My work on microscale microbial ecology

Modular assembly of polysaccharide-degrading microbial communities in the ocean

Many complex biological systems such as metabolic networks can be divided into functional and organizational subunits, called modules, which provide the flexibility to assemble novel multi-functional hierarchies by a mix and match of simpler …

Natural resource landscapes of a marine bacterium reveal distinct fitness-determining genes across the genome

Heterotrophic bacteria exploit diverse microhabitats in the ocean, from particles to transient gradients. Yet the degree to which genes and pathways can contribute to an organism's fitness on such complex and variable natural resource landscapes …

Microscale microbial ecology

What does the world look like to a microbe?

Microbial interactions and community assembly at microscales

In most environments, microbial interactions take place within microscale cell aggregates. At the scale of these aggregates (∼100 um), interactions are likely to be the dominant driver of population structure and dynamics. In particular, organisms …

Range expansion promotes cooperation in an experimental microbial metapopulation

Natural populations throughout the tree of life undergo range expansions in response to changes in the environment. Recent theoretical work suggests that range expansions can have a strong effect on evolution, even leading to the fixation of …