Description
Microbes not only represent the majority of the biomass in the biosphere, but also play a very crucial role in the environment. Microbial biologists have sequenced the DNA of microbes sampled from all over the world across many different environments, creating massive datasets of genetic information. There is an urgent need to develop new analytical tools to help answer questions that can now be asked about such large datasets that the existing biological toolset cannot deliver. The goal of this project was to integrated GIS technologies with bioinformatics tools along with ancillary data about the environment in order to grant new insight into how microbes in the environment respond to changing environmental conditions. This tool conclusively shows that human activities do have an influence on the activities performed by microbes in the environment, although the microbial responses to these activities are not always intuitive.
