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Soil-landscape features and the microbial ecology of disturbed soils
In August 2014, I joined Rachel Gallery's research group as a postdoctoral research associate. I worked with Rachel and collaborator, Dave Moore, to investigate the microbial drivers of soil carbon fluxes in disturbed and un-disturbed soils. We are interested in how disturbance impacts carbon cycling across an array of sites in Colorado. Specifically, we are examining soils disturbed by low to high intensity fire events and along a chronosequence of pine beetle infestation using a suite of soil geochemistry techniques, soil enzyme activities, and measures of soil microbial biomass. My work has focused on how soil-landscape properties, including slope, aspect, and wetness indices, impact the soil geochemistry and microbial processes across the forested sites previously subjected to fire and insect outbreak disturbances. The role of mycorrhizal fungi in mineral weathering and soil carbon storage across semiarid ecosystems.
I am in the planning stages of a second geobiology project focused on how the activity of mycorrhizal fungi differs as a function of climate and local edaphic factors. We will also explore how soil mineral composition plays a role in fungal-mineral interactions through a field-based Critical Zone Observatory study. I will be posting updates as the work progresses. |
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