Geomicrobiology

Geomicrobiology (sometimes the broader term “geobiology” is used) is the interdisciplinary study of the interactions of microorganisms and earth materials (including soil, sediment, the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, minerals, and rocks). Microbes play a quantitatively dominant role in which geology, biology, chemistry, and hydrology intersect within the Earth’s surface (Nealson and others, 2001). Modern molecular techniques (the use of nucleic-acid base sequencing technology to identify the phylogenetic groups present within mixed microbial populations) have significantly extended the classical approaches. Insights gained from the application of new tools have exposed previously unrecognized ties between the biological and geological worlds. Metagenomics (the genomic analysis of microbial communities) may be a tool to characterize the combined functions of microorganisms at a given place in the environment and to track a system’s fundamental biotic response to evolving environmental factors. These molecular technologies are at the cutting edge of science. Because of the importance of microorganisms to the earth system, and because of the explosion in the power of tools that are becoming available to understand and describe the functionality of these microorganisms, the USGS should expand its current geomicrobiology research, building upon the excellent work already underway.
Quoted from the USGS Science Strategy (p. 58)

Acid Mine Drainage Microbiology of Acid Mine Drainage	Arsenic Geomicrobiology, Biochemistry, Biogeochemistry
Mercury Estuarine Sediments; Louisiana Estuarine and Wetland Gradients; Stream Ecosystems; Methylation and Microbial Community Structure; Plant-Microbe Interactions in Wetland Sediments; San Francisco Bay Salt Pond Restoration; Urban Salt Marsh Restoration	Selenium Microbial Selenium Cycle in Nature
Storm Impacts Biogeochemistry and Microbial Community Structures in Louisiana Coastal Marshes

• USGS Arsenic Studies Group
• USGS Mercury in the Environment
• Toxic Substances Hydrology Program
  

Scientists* Ackerman, Josh T. Aiken, George R. Brigham, Mark E. Doyle, Thomas Eagles-Smith, Collin A. Goldhaber, Martin B. Hoeft, Shelley E. Holloway, JoAnn M. Kotra, Rama K.   Krabbenhoft, David P. Krauss, Ken W. Marvin-DiPasquale, Mark C. Mills, Christopher   Orem, William H. Oremland, Ronald S. Schuster, Paul F. Shanley, James B. Swarzenski, Christopher M. Stanton, Mark R. Voytek, Mary Windham-Myers, Lisamarie

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*this list of USGS scientists involved in geomicrobiology is likely to be incomplete