Ongoing Research

My program is focused on understanding the effects of global change on microbial communities through fundamental and applied research. Specifically, I concentrate on the multitrophic impacts of drought, anthropogenic pollution, and biological invasion. Additionally, I utilize reductionist microbial systems to explore fundamental aspects of invasion biology.

PFAS and Soil Microbes

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are detrimental to human and environmental health. Biodegradation offers great promise to remove this class of forever chemicals from the environment. In this work, we seek to understand the effects of PFAS on microbiome composition and function and the potential for microbial biodegradation.

Elucidating the Effects of Drought on Soil Microbial Proceesses in a Model Perennial Grass System

Using rainout shelters, we will seek to examine the effects of drought on soil microbiome composition and function, soil biogeochemistry, and switchgrass performance and root chemistry.

Project Funded by USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Evans-Allen Project (Accession #7010258) - PIs Gordon Custer and Jonathan Cumming.

Improving Soil Microbial Inoculations in Agricultural Systems

This research aims to enhance the performance of microbial amendments in phosphorous-deficient soils. Here, we will investigate bacterial and fungal inoculants applied at varying frequencies and doses (i.e., propagule pressure) for their effects on plant performance and impacts on soil health parameters over two growing seasons. Our focal species of plant is spring wheat.

Project Funded by USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, (Accession #67012-42839) - PIs Gordon Custer and Francisco Dini-Andreote.

Community Coalescence and Microbial Invasion

While exceedingly rare in macro-ecological systems, the movement of intact communities may be the norm, rather than an exception, in microbial systems. This research aim seeks to understand the implications of microbial community coalescence through experimental approaches and theory development.

Belowground Effects of Invasive Plants

Invasive plants are known to affect many ecosystem properties including local bio-diversity and nutrient cycling. Their effects on the soil microbiome have, until recently, been understudied. In this research, I am to develop our understanding of how invasive plants affect the structure and function of the soil microbiome.

Project Funded by National Science Foundation grant #1655726 awarded to PIs Brent Ewers, Cynthia Weinig, Linda van Diepen, Christian Buerkle, Naomi Ward, and Robert Hall of the University of Wyoming.

Rhizosphere Culture Collection

Using a high throughput culture approach, we aim to culture 500 unique bacterial isolates from the rhizosphere of wheat and maize for use in future experiments.

Past Projects

Non-target Effects of Agro-chemicals

Chemical pesticides are widely applied to natural and agricultural systems. While the aboveground effects are well documented, their influence on belowground processes is less well understood. Here, I seek to describe the non-target effects of chemical herbicide application on the soil microbiome.

Project Funded by National Science Foundation grant #1655726 awarded to PIs Brent Ewers, Cynthia Weinig, Linda van Diepen, Christian Buerkle, Naomi Ward, and Robert Hall of the University of Wyoming.

Improving Crop Tolerance to Stress

In collaboration with the Lynch Lab at Penn State and the Schneider Lab at Wageningen University, Netherlands, we studied the influence of multiseriate cortical sclerenchyma (MCS) and drought on plant-microbe interactions.

Project Funded by USDA NIFA- PIs Jonathan Lynch, Hannah Schneider, and Franciscso Dini-Andreote.

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