Zorigto Namsaraev

Zorigto Namsaraev is a microbiologist working in the Center for Protein
Engineering of the University of Liege (Belgium) (www.cip.ulg.ac.be) and the Winogradsky Institute of Microbiology from the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow). Extremophilic bacteria are at the center of his scientific interests. Zorigto has joined more than 15 expeditions in Siberia, Mongolia, North America, and the Arctic. Currently he has a 2-year FNRS funded post-doc fellowship to study the biogeography and ecology of polar cyanobacteria in Ulg with Annick Wilmotte (www.bipoles.ulg.ac.be).


Zorigto Namsaraev and Marie-José Mano (PhD student working on BELDIVA) showing a satellite map of the Sor Rondane region, sent by Dr Yves Cornet (Geomatics Department, University of LIège)

During the 2010 expedition to Antarctica, Zorigto plans to carry out several
experiments: installation of Open-Top Chambers for local simulation of global warming; sampling of rocks, biofilms, cryoconites and sediments; filtration of air to estimate the potential of aerial transport of cyanobacteria; study of a daily cycle of photosynthetic activity using a fluorometer; and measurement of microenvironmental conditions using temperature and humidity sensors.
The goals are to estimate the potential of microbial communities to respond to climate change, to study the biodiversity and the factors driving it, and which are the real environmental conditions experienced by the microorganisms in their microniches.