Dr. Lee Taylor:
Research Overview Fungi have a 1 billion year evolutionary history, number perhaps 1.5 million species, and are hence extremely diverse phylogenetically and functionally. They play dominant roles in decomposition of recalcitrant substrates and plant nutrient acquisition, and thus influence net primary productivity, carbon sequestration in soil, and the biogeochemical cycling of key elements such as nitrogen and phosphorus. Despite their importance, fungi have often been ignored in ecological studies. Our goal is to understand how the evolutionary history of fungi has shaped their ecology, present distribution, and their communities. Specialties ● Functional diversity & community structure in soil microbes ● Evolutionary dynamics of plant-microbe interactions Google Scholar Profile Education ● B.S. 1989 Biology Yale University, New Haven, CT ● B.S. 1990 Agronomy University of Florida, Gainesville, FL ● Ph.D. with Tom Bruns, 1997 Plant & Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA ● Post Doctoral Fellow with Scott Hodges, 1998-2000 Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Univ. California, Santa Barbara, CA ● Postdoc with Ellen Simms, 2000-2002 Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA |