Pelagic bacterioplankton are efficient competitors for resource that have evolved in part by adapting to limiting nutrient concentrations in the oceans.  These Bacteria and Archaea are abundant in seawater (10 ²⁸ cells) and play important roles in global nutrient cycles and energy fluxes. Despite their dominance in marine ecosystems, very little is known about the physiology of most marine microbial groups. This is largely because most information about metabolism has come from a relatively small number of cultured representatives.  However, advances in sequencing have allowed us to explore environmental sequence data and we now have unprecedented access to information about the genetic diversity and metabolism of "the uncultured microbial majority". While these data have revealed unique metabolic adaptations to life in the oceans, the ecological role of genetic microdiversity for most microbial genes and genomes in the environment remains largely unknown.

My laboratory uses cultivation, genomic, and proteomic approaches to study relationships between biogeochemical cycles and microbial processes in the oceans. We are specifically interested in exploring the diversity and metabolism of dominant uncultured bacterioplankton.  To learn about ongoing research projects, please see the links provided. 

Research Interests

• Marine Microbial Ecology
• Bacterioplankton Physiology
• Microbial Community Interactions

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