The Fleet of Chevys

(Written by Kathryn Docherty, lead investigator of the project at WMU.) Departure Day is getting close! We picked up our fleet of 3 white Chevys today to be packed up with all our gear for air microbial sampling. We are heading out to 8 different sites throughout the United States to sample airborne microbial communities at several different levels of the atmosphere. We'll sample in 2 rangeland ecosystems and 2 forested ecosystems, and pair urban and rural sites at four locations. First we are headed to Jornada LTER in New Mexico, and then to Albuquerque, the urban counterpart. Next we head to Denver and Central Plains Experimental Range in Colorado. We'll have a day or two back home and then go up to University of Michigan's Biological Station, then Harvard Forest LTER and Boston in Massachusetts. Finally, we'll come back home to Kalamazoo and sample there last. This project is sponsored by the NSF-Macrosystems Division and most of our rural sites are co-located with National Ecological Observatory Network sampling locations. 2 PIs, 2 grad students and 5 undergrads are going on this month-long adventure to characterize airborne microbial community patterns.