Research

I am interested in the community ecology of small things, specifically bryophytes (mosses, liverworts, and hornworts) and a variety of microbes. I am particularly interested how the communities of microbes inhabiting plants affect plant health and success. 

In my dissertation, I investigated fungi living in the model liverwort, Marchantia polymorpha. As a postdoctoral associate at the Boyce Thompson Institute, I worked on cyanobiont diversity and interactions in bryophyte-cyanobacteria nitrogen-fixing symbioses. At the Maastricht Science Programme, I did a variety of research with thesis and project students ranging from bryophyte field ecology to laboratory growth experiments to bioinformatics. I am now working on a project on epiphytic bryophyte and lichen communities in Norwegian forests.