Division N Newsletter

Welcome to the Division N home page.

Division Business
candidates for elected office, election results, other news

DIVISION N OFFICERS

Current Division N officers are:

Chair: Mary Ann Moran (University of Georgia)
Chair Elect: Fred Brockman (Pacific Northwest National Lab)
Councilor: Rick Colwell (Idaho National Eng. and Env. Lab)
Alternate Councilor: Martin Polz (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Division Advisor (Past Chair): Edward DeLong (MBARI)

Programs
updates on symposia and awards, meetings of interest to members

ASM 102nd GENERAL MEETING: DIVISION N SESSIONS

The 102nd General Meeting of ASM will be held in Salt Lake City, May 19 - 23, 2002. Sessions sponsored by Division N are:

The dynamics of microbial populations is fundamentally controlled by the balance between growth and mortality. Yet measuring these very basic processes in natural systems remains problematic. The development of new approaches and the reexamination of familiar ones are leading to new insights into what controls the numbers and activities of microbes in marine and freshwater ecosystems. This session will explore analytical approaches for assessing growth and/or mortality rates, and discuss what the results of these approaches tell us about regulation of microbial populations in nature.

Ecological genomics is emerging as an important new tool for the difficult challenge of linking specific members of natural bacterial communites to key biogeochemical functions in natural environments. Modern genomic technologies are being brought to bear on ecologically-relevant culturable organisms as well as mixed natural microbial communities, most members of which have not been brought into culture. This session will explore recent applications of modern genomics in microbial ecology.

Our understanding of the global cycling of carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, and other essential elements has been constrained by the limited temporal and spatial scales that are generally accessible for study. Predictive capabilities are further hampered by a general lack of detailed knowledge of the specific microbes and microbial processes. Thus, rates of productivity, decomposition, nutrient regeneration, and other critical processes have been measured as bulk, averaged properties, with little knowledge of the specific microbial communities involved, and at relatively few locations. A recent revolution in microbial ecology methodologies, observatory science, and remote and in situ sensing technologies can provide new tools to enable more comprehensive, global analyses of microbial processes, at scales ranging from single cells to global ecosystems. This session will explore ideas emerging from interdisciplinary studies of microbes, that merge physical, chemical and geological observations, with population level and process-oriented studies of microbial ecosystems, at a variety of spatial and temporal scales.

Discovery and analysis of genes encoding important ecological functions are leading to better understanding of the roles of bacteria in biogeochemical processes. Retrieval of functional genes from natural samples has provided new perspectives on pathways for carbon and nitrogen fixation and energy acquisition, led to the discovery of previously unrecognized bacterial taxa, and provided insights into the diversity of organisms and genes that drive important transformations in natural environments. This session focuses on studies of functional genes that mediate nitrogen and carbon cycling in aquatic and terrestrial environments.

THE AQUATIC MICROBIOLOGY NEWSLETTER

The Aquatic Microbiology Newsletter, now in its 40th year of publication, is available to Division N members of ASM. The newsletter covers a broad range of aquatic microbial activities. There is a charge of $5.00 to cover publication and postage costs for two yearly issues. Inquiries should be directed to the newsletter editor, Dr. Samuel P. Meyers, Louisiana State University Station, P.O. Box 19090-A, Baton Rouge, LA 70893 [Email: ocean@lsu.edu] 

Last Modified: 06/19/03