About

My research group focuses broadly on microbial ecology and environmental microbiology. We ask questions about the behavior of individual taxa within their environment, the nature of microbe-microbe interactions, and the nature of plant-microbe interactions. We examine microbial community structure and assembly and investigate microbial community response

to environmental drivers and gradients. Of particular interest, is the role of metabolism in influencing the response of individual microbial taxa to their environment and the role of metabolic exchange in microbe-microbe interactions and in the stability and resilience of microbial community assembly and structure. While much of our work involves wetland

ecosystems and the microbes that live there, the questions we ask are applicable across ecosystem types, including artificial systems such as bioreactors and synthetic communities. We develop and use computational and bioinformatic approaches in concert with both field and laboratory studies of microbial ecology and biogeochemistry.