Hannah Naughton

Undergraduate & Graduate Faculty—Soil Biogeochemistry, Assistant Professor

Faculty
Hannah Naughton
Contact
Email
Email
Phone
Hannah Naughton Soil Biogeochemistry Lab
Location
Paige 411

Mailing Address
Stockbridge School of Agriculture
402 Paige Laboratory
University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003

Dr. Naughton studies how the soil habitat (environmental, physical and chemical properties) and microbial food sources dictate nutrient cycling patterns.  Her lab focuses on soil health, decomposition, and greenhouse gas outcomes in natural and managed ecosystems.

Dr. Naughton’s group studies how soil chemical and physical attributes affect microbial activity, particularly the turnover of key nutrients like carbon and nitrogen.  Soil varies in key qualities such as nutrition or moisture over very short spatial scales, like within a forest stand or agricultural plot.  Our group studies the extent of this variation, how it changes the environmental living conditions experienced by soil microbes, and how microorganisms respond through their community composition and metabolisms.  This work relates to terrestrial nutrient cycles, (greenhouse) gas fluxes from soils, and healthy soils and ecosystems. 

Current Research:

  1. Forest disturbance effects on carbon inputs to and gas emissions from soils
  2. Soil health outcomes from drought-tolerant dual purpose summer cover crops
  3. Drivers of anoxic microsites within upland soils, and impact on predicting soil gas fluxes

Courses Taught:

  1. Agricultural Chemistry (STOCKSCH 117)
  2. Introduction to Soil Science (STOCKSCH 105)

Curriculum Vitae

Assistant Professor of Soil Biogeochemistry

Education

Ph.D.   Earth System Science, Stanford University, 2020

M.S.     Conservation Ecology, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, 2014

B.S.      Chemistry & Biology, The College of William & Mary, 2012

Publications

  • Lacroix, Emily, Meret Aeppli, Kristin Boye, Eoin L. Brodie, Scott Fendorf, Marco Keiluweit, Hannah R. Naughton, Vincent Noël, and Debjani Sihi. “Consider the anoxic microsite: Acknowledging and appreciating spatiotemporal redox heterogeneity in soils and sediments.” In revision, ACS Earth and Space Chemistry. (Submitted for Peer Review)
  • Naughton, Hannah R., Bradley Tolar, Christian Dewey, Marco Keiluweit, Peter Nico, and Scott Fendorf. “Iron, Not Fungal Community, Strongly Contributes to Phenol Oxidative Potential in Floodplain Soils.” Soil Biology & Biochemistry, 2023, 178: 108962. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2023.108962
  • Fox, Patricia M., Cam Anderson, Christian Dewey, Marco Keiluweit, Mark Conrad, Hannah R. Naughton, et al. Sulfur Biogeochemical Cycling and Redox Dynamics in a Shale-Dominated Mountainous Watershed.” JGR: Biogeosciences, 2022, 127 (6): e2021JG006769. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JG006769
  • Naughton, Hannah R., Marco Keiluweit, Malak M. Tfaily, James J. Dynes, Tom Regier, and Scott Fendorf. “Development of Energetic and Enzymatic Limitations on Microbial Carbon Cycling in Upland Soils.” Biogeochemistry, 2021, 153 (2): 191-213.
  • Naughton, Hannah R., Marko A. Alexandrou, Todd H. Oakley, and Bradley J. Cardinale. "Phylogenetic Distance Does Not Predict Competition in Green Algal Communities." Ecosphere, 2015, 6 (7): 1-19.
  • Naughton, Hannah R. and Christopher J. Abelt. “Local Solvent Acidities in β-Cyclodextrin Complexes with PRODAN Derivatives.” Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 2013, 117 (12): 3323-3327.
  • Green, Amy M., Hannah R. Naughton, Zachariah B. Nealy, Robert D. Pike, and Christopher J. Abelt. “Carbonyl-Twisted 6-Acyl-2-dialkylaminonaphthalenes as Solvent Acidity Sensors.” Journal of Organic Chemistry, 2012, 78 (5): 1784-1789.