Our research is driven by a desire to understand the roles of microbes in natural environments. Major objectives include linking microbial taxa to critical ecosystem processes, exploring functional gene diversity and its relation to community structure and biogeochemical processes, and identifying novel enzymes and/or catabolic pathways.

Much of our work focuses on the Roseobacter clade, an abundant, broadly distributed and biogeochemically relevant group of heterotrophic marine bacteria. Aspects of Roseobacter biology that are of particular interest to us include catabolism of plant-derived compounds, attachment and colonization of surfaces, and geographical distributions. In addition, we have recently begun to examine viruses that infect this important clade in order to understand how phage lysis influences Roseobacter populations as well as the chemical nature of dissolved organic matter released due to phage activity.

More information, see lab page.