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PUBLICATIONS

Aerosolized Desert dusts collected near a drying lake and pulmonary inflammation in mice: Implications for environmental exposures and asthma
Author(s):

Trevor A. Biddle, Keziyah Yisrael, Ryan Drover, Qi Li, Mia R. Maltz, Talyssa M. Topacio, Jasmine Yu, Diana Del Castillo, Daniel Gonzales, Hannah Linton Freund, Mark P. Swenson

Journal:

bioRxiv. 2022 Sep 9:2022-09

 A high incidence of asthma is prevalent among residents near the Salton Sea, a large inland terminal lake in southern California. This arid region has high levels of ambient particulate matter (PM); yet while high PM levels are often associated with asthma in many environments, it is possible that the rapidly retreating lake may contribute components with a specific role in promoting asthma symptoms.

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2022

9 - September

Aerosolized aqueous dust extracts collected near a drying lake trigger acute neutrophilic pulmonary inflammation reminiscent of microbial innate immune ligands
Author(s):

Emma L. Aronson, Trevor A. Biddle, Jon K. Botthoff, David R. Cocker III, Diana Del Castillo, Ryan Drover, Hannah Linton Freund, Daniel Gonzales, Qi Li, David D. Lo, Mia R. Maltz, Malia L. Shapiro, Mark P. Swenson, Talyssa M. Topacio, Keziyah Yisrael, Jasmine Yu

Journal:

Science of the Total Environment. 3522:42:00.000

A high incidence of asthma is prevalent among residents near the Salton Sea, a large inland terminal lake in southern California. This arid region has high levels of ambient particulate matter (PM); yet while high PM levels are often associated with asthma in many environments, it is possible that the rapidly retreating lake, and exposed playa or lakebed, may contribute components with a specific role in promoting asthma symptoms.

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2023

2 - February

Arbuscular mycorrhizal inoculation in coastal sage scrub restoration
Author(s):

Amanda M. Aprahamian, Kathleen R. Balazs, Megan Lulow, Matthew R. Major, Mia R. Maltz, Kathleen K. Treseder

Journal:

Botany. 94:1-7

We tested the hypothesis that field applications of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) inocula would increase root colonization and plant performance in a coastal sage scrub (CSS) restoration project in Southern California. We applied commercial or native inocula (from nearby reference shrublands) as we seeded plots with native shrubs, forbs, and grasses. A control treatment was seeded but received no inocula. After 6 months, AM root colonization did not differ significantly among treatments.

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2016

2 - February

Baja California Sur mangrove deep peat microbial communities cycle nitrogen but do not affect old carbon pool
Author(s):

M.T. Costa, E. Ezcurra, O. Aburto-Oropeza, Mia R. Maltz, Keshav Arogyaswamy, Jon K. Botthoff, Emma L. Aronson

Journal:

Marine Ecology Progress Series. 695:15-31.

Mangroves provide important ecosystem services, including storing carbon belowground for millennia. Mangrove carbon storage relies in part on high primary productivity, but essential to the long-lived nature of this storage is the slow rate of microbial decomposition of peat. In this study, we (1) examined how carbon and nitrogen densities and microbial community composition vary with peat age and (2) describe the formation of peat deposits over time.

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Biomes/Ecosystems

2022

8 - August

Belowground responses to elevation in a changing cloud forest
Author(s):

Caitlin I. Looby, Mia R. Maltz, Kathleen K. Treseder

Journal:

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. 6:1996-2009

Few studies have investigated how soil fungal communities respond to elevation, especially within TMCF (tropical montane cloud forests). We used an elevation gradient in a TMCF in Costa Rica to determine how soil properties, processes, and community composition of fungi change in response to elevation and across seasons.

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Biomes/Ecosystems

2022

2 - February

Competing droughts affect dust delivery to Sierra Nevada
Author(s):

S.M. Aarons, L.J. Arvin, S.M. Aciego, C.S. Riebe, K.R. Johnson, Molly A. Blakowski, J.M. Koornneef, Stephen C. Hart, M.E. Barnes, Nicholas C. Dove, Jon K. Botthoff, Mia R. Maltz, Emma L. Aronson

Journal:

Aeolian Research. 41:1-11

The generation and transport of mineral dust is strongly related to climate on seasonal, year-to-year, and glacial-interglacial timescales.

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Earth Systems

2019

12 - December

Continental-scale patterns of extracellular enzyme activity in the subsoil: an overlooked reservoir of microbial activity
Author(s):

Nicholas C. Dove, Keshav Arogyaswamy, Sharon A. Billings, Jon K. Botthoff, Chelsea J. Carey, Caitlin Cisco, Jared L. DeForest, Dawson Fairbanks, Noah Fierer, Rachel E. Gallery, Jason P. Kaye, Kathleen A. Lohse, Mia R. Maltz, Emilio Mayorga, Jennifer Pett-Ridge, Wendy H. Yang, Stephen C. Hart and Emma L. Aronson

Journal:

mBio. 10:1-14

Chemical stabilization of microbial-derived products such as extracellular enzymes (EE) onto mineral surfaces has gained attention as a possibly important mechanism leading to the persistence of soil organic carbon (SOC). While the controls on EE activities and their stabilization in the surface soil are reasonably well-understood, how these activities change with soil depth and possibly diverge from those at the soil surface due to distinct physical, chemical, and biotic conditions remains unclear.

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2020

10 - October

Diversity in the Mycological Society of America
Author(s):

Tanya E. Cheeke, Sara Branco, Danny Haelewaters, Donald O. Natvig, Mia R. Maltz, S. Rodriguez, Matias J. Cafaro, Georgiana May

Journal:

Inoculum Allen Press, Lawrence, Kansas

Increased awareness of systematic biases across the Sciences, Technology, Engineering and
Mathematics (STEM) has fueled calls for action across scientific disciplines. In a recent
analysis of gender equality within the MSA, Branco and Vellinga found evidence of gender
bias within our society, both in serving officers and awards (Inoculum, Vol. 66, Issue 5,
2015). In their report, the authors found that female MSA members are particularly
underrepresented in MSA leadership positions, and since the inception of the society in
1932, less than 15% of the MSA presidents have been women. Gender bias was also
discovered in the non-student awards where, at the extreme, only five female members have
received the Distinguished Mycologist award compared to the 55 male awardees.

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2019

Dust sources in the Salton Sea Basin: A clear case of anthropogenically impacted dust budget
Author(s):

Alexander L. Frie, Alexis C. Garrison, Michael V. Schaefer, Steve M. Bates, Jon K. Botthoff, Mia R. Maltz, Samantha C. Ying, Timothy Lyons, Michael F. Allen, Emma L. Aronson, Roya Bahreini

Journal:

Environmental Science and Technology. 16: 9378-9390

The Salton Sea Basin in California suffers from poor air quality, and an expanding dry lakebed (playa) presents a new potential dust source. In 2017–18, depositing dust was collected approximately monthly at five sites in the Salton Sea Basin and analyzed for total elemental and soluble anion content.

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Earth Systems

2019

7 - July

Ecological Restoration of Fungi
Author(s):

Mia R. Maltz

Journal:

Ph.D. Dissertation, UC Irvine, Irvine, California

Ecosystem degradation may reduce biodiversity, including plants and fungi. Although restoration ecologists rarely specify fungal restoration as a desired outcome, restoration methods may either promote or inhibit fungi. Direct fungal restoration may provide benefits to ecosystems and support restoration efforts, but little is known about how either degradation or restoration affect fungi.

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2016

Ecological and genomic attributes of novel bacterial taxa that thrive in deeper soil horizons
Author(s):

Tess E. Brewer, Emma L. Aronson, Keshav Arogyaswamy, Sharon A. Billings, Jon K. Botthoff, Ashley N. Campbell, Nicholas C. Dove, Dawson Fairbanks, Rachel E. Gallery, Stephen C. Hart, Jason P. Kaye, Gary King, Geoffrey Logan, Kathleen A. Lohse, Mia R. Maltz, Emilio Mayorga, Caitlin O’Neill, Sarah M. Owens, Aaron Packman, Jennifer Pett-Ridge, Alain F. Plante, Daniel D. Richter, Whendee L. Silver, Wendy H. Yang, Noah Fierer

Journal:

mBio. 10:1-14

While most bacterial and archaeal taxa living in surface soils remain undescribed, this problem is exacerbated in deeper soils, owing to the unique oligotrophic conditions found in the subsurface. Additionally, previous studies of soil microbiomes have focused almost exclusively on surface soils, even though the microbes living in deeper soils also play critical roles in a wide range of biogeochemical processes. We examined soils collected from 20 distinct profiles across the United States to characterize the bacterial and archaeal communities that live in subsurface soils and to determine whether there are consistent changes in soil microbial communities with depth across a wide range of soil and environmental conditions.

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2019

10 - October

Elevated O3 alters soil bacterial and fungal communities and C and N dynamic
Author(s):

Emma L. Aronson, Jixin Cao, Mia R. Maltz, H. Shang, Hao Yu, Zhan Chen

Journal:

Science of the Total Environment.

Although many studies have reported the negative effects of elevated O3 on plant physiological characteristics, the influence of elevated O3 on below-ground processes and soil microbial functioning is less studied.

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Global Change

2019

8 - August

contact information

Dr. Mia Maltz

University of Connecticut
Plant Science and Landscape Architecture 1376 Storrs Rd.
Storrs, CT 06290-4067

mia.maltz@uconn.edu

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