BII: Regional OneHealth Aerobiome Discovery Network (BROADN)

This project will explore fundamental details about microbes that live in the air, the aerobiome. The health of humans, other animals, and plants depends upon vast communities of microorganisms that colonize living surfaces. The same is true in soil and water, where microorganisms influence the health and productivity of those environments.

In contrast, microbial life found in the atmosphere is understudied, even though we know that microorganisms can move through the air, serving vital ecological functions as well as providing disease transmission pathways. For example, many pathogens of animals and plants are spread via the air, and certain bacteria that are found in clouds are capable of influencing precipitation patterns.

Key knowledge gaps about the aerobiome remain due to the technical challenges associated with studying this system. The interdisciplinary team constituting the Biology Integration Institute: Regional OneHealth Aerobiome Discovery Network (BROADN) will study how airborne microbial populations are altered by seasonality, weather patterns, and environmental stresses such as drought, intensive agriculture, and fire.

This project will also investigate how microbes move between the land surface and the atmosphere, and what properties allow some organisms to survive in the atmosphere. Collaboration with regional partners, including a First Forward Institution serving rural first-generation students and a Hispanic Serving Institution will involve students in sample collection and analyses, revealing the fascinating unseen biology of the air.

These and other educational programs will break down disciplinary barriers to educate the next generation of biologists and will share insights about the aerobiome to K-12 students and the public. The new understanding of the life cycles of microbes in the atmospheres is anticipated to lead to innovative solutions to key challenges such as the spread of pathogens, drought adaptation, and loss of terrestrial biodiversity.

BROADN will partner with the Global Atmospheric Microbiome Project (GAMP), the NSF-sponsored National Ecological Observation Network (NEON), and the Joint Genome Institute (JGI) to organize rigorous atmospheric sampling of aerobiome states and fluxes, and to conduct bioinformatics analysis of the genetically diverse taxa that exist in the aerobiome. Focused regional aerobiome samples will be collected over time at different altitudes and coupled with detailed laboratory analyses and meteorological measurements.

Environmental chambers will be used for specific hypothesis testing. Data generated will provide the basis for discoveries of aerobiome structure and function, with the resulting insight used to parameterize models that relate aerobiome dynamics to terrestrial ecosystem properties. Bioinformatics and transcriptomic analysis coupled with mathematical modeling will reveal the microbial composition of the aerobiome; its response to changes in weather patterns, anthropogenic disturbances, and physical forces; the characteristics that lead to lofting, transport, and survival of microbes; and the metabolic activity and genomic attributes of aerosolized microbes.

Moreover, BROADN will provide international leadership in this emerging area, and set global standards for measurement and assessment of the aerobiome. This project will develop essential understanding to drive solutions to airborne transport of animal and plant pathogens, and to understand the ecological role of the aerobiome in preserving ecosystem health.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.