Microbial observatories are valuable tools that have been set around the world to facilitate the access of systematized information from microbial communities. However, few long-term observatories can be found in Latin America, mainly owing to difficulties in maintaining the necessary infrastructure for this type of activity.

Bacteria play an important role in nutrients uptake and remineralization and work as nutrient sources for other trophic levels. The strength of stoichiometric homeostasis for C, N, and P differs among major phylogenetic groups, furthermore they can change your stoichiometry in function of the environmental conditions (for example, nutrient limitation).

Traits are measurable or quantifiable characteristics of organisms that are directly or indirectly related to some component of their biological fitness, and vary along environmental gradients. The idea that underlies the use of traits is that communities are structured based on the characteristics of their organisms, and not on the identity of the species.

We propose a collaboration among South American researchers on microbial ecology to promote the generation and compilation of a large microbiome database from aquatic ecosystems across South-America. We will try to elucidate large-scale patterns of South American aquatic microbial life, which are key players of all biogeochemical cycles, and to reconstruct the bacterial South American biogeography.

The group founded by early career Latin-American investigators of µSudAqua has as its main objectives the assistance of other early career students, in special in aquatic microbial ecology, by encouraging the holding of meetings and courses focusing on the study of aquatic microbial ecology.