we combine fieldwork, molecular data, analytical chemistry, computational tools, and ecological theory to understand how microbial communities shape environmental function. Our approach moves from real-world field systems to genes, molecules, models, and ecological interpretation
Research approach
Microbial ecology starts in the field. Our work includes soil and sediment sampling, experimental testbeds, research cruises, and ROV-assisted exploration of deep-sea environments. These field efforts let students connect hands-on sampling with the environmental context that shapes microbial life, from geochemistry and gradients to disturbance and ecosystem function.
We sample across marine sediments, soils, host-associated systems, and experimental testbeds to examine how microbial communities vary across space, environment, and disturbance. Sampling designs are guided by ecological questions about dispersal, habitat filtering, resource availability, and local environmental structure.
Microbial data are most informative when linked to environmental measurements. We integrate geochemistry, stable isotopes, gas measurements, and sediment or soil properties to evaluate how microbial communities respond to the conditions that structure their habitats.
We use controlled field and laboratory systems to test how microbial communities respond to methane exposure, changing oxygen availability, disturbance, and environmental perturbation. These designs allow us to separate baseline variation, site disturbance, and microbial responses to specific environmental drivers.
Research approach
We connect genes, molecules, and environments using paired omics. By integrating metagenomics, biosynthetic gene cluster analysis, metabolomics, geochemistry, and AI/ML-assisted pattern discovery, we identify how microbial communities encode, express, and respond through functional and chemical traits.
We use amplicon sequencing, metagenomics, genome-resolved analyses, and comparative genomics to examine microbial community structure, functional potential, population structure, and biosynthetic gene diversity across environmental gradients.
We use metabolomic and analytical chemistry approaches to examine microbial chemical diversity and specialized metabolites. These data help us study small molecules as ecological traits that mediate interactions, environmental responses, and natural product biosynthesis.
We use computational and AI/ML-assisted approaches to detect patterns across genomic, metabolomic, and environmental data. These tools help prioritize candidate pathways, link chemical traits to microbial lineages, and generate testable hypotheses about microbiome function.
Research approach
We use ecological and evolutionary theory to turn complex molecular data into mechanistic insight. Statistical models, trait-based frameworks, and classical community ecology help us test how dispersal, selection, drift, adaptation, and interactions shape microbial diversity and ecosystem function.
We use concepts from community ecology to ask when microbial communities are structured by environmental filtering, dispersal, niche differentiation, stochasticity, and local interactions. This framework helps us interpret spatial patterns in microbial composition and function.
We evaluate microbial diversity across ecological and evolutionary scales, asking when fine-scale genetic variation reflects adaptation, recombination, population structure, or functional differentiation. This is central to our work linking microdiversity with environmental context.
We connect microbial traits and ecological processes to models of environmental function. This work aims to improve prediction of microbiome responses to disturbance, climate change, and shifting biogeochemical conditions.
Join the lab
Students in the Chase Lab can enter from many directions: environmental microbiology, field ecology, molecular biology, analytical chemistry, coding, AI/ML, biogeochemistry, or ecological theory. We are especially excited to work with students who want to connect hands-on sampling with modern molecular and computational tools.
Current and future projects include research cruises, ROV-assisted sampling, marine sediments, methane cycling, microbial chemical ecology, metagenomics, metabolomics, and data-driven approaches to understanding microbiomes in a changing environment.
Learn about opportunities →
Research |
Approaches |
Lab & SMU |
|
