New Mexico Geological Society Annual Spring Meeting — Abstracts

Several environmental samples near the Sun Spot Observatory in the southern Sacramento Mountains were analyzed for chemical and microbial content. The samples were obtained within 1 km² of each other, one from a drinking well of the observatory, one from a nearby spring, one from surface soil, and one from fallen snow that was sampled about 1 cm beneath its icy surface. All samples were analyzed for main cations and anions, total phosphorus, total organic carbon, total biomass, phospho-lipid fatty acids (PLFA) and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). The surface soil sample exhibited the highest amount of nutrients, biomass, and species diversity. Surprisingly, the snow sample exhibited the 2nd highest amount of biomass with higher values than the spring and the ground-water sample. This was consistent with total organic carbon results that showed total organic carbon content of 16 mg/L in the snow sample. For a follow-up study, precipitation samples were conected and analyzed for microbial content. A culturable cell abundance of 4800 cens per mL of water was counted. Extractable DNA sequences pointed to soil-associated bacteria primarily, but also to plant pathogens and possibly human pathogens. These results indicate that the atmosphere may be a much more important environment for microbes than traditionally realized, at least representing am important transitional habitat for transport purposes.