Local

Southeastern Louisiana is a unique environment defined by significant impacts from human perturbations. The acute (e.g. oil spills) and chronic effects (e.g. climate change) of human activity are exacerbated in this region given its proximity to the ocean and low sea-level. We are currently pursuing fundamental questions regarding the microbial ecology of salt marsh and wetland regions to acquire baseline knowledge of this rapidly evolving environment. A major component of this research involves describing how environmental change will ultimately influence microbial processes. As we define this change a significant part of this work will involve means of upscaling these impacts to beyond our ecosystem.

Relevant publications

Meador, T.B., Bowles, M.W., Lazar, C.S., Zhu, C., Teske, A., Hinrichs, K.-U., (2015) The archaeal lipidome in estuarine sediment dominated by members of the Miscellaneous Crenarchaeotal Group. Environmental Microbiology 17(7): 2441-2458, doi:10.1111/1462-2920.12716