As a wildlife biologist with research experience in microbial ecology, I’m broadly fascinated by how variation in microbial communities can be consequential for ecosystem and plant/animal health. My current research covers 3 main themes:

Theme 1: Genetic and ecological drivers of host-associated microbiome variation in the wild

Theme 2: Interactions between host-associated and environmental microbiomes

Theme 3: Microbiome contributions to ecosystem function, or host fitness and trait variation

For my BSc and MSc, I studied how plastic components of host physiology—namely immune and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity—covaried with microbiome measures in response to environmental change (urbanization). I continued to study the causes of microbiome variation using a combination of quantitative genetic and meta-community approaches during my PhD. In my research on Sable Island feral horses, I emphasized how environmental heterogeneity and patterns of microbiota dispersal shape gut microbiome variation in the wild. Leveraging the Sable Island horse population pedigree and quantitative genetic methods, I further quantified the consequences of microbiome variation on host survival and reproductive success, and estimated the heritability of health-associated features.

Applications

I am keen to explore microbiome applications to advance nature conservation or the sustainability of agriculture and aquaculture. Although tremendous efforts have been made to preserve wild landscapes and wildlife, microbial constituents of natural biological systems are more often overlooked. However, the unseen bacterial, archaeal, fungal, and protozoal species that pervade every biotic and abiotic surface of the natural world are critical to natural and food ecosystems. Monitoring of the diverse microbial communities that blanket the natural world may allow us to surveil for disease, or provide an early warning signal of population or ecosystem collapse. Microbiomes may similarly be a useful tool for wildlife reintroduction and habitat restoration.