About+us



Research in the Balser lab centers on understanding microbiological control over biogeochemical cycles and global change ecology. The goal is to better understand and predict how ecosystems respond to and recover from disturbance, management, or changes in global climate and land use. We focus on the integration of microbial community ecology and ecophysiology to address ecosystem-scale questions about responses to anthropogenic disturbance and change. We use a variety of techniques to characterize microbial communities in soil. We currently have the capacity to perform lipid analysis, gene-based assays, enzyme activity measurements. In addition, we study nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon cycling using tools such as stable isotope tracers, process potential assays, and trace gas analysis. The work takes place in the field as well as the lab, in areas such as Hawaii, Alaska, California, Puerto Rico, Switzerland, Germany, and various agricultural, prairie and forest sites in Wisconsin.
 * Overview**

__Research in the Balser lab includes:__
 * Soil carbon and feedbacks to climate change**. We are studying the role of microbial communities in soil carbon turnover and sequestration. We have projects in California, Wisconsin and Borneo looking at the importance of microbial community structure and activity in carbon cycling.


 * Ecology of nitrogen cycling** . We study microbial community control over nitrogen cycling in terrestrial systems such as restored wetlands, and tropical and temperate forests. Current study sites are in the UW Arboretum, in California and in the Hawaiian Islands. This work will contribute information about the mechanistic basis of nitrogen cycling in perturbed ecosystems. In the future, we hope to expand the work further to include additional Wisconsin sites in wetland, agronomic, and forest soils receiving external N input.


 * Global and ecological change research**. We have a variety of projects ongoing that address current issues in global and ecological change. We are investigating the impacts of invasive plant species in wetlands, an invasive insect in forests of the Northeast U.S., the importance of plant and microbial diversity in urban rain garden functioning, and the effects of elevated CO2 and nitrogen deposition on carbon cycling in invaded wetlands and grassland ecosystems.


 * Collaborative research and visiting scholars program**. We are committed to interdisciplinary research, and to the inclusion of microbiological detail in large scale ecological research. Toward that end we are active collaborators with research groups around the world, and we invite students and postdocs to visit us in Madison to learn lipid analysis and microbial techniques.