Microbial Ecology in the Feris Lab
Microbes play important roles is just about every biogeochemical process on the planet and they possess some of the most interesting and diverse metabolic capabilities of any group of organisms around. For example, a number of petroleum contaminants, heavy metals, and pesticides can be bio-transformed to non-toxic or relatively innocuous products by microbial metabolism in a process known as bioremediation. My research program studies the organisms responsible for these processes and the environmental factors that control their rates of metabolism in situ. Through a better understanding of which organisms are involved in bioremediation and the conditions under which they perform this activity we can design new and innovative remediation strategies to clean up polluted environments.
One of the principal areas of study in the Feris lab encompasses the elucidation of environmental factors and processes that affect the diversity, structure, and function of microbial communities in a variety of ecosystems, how these communities feedback to alter their environment, and their role in the fate and transport of contaminants in the environment. We explore these relationships through a combination of observational and manipulative field studies and controlled laboratory experiments. Responses of microbial communities to contaminants are monitored via a suite of molecular methods. Researchers in our lab are field microbiologists that use quantitative lab-based analytical tools to understand the role of microorganisms in the biodegradation, biotransformation, and fate of contaminants in the environment.
Interesting Microbial Ecology Links
Subsurface Microbial Ecology: Assessing impacts of subsurface contamination on microbial communities to facilitate design of enhanced bioremediation strategies.
Clark Fork River system in western Montana
Effect of Ethanol on the fate of BTEX and MTBE in groundwater (A field experiment performed at Vandenburg AFB)