My research interests are elucidating the link between microbial community structure and function and the environmental drivers that influence them. Because microbial populations operate at spatio-temporal scales far removed from typical human perception, it has been difficult in the past to investigate their role in complex ecosystem behavior. However, with the expanded use of molecular methods combined with computational tools, these limitations are rapidly decreasing. Molecular techniques for studying the structural diversity in ecosystems (i.e., soil, marine, aquatic) are now available. These molecular data can be correlated with the physical, biogeochemical, and chemical/nutrient data. Because of the wealth of data that can be produced in such comprehensive community analysis, bio- and eco-informatics tools that can better interrogate those data will also continue to be developed. The integration of molecular biology, microbiology, and computational science is essential to unraveling the intricacies of complex microbial communities in situ. The long-term goal is to determine at what scale these critical components need to be tracked in order to develop a community-wide ecosystem picture. Once the scale is determined, much will be learned about microbial communities as they interact both structurally and functionally as they respond to natural or introduced environmental drivers
