NASA/CSU Spaceward Bound

Molecular and biochemical characterization of biological soil crusts.

The NASA/CSU Spaceward Bound program is an astrobiology field learning experience that functionally integrates pre- and in-service K12 STEM teachers into the scientific study of the Mojave desert.  I served as Director for this program, and during the expeditions across 2009-2016, students from the CSU, along with scientists from both the CSU and NASA, converged in the Mojave desert and combined their efforts towards the genetic, biochemical, and geochemical study of biological soil crusts, which are symbiotic microbial communities that assist in the nutrient and water cycling in arid lands.

Descriptions of the 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, and 2016 expeditions can be found at the program website, which is www.spacewardbound.org.

In 2017, the students of several Spaceward Bound programs helped prepare a peer-reviewed manuscipt which was published in Frontiers in Microbiology. 

In Mogul et al. Front. Microbiol. 2017, we expanded upon the biogeography of biological soil crusts (BSCs) and provided molecular insights into the microbial community and biochemical dynamics along the vertical BSC column structure, and across a transect of increasing BSC surface coverage in the central Mojave Desert, CA, United States. Next generation sequencing revealed that the bacterial community profile is distinct among BSCs in the southwestern United States.  Our studies also suggest that BSCs from regions of differing surface coverage represent early successional stages, which exhibit increasing bacterial diversity, metabolic activities, and capacity to restructure the soil. The total results suggest that BSC successional maturation and colonization across the transect are inhibited by metals/metalloids such as B, Ca, Ti, Mn, Co, Ni, Mo, and Pb.

 Mogul et al. Front. Microbiol. 2017