TOWARDS AN INTEGRATION OF PHYSICAL AND MICROBIOLOGICAL PROPERTIES

While novel microbial interactions and new sources of subsurface energy continue to be discovered, numerous geophysical and geochemical properties that determine microbial characteristics are, in principal, understood. However, applying this knowledge to subsurface systems is complicated by issues of defining the most limiting parameter or process, reconciling scale and frequency of measurement to the site and regional context, and understanding the richness of physiological states and interactions that occur in microbial populations. This presentation will provide an overview of the properties that are known (or thought) to be primary determinants of microbial characteristics in the subsurface, and introduce physiological and ecological concepts that offer the potential to improve the mapping of microbial activities to hydrogeochemical categories.