In the Lab
As research scientists, we conduct bench-scale studies to evaluate the effect of selective forces on fungal physiological and metabolic processes. We measure these impacts on microbial community structure and ecosystem function across terrestrial, aquatic, and atmospheric systems.
In the Field
Our fieldwork spans large geographic areas, including the Global Topsoil Microbiome, the Western Hemisphere, and post-fire sites in the Western U.S. We work across diverse ecosystems—from drylands, deserts, grasslands, and coastal sage scrub to tropical rainforests, as well as temperate, deciduous, coniferous, and boreal forests in northern latitudes.
METHODOLOGY
We use molecular techniques to examine the structure and functioning of microbial communities, along with physicochemical assays and fluorometric methods to characterize the biogeochemical features of soils. We explore the influence of landscape degradation, drought, and topography on altering exposure risks, and we monitor respiratory health and immune responses to these risks from an environmental microbiology and justice perspective.
DATA & SCIENCE
We leverage bioinformatic pipelines and quantitative analyses to approach omics data from a functional trait perspective. We explore cyberinfrastructure techniques for big data sets from long-term manipulative field ecological experiments and monitoring. Additionally, we investigate vegetation communities, microbial dispersal, and biogeography, considering how the impacts of global change drivers may be detectable in large ecological datasets, including both biotic metrics and soil physicochemical properties.