My work seeks to better understand how belowground biodiversity and healthy soils can support sustainable crop production under climate change, addressing both fundamental and applied aspects of soil ecology. Below are some of the areas of research I am interested in.

Climate-smart and regenerative management practices in horticultural production systems: I am interested in collaborating with farmers to investigate how climate-smart and regenerative management practices can support soils, enhance resource use efficiency, and maintain crop productivity. Currently, I am working with an interdisciplinary research team led by Dr. Mallika Nocco investigating how conservation irrigation and cover cropping can support soil health and resource use efficiency in almond orchards across the California Central Valley. I am specifically examining how these practices influence the soil microbiome, nutrient cycling, and almond root ecophysiology.

Sustainable soil management strategies for urban agriculture: Urban agriculture can offer a number of public health, social, economic, and ecological benefits to communities across the globe. However, one of the largest challenges urban growers must contend with is building and maintaining healthy soils in the urban environment. As a UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow, I am collaborating with urban growers in Oakland and San Francisco to test how publicly-available organic amendments such as municipal compost can support soil health and crop productivity in urban agriculture. We are also collaborating on a number of urban grower outreach and extension projects to better support urban agriculture practitioners in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Root and rhizosphere interactions for enhanced crop fitness: Microbial consortia in the rhizosphere have a tremendous influence on their plant hosts and can modulate several plant traits. Using experimental microbiome systems, I am interested in studying growth-promoting microbial communities in the rhizosphere and how they can enhance aspects of crop fitness such as nutrient use efficiency and productivity.