Pierre Amato investigates the presence and implications of microorganisms in the outdoor atmosphere (aerosols, clouds and precipitations): microbial structural and functional biodiversity, survival, metabolic activity, physiology, and their variability in relation to environmental factors. This aims notably at understanding the role of the atmosphere in microbial dissemination and evolution, and the interactions existing between the airborne microbiota and atmospheric physico-chemical processes such as cloud chemistry or precipitation.