Exploring the Geophysical Signatures of Microbial Processes: AGU Chapman Conference on Biogeophysics; Portland, Maine, 13–16 October 2008

Geophysical methods have the potential to detect and characterize microbial growth and activity in subsurface environments over different spatial and temporal scales. Recognition of this potential has resulted in the development of a new subdiscipline in geophysics called “biogeophysics,” a rapidly evolving Earth science discipline that integrates environmental microbiology, geomicrobiology, biogeochemistry, and geophysics to investigate interactions that occur between the biosphere (microorganisms and their products) and the geosphere. Biogeophysics research performed over the past decade has confirmed the potential for geophysical techniques to detect microbes, microbial growth/biofilm formation, and microbe‐mineral interactions. The unique characteristics of geophysical data sets (e.g., noninvasive data acquisition, spatially continuous properties retrieved) present opportunities to explore geomicrobial processes outside of the laboratory, at unique spatial scales unachievable with microbiological techniques, and possibly in remote environments such as the deep ocean. In response to this opportunity, AGU hosted a Chapman Conference with a mission to bring together geophysicists, biophysicists, geochemists, geomicrobiologists, and environmental microbiologists conducting multidisciplinary research with potential impact on biogeophysics in order to define the current state of the science, identify the critical questions facing the community, and generate a road map for establishing biogeophysics as a critical subdiscipline of Earth science research.