Why should it matter if a microbe is a generalist, a predator, or an r-strategist?

Microbes are crucial for plant and soil health, yet our understanding of their role in ecosystem functions, such as maintaining soil fertility, shaping crop resilience, and recycling nutrients, remains limited to the taxonomy and occasionally to their functional potential. In addition, most of the studies focus on certain microbial groups such as bacteria and fungi. Often, microbes are divided into generalized dichotomies that provide further understanding of their role in the ecosystems (e.g., prey/predator, generalist/specialist, K-/r-strategists). 

My overall research goal is to understand the role of microbial interactions and lifecycle histories in ecosystem functions. I incorporate in my research portfolio different approaches such as field sampling campaigns, small lab experiments, advanced data analysis and microbial bioinformatics, and statistical modeling to understand how certain viruses and microbial lifecycle history traits shape soil and plant health.

To this end, my research focuses on: 

- community assembly of plant-
dwelling and soil-dwelling microbes under different land use intensity or crop management
- How different land use intensities shape viral communities in soils
- Incorporating lifecycle history strategies (e.g., generalist/specialist dichotomies) to understand how these traits define how microbial communities shape soil and plant health 
- The role of microbes in mitigating drought effects on crops

In addition, I collaborate on:
-comparative genomics of known plant-pathogens
-analysis of datasets for the occurrence of antibiotic resistance under different waste/wastewater managements
-analysis of soil metagenomes from Sub-Saharan Africa