Land has a wide variety of uses: agricultural, residential, industrial, and recreational. Unfortunately, a growing population on earth has led to unsustainable use of land on earth through deforestation, land degradation and loss of natural habitats. Microbes play a key role in the terrestrial ecosystem, providing symbiotic relationships with plants and animals alike. Human use of land has led to the exhaustion of nutrients in soils, contamination of land, and a reduction in biodiversity.
Microbes provide a powerful tool to tackle many of these issues, such as dealing with contaminated water and soils through bioremediation and restoring nutrients to soils. Applying our knowledge of microbes will be essential in restoring the biodiversity of affected ecosystems. Greater research into the microbiomes present on land is essential, as this will allow researchers to develop strategies to protect these invisible networks which support a healthy environment. Understanding how microbes impact human life on land could all have a positive impact, by increasing crop production, repurposing areas of land and improving microbial biodiversity in soil, land, and water.
Read the latest research on healthy land from AMI’s journals here.
Healthy Land Advisory Group Members
Nasmille Larke-Mejia
I am an Environmental Microbiologist with a PhD from the School of Environmental Sciences at University of East Anglia (2018). Before coming to the UK, I studied a BSc in Biology, a BSc in Microbiology and a MSc in Environmental Microbiology at Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá, Colombia).
During my first studies, under the supervision of Dr Jenny Dussan, I isolated and characterised bacteria thriving on burnt oils and the explosive ANFO, both prevalent in the daily mining operations of Cerrejón, a northern Colombian open-pit coal mine (where I grew up). During my doctoral studies, under the supervision of Professor J Colin Murrell, I characterised novel soil and phyllosphere microorganisms that use isoprene as their sole source of C using techniques including stable isotope probing (SIP), amplicon sequencing and metagenome analysis.
Post PhD, I have focused on using metagenomics to investigate low-abundance microorganisms. My first postdoctoral placement was at Earlham Institute, working for the GROW Colombia project, where I studied the soils affected by different agricultural practices in Colombian sugarcane plantations and a fungal pathogen for coffee plants.
Currently, I am a postdoctoral researcher with Dr Matthew Gilmour at the Quadram Institute, UK, specializing in metagenomics and pathogen identification using short- and long-read sequencing.
Diane Purchase
Diane is a Professor of Environmental Biotechnology. She is a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Biology and the Institution of Environmental Sciences, and a Titular Member of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry.
As a Professor of Environmental Biotechnology with over 20 years experience in the field, in particular researching the role of microorganisms in protecting the environment, she is keen to make a meaningful contribution to raise awareness of microorganisms and the environment.
Juan Luis Ramos
Melissa Cregger
Dr. Cregger is an ecologist broadly interested in understanding microbial community dynamics across ecosystems, and how changes in microbial community structure may influence ecosystem level processes. Specifically, she is interested in understanding the potential for changes in microbial diversity and composition to influence the health of associated host organisms and to alter large scale nutrient fluxes. Her research spans scales from the molecule to the ecosystem level, taking advantage of modern techniques to fully understand microbial interactions. Dr. Cregger received her Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in 2012 at the University of Tennessee under the guidance of Dr. Aimee Classen. After her Ph.D. she proceeded directly to a prestigious post-doctoral fellowship at the Carl Woese Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois in the Biocomplexity theme. In 2014, she left the University of Illinois to begin a post-doctoral appointment with Dr. Chris Schadt at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In 2015, she received a staff appointment at ORNL when she was awarded a Liane Russell Fellowship. Dr. Cregger is an active member in the Ecological Society of America, and a subject matter editor for Ecological Monographs and Ecology.
Thulani Makhalanyane
Marcela Hernadez
My career is dedicated to studying how microbial communities establish in soils perturbed either by human manipulation or natural disturbance, specifically methanogens in paddy rice soils, carbon monoxide oxidisers in volcanic soils and antimicrobial resistance in agricultural soils. I use high-throughput sequencing and stable-isotope probing to assess community diversity and function.
My current research in the Murrell lab at UEA involves the isolation of metagenome-assembled genomes from natural gas seeps and their characterisation as players in biogeochemical cycles of the components of natural gases such as propane, methane and ethane.
In my group, I will investigate the importance of microbes in the early establishment of volcanic soils and their impact on the establishment of moss and specifically characterise CO-oxidising microbes, including the Ktedonobacterales. The diversity and ecophysiology of this functional group in the environment are poorly documented and impair our ability to quantify the biological sink for CO and the contribution of microbes to mitigate the atmospheric burden of CO in response to global change.
Don A Cowan
I was educated in New Zealand at the University of Waikato and completed a period of postdoctoral study there before moving to University College London as a Lecturer in 1985. After 16 years in London, I accepted the position at Professor of Microbiology in the Department of Biotechnology at the University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, where I was a Senior Professor and Director of the 60-strong Institute Microbial Biotechnology and Metagenomics. I moved to the University of Pretoria in May 2012 in the dual role as Director of both the University of Pretoria Institutional Research Theme in Genomics and my research group, the Centre for Microbial Ecology and Genomics. The latter is housed in a newly refurbished 1000m2 laboratory suite on the Hatfield Campus.
I have published over 350 research papers, review articles and book chapters, and sit on the Editorial Boards of 13 international journals.
I hold the posts of Professor Emeritus at the University of the Western Cape and of Adjunct Professor at the University of Waikato (NZ), was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa in 2007, as a Member of the Academy of Sciences of South Africa in 2008, and as an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2009. I was awarded an NRF A rating in 2013, the UWC Vice-Rector’s Award for Research Excellence in 2008 and the South African Society for Microbiology Silver Medal in 2009. In 2015, I received the Chancellor’s award for Research Excellence at the University of Pretoria.
My research activities in microbial ecology encompass several fields, but mostly linked by the theme of ‘environmental extremes’. My collaborators include researchers in South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, Zambia, Argentina, New Zealand, the UK, Germany, and the US. Since my PhD studies, I have retained an interest in the ecology and enzymology of extreme thermophiles, organisms living in heated soils and hot water. For the past decade I have worked on the microbial ecology of Namib Desert soils and at the lower end of the biotic temperature scale, studying the microbiology of the Dry Valleys of Eastern Antarctica. My latest project is a continental-scale survey of soil microbial diversity. With 9 other partner nations, we are collecting 1000 soil samples from southern, eastern, western and northern Africa and aim to analyze the soil microbial community structures in the context of macro-environmental and geographic parameters.
Christina Hazard
Our research is dedicated to exploring the diversity and distribution of soil microorganisms and viruses in natural and anthropized ecosystems, the factors influencing their communities and activities, and impact on biogeochemical cycling. Our research includes a focus on specific microbial functional groups such as mycorrhizal fungi, and nitrogen and methane cycling microbes and their viruses
Uffe Nielsen
Uffe received his PhD in 2008 from University of Aberdeen, Scotland, in close collaboration with the Macaulay Institute (now the James Hutton Institute) and Center of Hydrology and Biology (CEH). His PhD research focused on the distribution and community composition of soil biota (microbes and soil mites in particular) across various spatial scales in two contrasting habitats. This research mainly targeted the questions of what structures belowground communities and how belowground communities respond to environment parameters and environmental changes (such as land use and climate).
Through his research at CSU Uffe continued investigating patterns of, and mechanisms underlying, biodiversity and community composition belowground, whilst also trying to establish and quantify potential links between soil biodiversity and belowground community composition and ecosystem processes/functioning and ecosystem services.
Maria Tsiafouli
I'm a Researcher and Teacher at the School of Biology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in the field of Ecology.
I took part in several research projects related to climate change, biodiversity, soil biodiversity, organic farming, as well as agricultural, forest and wetland ecosystems in the Mediterranean area. I also worked at the Greek Biotope and Wetland Centre of the Goulandris Museum of Natural History where I was involved in projects related to nature protected areas and the Natura 2000 network.
My broader research interest is in investigating the effect of climate and human activities, and especially agricultural activities on different elements of biodiversity (species, communities, habitats, landscapes) and ecosystem services. Moreover I’m interested in the most neglected part of biodiversity; i.e soil biodiversity and in the soil food web functions that are linked to the outcome of ecosystem services.
Lucie Malard
I am a microbial ecologist interested in the biogeography and distribution of microorganisms in Alpine and Polar regions. I work on all groups of microbes with a focus on terrestrial and airborne ecosystems.
Catriona MacDonald
Dr Catriona Macdonald joined the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment in November 2010 investigating the impacts of environmental change on nutrient cycling and resource allocation within terrestrial environments. Her research interests are geared towards understanding how environmental change impacts nutrient cycling and ecosystem functioning and how this affects productivity and sustainability of soils.
Working across natural, agricultural and managed ecosystems, she aims to improve understanding of how factors such as climate change and land management impact microbial-mediated nutrient transformations, and how this feeds back to ecosystem functioning.
To achieve this Catriona uses field-based and controlled environment studies to determine rates of nutrient (C, N and P) transformations, quantify nutrient resource allocation in above- and below-ground pools, as well as investigating the function and diversity of key microbial drivers in C N and P cycles using a range of in-situ approaches (soil CO2 flux, decomposition, net mineralisation), laboratory assays (MicroResp, enzyme activities, potential mineralisation, degradation rates) and molecular approaches (community profiling and sequencing analysis).
Her research experience includes determining the effects of elevated CO2, elevated temperature, drought and atmospheric N deposition, on nutrient cycling and on the functioning and structure and of soil microbial communities, as well as assessing the sustainability of long-term metal contaminated sludge addition in agricultural systems.
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