Microorganisms are key mediators of ecosystem stability and nutrient cycling and must continually respond to environmental changes. Surveys that specifically aim to detail the functional and organismal diversity of a habitat play a crucial role in unraveling the intricate connection between microbial diversity, community dynamics, and ecosystem processes. These surveys simultaneously provide baseline data that can be instrumental for understanding how alterations to community structure and assemblage can have cascading effects on functional capacity, biogeochemical cycling, and ecosystem health. The Aquatic Microbiology Lab focuses on the numerous ways microbes influence ecosystem health by investigating the relationships between microbial diversity, community dynamics, and ecosystem processes. We conduct fieldwork across a variety of aquatic systems such as lakes, coastal systems, and pelagic marine environments.