Using synthetic ecology to investigate microbial diversity Sun and Sanchez 2023.
Mechanistic model predicts (a) microbial niches and nitrogen processes under different conditions; (b) N2O hotspot in an OMZ water column Sun et al. 2024.
Connecting Coexistence Theory with Biogeochemistry in Dynamic Environments
Exploring general rules behind microbial coexistence with non-substitutable nutrients
Building theoretical frameworks and ecosystem models with microbial functional types
Unexpected diversity of nitrite-oxidizing bacteria.
Using microarray to identify microbial functional genes in unexpected locations.
Discovering Microbial Strategies and Unexpected Niches in Oceans and Estuaries
Nitrite-oxidizing bacteria live across the full oxygen spectrum in the ocean
Unexpected diversity of denitrifiers, the main drivers for nitrogen loss
Nitrous oxide (N2O) consumers present in oxygenated seawaters
Nitrous oxide-consuming microbes in and above the marine nitrous oxide production hotspots Sun et al. 2021.
Quantifying Kinetics of Biogeochemical Processes Emerging from Microbial Interactions
New processes in the nitrogen cycle
Determination of missing key kinetics parameters of nutrient cycling
Getting to know microbes:
DNA and RNA on filters collected from the Pacific ocean
DNA and RNA extraction
Enriching microbes with a bioreactor in Prof. Sebastian Lücker's lab at Radboud University)
Monitoring nutrients in the bioreactor
Counting colonies on an agar plate
Gene amplification with PCR
DNA purification from a gel
Exploring biogeochemical cycles:
Media for denitrifiers
pH adjustment for samples
Replacing air with helium, one important step in the "denitrifier method" procedure
Running mass spectrometer
One of the 4,000 samples fromEastern Tropical North Pacific
Linking microbes and biogeochemical cycles via building theoretical and modeling frameworks