Microbial Ecology Lab

Our overall goal is to determine how ocean microbes impact ecology and biogeochemistry, with a particular emphasis on under-explored environments with novel microbial diversity. Microbial engines drive biogeochemical cycles that influence habitability and sustainability of life on Earth. The ocean covers 70% of our planet and absorb ~2.5 gigatonnes of atmospheric carbon each year, more than the carbon stored in the atmosphere, soils, and all biomass combined. It contains ~1030 microbes that perform key ecosystem processes such as primary production and recycling of biomass that drive carbon cycling and export. Despite their ecological and biogeochmical importance, abundance, and metabolic diversity, environmental microbes remain some of the most understudied life-forms on our planet. 

My lab uses short- and long-read metagenomics combined with field sampling, experimentation, wet lab, and computational biology to study the diversity and impacts of microbial communities. We bridge microbial ecology with biogeochemistry, and environmental and human health across a diversity of environments to address the following questions:

How do microbes impact carbon and nutrient cycling that are critical to sustainability of life on Earth?

What novel diversity and function is waiting to be discovered in microbes from diverse environments? 

How do microbes impact environmental and human health?