Using tools such as high throughput genetic sequencing, co-registered chemical measurements, metabolic rate measurements, microscopy, colonization samplers, and laboratory experiments, I work towards a better understanding of carbon cycling in microbial communities in deep sea hydrothermal vent ecosystems, and local wetlands.

I work with undergraduate students to better understand the microbial communities in freshwater wetlands located, fortunately for us, walking distance from campus. We are interesting in the following questions:

• Which microbes make up these communities, and how does their composition vary spatially and temporally?

• What are these microbes doing (in particular related to carbon cycling)?

• What environmental factors (temperature, pH, salinity, dissolved oxygen…) influence this microbial activity?

• In what ways are these microbes (for example the methane producing methanogens) influencing the environment?