Microbial Community Assembly

Human activities have dramatically altered ecosystems. From increased rates of nitrogen deposition to conversion of natural ecosystems for agriculture, these activities affect microbial communities, and the ecosystem functions they provide. Understanding how these perturbations alter patterns of microbial community assemly will help predict the long-term effects of global change

Biodiversity loss due to anthropogenic disturbance is a critical question, but functional outcomes are not necessarily linked to these changes. Whether microbes are able to respond to these often rapid shifts is still unclear. By using a functional framework over temporal gradients, we are trying to understand the contribution of changes in biodiversity and gene regulation on ecosystem functions driven by microbial communities

Extreme environments hold promise for enzymes that can be used in a large number of applications. We are examining the potential for microbes inhabiting naturally carbon-enriched hot spring sites to produce enzymes that can be used to produce biofuels using enrichment and culturing techniques under stressful conditions to determine the survival thresholds of newly isolated organisms