are associated with methane gas hydrates. We will also collect sediment samples to try to grow some bacteria in the lab, to do cell counts which tells us about how many bacterial cells are in that sample, and silica incubation experiments to investigate the microbial role in the silica cycle (the same experiment I did in the Arctic).

I completed my BS in Marine Science and Biology at the University of Tampa, my MS in Coastal Zone Management at Nova Southeastern University, and my PhD in Biological Oceanography at Florida State University. I am extremely motivated by travel and my educational/professional journey has allowed me to travel around the world. Most recently, I went to Svalbard in the Arctic Circle to do field work in July 2024, and now, here I am 7 months later heading to Antarctica!

Please visit my website (kathrynlhowe.weebly.com) for more information about my professional journey, as well as access to free copies of my publications and past conference poster presentations. My Instagram (katie_howe_phd) is public and contains photos from all my travels along with some cool science facts and quizzes in my stories.  The websites for my current labs are www.geomicrobiology.org and jeffkrauselab.weebly.com.

Dr. Katie Howe
University of South Alabama