JAN 2000: PI stocktaking meeting near Dulles Airport in January to discuss project directions, publication directions, goals.
           Meeting Summary

FEB 2000:  Proposal to NSF International Program for a workshop to be held in South Africa was submitted.
             Proposal Text

JUN 2000:  NSF awards International Proposal contingent upon developing an undergraduate exchange program.
                    Onstott visits NSF to provide an update to head of Earth Sciences Division.

AUG 2000:  Host and location of workshop finalized.

OCT  2000:  Request to NSF for supplemental funds from NASA was submitted.   NSF Progress Report

NOV 2000:  USSA WORKSHOP  Agenda, Speakers and Abstracts

DEC 2000:  Prior to and following the workshop, Onstott, Hall and Moser work with Rob Wilson on the following:

1. Location of field/lab and living quarters.
2. Shipping and customs clearance arrangements for equipment.
3. Arrange agreement with Dept. of Microbiology at Univ. of Witswatersrand for field supplies and honors students.
4. Arrange access to a flow cytometer.
5. Order gas supplies.
6. Arrange for phone lines with internet connections and CELL PHONE.
7. Arrange for leasing and shipping of autoclaves, flow thru hoods, etc. to field lab.
8. Arrange for water for field lab with local Millipore agent.
9. Arrange for stable power supply at field lab.
10. Arrange for auto (combie) lease.
11. Collect water samples at IPC to ascertain if there are any problems importing/exporting consumables and samples.

JAN 2000:  Lin, Hall, Takai, Ward, Slater and Moser set-up field lab.
 
 

Typical Schedule:  3-4 months for students, 6 weeks for postdocs, 2-3 weeks for faculty.

Nov. 19th-last team of '01 departs field lab.  Lab and house are secured.

Dec. 17th-22nd.  Wits educational workshop run by Susan Pfiffner and assisted by Tommy Phelps, Tom Kieft, Mark Davidson and faculty of UOVS and Univ. of the North.  A total of 13 students from U.S. and S. Africa will spend a week at UOVS learning the art of microbial ecology and will sample underground water/gas at Beatrix Au mine.

Jan. 27th.  1st team arrives to reopen lab and initiate field season #2 for '02.
 
 

• Arrive and get settled in housing, jet lag abatement

• Mine Physical/Indoctrination.

• orientation of mine water, air, layout, safety issues.

• Ample personal time for getting individual experiments set up. Everyone gets their own bench space.

• STEPPIES (for everyone going underground). Everyone gets a field gear.

• UNDERGROUND INTRO: Plan an easy day underground, but still get something done. Dripping borehole sampling, IPC, air sampling, etc.

• Faculty or senior investigators, be prepared to give a talk at either UoVS, Witswatersrand University or one of the mines.

Research Teams:

Underground team will consist of 3 individuals with following responsibilities:

1. Chief Mole (rotates) person who is judged most central to the activity of the day. Interacts directly with mine personnel and keeps track of time.
2. Scribe: designated field note taker (rotating basis). One project notebook, no detail too trivial
3. Carrier of the voice recorder (Moser or Chief Scientist). Continuous running commentary, noting peg numbers and other drivel that may not make it to the field notebook.
4. Photographer: Designated carrier of waterproof camera. Understands its operation intimately and records the day's activities.
5. Field Measurements: Designated person responsible for maintenance and calibration of each instrument (thermometer, Eh..). They keep a personal record of their measurement AND be certain it gets into the trip log.

1. Sample Log - ongoing spreadsheet listing every last sample. A standard naming format is built early on and used faithfully by all as the pages build. Each workpage corresponds to a given sample site and date.  Sample log copy will be uploaded to South African website.
2. Measurement of some groundwater chemistry values on site.
3. Storage of other samples either by freezing or in incubator prior to transport to US.
4. Filtering of water samples for PLFA and DNA.
5. Fixing of samples for flow cytometry analyses.
6. Preparation of media
7. Inoculation of media
8. Transfer of positive enrichments and isolation.
9. Refrigeration and freezing of isolates for transport back to US.
10. Preparation of field equipment for sampling trips.

1. -20°C FREEZER
2. one refrigators/freezer
3. Bench space 1 m² per researcher.
4. AUTOCLAVE
5. 2 sinks
6. UV spectrophotometer
7. Coy glove bag
8. three incubators
9. Water distiller
10. Dry Ice and Wet Ice (hopefully available from mines)
11. Gases (H₂, air, N₂, N₂/H₂ mix)
12. Anaerobic gas mixing station.
13. Epifluorescence Microscope w/ camera (still searching for source).
14. Phase contrast microscope (courtesy of Tom Kieft)
15. WATER SAMPLING CANNISTERS (3) with Cartridge filtration (clamp on and use mine water head pressure) see below.
16. Bunsen burner and propane.

References:

Sherwood Lollar, B, Frape, S.K., and Weise, S.M. (1994) New Sampling Devices for Environmental Characterization
    of Groundwater and Dissolve Gas Chemistry (CH4, N2, He). Environ. Sci. Tech. 28:24232427.