Outreach

It is important that the public knows what federal grant-funded research does and have the opportunity to learn about science from these projects.  To this end, SPNWR staff developed informational kiosks near the public access to the salt flats, featuring research projects at the refuge, including some of our photos and explanatory text (click on thumbnail photos below). Microbial isolates are made available to other researchers or industry for further study including screening for novel bioactive products. Genetic sequences of isolates are being submitted to GenBank as they are completed.

The Salt Plains Microbial Observatory has developed a successful outreach program involving high school students and teachers from the Wichita Public Schools. It was leveraged into other major funding from the NSF GK-12 program and later Kansas NSF EPSCoR. The seed idea was to develop classroom activities centered on microbial ecology that could be performed with common household materials. The key is the use of hypersaline media, eliminating the need for sterilization or aseptic technique, and greatly reducing the risk of culturing human pathogens. Common classroom experiments today usually involve anthropogenic samples (mouth scrapings, doorknob swipes) and non-selective media, making the culturing of human pathogens in the classroom a foregone conclusion.  We have been fielding questions from students and teachers nationwide and distributing colorful microbial isolates from the Great Salt Plains.

Teachers will be able to choose what balance of laboratory activities to use in their classroom, given their resources. Students can isolate microbes from salty sources or perform physiological tests on isolates obtained by the teacher. With the low-cost hypersaline microbiology system in hand, we would like to move to the next phase of this project, the development of low-cost molecular techniques. This would allow students to move from microbial isolates, through DNA extractions, faux PCR reactions and sequencing, and on to data mining in GenBank, bringing technology into the classroom in a relevant and hands-on way. Portions of the scheme could include experiments run in the classroom laboratory, such as agarose gel electrophoresis with food-grade agar-agar, simple alkaline buffers, and battery-driven gel boxes. Other aspects, such as PCR, can be performed using fake and spiked reagents, provided the teacher can purchase a DNA ladder. Faux sequencing can be done "at a local university", and the students given a genetic sequence to examine. Given the tools at websites such as Entrez and the Ribosomal Database Project, the students could place the sequences on phylogenetic trees. For the development of this next phase of protocols, we would again involve local pre-college students and teachers, as well as undergraduate students.

The scope and design of this module strongly addresses National Science Education Standards. It focuses on issues of heredity through phylogenetics and issues of biological evolution through enrichment cultures that show natural selection in action. If the isolations are put in the context of carbon and nitrogen cycles, ecological principles such as the interdependence of organisms can be expounded. Students will learn about the role of DNA in organisms and by focusing on sequence data, the student can make the connection between the chemical nature of DNA and its role as a biological molecule. Molecular phylogenetics exposes students to concepts in taxonomy and classification by showing the genetic basis of speciation. These are core life sciences content standards for students in grades six through twelve.

Field Sampling

One of the most fundamental activities in this project is to determine which microbes are present at the SPNWR, thus we collect soil and water samples.  At first glance the flats appear quite monotonous, with little vertical relief or other obvious surface features, as shown in the image below, taken after a prolonged rain-free period.

However, closer inspection reveals what may be, from a microbial perspective, a wide variety of microhabitats, varying in moisture, soil texture, and perhaps chemical conditions.  Patches of sand, fine mud, and surface salt are evident in the following photo taken 14 July 2002.

The flats are also an incredibly dynamic environment, ranging from soil barely moistened with saturated brine to submerged with fresh water, as shown in the following sequence of photos from July 2002.  We would like to know what effect these huge physical and chemical changes have on the resident microbes.  Do particular bacteria and algae tolerate the full range of salinity, or is there a sequence of species dominating depending on time since last rain?  Certainly terrestrial and freshwater microbes (including those from livestock runoff in the watershed) are deposited on the flats during such storms.  How long do they survive when the salinity rises?  Are salt-tolerant species removed or enhanced by the flood?

Isolating/Identifying Microbes in Laboratory Culture

Once soil or water samples are collected from the SPNWR, we attempt to isolate microbes in laboratory cultures.  Although current thinking is that most microbes do not grow (easily) under laboratory conditions, and the ones that do may not be the most representative of those present in nature, having at least some species in culture is useful for several reasons: