Microbial Biogeochemistry Lab

Congratulations to Ph.D. Candidate Sanjukta Dhar on her new publication, Spatial heterogeneity in nutrient utilization during the End-Devonian Ocean Anoxic Event: A case study of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin, in Frontiers in Earth Science. It is an open-access publication, doi: 10.3389/feart.2024.1407639.

Members of the Mocrobial Biogeochemistry Lab including Ph.D. students Tabinda Athar and Josh Ford and undergraduates Meera Kirpal and Daan Shen spent two days collecting biological soil crust samples at BCNWR. The samples will be analyzed by Tabinda as the first part of her disseration research. She is studying the formation of biocrust and microbial stress responses to UV light and desiccation using pigment and lipid biomarkers. Ultimately Tabinda will be making predictions about microbial change in response to climate change in semi-arid/dry-subhumid grasslands.

James Fulton is the Principle Investigator of a newly funded NSF Award from the Division of Ocean Sciences, starting May 1, 2024. This award will fund the dissertation research of Ph.D. student Josh Ford as well as undergraduate lab assistants. The research on carbon storage in coastal sediments will be conducted in collaboration with Co-PI Dr. Hussain Abdulla of Texas A&M Corpus Christi.

The Geomicrobiology class took a field trip to study biological soil crusts on Cretaceous sedimentary rocks in BCNWR and nearby granitic sediments on the Llano River. It was a beautiful February day in central Texas!

Ph.D. Student Josh Ford organized a research trip to Oso Bay and Mustang Island to collect sediment push-cores of microbial mats and underlying sediments. We collaborated with Dr. Hussain Abdullah and Ph.D. student Justin Elliott in taking cores, processing samples at Texas A&M Corpus Christi, and making initial geochemical measurements in the field and lab. The core material is being analyzed as part of NSF Division of Ocean Sciences Award #2342637.

The Microbial Biogeochemistry Lab welcomes new Ph.D. Student Tabinda Athar, who is joining us in August 2023. She plans to study controls on nutrient cycling and organic matter accumulation in biological soil crusts.