Using Microbial Traits To Connect To Ecosystem Processes Through Models

Dr. Hannah Holland-Moritz

University of New Hampshire

Bio: Hannah Holland-Moritz is a research scientist at the University of New Hampshire. She received her bachelor's degree from University of California, Davis in Biochemistry and Ph.D from University of Colorado, Boulder where she studied the community ecology of microbes associated with boreal mosses and soils across the continental USA. Her current research focuses on the environmental conditions which influence community assembly and the molecular mechanisms that underpin community functional traits. She is particularly interested in using microbial functional traits in conjunction with community assembly theory to develop more accurate predictive models of carbon release in the Arctic, peatlands, and temperate soils. In addition her research interests, she is also passionate about science communication, diversity and inclusion in STEM, and lowering barriers to acquisition of computational skills for budding scientists.

Seminar Title: Using Microbial Traits To Connect To Ecosystem Processes Through Models

Seminar Abstract: Microbes are ubiquitous in the terrestrial environment and play fundamental roles in plant health, soil fertility, and global biogeochemical cycles. These roles depend on microbial traits which govern microorganisms’ interactions with each other, their environment, and with macroscopic organisms. Microbes, as with all life on Earth, inhabit an increasingly changing world, yet predictive understanding of microbial community function in response to global change is elusive. It is also rare for microbial interactions and traits to be explicitly included in predictive models at the global and ecosystem scale. Here I’ll share results from several approaches to bridge the gap between microbial traits and modeled predictions at these scales as well as ongoing challenges in the iterative model-experiment (ModEx) process for microbial communities. Together these studies shed light onto the forces that shape microbial community assembly in terrestrial environments and how we can leverage a new trait-based understanding to predict the fate of soil and plant-associated microbial communities in a changing world.