Research Reflection

Lily Meyer
May 10, 2023
NR 212

Background:
The objective of the project is to research and explain the role wildland fire smoke has as
an agent of biological dispersal and a driver of microbial metacommunity ecology. The goals are
to:
1. Determine the teleconnections among source and sink microbial assemblages to assess
smoke’s role in soil microbial community diversity and distribution patterns;
2. Identify the drivers of microbial dispersal by characterizing the mechanisms responsible
for aerosolization, transport, and deposition of microbes through smoke;
3. Examine the potential for smoke-deposited microbes to colonize and impact non-
contiguous ecological sinks, and;
4. Simulate smoke microbial dispersal across scales by parameterizing microbial emission
fluxes and microbial dispersion in atmospheric, chemical transport and coupled fire-
atmosphere models.
Therefore, advancing the understanding of smoke-microbe relations by focusing on a model
ecosystem of the central tallgrass prairie of the US. This environment is well characterized with
the effects of fire on its microbe community and soils. The somewhat predictable and consistent
fire behavior and the fuel configurations present make predicting microbe aerosolization
mechanisms a simpler task. This ecosystem is fire-dependent and frequently exposed to fire,
having soils that are only exposed to the atmosphere after fire.
My focus for this project originated with documenting microbe counts on different
microscope slides which had been collected from different fires. This allowed me to become
more familiar and better oriented with a professional grade microscope. During this time, I was
also learning more about the subject and participating in meetings with the research team. These
experiences allowed for more immersive learning to absorb the information, process it, and
slowly understand more of what I was learning. After working directly with the microbe
counting my work transitioned to utilizing the data being collected for rudimentary statistical
analyses. This has allowed me to utilize information and statistical skills I have been learning
and better understand them in a functional way. My analyses focused mostly on correlation
between microbe counts and particulate matter, in coordination with my hypothesis, and
descriptive statistics of the data. The results were utilized to better understand the correlation or
lack of between the different sets and types of data that have been collected.

Research question:
Is there a correlation between microbe concentrations and particulate matter levels?
Methods:
Throughout the two portions of the research that I participated in two methods were used.
To start EPI microscopy was used to count the cells collected from the drones and dyed to make
the microbes more identifiable on the microscope slides compared to any other materials that had
been collected. For the statistical analysis portion of my research Microsoft Excel was utilized to
analyze data that included live and dead cell counts and different particulate matter levels.
Through Excel I created scatter plots, box and whisker plots, pivot tables, and performed
descriptive statistics to better understand the data I am studying and utilizing it to answer my
research question. The microbe concentrations and particulate matter levels are collected from
drones stationed at three different points in the smoke column. A sensor collects the particulate
matter levels while air is pumped onto a filter to collect the microbes that are later transferred to
microscope slides to be counted.

Results:
All Smoke Samples Blue Drone Smoke Samples
Live Cells vs. PM 2_5 Live Cells vs. PM 2_5
1000
800
PM 2_5 (avg.)

PM 2_5 (avg.)
800
400 R² = 0.306894785965135 R² = 0.730092536522958
600
0 400
+00 05 06 06 06 06 200
0E 0E+ 0E+ 0E+ 0E+ 0E+ 0
0 0 0 5 0 5
0. 5. 1. 1. 2. 2. 0.00E+00 5.00E+05 1.00E+06 1.50E+06
Live Cells (m3) Live Cells (m3)

Green Drone Smoke Samples Yellow Drone Smoke Samples

Live Cells vs. PM 2_5 Live Cells vs. PM 2_5
300 600
250
PM 2_5 (avg.)

400 R² = 0.720238930292442
Pm 2_5 (avg.)

200
150 200
100 R² = 0.0010546330248361 0
50 00 05 06 06 06 06
0 0E+ 0E+ 0E+ 0E+ 0E+ 0E+
0 0 0 5 0 5
0.00E+00 2.00E+05 4.00E+05 6.00E+05 8.00E+05 0. 5. 1. 1. 2. 2.
Live Cells (m3) Live Cells (m3)

The scatter plots above illustrate the relationship between PM 2.5 and specifically the live
cells found in the smoke samples. Given the limited data sets the green drone appears to be an
outlier having no significant correlation while the blue and yellow drones both demonstrate a
significant correlation between the live cell counts and particulate matter.

Conclusions:
Based on the data available at this time there is a significant correlation between
particulate matter levels and microbe concentrations present in wildfire smoke. This conclusion
can only be supported by more research and data collection that can further prove or disprove the
conclusion that has been reached utilizing the very small portion of data available at this time.
The data from the Green Drone should be more closely analyzed to better understand why the
data collected from its section of the smoke column varies significantly from the rest of the data
collected from the other two drones.
Narrative:
I came to realize that just as research is formulated around a question much of the
research process is filled with questions, some that are answered throughout the process and
others that can only be hypothesized. As is common amongst scientific research, as more
research is conducted for this subject and more data collected better and clearer results will be
found. Also, scientific research is not all glamorous and done in shiny labs but conducted in
small basement rooms with questionable stains on the floor and over zoom calls with a team that
is divided by distance but connected by a similar goal. Specifically in this area of research and
what I observed, since there has been a small amount of research conducted on the subject a lot
of the process comes from learning and utilizing what other teams have found and learning from
the mistakes but also successes. It’s all a slightly advanced learning process and everyone
involved are students in one way or another.