Next time you are outside, we encourage you to look down at the soil beneath your feet. Now, imagine scooping up a small thimble-full of that soil. Did you know that in just that tiny thimble of soil there are 1 billion bacteria and 1 million fungi? Amazing, right? We think so. Our lab studies soil microbial ecology – examining how all those microbes interact with growing plants and with each other, how they break down carbon substrates and cycle nutrients, and how they impact exchange of gases such as CO2, CH4, and N2O between the soil and the atmosphere.
Our recent projects examine topics ranging ranging from: Microbial mediation of soil carbon dynamics; processes in the zone of soil around the plant root, called the rhizospere; using meta-omic approaches to link identity with function (metagenomes to metatranscriptomes to metaproteomes and metabolomes; digging deeper to examine microbial communities in saprolite (proto-soil); and microbial mediation of nitrogen cycling, with a particular focus on the highly reactive nitrous oxide.
🚨 MY LAB IS STILL HIRING 🚨
Do you love the #microbiome? Want to do #metagenomics and #MachineLearning? We want postdocs to develop, characterize, and #CRISPR edit in vitro human microbiome systems.
More info: https://aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF03687
#biojobs #postdocjobs #ScienceTwitter
In our new ‘high-throughput’ SIP-metaG paper, @nuccio, @AKakouridis @rachelhestrin et al. targeted the tiny habitat surrounding AM hyphae. They IDed 13C fixed by the host plant, moved by hyphae and taken up by a complex micro food web of bacteria and AOA.
https://rdcu.be/c0sK3
Finally out!
HT-SIP: a semi-automated stable isotope probing pipeline identifies cross-kingdom interactions in the hyphosphere of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi
Be sure to check out the cool video!
@Jeffinerca @erinnuccio @Firestone_Lab @acampbellina
https://microbiomejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40168-022-01391-z
PMB graduate student @AlexaMNicolas, a member of the @Firestone_Lab and @UCBTagaLab, shares her new findings on soil viruses—an abundant and ubiquitous member of the microbiome—and their link to carbon emissions in this recent research spotlight.
https://plantandmicrobiology.berkeley.edu/news/2022/11/expanding-our-knowledge-of-soil-microbiomes
- Sampling mixed grassland at the Hopland Field Site
- Ecology-inspired art
- Mary Firestone
- Hopland Field Site
- Sampling in Progress
- Field Site in Hopland, CA
- Aaron Chew and Maggie Yuan at the Hopland Field Site
- Hopland Field Site
- Meeting
- Sheep at Hopland Field Site
- Sampling in the field
- Hopland Field Site
- Mary Firestone in the field
- Mary Firestone
- Mary Firestone in the field
- Nameer Baker and switchgrass sample
- Jennifer Pett-Ridge in the field
- Switchgrass in the Greenhouse
- Mary Firestone
- Microcosm Harvest
- Greenhouse Harvest Team
- Switchgrass Sampling
- Mary Firestone
- Lynn Huntsinger and Mary Firestone
- Mary Firestone in Field
- Mary Firestone
- Firestone Team in the field
- Mary Firestone
- Phage & Fauna Team post-meeting at IGIB
- Sampling in the Field
- Firestoners out to lunch
- Mary Firestone
- Firestoners in Montreal, QC
- Mary Firestone
- Firestoneres in the field in Oklahoma
- Mary Firestone
- Yoni Sher in the field
- Oklahoma Field Site
- Rainbow over Field Site in Hopland, Ca
- Greenhouse Harvest Team
- Firestoners in the field
- Hopland Field Site
- Firestone + Collaborators
- Firestone Lab Meeting
- Mary Firestone
- Jack Hagen in the field
- Switchgrass Sampling
- Mary Firestone
- Greenhouse Harvest Team (Rina, Nameer, Sarah, Erin, and Mary)
- Mary Firestone in Greenhouse
- Mary Firestone in the field
- Switchgrass root samples
- Angela Hodge, Mary Firestone & Sarah Baker at Mary's Retirement from Teaching Celebration
- Newly renovated lab at the Hopland Field Site (HREC)
- Mary Firestone and Rina Estera-Molina at Rina's M.S. Graduation
- Mary Firestone
- Mary Firestone and Don Herman
- Sheep at Hopland Field Site
- Mary Firestone
- Firestoners + Collaborators
- Mary's Retirement from Teaching Celebration
- Large soil sampling
- Switchgrass Sample Processing
- Greenhouse Harvest Team
- Mary Firestone in the field
- Rina Estera-Molina at the Hopland Field Site
- Anne Kakouridis presenting at Gen Sci 2020
- Nameer Baker and Mary Firestone in Greenhouse
- Sheep at the Hopland Field Site
- Jack Hagen in lab with microcosm panel
- Cynthia-Jeanette Mancilla at the Hopland Field Site
- Firestone team at the field site in Hopland, CA
- Hopland Field Site
- Firestone team in the greenhouse
- Rainy day at IGIB
- Hopland Field Site
- Wildlife in the field
- Firestone Team on the IGIB balcony for lunch
- Nameer Baker wheeling Switchgrass sample
- Burn on field site
- Mary Firestone in the Greenhouse
- Field site supplies
- Mary Firestone and Rachel Neurath
- Switchgrass Sampling
- Firestone Team in the field
- Nameer Baker and Mary Firestone in Greenhouse
- Mary Firestone giving a Presentation
- Greenhouse Harvest Team (Evan, Sarah, and Mary)
- Field Site Team