The Ecoystem and Soil Ecology Lab is dedicated to developing a mechanistic understanding of key soil processes, to gain insight into how terrestrial ecosystems function, and to predict how they will respond to disturbances.

Our research is focused on understanding the fate of soil carbon and nutrients in a changing world. Climate change, nutrient deposition, and other disturbances have the potential to fundamentally alter ecosystem carbon and nutrient cycling and runoff. Soils contain more than twice as much carbon as the atmosphere, mostly as organic matter. This large reservoir of soil organic carbon may be decomposed to carbon dioxide and methane to influence atmospheric concentrations. Furthermore, excess nutrients may runoff and impact ground and surface water. However, in many cases we do not understand the mechanisms controlling soil carbon and nutrient cycling well enough to predict the magnitude or even direction of changes in response to disturbances. Because soil microorganisms control carbon and nutrient fluxes, we need a better understanding of their role in regulating soil processes in order to predict how ecosystems will respond to changes.