Technical Abstract: Little is known about the microbial communities carried in wind-eroded sediments from various soil types and land management systems. A novel technique, named pyrosequencing, promises to expand our understanding of the vast microbial diversity of soils and eroded sediments as it can sequence between 10-100 times higher number of DNA fragments than previous techniques (traditional cloning), providing enhanced exploration into what microbes are being lost from soil due to wind erosion. Our study evaluated the bacterial diversity of coarse sized fractions of wind-eroded sediment as well as dust collected from three different organic-rich soils in Michigan using a portable field wind tunnel. Our findings suggested: (1) Bacteria carried in the coarser sediment and dust were effective fingerprints of the soil source, although their distribution (predominance) may vary depending on the soil characteristics as certain bacteria may possibly be more protected in soil surfaces than others; (2) Coarser wind-eroded sediment (> 106 µm) showed higher bacterial diversity than fine dust (< 106 µm) and; (3) Certain bacteria were more predominant in fine dust (Bacteroidetes, Cloroflexi and Firmicutes) than coarse sediment (Proteobacteria and Acidobacteria), revealing different locations and niches of bacteria in soil, which depending on wind erosion processes, can have important implications on the soil sustainability and functioning. Our study provides evidence that eroded sediments remove the active labile organic soil particulates containing key microorganisms involved in soil biogeochemical processes, which can have a negative impact on the quality and functioning of the parent soil.