My research explores how soil microbiomes (i.e. fungi, bacteria, archaea, viruses, other small eukaryotes) influence carbon and nutrient cycling. My main interest is with soil fungi and mycorrhizae. I am especially interested in the community ecology of these fungi and how their biodiversity shapes what they do.
Collectively, my research demonstrates that fine-scale fungal taxonomic and phylogenetic associations with plants are a main driver of forest functioning under current conditions and that global changes can fundamentally shift fungal communities with implications for forest health and biogeochemistry.
