Building a queer- and trans-inclusive microbiology conference.

Microbiology conferences can be powerful places to build collaborations and exchange ideas, but for queer and transgender (trans) scientists, they can also become sources of alienation and isolation. Many conference organizers would like to create welcoming and inclusive events but feel ill-equipped to make this vision a reality, and a historical lack of representation of queer and trans folks in microbiology means we rarely occupy these key leadership roles ourselves. Looking more broadly, queer and trans scientists are systematically marginalized across scientific fields, leading to disparities in career outcomes, professional networks, and opportunities, as well as the loss of unique scientific perspectives at all levels. For queer and trans folks with multiple, intersecting, marginalized identities, these barriers often become even more severe. Here, we draw from our experiences as early-career microbiologists to provide concrete, practical advice to help conference organizers across research communities design inclusive, safe, and welcoming conferences, where queer and trans scientists can flourish.

Robust spatial analysis of sequestered metals in a Southern California Bioswale.

Bioswales are a type of permeable green infrastructure designed to slow stormwater and clean runoff by sequestering pollutants such as heavy metals. Measurements of dissolved pollutants before and after the bioswale often justify their ability to clean this runoff, but research addressing the physical and chemical sequestration of these pollutants is scarce. Soil samples were taken from an arid bioswale and analyzed for concentrations of aluminum, cobalt, chromium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, nickel, lead, vanadium and zinc. Heat maps of the concentration of these metals in soil were generated via Empirical Bayesian Kriging (EBK) and demonstrate that location-specific sequestration differs between metals within the same swale. Sequential extraction with a modified Tessier et al. (1979) protocol coupled with profiles of metal concentration versus distance along the main flow axis in the bioswale illustrate that the carbonate soil fraction contains elevated concentrations of zinc, lead, cobalt, and manganese, metals sequestered by the bioswale with statistical significance.