Mackenzie B. Best

The paper shows that ammonia volatilization and trapping in sulfidic caves provides a key nitrogen source for microbial biofilms and their associated ecosystems, leading to extreme nitrogen isotope depletion.

The paper analyzes microbial communities in historic mine waste to assess their composition, activity, and geochemical associations, finding that they are dominated by inorganic nitrogen- and carbon-oxidizing taxa and contain rare iron and sulfur-cycling organisms.

The paper identifies a Gammaproteobacterium, wb1-P19, as a methanotroph involved in carbon cycling in caves, challenging previous assumptions about its metabolic capabilities.