Naomi Ward, University of Wyoming associate professor of molecular biology, collects soil samples for microbiome analysis at the LaPrele Creek mammoth kill site near Douglas, Wyoming. Sampling of Wyoming soil, plants, water and air will be done at hundreds of sites across the state as part of the university's major study of microbial life over the next five years. Crater Lake in the Medicine Bow National Forest is one of the hundreds of Wyoming sites where soil, plant, water and air samples will be taken for microbial analysis.

Credit: University of Wyoming

Researchers from Kansas State University and University of Kansas use liquid nitrogen to freeze a core of stream sediment collected from Kings Creek at Konza Prairie Biological Station. The core was sectioned and used to analyze genes of nitrogen cycling organisms from the stream sediment microbiome. The method is unofficially referred to as the "Popsicle method" because the copper tube is inserted into the sediment and liquid nitrogen poured into the tube to freeze the sediment in a shell around the tube.

Credit: Walter Dodds, Kansas State University