Denef Lab

The Denef Lab contributes to answering a core question in ecology: how do within- and between-species interactions shape microbial community diversity, composition, and functioning? It is important to focus on between-species interactions as they determine the makeup of communities, which in turn shapes ecosystem functioning, from agricultural crop biomass production to the magnitude of soil greenhouse gas emissions. It is important to consider within-species interactions, particularly between genetically dissimilar individuals of the same species, as recent insights, including from our own work, have shown important ecological consequences of within-species genetic diversity. The small genome sizes and short generation time compared to macroscopic life make microbial systems particularly interesting model systems for ecological theory development regarding this aspect of within-species interactions.