Autumn Peterson is graduating today from VT, Congratulations! She is graduating with her ENSC B.S. degree and has worked as an undergraduate researcher in the lab for the past year. Even better, Autumn was recently awarded a spot in the Biology graduate program at Georgia Tech, so she will be headed to ATL later this summer. Very happy for her!

Congratulations to Steve again, he’s had a big month! Steve was awarded a one-year graduate fellowship from the Interfaces of Global Change program at VT. Steve has been a student in the program since 2018 and has worked hard to engage and contribute to the IGC in a number of different ways. The support is well deserved and very much appreciated! The funding will allow Steve to devote 100% of his time to research in his final year, including publishing his previous chapters and completing his final experiment on freshwater salinization and primary productivity.

Our new paper on the effects of microbial inoculations on the community structure and function of photobioelectrochemical systems is out in Science of the Total Environment. Link is here. Special thanks to Erica Young for taking the lead and getting this one published!

We are excited to say that Stephanie Duston will be RE-joining the lab as a PhD student to work on our new USDA project on cover crops and soil health. Stephanie was an undergraduate researcher in the lab previously, before going on to work on her MS degree in Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation with my colleague Brian Strahm. She has recently accepted our offer to continue as a PhD student, this time co-advised between Brian and and myself. We very much look forward to keeping Stephanie around and have the opportunity to work more with her!

Along with my co-PIs Jacob Barney and Brian Strahm, we are excited to share the news of a newly funded USDA project investigating relationships among cover crop diversification, the soil microbiome, and soil health. Details are here. I look forward to working on a new collaboration and appreciate the support from the USDA!

Congrats to Steve DeVilbiss, a PhD candidate in the lab, who was just awarded a $5k graduate research grant from the VA Water Resources Research Center. Steve’s award, titled “”Impacts of freshwater salinization on primary production and stream ecosystem metabolism” will support his investigation of how salt inputs impact photosynthesis in freshwater streams. This is an exciting addition to complement his previous work looking at salt impacts on respiration and will allow him to consider the full ecosystem balance. Well done Steve, and thanks to the WRRC for the support!

Our new paper examining how concentrations of fecal indicator bacteria and human microbial source tracking markers is published in Science of the Total Environment. Link is here. Many thanks to my co-author Meredith Steele and especially the many undergrad researchers that helped make this project happen!

A huge congratulations to Sarah Shawver, a PhD candidate in the lab, for her award at the 2019 Soil Science Society of America annual meeting! Sarah presented the her results on interacting effects of  soil texture, moisture, and manure additions on soil microbial communities and ARGs. After winning first place in the Environmental Quality division, she then went on to compete in the follow-up flash talk and poster competition and won 1st place for the whole society. Well done!

Our new paper on the impacts of cover crops on microbial indicators of soil health is out in Agrosystems, Geosystems, and Environment. Link is here. Special thanks and congrats to Mike Strickland for getting this one published!

Congrats to Steve DeVilbiss who one first place in the Ecosystem Science and Management Community at the annual research symposium for the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences. Steve presented his results on freshwater salinzation impacts on stream bacterial communities. Well done ]!