Research
Our research spans the globe and attempts to combine laboratory based manipulations with global datasets to help define geochemical cycles. We loosely define our work into three categories global, local, and extreme. Our global scale research involves a modeling intensive approach to describing global biogeochemical cycles. Meanwhile local implies regional or smaller scale work, which largely concentrates on the microbial ecology of salt marsh and freshwater wetland ecosystems. In extreme environments we primarily explore individual site(s) that typify some characteristic condition (e.g. hydrothermal sediments for high temperatures and brines for salty environments).
Global
The evolution of global datasets derived from remote sensing techniques and the great expansion of existing datasets have allowed us to generate highly interconnected biogeochemical models. Our lab is focusing on scouring numerous databases with valuable geochemical data and collating these data to help inform current models, refine our understanding of geochemical cycles, or explore new hypotheses. This work is perhaps some of the most interdisciplinary in our lab, which includes geographical, geological, biological, and chemical techniques. On a given day a researcher can switch between the haversine formula and microbial kinetics. Previous work in this research arm has involved describing the sulfur cycle in marine sediments. Currently we are investigating the global nitrogen cycle and are particularly interested in the emission of nitrous oxide.
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.
Extreme
Extreme environments are a relative term here for a lack of better description. What humans consider extreme most microbes could care less about! The applications of this work are incredibly interesting in that they can perhaps shed light on the origins of life, ancient geochemical cycles, and help to constrain where life in our solar system and abroad may exist. Previous work on this topic has involved exploring cold seeps, hydrothermal sediments, and Antarctic lakes. Future work will focus on microbial ecology of cold seep environments, Arctic ice cores, the deep subsurface.