Sustainability Leadership Fellow Cohort: 2023-2024

Ph.D. Student, Department of Biology and the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology

Research Summary: I use field and greenhouse experiments to investigate how drought changes interactions between plants and the microscopic bacteria and fungi in the soil. Human-driven climate change is predicted to cause more frequent and severe drought events. Plants can buffer drought impacts on soil through changes in individual functions like nutrient uptake. As plant communities shift under a changing climate, soil communities are expected to be altered, which can reciprocally influence plant functionality. It is critical to understand how plants and soil microbes will respond to climate change due to their major role in maintaining ecosystem services, such as carbon storage.

Advisor: Melinda D. Smith