Our lab investigates the causes and consequences of microbial community formation, including the roles of fungi in symbioses, how microbes respond to and influence a changing environment, and how to harness microbes to improve conservation of macroorganisms.
Some of our work focuses on microbial diversity & distribution, particularly in coastal ecosystems. We have tracked fungi through the upper atmosphere, across ocean currents, and along transects from mountain ridges to mesophotic reefs.
Other projects focus specifically on modeling microbiome transplantation outcomes. Can we detect and predict how biological interactions influence community coalescence when a donor microbiome is moved to a new host that already has a resident microbial community?
We also have a keen interest in uncovering the diversity of marine fungi, harnessing metagenomic time-series field projects, and silica projects that leverage public metagenomic data
We have ongoing collaborations with labs from Washington State University, the National University of Singapore, Dartmouth College, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and Stazione Biologica Anton Dohrn that are investigating the natural and facilitated dispersal of fungi.
We use field surveys, experimental microcosms, molecular tools, ML/AI modeling, and bioinformatics to address important questions about how microbiomes assemble and how they interact to shape host phenotypes and ecosystems.