Second Argonne Soils Workshop, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, October 6-8, 2010

土壤微生物是全球碳、养分、水和能源循环的关键驱动力。然而，观察地下生物的挑战使得科学家几乎不可能了解土壤微生物群落的功能。宏基因组学采用了先进的DNA测序和计算技术，通过同时测量土壤微生物群落中所有生物体的基因，而无需在实验室中培养这些生物体，有望彻底改变土壤微生物学。然而，在土壤系统中使用这些新技术并非没有重大挑战。第二届阿贡土壤研讨会将汇集土壤生态学家、微生物学家、分子生物学家和计算科学家，讨论土壤宏基因组学的最新进展。研讨会的主题是“设计具有生态意义的土壤宏基因组学实验”，目标是塑造未来成功的土壤宏基因组学研究的轨迹。该基金将支持早期职业科学家（学生、博士后研究人员和初级教师）参加研讨会。招募工作将包括向来自科学界代表性不足群体的科学家伸出援手。研讨会将于10月6日至8日在伊利诺斯州芝加哥附近的阿贡国家实验室举行，届时将为受邀演讲者和发言嘉宾（从摘要中挑选）提供机会。此外，本次研讨会还将有海报环节，鼓励更多的人，特别是早期的职业研究人员，展示他们的工作。

Soil microorganisms are critical drivers of the global carbon, nutrient, water, and energy cycles. Yet, the challenges of observing belowground life have made it nearly impossible for scientists to learn how soil microbial communities function. Metagenomics, which uses advanced DNA sequencing and computation technologies, promises to revolutionize soil microbiology by allowing simultaneous measurement of the genes of all the organisms in the soil microbial community without the exceedingly difficult task of growing the organisms in the laboratory. However, using these new technologies in soil systems is not without significant challenges. The Second Annual Argonne Soils Workshop will bring together soil ecologists, microbiologists, molecular biologists, and computational scientists to discuss the latest progress in soil metagenomics. The theme for the workshop is "designing ecologically meaningful soil metagenomics experiments", and the goal is to shape the trajectory of future successful soil metagenomics research.This grant award will support the participation of early career scientists (students, postdoctoral researchers, and junior faculty) in the workshop. Recruiting efforts will include outreach to scientists from underrepresented groups in science. The workshop, which take place October 6-8 at Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago, IL, will provide opportunities for both invited speakers as well as contributed talks (selected from a pool of abstracts. In addition, this workshop will have a poster session to encourage more people, especially early career researchers, to present their work.