My lab this summer will explore bacterial diversity in twelve unique vegetative plots within Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Kristina Reid, an undergraduate research assistant, will lead efforts to describe bacterial species distributional patterns as compared to dominant tree and plant community types. Other students will help in field and lab tasks. These will include examining difficult to culture organisms that are common in nature and play important roles in ecosystem health through the cycling of nutrients. We will use DNA-based methods of identifying dominant species and will also examine "thermophiles" - or heat-loving organisms - from the same locations.

Species Report: ProkaryoticSpeciesIdentified200203.doc

Principal Investigator

PI Name:  Dr. Sean O'Connell

PI Organization:  Western Carolina University