Summary
This Research Infrastructure Improvement (RII) EPSCoR Research Fellows project provides a fellowship to an Assistant Professor and training for a graduate student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. This work is conducted in collaboration with Dr. Schwartz at Northern Arizona University. Through the fellowship, the PI will develop molecular biology tools to study microorganisms in permafrost that become active upon thaw. Permafrost, soil that has remained frozen for at least two consecutive years, stores twice as much carbon as the atmosphere. These frozen soils also contain microorganisms
