Exploring carbon and nutrient dynamics in the wake of human-accelerated environmental change

We seek to better understand how plants and soil microbes influence biogeochemical cycling in terrestrial ecosystems in the wake of human-accelerated environmental change. Plants and soil microbes are highly interdependent as plants rely on microbes to transform nutrients to an “available” form, and microbes rely on plants to provide reduced C for metabolism.  Despite the apparent simplicity of the interaction, there are significant gaps in our understanding of the factors which mediate this interaction.  We use a complimentary suite of approaches that integrate field observations with controlled environmental systems to address questions that intersect plant physiological ecology and soil microbial ecology in an ecosystem context.