We study microbe-organic matter interactions in aquatic environments, in order to better understand how environmental microbes get their food and what effects they have on the Earth’s carbon cycle. This involves fieldwork in coastal estuaries, the open ocean, and the High Arctic, as well as wet chemical experiments and development of novel bioinformatic techniques to deal with the challenges posed by complex and poorly-characterized microbial communities.  Please see our lab website at https://adsteen.github.io