Nymph Creek Microbial Observatory
Montana State University
"The eukaryotic microbial mat at Nymph Creek in Yellowstone National Park is an ideal natural laboratory for a Microbial Observatory designed to increase our understanding of eukaryotic microbial genetic diversity, ecophysiology, and behavior. The thermal (50 degrees C), acidic (pH 2.7) water near the stream's source creates stable environmental gradients in temperature, pH, and light over which changes in microbial populations will be montitored."

Mono Lake Microbial Observatory
University of Georgia, University of California-Santa Cruz, University of California Santa Barbara
"The primary goal of the Mono Lake Microbial Observatory project is to examine the distributions of Mono Lake microbes and to understand the response of microbial assemblages to the gradients of physical and chemical variables in relation to temporal changes driven by hydrodynamics."

North Temperate Lakes Long Term Ecological Research
University of Wisconsin
"Lakes are foci for biogeochemical processing on the landscapes they drain. Most of the biogeochemical transformation in freshwater ecosystems are mediated by bacteria and other microbes. Thus, lakes offer tremendous opportunity for study of microbail position and diversity linked to ecosystem processes."

Microbial Observatory at Itasca State Park
North Dakota State University, University of North Carolina-Wilmington
"The project will investigate the diversity, population dynamics and physiological ecology of algae. The researchers expect, among other things, to discover new taxa of coccoid algae, develop reliable genetic criteria for identification purposes, establish a reference collection and determine distribution patterns in different lake types."

Sapelo Island Microbial Observatory
University of Georgia and Center for Marine Biotechnology (Univ. of Maryland)
"...investigating the diversity of prokaryotes, their physiological and genetic characteristics, and their biogeochemical activities in a salt marsh/estuarine ecosystem in the southeastern U.S."

Salt Plains Microbial Observatory
Oklahoma State University, Wichita State University, and the University of Tulsa
"...The rapidly changing conditions and high surface temperatures, salt concentrations and UV exposure make this an extreme environment. The Salt Plains Microbial Observatory will use a combination of classic microbiology techniques and leading-edge genetic techniques to characterize microbial communities (bacteria and algae) and study how they survive in such a harsh environment."

Alaskan Soil: A Cold Microbial Observatory University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Alaska, University of California-Berkley, University of Illinois
"While the the flora and fauna of the forest has been the subject of intensive study, little is known about the microbial component of the ecosystem. Of particular interest is the role of microorganisms in the phosphorous cycle in the forest, because recent work indicates that the ecosystem's productivity is limited by availability of phosphorous. A premise of the work proposed here is that a phosphorous-limited ecosystem is likely to contain organisms with diverse strategies for acquiring phosphorous."

MOCAT University of Wisconsin-Madison, Portland State University, and University of Western Ontario
"The long-term goal is to study the dynamics and function of microorganisms (most of which will be new to science) in the feeding preferences, habits, development, and nutrition of herbivorous caterpillars. In short, to determine if microbial diversity parallels animal and plant species diversity in this tropical forest system."

Microbial Observatory for Virioplankton Ecology (MOVE) University of Delaware, University of Maryland Center of Marine Biotechnology, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
"An important goal of this microbial observatory is to investigate the role of viruses in the annual biological cycle of a temperate estuary, the Chesapeake Bay. In this effort we will apply a suite of recently developed analyses to characterize the productivity, diversity and composition of Chesapeake Bay virioplankton over annual cycles. Coincident with these analyses will be efforts to bring novel phycoviruses and cyanophages into culture."

H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest Oregon State University
"This Microbial Observatory is dedicated to the study of bacteria and fungi central to biogeochemical processes in coniferous forest ecosystems in the Central Cascade Mountains of Oregon. Because nitrogen (N) is the most limiting nutrient to tree growth in this ecosystem, we focused on the functional diversity of microorganisms that perform N cycling processes."

Alpine Microbial Observatory University of Colorado
"Our Microbial Observatory is focused on linking microbial community dynamics with changes in the biogeochemical cycling of carbon and nitrogen in tundra and forest ecosystems of the Rocky Mountains and other high altitude locations."

University of Southern California Microbial Observatory University of Southern California
"The USC Microbial Observatory focuses on exploratory investigation of prokaryotic and unicellular eukaryotic diversity in the San Pedro Channel, California, with an initial focus on time-dependent changes in community composition in relation to environmental parameters."

Plum Island Microbial Observatory Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory
"In the salt marsh sediments, nitrogen and sulfur cycles influence all of the salt marsh biogeochemical cycles while sulfate reduction dominates decomposition. Therefore, the Observatory Project focuses on the microbes involved with the nitrogen and sulfur cycle with special attention to nitrification and sulfate reduction"

San Salvador Microbial Observatory (SANSALMO) University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, University of South Carolina-Columbia, Texas A&M University
"One of our primary goals is to isolate and characterize anhydrophilic microorganisms from the mats and lakes. The mats contain a rich diversity of microorganisms. Many are organisms found in mats throughout the world. However, the relative isolation of San Salvador, the extreme conditions, and diversity of organisms increases the likelihood that novel organisms possessing unique adaptive mechanisms inhabit the mats and lakes."

Prairie Restoration Impacts on Soil Microbial Communities at the Illinois Nachusa Grassland Research Site Northern Illinois University
"The principal hypothesis of this study is that land usage changes such as prairie restoration will systematically change the bacteria community along a given hillslope not just in the rhizosphere but also throughout the whole pedosphere. The second hypothesis is that bacteria located in the always cultivated and restored areas will have a capacity to biodegrade organic agrochemicals, while soils in the never cultivated areas will not."

Cabo Rojo Salterns Microbial Observatory University of Puerto Rico-Humacao, University of Connecticut
"The salterns are composed of an estuary surrounded by natural mats that feeds a series of artificial salt ponds with seawater."

DFMO: The Duke Forest Mycological Observatory Duke University
"The DFMO study will provide long term monitoring of fungal microbial diversity within the Duke Forest and help to better understand the role of fungi in forest ecosystems during global change. In conjunction with other ongoing studies in the Duke Forest (such as the Free-Air Carbon dioxide enrichment, or FACE experiment), this project will also be one of the first studies of fungal community structure to assess the impacts of various environmental variables such as increases in carbon dioxide concentration on fungal diversity."

Microbial Observatory at Zodletone Spring University of Oklahoma
"Springwater containing high levels of sulfide and methane pours down the site of the mountain creating a microbial mat environment, rich in microbial diversity with a unique group of microbial and geochemical processes. This environment has many similarities to environments that existed during the time period close to 2 billion (2 x 109) years before present. At that time, oxygen was absent from the earth's atmosphere, sulfur transformations were likely more common and methane was more abundant. As such, this ecosystem allows us to better understand the biology and biogeochemistry of the early earth."