In our lab, we seek to understand ecosystems, how and why they change, and how those changes affect people and the Earth.
To do this, we investigate ecosystem changes across scales, from the cells in a microbial organism to whole-earth models. We examine how the signatures of diversity, whether encoded in a protein or discovered in a soil core, impact the way elements cycle and how ecosystems respond to and shape environmental change.
We believe that the answers to some of the most pressing scientific and social questions are bound up with the microbial ecology of Earth, from what lives in soils and streams to hot springs and humans.
Through science and outreach, we hope to raise awareness of the role of earth system science for understanding and managing global environmental change.