My research investigates how agricultural diversification practices, including diversified crop rotations, cover cropping, intercropping, and diverse set-asides, influence soil microbial communities in agroecosystems.
Soil microorganisms play a key role in maintaining soil health and ecosystem functioning through their involvement in nutrient and carbon cycling and plant-microbe interactions. Understanding how microbial communities respond to diversification can help address challenges related to sustainable crop production, biodiversity conservation, and the resilience of agricultural systems. I use DNA-based methods combined with measurements of microbial biomass, soil chemistry, and crop responses to examine how diversification shapes belowground ecosystems and contributes to sustainable farming.
