The National Science Foundation Division of Polar Programs awarded a $137,045 Project Grant to the University of Tennessee under the Polar Programs federal grant program (CFDA 47.078) to conduct collaborative research investigating microbial degradation of complex organic matter in Antarctic benthic sediments from July 2022 to June 2025. The research aims to combine genomics methods with estimates of enzyme abundance and activity to determine rates of carbon degradation by microbes in Antarctic surface marine sediments. The researchers will analyze sediment cores collected in 2020 and participate in a 2023 cruise to East Antarctica to conduct metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, metabolomics analyses coupled with geochemical data and enzyme assays. This will help establish microbial degradation of complex organic matter in Antarctic sediments and provide insight into how climate variability may affect geochemistry in the Southern Ocean. The award supports the grant program's mission to strengthen the national scientific enterprise through expanding knowledge and understanding of the polar regions through basic research best or only conducted in polar environments.