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Author Topic: BUGS --HUGE play!!!
Dustoff 1
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BUGS.......Microbes are your freinds.
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Dustoff 1
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Microbes eat things that cause Cancer..

GO BUGS

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Dustoff 1
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Microbes eat sewage and waste oil..
Got BUGS?

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Dustoff 1
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Microbes work 24/7

They don't get hangovers and not show up for work.

They feed themselves,
and turn waste into harmless gas....

BUGS for our future!

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Dustoff 1
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expect news!
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Dustoff 1
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MSNBC News

Friday 16 September 2005
44 oil spills found in LA
Largest is nearly 4 million gallons, most big ones are on Mississippi River.

More than 500 specialists are working to clean up 44 OIL SPILLS ranging from several hundred gallons to nearly 4 million gallons, the US Coast Guard said in an assessment that goes far beyond initial reports of just two significant SPILLS.

The report comes nearly three weeks after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, and reflects the fact that the Coast Guard and other agencies are able to only now tackle environmental problems since the search and rescue effort is winding down.

The Coast Guard estimates more than 7 million gallons of OIL were spilled from industrial plants, storage depots and other facilities around southeast Louisiana.

That is about two-thirds as much OIL as spilled from the Exxon Valdez tanker in 1989. But unlike the OIL from the Valdez, which poured from a single source, these OIL SPILLS are scattered at sites throughout southeast Louisiana.

The OIL could threaten the region's fragile coastal marshes, but three-quarters of it was not posing a danger to wetlands, the Coast Guard said, noting that more than 1.3 million gallons had evaporated or dispersed.

Crews had recovered nearly 2 million gallons and had contained another 2.3 million gallons behind booms and other barriers, the Coast Guard said.

Activists ‘Very Concerned'

The Louisiana Environmental Action Network said it remains concerned given how late the cleanup began and what's known so far.

"We're very concerned," executive director Marylee Orr told MSNBC.com. "We're watching the limited data that has come out."

Of particular concern is a spill in Mereax, a town just outside New Orleans on the Mississippi River, where OIL mixed with floodwaters and sediment to submerge hundreds of homes.

Orr said people calling to report problems have been urged to document them until remediation begins.

The combination of sewage, chemicals, OIL and other pollutants is an environmental disaster of "epic proportions," Orr said.

No one knows what that "toxic gumbo does to the human body when its exposed at the same time."

In the case of OIL SPILLS, the state's Department of Environmental Quality had reported just two significant cases, the one in Meraux and another in Venice.

Below are the largest known SPILLS, most of them along the Mississippi River south of New Orleans.

Major SPILLS (Over 100,000 Gallons)

Bass Enterprises Production Company (Cox Bay): About 3.78 million gallons discharged, of which 960,000 gallons were recovered, 2 million gallons were contained and 982,000 gallons evaporated.

Shell (Pilot Town): About 1.05 million gallons discharged, of which about 718,000 gallons were recovered, 129,000 were contained and 105,000 gallons evaporated or dispersed. Some 87,000 gallons have not been contained.

Chevron (Empire): About 991,000 gallons were released, of which 983,000 gallons were naturally dispersed or evaporated, 4,000 gallons were recovered and 3,600 gallons were contained.

Murphy OIL Corporation (Meraux): About 819,000 gallons discharged, of which 305,000 were recovered, 196,000 gallons were contained and 312,000 gallons evaporated. Some 6,000 gallons were not recovered.

Bass Enterprises (Point a la Hache): About 461,000 gallons of OIL discharged, of which half was contained and half evaporated.

Medium SPILLS (10,000 to 100,000 Gallons)

Chevron (Port Fourchon): About 53,000 gallons were released, of which 21,000 gallons were naturally dispersed, 26,000 gallons were recovered and 420 gallons were contained.

Venice Energy Services Company (Venice): About 840,000 gallons of potential discharge are enclosed in bermed and boomed area, but only 25,000 gallons were actually discharged, of which 4,800 gallons were recovered.

Shell Pipeline OIL (Nairn): About 13,440 gallons discharged, of which 126 gallons were recovered, 2,940 gallons were contained and 10,500 gallons reached shoreline.

Sundown Energy (West Potash): About 13,000 gallons discharged, of which 153 gallons were recovered, 2,000 gallons were contained, and 5,000 gallons reached shoreline.

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kywee
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CARLSBAD, Calif., Sep 26, 2005 (BUSINESS WIRE) --
Robert Brehm, CEO of U.S. Microbics, Inc. (OTCBB: BUGS), announced that BUGS has published a new website at www.bugsatwork.com to bring the company's innovative environmental clean-up solutions to international customers seeking to solve their country's environmental problems using local resources and labor with the help of BUGS' engineering services, proprietary products and patented processes.

Brehm commented on the driving force behind the efforts, "As our world population grows and per capita resources are shrinking, innovative methods to provide clean air, soil and water are being sought out by many third world countries where environmental priorities have been ignored but now must be addressed to be in compliance with World Trade organization policies. Over the past year we have had many inquiries from countries that need to clean up environmental contamination impacting their water supplies and causing sickness, disease and poverty conditions. In response to this pressing need, BUGS created a multi-language website that educates potential customers, including in-country engineering teams, how to develop their skills on assessment, quantification and treatment of the problem using our technology, project management and engineering skills."

Brehm concluded, "With the success of our business model in Mexico, it is important that the people of Mexico understand, in their language, how we can help them solve their environmental problems using local expertise under the supervision of our engineering teams. This new website helps in that endeavor and could open up new avenues for revenue in the future."

About U.S. Microbics Inc.

U.S. Microbics is a business development and holding company that acquires, develops and deploys innovative environmental technologies for soil, groundwater and carbon remediation, air pollution reduction, modular drinking water systems, and agriculture enhancement. For more information on the company or its Strategic Partner Program, contact Robert Brehm at 760-918-1860 x102 or visit the website at http://bugsatwork.com.

The information contained in this press release includes forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements usually contain the words "estimate," "anticipate," "believe," "expect," or similar expressions that involve risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include the Company's status as a startup company with uncertain profitability, need for significant capital, uncertainty concerning market acceptance of its products, competition, limited service and manufacturing facilities, dependence on technological developments and protection of its intellectual property. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those discussed herein. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences are discussed more fully in the "Risk Factors," "Management's Discussion and Analysis or Plan of Operation" and other sections of the Company's Form 10-KSB and other publicly available information regarding the Company on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company will provide you with copies of this information upon request.

SOURCE: U.S. Microbics Inc.

U.S. Microbics Inc. Robert Brehm, 760-918-1860 x102

Copyright Business Wire 2005

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Dustoff 1
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CEOCFO: Will you tell us about the magnitude of the environmental problem in Mexico?
Mr. Brehm: “The magnitude of the problem is significant. PEMEX, the Mexican National Oil Company, which provides approximately 80% of the revenue for the entire country, wants to spend about $3 billion dollars over the next five years to clean up their mess. They have currently allocated about $1.1 billion to do that. Currently, there are very few vendors who tap into that funding. We have been given the opportunity, by meeting with the top officials in the PEMEX subsidiaries, to pick prime projects that are of deep concern. We expect significant project revenue over the next couple of years from both PEMEX work and State government work related to the environment. throughout Mexico. It is interesting to note that most of Mexican water is classified as contaminated in different degrees of contamination. There appears to be very few areas classified as “clean water” in the country, and that is why most of us in the U.S. that go down and drink the water, get sick. Therefore, BUGS is going to help solve that problem for the locals and for tourists.”


CEOCFO: Is there any direct competition?
Mr. Brehm: “When you clean up contamination, there are three ways to do it; we call it the three B’s, you burn it bury it or bug it. Typically if you want to get rid of contamination in soil, you dig it up, put it in the incinerator and burn it. That is being phased out, although it is still popular in Asia, but causes massive air pollution. The second method is to dig it up, put it in someone else’s backyard; that it what is done with landfills. In Mexico and other countries, they are realizing that hydrocarbons are all hazardous materials and you cannot put them in landfills anymore and you cannot burn them. There is only one effective method to get rid of contamination and that is called Bugging it (also called bioremediation). The process is fairly simple to understand; you put Mother Nature’s natural bacteria in a recipe on the contaminate and what they do is literally eat it up and the excrete carbon dioxide and water. Over time, the contamination will be completely gone. Mother Nature can do that in approximately 50 to 100 years, and we typically do it in a period of less than a year. That is the way Mexico has decided to do the majority of their waste treatment. The technology has to be approved by Mexico. Currently, we are the only known bio remediation company that has an approved technology down there. There will be more. People have not figured out how to get approved and do business in Mexico. We have been able to go to the highest levels and work ourselves down the chain rather than up the chain. As a result, there are classical competitors that only offer the classical solutions, which is bury and burn. We probably won’t see much competition over the next few years as we have an opportunity to be first in the market and to make sure our solution is the one of choice. Any environmental clean-up process that is approved in Mexico is usually approved throughout Central and South America. Magazines and financial reporting news agencies in South America do interviews with us to see how our technology can be used in their country.”

http://www.ceocfointerviews.com/interviews/USMicrobics05.htm
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Peaser
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BUGS and SSWM End Fiscal Year 2005 on Upbeat Note; Record 2005 Revenues and International Opportunities Prelude to 2006 SuccessadvertisementRelated information E-mail this article Print-friendly versionStocks mentioned in this articleU S MICROBICS(BUGS) Quote, Chart, News SUB SURFACE WST MGMT DELA(SSWM) Quote, Chart, News Related topicsEarnings Reports


All Business Wire NewsRobert Brehm, CEO of U.S. Microbics, Inc. BUGS (BCN:615212), an innovative environmental products and services company, announced that BUGS has completed FY 2005 with record-breaking revenues and backlog, new patented technology, a new website, and new business opportunities in Mexico that sets the pace for an optimistic FY 2006 that should bring the company's innovative environmental clean-up solutions to international customers seeking to solve their country's environmental problems using local resources and labor with the help of BUGS' engineering services, proprietary products and patented processes.


Brehm commented on the FY2005 accomplishments, "2005 has been an exciting year with many accomplishments and I am proud to be associated with a group of loyal employees who understand the wisdom and commitment we have in making the world a better place using mother nature's technology applied with engineering precision."

Brehm added, "The Mexico operations, under the guidance of Sub-Surface Waste Management SSWM, continued to generate record-breaking revenues each quarter this fiscal year (up 82% in first 3 months, 129% in six months, and 334% in nine months compared to prior year), indicating improved market acceptance of our technology and services. We expect revenues to further increase as we complete existing contracts and receive additional contracts in Mexico." A recent interview given by Mr. Brehm including an update on progress in Mexico is available at www.CEOCFOinterviews.com.

Brehm continued, "As our world population grows and per capita resources are shrinking, innovative methods to provide clean air, soil and water are being sought out by many second and third world countries where environmental priorities have been ignored but now must be addressed to be in compliance with World Trade organization policies and public healthcare concerns. Over the past year we have had many inquiries from countries that need to clean up environmental contamination impacting their water supplies and causing sickness, disease and poverty conditions. In response to this pressing need, BUGS created a multi-language website at www.bugsatwork.com that educates potential customers, including in-country engineering teams, on developing their skills on assessment, quantification and treatment of the problem using our technology, project management and engineering skills.

"Our research and field development team was also busy this year as it had published its patented water treatment technology, Bio-GAC(TM) (Patent No: US 6,905,603 B2) for the treatment of toxic waste streams such as those caused by Hurricane Katrina and other man-made and natural disasters. We expect to license this technology in 2006 and use it in our own projects," added Brehm.

Speaking on customer education, Brehm said, "This year we created coloring books and comic books in English and Spanish for both the environmental newbie and kids at www.MikeyMicrobe.com. Coupled with our new BUGS website, these two websites allow potential investors, customers and clients and interested parties new insight into our technology, our management and our success in cleaning up the world."

Brehm commented on the increased share price and investor interest by saying, "After many years of hard effort by all our dedicated employees, I have never seen this level of investment community interest in our future potential. It seems like we are getting many offers and proposals for new business opportunities, financing alternatives, potential mergers or acquisitions, new technologies to license or just new investment by existing shareholders. If we maintain our current growth rate, we anticipate being cash-flow positive within the next twelve months, opening up new opportunities for growth and stock appreciation."

About U.S. Microbics Inc.

U.S. Microbics is a business development and holding company that acquires, develops and deploys innovative environmental technologies for soil, groundwater and carbon remediation, air pollution reduction, modular drinking water systems, and agriculture enhancement. For more information on the company or its Strategic Partner Program, contact Robert Brehm at 760-918-1860 x102 or visit the website at http://www.bugsatwork.com.

The information contained in this press release includes forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements usually contain the words "estimate," "anticipate," "believe," "expect," or similar expressions that involve risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include the Company's status as a startup company with uncertain profitability, need for significant capital, uncertainty concerning market acceptance of its products, competition, limited service and manufacturing facilities, dependence on technological developments and protection of its intellectual property. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those discussed herein. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences are discussed more fully in the "Risk Factors," "Management's Discussion and Analysis or Plan of Operation" and other sections of the Company's Form 10-KSB and other publicly available information regarding the Company on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company will provide you with copies of this information upon request.

Contact Information: U.S. Microbics Inc. Robert Brehm, 760-918-1860 x102

http://www.bugsatwork.com.

© 2005 BusinessWire

[ September 30, 2005, 10:22: Message edited by: Peaser01 ]

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Buy Low. Sell High.

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OnPoint
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Breaking out - just we thru .042/.043

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Live long, dig deep, & prosper.

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Peaser
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Yepp. And we're off to the races! Yee haw!

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Buy Low. Sell High.

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Peaser
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Nice buying opp on this dip.

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Buy Low. Sell High.

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Superbee383
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I have to say this.. I don't understand why this one is at a standstill. I thought the news was great! Did I miss something there?

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"As long as there are dreamers, there are dreams that will come true."

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Peaser
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.04x.041 now

Anyone miss that dip?

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Buy Low. Sell High.

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Peaser
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Bid building at .04

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Buy Low. Sell High.

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Peaser
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We had a nice 20% day on Friday.

Still waiting on the Big PR announcing the estimates that BUGS has put together for PEMEX, also the announcement of contracts won.

BUGS Subsidiary Prepares Cost Estimates for New Work in Mexico

CARLSBAD, Calif., Sep 16, 2005 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Sub-Surface Waste Management of Delaware, Inc. (OTCBB:SSWM) announced that senior engineers from its Mexico subsidiary company Environmental Tec International, S.A. de C.V. (ETI) and representatives from its strategic alliance and teaming partner, the Zaragoza Graduate School of Studies of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), have been asked by the Mexican state oil corporation, Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), to submit detailed cost estimate engineering proposals to address urgent environmental compliance and remediation needs at Pemex operating facilities. The ETI/UNAM engineering team recently completed site visits to gather data for submitting their report as soon as possible in order that work can be commenced.

Operationally, U.S. Microbics consists of six majority-owned subsidiaries using biological technology to revolutionize environmental clean-up and agricultural growth.

Representatives of ETI will be joining Governor Mario Marin Torres in his scheduled meeting Monday, September 19 with Pemex's President Mr. Luis Ramirez Corzo to discuss proposed remediation activities and a financing plan to address recent and historic releases of petroleum products from pipelines and bulk terminal facilities in the State of Puebla.

As previously reported, ETI will be responsible for restoration activities on contaminated areas including farming lands, rivers and water reservoirs in Puebla working through Governor Mario Marin Torres and his Secretary for the Ministry of Environment.

About Sub-Surface Waste Management

Sub-Surface Waste Management Inc. is a majority owned subsidiary of U.S. Microbics, Inc. (OTCBB:BUGS) and provides comprehensive civil and environmental engineering project management services including specialists to design, permit, build and operate environmental waste clean-up treatment systems using conventional, biological and filtration technologies. SSWM is capitalizing on its patented technologies registered in Mexico with SEMARNAT, a Federal regulatory agency overseeing environmental compliance nationwide.

1. Sub-Surface Waste Management of Delaware Inc. (SSWM) - provides comprehensive civil and environmental engineering project management services. Sub-Surface Waste Management's team designs, permits, builds, and operates environmental waste clean-up treatment systems using conventional, biological, and filtration technologies.

2. XyclonyX - develops and applies its key technologies that include patents, proprietary knowledge, products, processes, and expert personnel. XyclonyX technologies are sold to the environmental, petrochemical, agricultural, and waste treatment markets. XyclonyX has developed a formulation for mass producing proprietary microbial blends in liquid and powder forms.

3. West Coast Fermentation Center, Inc. (WCFC) - cultivates microbial cultures for the Company's product lines: Bi-Agra Remediline and Wasteline. WCFC operates a microbe laboratory, pilot plant, and quality control center. WCFC produces microbial blends using fermentation technology, powder blending, and combinatorial liquifaction.

4. Sol Tech, Inc. (doing business as Wasteline Performance Corp.) - was formed specifically to serve markets for treating wastewater in the U.S.A. and internationally.

5. Bio-Con Microbes, Inc. - provides microbial blends and bio-processing treatment systems for agricultural yield enhancement, odor control, insect control, and cogeneration. Bio-Con Microbes, Inc. has a wholly owned subsidiary in Mexico: Natura Agricultura, S.A. d. C.V., which has conducted tests that demonstrate microbial-based increases to sugar cane production.

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Buy Low. Sell High.

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Peaser
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http://www.bugsatwork.com/CEOinterview.pdf

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Buy Low. Sell High.

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Dustoff 1
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Doing a proper evaluation at this time is speculative at best...

However the reason we are long, or short term, swing players or what ever is because we believe others will buy this stock because they think it will make them money....

A belief system is crucial in any OTCBB or any other stock..A strong belief will hopefully cause people to buy and hold..

The due diligence being done on this thread and on other boards is of a very high quality..

This makes me think the quality of the investors is good -high...

So, the more stable type of long is coming on board, this will translate to the stock holding at progressivly higher bottoms..

The problem with that is, trying to flip the stock may cost you dearly..Because to get back in you may have to pay more than you sold at. And that will really screw up your cost average..

If ya need a number to sink your teeth into-------- I like .10 increase in PPS for every $10,000,000.00 contract.

That does not take into account bubble spikes in buying...

The A/S at 500mil is a healthy amount and I really like it..The under 280mil O/S is just about right if we do indeed start heading for the Nasdaq..

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imakmony2005
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THE RUN IS COMING............
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Dustoff 1
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Good bugs' cleaning up water tainted with MTBE

Microscopic critters gobble gunk from millions of gallons or else

By Kerry Cavanaugh, Staff Writer

NORTH HOLLYWOOD -- To clean up a massive plume of MTBE in Los Angeles' drinking water supply, scientists have produced trillions of tiny "bugs" that feed on the toxic gasoline additive and leave the water pure enough to return to the aquifer.

The project is the first of its kind in Los Angeles, and officials rave that the superefficient microbes will restore millions of gallons of precious San Fernando Valley groundwater, which provides 10 percent of the city's drinking supply.

"This is exciting because we're saving the water, and water is precious in the region," said Yue Rong, a senior environmental scientist with the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board.

Scientists expect MTBE-gobbling bacteria will become a cheaper, safer way to clean up groundwater contamination.

MTBE -- methyl tertiary butyl ether -- was added to gasoline beginning in 1979 to cut air pollution. Extremely water-soluble, MTBE tainted water supplies with its distinct turpentine taste and odor when underground gasoline storage tanks leaked into groundwater.

An estimated 2,300 water systems in 36 states have been contaminated by MTBE, according to a June report from the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies. California stopped using the chemical in 2004.

In North Hollywood, the former Fast Fuel Service Station at Victory and Vineland boulevards leaked thousands of gallons of gasoline into the groundwater before going out of business, leaving oil company Tesoro with the cleanup.

Tesoro found a thick layer of gasoline floating on the groundwater and MTBE levels up to 100,000 parts per billion. The acceptable limit for drinking is 5 ppb.

More troubling, the massive plume of MTBE was migrating toward Los Angeles Department of Water and Power wells. The utility shut down two of the wells for fear of pulling the chemical even closer.

The contamination was so severe that Tesoro probably would have had to buy property in the residential neighborhood and build a water-treatment plant if a better cleanup method had not been found, said Jeffrey Baker, environmental remediation supervisor for Tesoro.

Instead, Baker and the company's consultant, Haley & Aldrich, sought the help of Kate Scow, a soil-science professor at the University of California, Davis, and graduate student Kristin Hicks. Scientists in their lab had discovered a microbes strain called PM1 that feeds on MTBE, destroying the molecule and leaving carbon dioxide behind.

PM1 is found naturally in the groundwater. To accelerate the bug's natural hunger for MTBE, experts cultivate the bacteria inside carbon filters -- similar to the filters found in household water purifiers -- and add oxygen. The bacteria multiply and quickly chomp through MTBE.

"This is an efficient organism that breaks it down to natural elements and creates no byproducts," Baker said.

Tesoro has been using bacteria to remove MTBE in North Hollywood for two years, piping tainted water to two small units at a self-storage facility on Victory Boulevard, where the water runs through several chambers that house the carbon filters and bacteria.

After several trips through the filters, the MTBE is below the detection level of 0.5 ppb.

Until recently, Tesoro released the clean water into the storm-drain system and it eventually washed out to the ocean -- a waste of 7 million gallons of water that frustrated local officials.

Just this week, however, Tesoro flipped the switch on the second phase that reinjects the treated water into the aquifer. It's the first time Los Angeles water officials have allowed someone to put treated water back into the San Fernando Valley aquifer.

"We had to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was safe," Baker said.

The new process will save 10 million gallons of water, or enough to serve 60 families for a year.

Now that the scientists have shown that tiny bugs can do the work of high-tech water-treatment devices, Scow hopes other companies will embrace a cheaper, less-destructive and more natural way to clean up contamination.

"This work is an excellent example of how working with nature, supporting the cleanup activities of organisms already present, rather than creating artificial systems, was successful." l8s=8 Kerry Cavanaugh, (818) 713-3746 kerry.cavanaugh*dailynews.com

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From another board, posting is really starting to pick up accross the internet on BUGS..

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Peaser
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According to Robert Brehm in his CEO interview, PEMEX currently has $3 Billion designated for cleaning up thier oil-spills over the next five years. BUGS seems to have a 1-up on the competition as they have hired the recently retired PEMEX Director of Environment Remediation.(see PR below)

Contracts are expected to be announced at any time. It shouldn't be long before BUGS breaks .1 and holds at that level.

SSWM Mexican Subsidiary Hires Senior Petroleum Expert
Tuesday July 26, 9:54 am ET
30 year veteran with Pemex joins ETI



CARLSBAD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 26, 2005--Sub-Surface Waste Management of Delaware, Inc. (OTCBB:SSWM - News), announced that its Mexican subsidiary company Environmental Tec International, S.A. de C.V. (ETI) has appointed Mr. Guillermo Andrade Gelabert, P.E. as Vice President and Program Director to develop business opportunities with Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), the Mexican state oil corporation.
Bruce Beattie, CEO of SSWM, stated, "Guillermo brings over 30 years' experience as a multi-degreed and accomplished registered environmental engineer who recently retired from Pemex as Director of Environment Remediation for Pemex Corporation over all operating divisions of Pemex; Petrochemical, Refinery, Production and Primary Exploration. Guillermo will apply his contacts, knowledge and expertise to develop environmental cleanup contract opportunities for ETI from all operating divisions of Pemex."

About Sub-Surface Waste Management

Sub-Surface Waste Management Inc. is a majority owned subsidiary of U.S. Microbics, Inc. (OTCBB:BUGS - News) and provides comprehensive civil and environmental engineering project management services including specialists to design, permit, build and operate environmental waste clean-up treatment systems using conventional, biological and filtration technologies. SSWM and its Mexican subsidiary company ETI is capitalizing on its licensed patented technologies registered in Mexico with SEMARNAT a Federal regulatory agency overseeing environmental compliance nationwide.

Investors and media contact Bruce Beattie at 760/918-1860, ext. 105 or bbeattie*bugsatwork.com; or learn about the company by visiting its Web site at http://www.bugsatwork.com.

The information contained in this press release includes forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements usually contain the words "estimate," "anticipate," "believe," "expect" or similar expressions that involve risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include the company's status as a startup company with uncertain profitability, need for significant capital, uncertainty concerning market acceptance of its products, competition, limited service and manufacturing facilities, dependence on technological developments and protection of its intellectual property. The company's actual results could differ materially from those discussed herein. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences are discussed more fully in the "Risk Factors," "Management's Discussion and Analysis or Plan of Operation" and other sections of the company's Form 10-KSB and other publicly available information regarding the company on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company will provide you with copies of this information upon request.

--------------------
Buy Low. Sell High.

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Peaser
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Gapper Alert!!

.04 x .042

--------------------
Buy Low. Sell High.

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Peaser
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.041 x .042

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Buy Low. Sell High.

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Peaser
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.042 x .043

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Dustoff 1
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Wanted: Bugs That Scrub
Harnessing bacteria for environmental cleanup

This sample of groundwater from contaminated soil could yield bacteria that can degrade persistent soil pollutants.

The United States is investing billions of dollars to clean up polluted groundwater and soils. In Wisconsin alone, the Department of Natural Resources has a list of nearly 10,000 sites that need to be cleaned up. In 1998, contaminants turned up in well water samples from Beloit to Rhinelander. Some communities removed individual wells from service because water from those wells contained pollutants considered unsafe for drinking.

The most common soil and groundwater pollutants include fuels such as gasoline and oil, industrial compounds such as TCE (trichloroethylene) and PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) and pesticides. Many of the compounds are threats to human health. Exposure to benzene or TCE, for example, is known to increase the risk of cancer.

What's wrong with the "pump and treat" approach?
Efforts to clean up these toxins have cost far more than anticipated and the results have been discouraging. Conventional methods bring contaminated soil and water to the surface before treating it. Such "pump-and-treat" methods may continue for decades at a polluted site and basically transfer the contaminants to the air or to landfills.

As the limitations of these methods become clearer, experts have become more interested in biological remediation. Bioremediation relies on microbes to destroy hazardous contaminants in place by transforming them into less harmful compounds. The transformation occurs naturally at contaminated sites and has controlled the spread of some pollution without pump-and-treat methods. Those who advocate an expanded role for bioremediation say it will be less costly, faster and safer than pump-and-treat methods, and can be combined with them.

Bacteria: Doing what comes naturally
Bacteria are the key players in bioremediation, which builds on the role they have played in nature for billions of years. These microscopic organisms live virtually everywhere. They break down complex plant, animal and human waste. Bacteria chew up any compound that provides the energy or nutrients they need, even if it's a relatively new compound to them.
Looking for contaminant-eating bacteria that can exist without oxygen.
Graduate student Michele Zwolinski uses an oxygen-free chamber to work with samples from the Fort McCoy site. She is trying to isolate bacteria that can degrade groundwater contaminants in the absence of oxygen.

"Wherever contaminants are present there's strong selection for bacteria that can get some energy from the compounds," says biochemist Brian Fox. "The pollutants that accumulate in the environment are those that aren't a food source for bacteria or that produce toxins when bacteria metabolize them. Or maybe some bacteria can degrade these compounds, but just do it very slowly.

"If such bacteria do exist, perhaps we can improve their ability," Fox says. "What we're trying to do is to speed the process of breakdown."

Fox is one of three CALS scientists trying to harness the power of bacteria to enhance the cleanup of environmental pollution. He studies a bacterial enzyme that can break down some of our most troublesome groundwater contaminants -- benzene, dichloromethane, trichloroethylene and similar pollutants.

To learn how the enzyme works, Fox has been making changes in the gene that produces it. The genetic changes alter the enzyme's structure. Fox can then see how the alteration affects its ability to degrade different compounds.

Bioremediation has become a fast-growing sector of the hazardous waste cleanup industry. Fox collaborates with scientists at Envirogen, Inc., a New Jersey-based company, that is evaluating the altered enzymes Fox produces to see if they can attack contaminants.

Bacteria face off with a gas spill
Soil scientist Bill Hickey is examining what happens in a diverse microbial community when bacteria there come face to face with a gasoline spill. Hickey and hydrogeologist Jean Bahr, from the College of Letters and Science, are studying a fuel spill at Fort McCoy, near Sparta. Bahr is documenting how the plume of contaminated water moves. Hickey, a soil microbiologist, is isolating bacteria that degrade hydrocarbons in groundwater that has no oxygen.

Hickey has studied ground contaminated by leaking fuel tanks and was the first to show that bacteria could degrade TCE in water year-round under Wisconsin conditions if he supplied the bugs with ammonium as a nitrogen source. Now he's looking for bacteria that can degrade benzene. Benzene is a relatively minor component of gasoline, but it's the most toxic component to people and one that bacteria degrade slowly.

"Hydrocarbons are a rich carbon source and bacteria immediately attack them when hydrocarbons enter groundwater," Hickey says. "The intense bacterial activity rapidly uses up what little oxygen was present in the groundwater. When oxygen disappears from groundwater many bacteria can no longer survive there, and that slows down the cleanup."

Wanted: Microbes that exist where oxygen doesn't
Hickey wants to identify bacteria that degrade benzene and closely related compounds in the absence of oxygen. In the laboratory, he is testing the microbial community from uncontaminated groundwater at Fort McCoy to see how that community changes when he adds hydrocarbons. He has found a major shift in the bacteria present when he adds benzene. Hickey has already isolated bacteria that can degrade hydrocarbons similar to benzene in water devoid of oxygen. Now he hopes to find species that can degrade benzene itself.

Microbial physiologist Glenn Chambliss and his colleagues have identified two bacteria and the enzymes that enable them to degrade nitroglycerin and TNT.

"This is the first time anyone has purified and characterized enzymes that can take the initial step in breaking down TNT," says Chambliss, who chairs the Department of Bacteriology.

The findings may lead to biologically based methods for cleaning up soils contaminated with toxic residues left from manufacturing explosives, according to Chambliss. There are an estimated 10,000 U.S. sites contaminated with explosives and related compounds. The materials include: TNT (trinitrotoluene), DNT (dinitrotoluene), nitroglycerin, and nitrocellulose, also known as smokeless gunpowder. TNT and DNT are particularly toxic and break down very slowly.

Wanted: Bacteria that eat dynamite
To find bacteria that could "eat" dynamite, Chambliss and his colleagues collected bacteria from sites once contaminated with nitroglycerin at the Badger Army Ammunition Plant near Baraboo. The plant was once the world's largest producer of smokeless gun powder, a propellant used to fire artillery shells.

The researchers identified several bacteria that could survive at high nitroglycerin concentrations and degrade the compound. They have sequenced the genes that code for different enzymes from two species. One enzyme is five times as efficient as the other at degrading TNT. The more efficient enzyme can follow two different pathways in degrading TNT, according to Chambliss. "One leads to toxic components that don't decay further. The other pathway leads to a partial but more complete breakdown without toxic compounds."

Chambliss is now experimenting to see if he can engineer the enzyme so it only works via the preferred pathway. He, Brian Fox and environmental engineer Dan Noguera from the College of Engineering are also looking for other bacteria and enzymes that will complete the cleanup.

Cleaning up pollutants can be like running an assembly line in reverse. You start with a complex molecule and the bacteria break it apart, eventually reducing it to water and carbon dioxide.

It takes bacterial teamwork
"Bacteria like those that work on TNT often move the degradation process only a certain distance before producing a compound they can no longer benefit from or that is too toxic to keep around," says Fox. "They put that compound back into the environment where other bacteria will hopefully degrade it further. The chain may take several steps before it produces harmless compounds."

Chambliss and Fox hope to find what Fox sometimes calls the "missing link," one bacterium or several that will take the partly degraded TNT molecule and reduce it to compounds that known bacteria can fully degrade to carbon dioxide and water.

You can try to create these bugs or look for them in nature, Fox says. If bacteria can break down a compound, he feels certain that researchers have the best chance of finding those bacteria in nature. "Nature is the greatest experimenter of them all. Nature's experiments go on 24 hours a day, 365 days a year," he says.

From lab tests to commercial applications: A long leap
"It's a major leap from academic research to companies implementing these findings," says Hickey. But the three College scientists know the contaminants are likely to be a problem for a long time to come.

"The bugs have the potential to address these contamination problems," Chambliss says. "But we're still at an early stage in understanding the processes involved. It took us a long time and a great deal of research to develop an industry around the antibiotics that bacteria produce. It's going to take more research before we get bacteria that can solve some of these environ- mental problems."

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SSWM Presentation Well Received at Investment Conference
Business Wire - October 04, 2005 09:45

CARLSBAD, Calif., Oct 04, 2005 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Robert Brehm, CEO of U.S. Microbics, Inc. (OTCBB:BUGS) (BCN:615212), an innovative environmental products and services company, announced that the presentation by Sub-Surface Waste Management of Delaware, Inc. (OTCBB:SSWM), at the Southern California Investment Association's National Investment Conference in Irvine, CA on October 1, was received very well by a large audience of qualified venture capitalists, NASD broker/dealers, investment and merchant bankers, investment advisors, analysts, market makers, fund managers, financial service professionals, and business development consultants looking for emerging growth companies with exciting futures.

Brehm commented on the excellent response by saying, "We used this presentation opportunity to showcase SSWM and the incredible opportunities we have to help the people of Mexico solve many of their pressing environmental concerns using our patented bio-nanotechnology and precision engineering services coupled with local labor and equipment resources. With recent announcements of PEMEX funding for environmental cleanup and emergency response opportunities in various states, SSWM is on the verge of major expansion potential that should be of interest to anyone concerned about clean air, water and soil and related investment opportunities."

Brehm further elicited, "Our message was to get the audience excited about our future and the social and financial rewards available with their help as we clean up the world's messes. Based upon the interest and many new business contacts made I believe our message was well received and we will consummate additional resources to accelerate our growth progress." The SSWM presentation slides are available at www.bugsatwork.com/news.htm.

About Sub-Surface Waste Management

Sub-Surface Waste Management Inc. is a majority owned subsidiary of U.S. Microbics, Inc. (OTCBB:BUGS) and provides comprehensive civil and environmental engineering project management services including specialists to design, permit, build and operate environmental waste clean-up treatment systems using conventional, biological and filtration technologies. SSWM is capitalizing on its patented technologies registered in Mexico with SEMARNAT, a Federal regulatory agency overseeing environmental compliance nationwide.

The information contained in this press release includes forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements usually contain the words "estimate," "anticipate," "believe," "expect," or similar expressions that involve risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include the Company's status as a startup company with uncertain profitability, need for significant capital, uncertainty concerning market acceptance of its products, competition, limited service and manufacturing facilities, dependence on technological developments and protection of its intellectual property. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those discussed herein. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences are discussed more fully in the "Risk Factors," "Management's Discussion and Analysis or Plan of Operation" and other sections of the Company's Form 10-KSB and other publicly available information regarding the Company on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company will provide you with copies of this information upon request.

SOURCE: Sub-Surface Waste Management of Delaware, Inc.

Sub-Surface Waste Management of Delaware, Inc.
Alan Kau, 888-795-3166
http://www.bugsatwork.com

Copyright Business Wire 2005

--------------------
"As long as there are dreamers, there are dreams that will come true."

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Peaser
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Here we go!!

--------------------
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maumee river rat
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were might that be ...Maybe You better get out and direct traffic Peaser..Damn thing seems to be confused..
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Dustoff 1
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Oregon State Has Big Plans for Study of Tiny Microbes


Cleaning up contaminated areas like the Portland Harbor Superfund site and the Umatilla Weapons Depot. Slowing global warming. Removing pesticides to improve water quality.

These are all gigantic endeavors, but ones that Oregon State University researchers believe can possibly be accomplished by the tiniest of organisms - microbes that just might also hold the key to life on Mars.

Subsurface microbes live below the Earth's surface in soil, mud and rock, and their potential to modify the Earth has only been recognized recently.

"Microorganisms below the subsurface play a major role in the cycles on earth," said Lewis Semprini, a professor in the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering. "It has only been in the past decade that it was recognized that deep subsurface microbes play a significant role in global cycles."

The work done by Semprini and others led to the Subsurface Biosphere Education Research initiative, one of six initiatives that were recently approved by OSU. All six support OSU's recently adopted strategic plan. The university is reallocating funds internally to provide seed funding for the initiatives.

In 1998, Semprini, and Dan Arp, chair of the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, found that some types of bacteria that grow on butane gas have the ability to transform toxic wastes to harmless endproducts. Using microorganisms to clean up contamination could save billions of dollars, Semprini said.

In 2003, Martin Fisk, a professor in the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, and other scientists discovered bacteria in a hole drilled more than 4,000 feet deep in volcanic rock on the island of Hawaii near Hilo. Fisk has said that the environment could be analogous to conditions on Mars and other planets.

"Under these conditions, microbes could live beneath any rocky planet," Fisk said at the time. "It would be conceivable to find life inside of Mars, within a moon of Jupiter or Saturn, or even on a comet containing ice crystals that gets warmed up when the comet passes by the sun." Semprini, Fisk and Arp are three of the principal investigators of the initiative proposal. The others are Peter Bottomley, professor in the Department of Microbiology; and David Myrold, professor in the Department of Crop and Soil Science.

Bottomley and Myrold study bacteria and fungi in coniferous forest ecosystems in the central Cascade Mountains at the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest. They also study nitrogen and carbon cycles.

The subsurface biosphere is an emerging area of study that connects the fields of microbiology, biotechnology, geochemistry, bioremediation (cleaning up contamination), bioengineering, agriculture, forestry, geology, oceanography, astrobiology and others.

One potential benefit is in the area of global warming. Subsurface microbes are part of the process that forms carbon dioxide and methane, contributing to global warming.

"Microbes may also remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in the subsurface, potentially playing a key role in slowing global warming," Semprini said.

Semprini said that the microbes also can help immobilize radioactive contaminants, such as uranium, in groundwater so these can be recovered or the transport slowed. They are also miniature chemical factories that have determined ways of producing mineral products with very uniform properties. For example, certain bacteria can produce magnetitic iron particles of very specific sizes that could result in much better magnetitic tapes.

This initiative will include faculty members from five colleges - Forestry, Agricultural Sciences, Science, Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences and Engineering.

"Our ultimate goal is to create a Center of Excellence for Subsurface Biosphere Education and Research," Semprini said. "It has implications for a wide range of benefits, from environmental cleanup to a better understanding of soil processes. We want to create more synergy among faculty on campus so we can collaborate on large interdisciplinary projects."

Semprini said the key to the initiative is that work is already going on at OSU.

In 2001, the National Science Foundation awarded OSU a $2.6 million grant to form the Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) Program, a graduate student training program to focus on life below the earth's surface.

"There is a significant amount of research already going on and this is a way to get the researchers together and communicate," he said, adding that there will be a potential to offer seed research money for faculty to produce exploratory research findings needed for large interdisciplinary research proposals.

Semprini feels the structure of the Center will evolve over the course of the initiative, and the principal investigators all want the center to live beyond the five years of the initiative.

"We are going to add junior faculty members that fit strategic educational and research needs that have joint appointments between different colleges. This will permit us to increase the courses offered and get undergraduates involved in the research," he said, adding that increasing the diversity of graduate and undergraduate students is also a mission of the initiative.

------------------------------------------------

Got any DD maumee river rat?

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Peaser
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A lot of Insider Buying going on today:

http://www.secform4.com/insider/showhistory.php?symbol=bugs

--------------------
Buy Low. Sell High.

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Dustoff 1
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State Has Big Plans for Study of Tiny Microbes


Cleaning up contaminated areas like the Portland Harbor Superfund site and the Umatilla Weapons Depot. Slowing global warming. Removing pesticides to improve water quality.

These are all gigantic endeavors, but ones that Oregon State University researchers believe can possibly be accomplished by the tiniest of organisms - microbes that just might also hold the key to life on Mars.

Subsurface microbes live below the Earth's surface in soil, mud and rock, and their potential to modify the Earth has only been recognized recently.

"Microorganisms below the subsurface play a major role in the cycles on earth," said Lewis Semprini, a professor in the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering. "It has only been in the past decade that it was recognized that deep subsurface microbes play a significant role in global cycles."

The work done by Semprini and others led to the Subsurface Biosphere Education Research initiative, one of six initiatives that were recently approved by OSU. All six support OSU's recently adopted strategic plan. The university is reallocating funds internally to provide seed funding for the initiatives.

In 1998, Semprini, and Dan Arp, chair of the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, found that some types of bacteria that grow on butane gas have the ability to transform toxic wastes to harmless endproducts. Using microorganisms to clean up contamination could save billions of dollars, Semprini said.

In 2003, Martin Fisk, a professor in the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, and other scientists discovered bacteria in a hole drilled more than 4,000 feet deep in volcanic rock on the island of Hawaii near Hilo. Fisk has said that the environment could be analogous to conditions on Mars and other planets.

"Under these conditions, microbes could live beneath any rocky planet," Fisk said at the time. "It would be conceivable to find life inside of Mars, within a moon of Jupiter or Saturn, or even on a comet containing ice crystals that gets warmed up when the comet passes by the sun." Semprini, Fisk and Arp are three of the principal investigators of the initiative proposal. The others are Peter Bottomley, professor in the Department of Microbiology; and David Myrold, professor in the Department of Crop and Soil Science.

Bottomley and Myrold study bacteria and fungi in coniferous forest ecosystems in the central Cascade Mountains at the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest. They also study nitrogen and carbon cycles.

The subsurface biosphere is an emerging area of study that connects the fields of microbiology, biotechnology, geochemistry, bioremediation (cleaning up contamination), bioengineering, agriculture, forestry, geology, oceanography, astrobiology and others.

One potential benefit is in the area of global warming. Subsurface microbes are part of the process that forms carbon dioxide and methane, contributing to global warming.

"Microbes may also remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in the subsurface, potentially playing a key role in slowing global warming," Semprini said.

Semprini said that the microbes also can help immobilize radioactive contaminants, such as uranium, in groundwater so these can be recovered or the transport slowed. They are also miniature chemical factories that have determined ways of producing mineral products with very uniform properties. For example, certain bacteria can produce magnetitic iron particles of very specific sizes that could result in much better magnetitic tapes.

This initiative will include faculty members from five colleges - Forestry, Agricultural Sciences, Science, Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences and Engineering.

"Our ultimate goal is to create a Center of Excellence for Subsurface Biosphere Education and Research," Semprini said. "It has implications for a wide range of benefits, from environmental cleanup to a better understanding of soil processes. We want to create more synergy among faculty on campus so we can collaborate on large interdisciplinary projects."

Semprini said the key to the initiative is that work is already going on at OSU.

In 2001, the National Science Foundation awarded OSU a $2.6 million grant to form the Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) Program, a graduate student training program to focus on life below the earth's surface.

"There is a significant amount of research already going on and this is a way to get the researchers together and communicate," he said, adding that there will be a potential to offer seed research money for faculty to produce exploratory research findings needed for large interdisciplinary research proposals.

Semprini feels the structure of the Center will evolve over the course of the initiative, and the principal investigators all want the center to live beyond the five years of the initiative.

"We are going to add junior faculty members that fit strategic educational and research needs that have joint appointments between different colleges. This will permit us to increase the courses offered and get undergraduates involved in the research," he said, adding that increasing the diversity of graduate and undergraduate students is also a mission of the initiative.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Dustoff101
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posted October 04, 2005 12:57
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Following the 2004 conference, two other GRC conferences on Marine Microbes are planned.

Please contact the chairs of these events for further information.

2006 in North America: Co-chairs are Dave Caron (University of South California, Los Angeles) and Alex Worden (University of Miami)

2008 in Europe: Vice-chair is Carlos Pedrós-Alió (Institut de Ciències del Mar Barcelona)


Conference Organisers
Conference Chair: Daniel Vaulot,
CNRS UMR 7127, Station Biologique de Roscoff, BP 74, 29682 Roscoff FRANCE,
Telephone: +33 2 98 29 23 34 FAX: +33 2 98 29 23 24 Email: vaulot*sb-roscoff.fr


Conference Co-chair: William K. Li
Bedford Institute of Oceanography, PO Box 1006, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, B2Y 4A2
Telephone: 1-902-426-6349 FAX: 1-902-426-9388 Email: LiB*mar.dfo-mpo.gc.ca


Conference outline

This 2004 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) will be the first one of a new series dedicated to Marine Microbes. Microbes (i.e. virus, Bacteria, Archaea, Eukaryota; autotrophic and heterotrophic) lie at the heart of the functioning of all marine ecosystems, from the surface euphotic zone to deep hydrothermal vents. Marine microbes drive the natural biogeochemical cycles and, in turn, are affected by anthropogenic influences. Thus, these microbes are directly relevant to many societal concerns of the global environment: biodiversity, climate change, harvestable resources and others. The last two decades have seen an explosion of studies devoted to these organisms. The use of molecular tools has been critical in this respect. It is timely to initiate this series with a conference on picophytoplankton because this field appears to be poised at a turning point.


Picophytoplankton, discovered in the late 1970s, are unicellular photosynthetic organisms less than 2 to 3 microns in size. These marine microbes dominate biomass and production in large regions of the ocean, thus playing a key role in global elemental cycles such as that of carbon. Nearly 20 years after the NATO Advanced Study Institute on picoplankton organized by T. Platt and W.K.W. Li, the time has arrived for a new meeting to summarize the current state of knowledge. To date, a very large amount of data has been gathered on picophytoplankton. Information on ecological distributions and taxonomic diversity have come from novel approaches such as flow cytometry and molecular biology. More strikingly, the recent development of genomics of picoplankton species such as Prochlorococcus, Synechococcus and Ostreococcus provide new and fundamental insight. This meeting will first review recent advances in the taxonomy of picophytoplankton, especially the discovery of many novel eukaryotic groups both from culture and molecular-based field studies. In particular, we will cover extensively the new tools of molecular biology. Then, we will examine the physiology and ecology of picophytoplankton and revisit its role in the microbial food web. Finally we will dwell on the very exciting developments in picophytoplankton genomics and how the new knowledge will impact on our understanding of marine ecosystems.

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Dustoff 1
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University of Washington Microbial research..

Just type the above in on google..Enjoy!

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Dustoff 1
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Programs with Microbial Research Components
Links are provided to government, industry, and other agencies and programs that have a microbial genetics component. Additional links are provided to some examples of research being done.

U.S. Government Programs

Department of Defense (DOD)

DOD microbial research is focused on health support against infections, both natural and man-made. Other DOD research studies the biosynthesis of new materials and environmental impacts of DOD activities.

Pathogen Genomic Sequencing, Defense Science Office
Biosystems
Abstracts available through Scientific and Technical Information Network search page
Department of Energy (DOE)

DOE funds an integrated effort to sequence microbial genomes of importance to energy production, chemical and materials production, environmental carbon sequestration, and environmental cleanup.

U.S. DOE Microbial Genome Program
U.S. DOE Genomics:GTL Program
Natural and Accelerated Bioremediation Research (NABIR)
Global Change Research Program
Carbon Sequestration
Joint Genome Institute
Department of Interior (DOI), U.S. Geological Survey

DOI is investigating the use of microbes to control invasive species, studying the health of microbes that digest municipal sludge, and documenting the effect of microbes on the health of ecosystems.

Biological Information & Technology Notes
No. 98-012, July 1998, "Homology of Bacterial Antimicrobial Resistance Genes From Different Origins"
No. 97-009, December 1997, "Antimicrobial Resistance in Aeromonas salmonicida"
No. 97-005, July 1997, "Evaluation of the Genetic Diversity of Renibacterium salmoninarum"
No. 97-002, June 1997, "Second Occurrence of Woodcock Mortality Associated with Orthoreovirus"
"The Formation and Destruction of Methylmercury by Bacterial Processes" Abstract
"Microbial Sources Tracking" Abstract
Microbiology and Molecular Ecology of biogeochemical cycles in aquatic environments
"Bemidji - A crude oil spill from an underground tank in a remote area resulted in a unique oportunity to study the response of the endemic bacterial community." Article
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

EPA supports a broad range of microbial research aimed at understanding the effects of microbes on pollutants and microbes as pollutants.

Microbiology home page
"Relative Abundance of Mer Genes in Microbial Gene Pools"
"Biochemical and Molecular Biology Studies of the Biodegradation of 2,4,5-Trichlorophenoxyacetic Acid: A Case History"
"Gene Transfer from GEMs to Aquatic Microbial Communities Detected by Assembly of a Catabolic Pathway"
"Studies on Conjugal Transfer of Plasmids from GEMs to Indigenous Aquatic Bacteria"
"Pseudomonads as Model Organisms in Risk Assessment of the Deliberate Release of Genetically Engineered Bacteria"
"Conjugal Gene Transfer to Aquatic Bacteria
Detected by the Generation of a New Phenotype"
Abstracts available at this page
Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

FDA research focuses on the effect of pathogens on human health and the safety of food.

"FDA's Policy for Foods Developed by Biotechnology" Chapter, American Chemical Society Symposium Series No. 605, 1995
"The Rise of Antibiotic-Resistant Infections" Feature, FDA Consumer
The"Bad Bug Book" a handbook on foodborne pathogenic microorganisms and natural toxins
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

NASA studies the genomics of microbes in extreme environments and the effects they have on human health in space.

"Streptococcus pneumoniae Gene Expression and Virulence Potential in the Space Environment"
"Bacterial Physiology and Virulence on Earth and in Microgravity"
"DNA Probe Design for Preflight and Inflight Microbial Monitoring"
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

NIST partners with other institutes to fund research in microbial bioinformatics, structural genomices, protein and metabolic engineering, standardization, and DNA diagnostics.

Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics and Protein Data Bank Partner
Thermodynamics of Enzyme-Catalyzed Reactions Database
Protein Structure Initiative (PSI)
National Institutes of Health (NIH)

NIH funds microbial research through many different NIH institutes, supporting studies into the effects of microbes on health and using microbes to study basic life processes.

National Institute of Allegy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Pathogen Genome Sequencing Activities,
Sexually Transmitted Disease Pathogens Sequencing Database
National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research
Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis Program
National Human Genome Research Institute
National Institute of General Medical Sciences
"Cell-Cell Signaling in Microbe-Host Interactions"
"Quorum Sensing and Gene Expression in Bacillus subtilis"
National Center for Research Resources
National Center for Biotechnology Information
Malaria Genetics & Genomics
Clusters of Orthologous Groups of proteins (COGs)
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

NOAA funds research to determine the effects of microbes on coastal ecosystems and natural resources.

"Loihi Submarine Volcano: A unique, natural extremophile laboratory" Feature
National Science Foundation (NSF)

NSF supports a wide range of microbial research including microbes as model organisms, microbes from critical environments, educational programs, and basic life sciences research uses microbes.

Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences at NSF
Department of Agriculture (USDA)

USDA microbial research is in critical areas of food safety, biotechnology, nutrition, plant and animal protection, and fundamental agricultural research.

Plant, Microbial, and Insect Genetic Resources, Genomics and Genetic Improvement Program
Microbial Properties Research Unit
Other Links

The Institute for Genome Research (TIGR)
The Comprehensive Microbial Resource
Sanger Centre
For more government, industry, and other programs, see our Related Links page.


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Kellogg Biological Station, Hickory Corners, Michigan
Michael J. Klug (klug*kbs.msu.edu)
James M. Tiedje (tiedjej*pilot.msu.edu)
Eldor A. Paul (paulea*pilot.msu.edu)
Katherine L. Gross (kgross*kbs.msu.edu)
G. Philip Robertson (robertson*kbs.msu.edu)
Thomas M. Schmidt (tschmidt*pilot.msu.edu)

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Soil microbial ecology is a central part of KBS LTER research. Understanding the ecological interactions underlying the productivity of field crop agriculture is the central focus of LTER research at KBS, and microbes comprise one of our most intensively studied taxa, together with vascular plants and insects. Microbial studies at KBS take a variety of forms, with most studies directed towards questions about the patterns, causes, and consequences of microbial diversity and microbial biomass for ecosystem processes in intensively managed ecosystems.

Our studies to date have centered on examinations of microbial growth rates, biomass, and fungal: bacterial ratios. We have also focused on population-level questions using direct microscopy, classical pure-culture techniques, and, for the multitude of unculturable microbes in soil, molecular analyses of phenotypes and genomes. Many of these latter techniques provide whole-soil signatures of community composition, and have been particularly useful for examaning community-level differences among sites and experimental treatments. For questions related to specific populations we have focused our efforts on examinations of specific functional groups such as denitrifiers, nitrifiers, lignin and 2,4-D degraders, and the rhizobacteria, linking these groups to specific microbial processes. Much of this research has been collaborative with the NSF Center for Microbial Ecology (www.cme.msu.edu) at Michigan State; a number of KBS LTER co-PI's are also co-investigators in the CME.

We provide below background information on our current studies of microbial community structure. Other microbial work is also underway at KBS but not described here due to space limitations – including detailed biogeochemical and population-level investigations of microbial processes such as denitrification, trace gas fluxes, and soil organic matter turnover and DOC and DON fluxes. Following this section we highlight specific analytical procedures now in use at KBS.

Microbial Community Structure


The diversity and complexity of soil microbial communities present a major challenge to our efforts to understand how biological processes can be managed in agricultural systems. Soil microbial communities are arguably the most diverse communities on earth, and the factors that determine this extraordinarily high diversity are not well understood (Caldwell et al. 1997). Torsvick et al. (1994) have provided evidence that in one gram of soil there are billions of individual organisms and thousands of species. What are the ecological consequences of such high diversity at such a small spatial scale? And how does this change across the range of scales that we consider to be important for other organisms (e.g. plants and consumers) and biogeochemical processes? To determine how to manage the biological processes controlled by soil microbes, it is important to understand the patterns, causes, and consequences of microbial diversity and the scale at which microbial communities are structured. Understanding the link between the scale at which the microbial community is structured and the scale at which ecosystem processes occur may itself tell us a great deal about the role of microbial diversity in ecosystem functioning.

The high spatial heterogeneity of soil in an ecological context is well documented (Robertson and Gross 1994, Paul and Clark 1996). Differences among habitats in the degree of soil heterogeneity may influence the diversity of microbes that occur there and their function (Gross et al. 1995). For example, our results with nitrifiers and soil C dynamics are best interpreted in relation to differences among treatments in soil heterogeneity (reflecting the availability of microhabitats) and soil organic fractions (reflecting resource heterogeneity; Paul et al. 1998a). Spatial heterogeneity in soil microbial communities occurs at a broad range of scales, from soil particles (e.g. soil macroaggregates), to plant rhizospheres, to field plots, and to the ecosystem and global levels (Tiedje 1994).


At KBS we have documented that there is spatially-structured dependence in microbial processes at both a macro- (e.g 10's of meters, Robertson et al.1997) and micro- (cm, Cavigelli et al. 1995) scale. We have shown that microbial activity (measured by short-term microbial respiration) varies among and within plant communities; in some sites samples taken only centimeters apart vary by a factor of >2. The among-community scale component of this nested variation may be attributable to differences in primary productivity and soil physical properties (e.g. depth to the Bt horizon). At the within-community scales, the doubling of microbial activity may be attributable to the distance to the nearest plant. However, we suspect that these differences may also be due to heterogeneity in soil structure, leading to discontinuous resource availability at the millimeter-scale. This small-scale heterogeneity may be driven by the interaction of plant-derived substrates, such as roots and decaying plant particles, and within-aggregate habitats differences due to clay content, pore sizes, and aeration.

To date, our investigations of soil microbial communities have primarily concentrated on the level and pattern of microbial diversity among the different plant communities that occur on the KBS LTER site. These communities range from the intensively managed row crops under different input intensities to native communities at different successional stages. Our results, generated by a variety of phenotypic and genetic approaches, have documented differences in the apparent diversity of whole-soil microbial communities (patterns of bacterial fatty acids, FAMEs), as well as differences in the diversity of key functional groups, notably denitrifiers (Cavigelli 1998) and nitrifiers (Bruns et al. 1998).


In the past decade we have concentrated on documenting the level and patterns of microbial diversity among ecosystems using strategies such as those outlined in the figure at right. We have now begun more intense investigations of the regulation, maintenance, and consequences of microbial community structure. We hypothesize that the majority of soil microbial diversity is driven by the heterogeneous distribution of resources and habitats in soil. For example, we have found a variety of autotrophic nitrifier genera in our never-tilled successional plots (Bruns et al. 1998), all of which grow in the laboratory only at low NH4+ concentrations. In contrast, in our agronomic plots there is a single dominant genus (Nitrosomonas) that is able to grow across a wider range of NH4+ concentrations. These differences in nitrifier diversity could be due to differences in resource availability, and therefore competitive interactions. However, this pattern may also be due to greater diversity of protective soil habitats in the never-tilled community. Heterogeneity in soil structure, which may lead to higher levels of microbial diversity, is affected not only by cultivation regime but also by the presence and activity of plants that create biopores and habitat for the mesofauna that are directly responsible for much of the soil structure (Oades 1993).

To improve our knowledge of how microbial community structure interacts with the functioning of ecosystems we must obtain a more quantitative knowledge of the interaction between microbes, plant residues and disturbance, at a variety of spatial scales. This will require examining the availability of specific resources (at the substrate level) across multiple spatial scales.

We are currently concentrating our research on soil microbial communities at the KBS LTER in four areas:

Investigations of the availability of microbial resources (especially substrates) through continued studies on the pools and fluxes of soil organic matter;
Examination of the scales at which carbon turns over in soils from the microaggregate (mm) to the landscape (km);
Investigations of the diversity and structure of specific groups of soil microbes across the 11 different communities on the KBS LTER, with an initial emphasis on Basidiomycete fungi, a microbial group that is responsible for significant carbon turnover in soil; and
Investigations of the linkage between plant diversity, disturbance, soil structure, microbial diversity, and key ecosystem functions such as primary productivity, nitrogen cycling, and nutrient retention in general.


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Analytical Procedures Used for Microbial Ecology at KBS
Microbial Biomass
Microbial biomass is enumerated at KBS using the chloroform incubation technique calibrated with direct microscopy. Specific techniques are documented in Howarth et al. (1994, 1996) and Paul et al. (1998). Results are available on the KBS LTER web site.

Fungal Biomass and Fungal: Bacterial Ratios
Ergosterol is a steroid found in most fungi, but absent in other microorganisms. We have found that the concentration of ergosterol in soils (Stahl and Parkin 1996) is directly related to the growth rate of fungi and provides an estimate of the fungal biomass in soil. Comparisons of fungal and bacterial ratios, and the size of bacterial biomass are also useful for documenting changes within soil microbial communities. Computerized fluorescence microscopy has greatly aided our ability to examine these characteristics.

Culturable Microorganisms
During the establishment of our main cropping systems site a culture collection of bacteria was established to provide a benchmark collection. From over 1000 isolates a 100-isolate subset was selected for intensive study ("the KBS 100"). These isolates have been characterized using a variety of polyphasic taxonomic tools (see figure above) and are maintained as a long-term reference collection. Additional collections include lignin decomposing Basidiomycetes from the site (molecular techniques show that many have previously not been described; Thorn et al. 1996) as well as collections of denitrifiers (Cavigelli 1998) and nitrifiers (Bruns 1996).

Non-Culturable Microbes: Community-Level Signatures
We have used a variety of phenotypic tools to characterize soil microbial community composition as related to ecological change (Klug and Tiedje 1993, Sinsabaugh et al. 1998). These include fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) and phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analyses (Peterson and Klug 1994, Haack et al. 1994, Cavigelli et al. 1995, Corlew-Newman and Klug 1998), as well as Biolog™ carbon utilization signatures. We are also using G+C analysis to examine the distributions of low G+C populations (e.g. Pseudomonas) vs. high G+C populations (e.g. Arthrobacter), and L-asparaginase activity to resolve differences in rhizosphere populations.

Population-Level Signatures: Gene Probes
We have collaborated with the NSF Center for Microbial Ecology (CME) at MSU in the development and testing of several gene probes for assaying specific soil populations at KBS. Particularly successful has been the deployment of probes for 2,4-D metabolism (Holben et al. 1992, Ka et al. 1994a,b,c,d, 1995), and for nitrifying bacteria (Zhou et al. 1995, Bruns 1996, Bruns et al. 1998). We are beginning to design population-specific rRNA oligonucleotide probes to determine the contribution of these various fractions of rRNA to total prokaryotic community rRNA. The advantage of working with RNA is that it allows detection of the most active (highest ribosome content) populations, which are also probably the most dominant populations.

Population-Level Signatures: Phenotypic Techniques
We have used lipid analysis (fatty acid markers) to track changes in fungal communities in different soils (Stahl and Klug 1996, 1998, Stahl et al. 1998), changes in mycorrhizal associations (Calderon 1997), and differences in denitrifier community composition (Cavigelli 1998). These techniques have been combined with techniques for culturable microbes and community-level signatures (above).

Bacterial Growth Rates
Microbial biomass provides an estimate of the pool size of microorganisms, but not of biomass turnover. We have examined bacterial turnover dynamics using 3H, thymidine, and 14C-leucine incorporation kinetics (Harris 1994, Harris and Paul 1994).

Microbial Process Measurements
Measurements of key microbial processes such as nitrification, carbon mineralization, and carbon and nitrogen gas fluxes are coupled to those of microbial and plant community structure to provide insight into the functional significance of microbial diversity at KBS. Processes examined include CH4 oxidation and N2O production (Robertson 1993, Paustian et al. 1995, Ambus and Robertson 1998a,b), carbon oxidation (Paul et al. 1994, 1998a,b, Paustian et al. 1995), denitrification (Cavigelli 1998), and nitrification (Bruns 1996, Knoke 1997).

Microbial Predators
Nematodes are important fungal and bacterial consumers that can affect the distribution and abundance of microbial populations. We have examined changes in nematode groups among cropping system treatments (Freckman and Ettema 1993) as well as the distribution of various nematode trophic groups (Robertson and Freckman 1995). These studies, in combination with our data on biomass and biomass turnover measurements, provide evidence on the controls in the distribution of key microbial groups in soils.
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References

Ambus, P., and G.P. Robertson. 1998. Automated near-continuous measurement of CO2 and N2O fluxes with a photoacoustic infra-red spectrometer and flow-through soil cover boxes. Soil Science Society of America Journal 62:394-400.

Ambus, P., and G.P. Robertson. 1999. Fluxes of CH4 and N2O from Poplar stands grown under ambient and twice-ambient CO2. Plant and Soil (submitted).

Bruns, M. 1996. Nucleic acid probe analysis of autotrophic ammonia-oxidizer populations in soils. Ph.D. Dissertation, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan.

Bruns, M.A., J.A. Fries, J.M. Tiedje, and E.A. Paul. 1998. Functional gene hybridization patterns of terrestrial ammonia-oxidizing bacteria. Microbial Ecology 36:293-302.

Calderon, F. 1997. Lipids: Their value as molecular markers and their role in the carbon cycle of arbuscular mycorrihizae. Ph.D. Dissertation, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan.

Caldwell, D.E., G.M. Wolfaardt, D.R. Korber, and J.R. Lawrence. 1997. Do bacterial communities transcend Darwinism? Advances in Microbial Ecology 15: 105-191

Cavigelli, M.A., G.P. Robertson, and M.J. Klug. 1995. Fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) profiles as measures of soil microbial community structure. Pages 99-113 in H.P. Collins, G.P. Robertson, and M.J. Klug, eds. The Significance and Regulation of Soil Biodiversity. Plant and Soil 170. Kluwer Academic Publishing, Dordrecht, Netherlands.

Cavigelli, M. 1998. Ecosystem consequences and spatial variability of microbial soil community structure. Ph.D. Thesis, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan.

Cavigelli, M. A., G. P. Robertson, and M. J. Klug. 1995. Fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) profiles as measures of soil microbial community structure. Pages 99-113 in H. P. Collins, G. P. Robertson, and M. J. Klug, eds. The Significance and Regulation of Soil Biodiversity. Plant and Soil 170. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Netherlands.

Cavigelli, M. A., and G. P. Robertson. 1999. The functional significance of denitrifier community composition in a terrestrial ecosystem. Ecology (in press).

Collins, H. P., G. P. Robertson, and M. J. Klug, eds. 1995. The Significance and Regulation of Soil Biodiversity. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands. Also published as Plant and Soil 170:1-241.

Freckman, D.W. and C.H. Ettema. 1993. Assessing nematode communities in agroecosystems of varying human intervention. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Envrionment 45:239-261.

Haack, S.K., H. Garchow, D.A. Odelson, L.J. Forney and M.J. Klug. 1994. Microbial community analysis: accuracy, reproducibility and interpretation of fatty acid methyl ester profiles from model bacterial communities. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 60:2483-2493.

Harris, D. 1994. Analyses of DNA extracted from microbial communities. Pages 111-118 in K. Ritz, J. Dighton, and K. Giller, eds. Beyond the Biomass. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, England.

Harris, D., and E.A. Paul. 1994. Measurement of microbial growth rates in soil. Applied Soil Ecology 1:277-290.

Holben, W.E., B.M. Schroeder, V.G.M. Calabrese, R.H. Olsen, J.K. Kukor, V.O. Biederbeck, A.E. Smith, and J.M. Tiedje. 1992. Gene probe analysis of soil microbial populations selected by amendment with 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D). Applied Environment Microbiology 58:3941-3948.

Horwath, W.R., and E.A. Paul. 1994. Microbial biomass. Pages 753-774 in R.W. Weaver, J.S. Angle, P.J. Bottomley, D.F. Bezdicek, M.S. Smith, M.A. Tabatabai, and A.G. Wollum, eds. Methods of Soil Analysis Part 2-Microbiological and Biochemical Properties. Soil Science Society of America, Madison, Wisconsin, USA.

Horwath, W.R., E.A. Paul, D. Harris, J. Norton, L. Jagger, and K.A. Horton. 1996. Defining a realistic control for the chloroform-fumigation incubation method using microscopic counting and 14C-substrates. Can. J. Soil Sci. 96:459-467.

Ka, J.O., P. Burauel, J.A. Bronson, W.E. Holben, and J.M. Tiedje. 1995. DNA probe analysis of microbial community selected in field by long-term 2,4-D application. Soil Science Society of America Journal 59:1581-1587.

Ka, J.O., W.E. Holben, and J.M. Tiedje. 1994. Analysis of competition in soil among 2,4-D degrading bacteria. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 60:1121-1128.

Ka, J.O., W.E. Holben, and J.M. Tiedje. 1994. Genetic and phenotypic diversity of 2,4-D degrading bacteria isolated from 2,4-D treated field soils. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 60:1106-1115.

Ka, J.O., W.E. Holben, and J.M. Tiedje. 1994. Integration and excision of a 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetate acid-degradative plasmid in alcaligenes paradoxus and evidence of its natural intergeneric transfer. Journal Bacteriology 176:5284-5289.

Ka, J.O., W.E. Holben, and J.M. Tiedje. 1994. Use of gene probes to aid recovery and identification of functionally dominant 2,4-D degrading populations in soil. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 60:1116-1120.

Klug, M.J. and J.M. Tiedje. 1993. Response of microbial communities to changing environmental conditions: chemical and physiological approaches. Pages 371-374 in R. Guerrero and C. Pedros-Alio, eds. Trends in Microbial Ecology, Spanish Society for Microbiology, Barcelona, Spain.

Knoke, K.E. 1997. Assessment of the origin and fate of nitrate from soil lysimeters using stable nitrogen isotopes. M.Sc. Thesis, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan.

Oades, J. M. 1993. The role of biology in the formation, stabilization and degradation of soil structure. Geoderma 56: 377-400.

Paul, E.A. and F.E. Clark. 1996. Soil Microbiology and Biochemistry. 2nd edition. Academic Press, Inc., San Diego, CA. 340 pp

Paul, E.A., D. Harris, M. Klug, and R. Ruess. 1999. The determination of microbial biomass. In G.P. Robertson, D.C. Coleman, C.S. Bledsoe, and P. Sollins, eds. Standard Soil Methods for Long-Term Ecological Research, Oxford University Press, New York (In press).

Paul, E.A., H.P. Collins, D. Harris, U. Schulthess, and G.P. Robertson. 1998. The influence of biological management inputs on carbon mineralization in ecosystems. Applied Soil Ecology 327: 1-13.

Paul, E.A., E.T. Elliott, C.V. Cole and K. Paustian (eds.). 1994. Soil Organic Matter Dynamics in Agroecosystems. Lewis CRC Publishers, Boca Raton, Florida. 500 pp.

Paustian, K., G.P. Robertson, and E.T. Elliott. 1995. Management impacts on carbon storage and gas fluxes (CO2, CH4) in mid-latitude cropland ecosystems. Pages 69-84 in R. Lal, J. Kimble, E. Levine, and B.A. Stewart, eds. Soil Management and the Greenhouse Effect, Advances in Soil Science. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida.

Paustian, K., H.P. Collins, and E.A. Paul. 1997. Management controls on soil carbon. Pages 15-49 in E.A. Paul, K. Paustian, E.T. Elliot and C.V. Cole, eds. Soil Organic Matter in Temperate Agroecosystems: Long-Term Experiments in North America. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, USA.

Peterson, S.O. and M.J. Klug. 1994. Effects of sieving, storage and incubation temperature on the phospholipid fatty acid profile of a soil microbial community. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 60:2421-2430.

Robertson, G.P. 1993. Fluxes of nitrous oxide and other nitrogen trace gases from intensively managed landscapes: a global perspective. Pages 95-108 in L.A. Harper, A.R. Mosier, J.M. Duxbury, and D.E. Rolston, eds. Agricultural Ecosystem Effects on Trace Gases and Global Climate Change. American Society of Agronomy, Madison, Wisconsin, USA.

Robertson, G.P., and D.W. Freckman. 1995. The spatial distribution of nematode trophic groups across a cultivated ecosystem. Ecology 76:1425-1432.

Robertson, G. P. and E.A. Paul. 1998. Ecological research in agricultural ecosystems: contributions to ecosystem science and to the management of agronomic resources. Pages 142-164 in M. L. Pace and P. M. Groffman, eds. Successes, Limitations and Frontiers in Ecosystem Science. Cary Conference VII, Springer-Verlag, New York.

Robertson, G. P., K. M. Klingensmith, M. J. Klug, E. A. Paul, J. C. Crum, and B. G. Ellis. 1997. Soil resources, microbial activity, and primary production across an agricultural ecosystem. Ecological Applications 7: 158-170.

Sinsabaugh, R.L., M.J. Klug, H.P. Collins, P.E. Yeager, and S. O. Peterson. 1999. Characterizing soil microbial communities. In G.P. Robertson, C.S. Bledsoe, D.C. Coleman, and P. Sollins, eds. Standard Soil Methods for Long-Term Ecological Research, Oxford University Press, New York (In press).

Stahl, P.D., and T.B. Parkin. 1996. Relationship of soil ergosterol content and fungal biomass. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 28:847-855.

Stahl, P.D., and M.J. Klug. 1999. Lipid comparisons of microfungal communities from soils and on different agricultural management practices. Plant and Soil (In press).

Stahl, P.D., and M.J. Klug. 1996. Characterization and differentiation of filamentous fungi based on fatty acid composition. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 62:4136-4146.

Tiedje, J.M. 1994. Approaches to the comprehensive evaluation of procaryote diversity of a habitat. In: D.Allsopp, R.R. Colwell, and D.L. Hawksworth (eds) Microbial Diversity and Ecosystem Function, CAB International,Wallingford, U.K.

Torsvik, V., J. Goksoyr, F.L. Daae, R. Sorheim, J. Michelsen, and K. Salte. 1994. Use of DNA analysis to determine the diversity of microbial communities. In: Beyond the Biomass. K. Ritz, J. Dighton, and K.E. Diller (eds.) Wiley Sayce, London, England. pp. 39-48

Zhou, J., M.A. Bruns, and J.M. Tiedje. 1995. Rapid method for recovery of DNA from soils of diverse composition. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 62:316-322.


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Microbial Observatories and Microbial Research at LTER Sites
Gary Toranzos and Mathew Kane of NSF, John Vande Castle of LTER Network Office and the principal investigators of the LTER Microbial Observatories

Setting up a food-web manipulation experiment at Crystal Bog in Vilas County, WI (North Temperate Lakes LTER). The water is filtered through various size sieves to remove certain components of the microbial food web.The water is then incubated in containers in the lake to see what effect removal of organisms will have on the bacterial community. In this photo, initial samples of the microbial communities are taken for later comparison.

When the first six LTER sites in the LTER Network were funded in 1980, the idea of studying specific ecosystems at temporal and spatial scales was revolutionary. Currently all 24 LTER sites participate in this endeavor, and there is much interest from LTER networks forming in Latin America, Africa, Europe, Australia, and Asia to develop this work further, demonstrating the importance of multiple-scale science initiatives.

Among all existing organisms, prokaryotes are the most numerous and the most ubiquitous, but ironically, the least understood. Their roles in biological processes is virtually unknown. With this in mind, NSF initiated “The Microbial Observatories Program.” The guiding themes of the MO Program (http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2002/
nsf02118/nsf02118.htm) are: the discovery of newly described or poorly understood microorganisms/consortia/communities from diverse habitats, but not simply their discovery—also the exploration of these organisms and their unique genomic, metabolic, ecological and/or evolutionary properties at a particular site or habitat.

In response to this initiative, LTER formed a Subcommittee on Microbial Ecology and drafted a tentative research agenda for LTER-associated MO projects in 1999 (See http://www.lternet.edu/microbial_ecology/). Three years later, it is encouraging to see that eight of the thirty NSF funded Microbial Observatories have been established at LTER sites. LTER sites are “user-friendly” for microbiologists, as data for any Microbial Observatory project can be coordinated with and compared to other data that gathered by LTER participants.

We now know that prokaryotes are the most abundant and ecologically and metabolically diverse forms of life on Earth. Genomic segments have been transferred across the broadest of phylogenetic boundaries, implying that close to its roots, the Tree of Life has more web-like than branch-like connections. The concern over bio-terrorism makes research in microbial ecology very timely. As more robust and sensitive methods are developed to scrutinize prokaryotic biota, we will be better able to understand microbial processes. In this manner within the realm of ecology, microbial processes will no longer be in a “black box.”

The National Science Foundation hosted a workshop for researchers of all the Microbial Observatories 22-24 Sept 2002. Results from the workshop and links to all the LTER Microbial Observatory Projects listed here can be found at:
http://www.lternet.edu/microbial_ecology/

Salt Marsh Microbes and Microbial Processes: Sulfur and Nitrogen (Plum Island LTER) John Hobbie
Microbial Observatory research at the Plum Island LTER site identifies prokaryotes in salt marsh sediments and plankton and determines their role in controlling major ecosystem processes. They have found that organic materials, probably of algal origin, dominate both sediment organic-carbon composition and bacterial carbon processing in the Spartina marsh. The diversity of ammonia oxidizing bacteria suggest that salinity is a primary factor in driving community structure, and possibly metabolic function, of these organisms in estuarine sediments. Annual patterns of sulfate reducing bacteria diversity in the rhizosphere show persistent populations throughout the growing season while greater variability was seen in unvegetated creek sediments. Mixing of marine and freshwater communities along the salinity gradients result in a third community unique to estuarine waters, which is related to the flushing time of the estuary and to the high productivity of phytoplankton blooms.

A Microbial Observatory for the Northern Temperate Lakes LTER Eric Triplett
The research objective at North Temperate Lakes LTER is to characterize the diversity of freshwater microbial populations and their relationship to ecosystem processes in lakes that represent the major trophic types of temperate landscapes: oligotrophic (clear water, few nutrients), humic (brown water, rich in dissolved organic carbon), and eutrophic (nutrient rich, high biomass of algae and bacteria). Their reserach combines molecular methods for describing naturally occurring microbial communities with more traditional measures of microbial processes and microscopic assessments of algal and bacterial populations. During the ice-free period for two successive years, our data reveal that while bacterial community composition within a particular lake can exhibit rapid changes, the greatest variability in BCC was observed between lakes.


Justine Lyons, a Ph.D. student at the University of Georgia, retrieves samples at the Sapelo Island Microbial observatory for a project investigating interactions between bacterial and fungal decomposers. (Photo: Mary Ann Moran)



PVC pipe serve as artificial stems to anchor decaying plant material infiltrated with a single fungal species. (Photo: Mary Ann Moran)

Prokaryotic Diversity of a Salt Marsh/Estuarine Complex at the University of Georgia Marine Institute, Sapelo Island (Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER) Mary Ann Moran
Our efforts focus on the composition and functioning of microbial communities in coastal salt marshes in the southeastern U.S. Research on decomposer communities has uncovered a diverse bacterial community that is physically associated with a low-diversity acomycete-dominated fungal community. These communities vary with season and decomposition stage, but show little spatial heterogeneity in the marsh ecosystem. Gene sequencing approaches to describing microbial communities have revealed considerable ‘microdiversity’ within salt marsh bacterial taxa; the ecological importance of this 16S rRNA microdiversity is not yet well understood, but may be a critical issue for linking microbial structure and function. Sequence data from these and other molecular ecology studies need to be integrated with ecological information about samples, collection conditions, and environmental characteristics. We have constructed a prototype web-accessible public database that links 16S rRNA gene sequences with associated environmental information
(http://www.simo.marsci.uga.edu).

Diversity of Nitrogen-Cycling Microorganisms at the H.J. Andrews LTER David Myrold
Investigators at the H.J. Andrews hope to determine links between vegetation types and microbial communities, to examine the spatial variability along meadow-to-forest transects, to correlate microbial community structure with nitrogen cycling processes, and identify key and potentially novel nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria. Findings indicate that nitrification potentials are consistent along meadow-to-forest transects and only changed significantly after crossing a boundary. Nitrification and denitrification potentials are more than ten-fold higher in the meadow than forest soil, consistent with past studies. Similar shifts are observed in microbial community composition.

Observing Patterns of Prokaryotic Diversity along Land use Gradients of the CAP Fred Rainey
The Central Arizona-Phoenix Long Term Ecological Research (CAP LTER) site is investigating changes in bacterial diversity across land use gradients and the ubiquity of certain bacterial groups throughout the compact yet diverse environment. We have found a significant difference in the proportion organisms between urban and desert samples. Using culture-independent tools we have seen distinct shifts of bacterial diversity dependent on land use as well as the discovery of taxa that have the abilities to remain throughout the site.

Spatial Scales of Genetic and Phenotypic Diversity Among Streptomycetes in Native Soils (takes place at Cedar Creek LTER) Linda Kinkel
The main objectives for this research is to spatially quantify genetic and phenotypic diversity among the antibiotic-producing microorganisms Streptomycetes. The research also looks at the effects of different plant species on microbial genetic diversity. We know that at CDR, genetically similar organisms tend to be tightly clustered in space and there is a very high diversity of antibiotic activities among Streptomycetes in at all spatial scales. Studies of the resulting antibiotic inhibition and resistance show the inhibition effects increase with soil depth and that organisms were better at inhibiting isolates originating from different locations than from the same location in soil, and the associations of Streptomycetes vary significantly with different plant species.

Microbial Biogeochemistry and Functional Diversity across the Forest-Tundra Ecotone in the Rocky Mountains (Niwot Ridge LTER) Steve Schmidt
Microbial studies near Niwot Ridge focus on changes in microbial biogeochemistry and diversity associated with the transition from the snow covered winter period to summer growing season in alpine tundra and sub-alpine forests of the Rocky Mountains. The comprehensive seasonal approach has provides new insight into both microbial diversity and biogeochemical functioning in the highly seasonal environment. They have found a large temporal variation in microbial activity, with pronounced biogeochemical changes evident during snowmelt. The research in general implies that soil microbial communities are very dynamic at any given site.

A Cold Microbial Observatory: Collaborative Research in an Alaskan Boreal Forest Soil (Bonanza Creek LTER) Jo Handelsman
A particular interest at Bonanza Creek is the role of microorganisms in the phosphorus cycle and the limitation of phosphorus on ecosystem productivity. The goals are to describe the diversity of the microbial life in the soil and discover mechanisms by which microbes in the soil extract phosphorus from the environment. Preliminary analyses suggest that there is potential for discovering novel bacterial groups and mechanisms of utilization of phosphorus.


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- Copyright 2001 Long Term Ecological Research Network -
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Cooperative Agreement #DEB-9634135. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in the material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
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