we study how microbial genetic and chemical traits shape community assembly, evolutionary dynamics, and ecosystem function across natural and engineered microbiomes
Research theme
Microbial communities are structured across space by dispersal, selection, historical contingency, and environmental heterogeneity. Our work asks how these processes shape microbial diversity across ecological and evolutionary scales, and how spatial patterns in microbiomes relate to function.
We study how environmental gradients, habitat structure, dispersal, and local interactions shape microbial community composition. This work uses ecological theory to understand when microbial communities are structured by niche differentiation, environmental filtering, spatial processes, or biotic interactions.
We examine how microbial populations diversify across space and environment, with emphasis on fine-scale genetic diversity, recombination, gene flow, adaptation, and population structure. This work asks when genetic variation within microbial lineages maps onto ecological strategies and functional differentiation.
Research theme
Specialized metabolites are often studied as discovery targets, but they are also ecological traits. We study biosynthetic gene clusters, metabolomes, and chemically mediated interactions to understand how microbial chemical traits influence community assembly, biogeography, and natural product diversity.
We use metagenomics, comparative genomics, and bioinformatic approaches to examine how biosynthetic gene clusters vary across habitats, microbial lineages, and environmental gradients. This work links natural product discovery with ecological and evolutionary context.
We investigate how small molecules mediate microbial interactions, competition, coexistence, and spatial patterning. By integrating metabolomics with community ecology, we aim to understand when specialized metabolites function as traits that structure microbiomes.
Marine sediments and invertebrate-associated microbiomes contain poorly characterized microbial lineages and biosynthetic pathways. We use paired genomic and metabolomic approaches to examine how ecological context, biogeography, and evolutionary history shape biosynthetic potential in these systems.
Research theme
Microbial communities mediate key transformations in carbon cycling, methane oxidation, and environmental change. We study how microbial communities respond to physical and geochemical constraints, and how those responses influence biogeochemical function in soils and sediments.
Our methane work examines how gas transport, oxygen availability, soil structure, and microbial community dynamics interact during controlled natural gas releases. These projects link microbial ecology with carbon transformation and contaminant fate in terrestrial environments.
Earth system models often simplify microbial processes, even though microbial physiology, adaptation, and community structure can shape carbon cycling. We are interested in how microbial ecological and evolutionary mechanisms can be represented more explicitly in models of environmental change.
Across field systems and experimental testbeds, we ask how microbial communities respond to disturbance, changing geochemistry, resource availability, and environmental gradients. This work connects microbial diversity to broader Earth science questions of climate change, hazards, and environmental resilience.
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