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Welcome to my website! I am currently a Lecturer at Lincoln University in Aotearoa New Zealand. My research aims to understand how different soil microbes and soil microbial communities impact ecosystem function, especially in the face of local and global environmental change. Soil microorganisms play a critical role in ecosystems, breaking down leaf litter and converting nutrients into plant accessible forms. In the process of carrying out these ecosystem functions, microbes respire, producing an order of magnitude more CO2 than is released by human sources. Soils contain four times more carbon than the atmosphere; because respiration rates often increase with temperature, atmospheric carbon contributed by soil requires full inclusion in any climate change discussion. My work focuses on understanding the temperature sensitivity of soil microbes and their impact on rates of greenhouse gas production and rates of nutrient cycling.
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