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We are interested in how interactions between plants and microbes shape the world in which we live. We focus primarily on "nutrient exchange symbioses," which are ubiquitous but mysterious and poorly understood because they are hidden from view below ground. These symbioses play important roles at all levels of biological organization (e.g. from the cellular level of the functioning of genes and enzymes within plant cells to ecosystem scales such as carbon exchange with the atmosphere) and across timescales (e.g. from ecological scales of nutrient exchanges, population dynamics, and community assembly to evolutionary scales ranging from speciation to the first colonization of land by ancient aquatic plants). Areas actively studied in our group include 1) specialization, host-shifts and roles of fungi in plant co-existence and speciation, 2) environmental drivers, dispersal and niche partitioning in communities of soil fungi, 3) responses of plant-fungal symbioses to changing disturbance regimes, such as drought and fire, and 4) roles of fungi in mediating ecosystem responses to climate change, particularly thawing permafrost and the consequent releases of both carbon and nitrogen. Some of our studies focus on orchids and their fungal associations, other studies focus on the ectomycorrhizal associations of trees, and some studies deal with the entire assemblages of fungi in soil communities. Most projects involve the use of molecular tools for sample identification, phylogenetics, phylogeography and population genetics. Hence, we are also involved in the continual development of improved bench and bioinformatic methods for profiling fungal communities.
We are interested in how interactions between plants and microbes shape the world in which we live. We focus primarily on "nutrient exchange symbioses," which are ubiquitous but mysterious and poorly understood because they are hidden from view below ground. These symbioses play important roles at all levels of biological organization (e.g. from the cellular level of the functioning of genes and enzymes within plant cells to ecosystem scales such as carbon exchange with the atmosphere) and across timescales (e.g. from ecological scales of nutrient exchanges, population dynamics, and community assembly to evolutionary scales ranging from speciation to the first colonization of land by ancient aquatic plants). Areas actively studied in our group include 1) specialization, host-shifts and roles of fungi in plant co-existence and speciation, 2) environmental drivers, dispersal and niche partitioning in communities of soil fungi, 3) responses of plant-fungal symbioses to changing disturbance regimes, such as drought and fire, and 4) roles of fungi in mediating ecosystem responses to climate change, particularly thawing permafrost and the consequent releases of both carbon and nitrogen. Some of our studies focus on orchids and their fungal associations, other studies focus on the ectomycorrhizal associations of trees, and some studies deal with the entire assemblages of fungi in soil communities. Most projects involve the use of molecular tools for sample identification, phylogenetics, phylogeography and population genetics. Hence, we are also involved in the continual development of improved bench and bioinformatic methods for profiling fungal communities.
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