Microbial Aerosol Research Laboratory LLC
10975 Doll Road
Monmouth, OR  97361-9542
Phone/Fax:  503-838-2264

Purpose     Personnel     Current Research     Publications     Links

Microbial Aerosol Research Laboratory LLC (MARL) mission statement- MARL’s mission is to provide consultation and conduct research concerned with out-of-doors atmospheric microbial (primarily bacteria) populations, all aspects of their dynamics and interactions with other biota.  At present (i.e., 2001) MARL’s activities include analyses of atmospheric microbial dynamics in several parts of the world using state-of-the-art statistical analysis, and the interaction of honey bees with atmospheric bacterial spores.

E-mail:  lighthab@open.org


Personnel:

CEO:  Bruce Lighthart, PhD, retired as a senior microbial ecologist from the EPA after 27 years.  He founded MARL in 1998.

Senior Research Associate:  Kevin R. Steffy Prier is a research biologist with graduate training in insect neurophysiology.  He has worked in several laboratories in Oregon, France, and Switzerland.  He has been working for MARL since it was founded in 1998.


Current Research:

Atmospheric microbial dynamics:  A large data set with measurements of total particle counts, meteorological and air pollution independent parameters, and dependent biological particle counts measured over 1.5 years at several stations are being analyzed with state-of-the-art statistical methods to determine a set of “rules” to predict the dependent parameters.

Honey bees as detectors of environmental bacteria:  We are currently studying the theoretical and practical aspects of using honey bees (Apis mellifera) to collect airborne bacterial spores.  Honey bees acquire an electrostatic charge during flight.  This charge is thought to be involved in pollen collection, as the charge on the bee attracts particles of opposite charge.  It has been our hypothesis that a flying bee will tend to collect any oppositely charged particulate material that they fly through, including aerosolized bacterial spores.  We have shown in the laboratory that tethered bees flying in a wind tunnel adsorb aerosolized bacterial spores and that the quantity of spores adsorbed is dependent on spore exposure and the electrostatic charge on the bee.  We have further developed a mathematical model that can be used to predict the quantity of spores a free-flying bee will adsorb when flying through a known concentration of aerosolized bacterial spores.  This work is supported by a grant from DARPA through the University of Montana.


Recent publications from MARL:

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This web site is maintained by Kevin Prier, MARL.  Created 3 May, 2001.  Last updated Friday, 8 February, 2002.