AFTER MORE THAN A CENTURY OF RESEARCH ON ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBES IT IS BROADLY RECOGNIZED THAT MICROBES ARE THE PRIMARY MEDIATORS OF PLANETARY BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES. THERE IS A PAUCITY OF TOOLS AVAILABLE TO THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY THAT ENABLES THE SIMULTANEOUS COLLECTION OF SAMPLES FOR MICROBIAL AND GEOCHEMICAL ANALYSES AT AN APPROPRIATE RANGE OF SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL SCALES. IT IS A FOREGONE CONCLUSION THAT DEVELOPING THE TECHNOLOGIES TO DETECT LIFE AND QUANTIFY ITS METABOLIC ACTIVITY IN OUR OWN BIOSPHERE IS REQUIRED TO PAVE THE WAY FOR SUCH EFFORTS ON OTHER PLANETS. TO ADDRESS THIS ISSUE WE PROPOSE TO DEVELOP AN OPEN SOURCE AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE LANDER (AVL) THAT ENABLES USERS TO COLLECT SAMPLES AND IN SITU DATA FOR ALLYING MICROBIAL DIVERSITY AND GENE EXPRESSION (VIA DNA AND RNA ANALYSES) TO MICROBIAL ACTIVITY (VIA STABLE ISOTOPIC TRACERS AND ANALYSES) AND GEOCHEMISTRY (VIA IN SITU AND LAB-BASED GEOCHEMICAL MEASUREMENTS). THE ABISS WILL BE THE MOST TECHNOLOGICALLY ADVANCED AVL TO DATE. ADVANCES IN SUCH TECHNOLOGIES HAVE LONG BEEN INCREMENTAL AND IT IS OUR HOPE THAT THE PROPOSED EFFORT WILL HELP PUT SUCH BIOGEOCHEMICAL OBSERVATORY TECHNOLOGIES ON PAR WITH EXISTING SPACE SYSTEM TECHNOLOGIES SO THAT FUTURE MISSIONS CAN INCORPORATE SIMILARLY INTEGRATED SYSTEM TO MORE COMPREHENSIVELY RELATE THE GEOCHEMICAL SETTING TO POTENTIAL INDICATIONS OF LIFE. HIGHLIGHTS OF THE ABISS SYSTEM INCLUDE: 1) A STATE-OF-THE ART OPTICAL MODEM WITH>10 MB/S TRANSMISSION RATES FOR SENDING DATA IMAGES AND VIDEO FROM THE ABISS TO THE USER DURING ANY STAGE OF ABISS OPERATIONS. THIS WILL BE THE FIRST IMPLEMENTATION OF THIS NEW TECHNOLOGY ON AN AVL. THIS LEVERAGES OFF ~ $3.5M OF SUPPORT FROM NSF. 2) OUR IN SITU MASS SPECTROMETER (ISMS) TO MEASURE DISSOLVED VOLATILES. IT HAS BEEN DEPLOYED ON ~130 DIVES AND FEATURED IN NUMEROUS ARTICLES IN NATURE AND NATURE GEOSCIENCES (PETERSEN ET AL. 2011; WANKEL ET AL. 2011) AMONG OTHERS. IT CAN RUN CONTINUOUSLY FOR ~2 YEARS IN SITU. WHEN USED WITH STABLE ISOTOPIC TRACERS IT CAN BE USED TO CONDUCT RATE MEASUREMENTS IN SITU. THIS IMPLEMENTATION LEVERAGES OFF ~$1.5 MILLION DOLLARS TO HARVARD FROM NSF NASA &THE MOORE FOUNDATION. 3) A NOVEL 3-DEGREE-OF-FREEDOM POSITIONABLE SEDIMENT PROBE EQUIPPED WITH AN ARRAY OF SIX THERMISTORS LOCATED ALONG THE LENGTH OF THE SEDIMENT PROBE THAT WILL PROVIDE CRITICALLY NEEDED TEMPERATURES FOR HEAT AND GEOCHEMICAL FLUX. THIS IS A MAJOR ADVANCE IN AVL TECHNOLOGY. 4) SIX IN SITU TITANIUM HIGH-PRESSURE VESSELS TO ALLOW FOR IN SITU EXPERIMENTS AND RECOVERY AT PRESSURE. IMPACT AND VALUE: THE ABISS IS DESIGNED TO ADDRESS THE LONG-STANDING CHALLENGE OF BETTER UNDERSTANDING THE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG MICROBES AND BIOGEOCHEMICAL PROCESSES. DEVELOPING THIS SYSTEM FOR STUDYING LOW-ENERGY EARTH SYSTEMS SUCH AS THE RATES OF MICROBIAL ACTIVITY AND BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLING WITHIN OLIGOTROPHIC WATERS AND OCEAN GYRES AFFORDS US THE OPPORTUNITY TO BETTER UNDERSTAND "HOW" TO ALLY SUCH SYSTEMS TO DETECT LIFE BUT PRIMARILY TO QUANTIFY ITS ACTIVITY.OPERATIONAL UTILITY ASSESSMENT PLAN: BRIEFLY TWO MAJOR DEPLOYMENTS OF THE ABISS ARE PLANNED OFF THE CALIFORNIA COAST: ONE IN AN ANOXIC BASIN AND THE OTHER IN OLIGOTROPHIC WATERS. COMPARING THESE TWO SITES VIA THE ABISS TO DETERMINE RATES OF PRIMARY AND SECONDARY PRODUCTION DISSOLVED CARBON AND NITROGEN FLUXES AND STABLE ISOTOPIC COMPOSITION TOGETHER WITH RECORDS OF MICROBIAL ABUNDANCE AND MRNA EXPRESSION VIA ILLUMINA SEQUENCING WILL PROVIDE A VALIDATION OF THE TECHNOLOGY AS WELL A RICH DATASET THAT PROVIDES A RELEVANT FRAMEWORK FOR QUANTIFYING THE IMPACT THAT MARINE MICROBES HAVE ON BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLING IN TWO DISPARATE BUT HIGHLY RELEVANT TO ASTROBIOLOGY ECOSYSTEMS.