Research Summary:

By combining microbiological and geological insights I have been able to develop a method that allows me to conduct bacterial incubations in the laboratory without addition of unrealistically high concentrations of organic carbon or nutrients to the incubation solution; a real breakthrough. Hence, it is now possible to evaluate microbial activities on lithic surfaces in the laboratory under conditions that are similar to those in the field. Additionally, my method has another advantage in that the bacteria are not removed from the petrographic context in which they reside.

Funding Record:

Tobin, K.J., April 1999 to Dec. 1999, $31,760 (Subcontract), Control of biologically active degradation zones by vertical heterogeneity: applications in fractured media, EMSP (Department of Energy).

Papers:

Tobin, K.J., Onstott, T.C., DeFlaun, M.F., Colwell, F.S., and Fredrickson, J., 1999, In situ imaging of microorganisms in geologic material. Journal of Microbiological Methods. 37: 201-213.

Onstott, T.C., Tobin, K., and et al., 1997, The deep gold mines of South Africa: Windows into the subsurface biosphere. International Society for Optical Engineering Symposium Paper, 42: 12 pgs.

Tobin, K.J., et al., 1996, Post-oxic diagenesis of platform marginal ooids and bladed-to-fibrous calcite from the Middle Ordovician Ottosee Formation (East Tennessee). Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, 108: 155-167.

Abstracts:

Tobin, K.J., and Colwell, F., 2000, In situ visualization of viable biomass on subsurface basalt. EOS, Transactions.

Reysenbach, A.-L., Rodriguez, D., Aquiar, P., Beveridge, T., Onstott, T.C., Tobin, K., Chan, G., and Shock, E., 1998, Biomineralization in near neutral thermal environments by members of one of the deepest rooted lineages of life. EOS, Transactions, 79, F57.

Tobin, K.J., Onstott, T.C., and Colwell, F., 1998, In situ visualization of bacterial cells in basalt. GSA Abstract, 30(7): 305.

Grossman, E.L., McKinley, J.P., Onstott, T.C., and Tobin, K.J., 1997, Fine-scale chemical and isotopic variations in deep groundwaters near Cerro Negro, New Mexico--relation to lithology and microbial activity. GSA Abstract, 29(7): 153.