RESEARCH

The diversity and importance of microbes (e.g., bacteria, archaea, fungi, and microbial animals) make it difficult to think of either biodiversity or ecosystem function without considering the microbial component of ecosystems.  Microbial life is stunningly diverse – for example, estimates suggest that a ton of soil contains as many as 4 million different bacteria (Curtis et al., 2002), and that the earth hosts 1.5 million species of fungi (Hawksworth, 1991).  Microbes are important in decomposition, nutrient cycling, and symbiotic interactions, and provide a wealth of utilitarian products such as medicines, enzymes, biotechnological tools, and genetic model systems.  My research is focused on microbial diversity at a number of levels, from taxonomic discovery to examining the historical and environmental factors contributing to present species distributions, the function of microbial species in ecosystems, and the response of different microbial species to ecological perturbations. 

My main avenues of current research include 1) Examining the responses of bacterial and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities to carbon dioxide and nitrogen enrichment and plant functional diversity in a grassland experimental system (the BioCON project, Cedar Creek LTER), and 2) Studies on the ecology and systematics of ectomycorrhizal fungi in the Boletaceae, the family that includes the Porcini mushroom.