GLBRC All Scientists Meeting in May: Tayler presented work on her rhizobox experient ""Does switchgrass neighbor impact its root exudation and microbiome? Direct sampling of in situ roots and microbes using rhizoboxes"
Sarah named Earth Leadership Program Fellow and was able to attend their leadership workshop! What an honor! We're proud of you Sarah!
Tayler hosted "Diggin' into Soil Health" workshop in June for farmers and agricultural advisors working for NGOs, state and federal conservation and agriculture organizations
Evans lab hosted 2 summer researchers. Sofie (REU) looked at effects of carbon addition on soybean growth and drought tolerance in a greenhouse experiment. They also presented a poster about their work at the KBS Summer Undergrad Research Symposium, great job! Melissa (RET) set up a decomposition experiment using soybean litter in both sunny and shady locations. She'll join us again next year to finish up! Great having you two in the lab!
Catilin Broderick joins the Evans lab as a postdoc working on the DIGME project. Welcome to KBS, Caitlin!
Tayler attended Climate Insersections Conference in July, presented on farmer's perceptions of soil health
Madaris moved to Florida to work as the Visitor Service Support Team at Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge. We'll miss you Madaris, thanks for all your great work!
Ecological Society of America (in Canada?): Most of the lab (Sarah, Corinn, Madaris and Caitlin- Jennifer in spirit) headed to Montreal to present their work and see what other scientists are up to. Madaris gave her first ESA conference talk about her research fungicide and nematicide effects on plant responses to drought. So proud of you!
Corinn hosted farm field day about prairie strips and soil health at Edward Lower Foundation with southwest MI agriculture stakeholders
Another field season come and gone. REX (Rain Exclusion Experiment) Year 2 samples were collected by Holly, Jennifer and so many volunteers. Corinn sampled the KBS Prarie strips again. Holly and Caitlin send collection kits around the world for collaborators to send us soils for DIGME.
Brandon Kristy joins the lab as a new Ph.d student focusing on work within the GLBRC. Welcome to the Evans lab, Brandon!
LTER All Scientist Meeting in September: Evans lab descended the ASM, helping to lead various sessions! Tayler helped with the co-produced research across LTERs workshop, Corinn with the evidence based strategies for SciComm workshop, Jennifer and Sarah led the ecosystem responses to rainfall variabilty session (with Catilin presenting) and Holly soaked it all in. Plus we say lab alumni Esbiery and Zahraa!
Spring 2022:
Zahraa leaves the lab to start a PhD program at UC Irvine with Alejandra Rodriguez Verdugo. We're so proud of you Zahraa!
CNH2 folks completed soil sampling at farm around Michigan, Indiana and Illinois (with collaborators from the Jen Lau lab at IU)
New lab member! Tayler and her partner Ruben welcomed baby Oden to their family November 28th. Congrats! We’re excited to have you at KBS Oden!
YJ Su rejoins the lab to help process all the REX samples!
Corinn shows her Native Plants Prints at the Downtown Kalamazoo Art Hop and the Kalamazoo Nature Center- Science and Art combined!
More papers: Glade has paper about soil microbiomes in different farming systems published in Applied Soil Ecology. Robert's paper on photodegradation and litter decomposition is accepted to Functional Ecology
Madaris presented her REX work (Influence of fungicide and nematicide on plant responses to drought and rainfall variability) at the Metropolitan Association of College and University Biologist (MACUB) and won Best Presentation Award. Great work Madaris!
At the LTER ASM, lab Alum Ceco and Corinn presented a poster on active carbon in prairie strips and Madaris shared a poster on plant responses to drought.
Corinn passed comps! Congrats on all your hard work!
Lots more conferences Corinn went to the annual Iowa State University STRIPS meeting. Several Evans labbers attended the KBS LTER All Scientist Meeting and GLBRC Sustainability Meeting.
Successful Evans/Fitzpatrick Holiday Party- hope everyone enjoys their White Elephant Gift!
Lab Alum Robert joined the NOAA Core and is off to basic training in CT. We look forward to hearing from you research vessel soon Robert!
Holly talked to elementary and middle schoolers about what it means to be a lab manager during KBS’s Exploring with Scientists series. Recording will be posted soon!
September 2021:
Glade Dlott joins the lab as a postdoc working on the NSF Couples Human Natural Systems (CNH2) grant (and to share his mushroom knowledge!) Welcome Glade!
Jennifer was awarded a USDA NIFA AFRI Postdoctoral Fellowship for her work leveraging the LTER Rain Exclusion Experiment (REX) titled "Using soil microbial functional traits and trade-offs to explain soil carbon storage and crop response to drought"
Corinn was awarded a USDA SARE graduate student grant to study prairie strips' potential to remove harmful insecticides from farm soils.
Another virtual ESA! Jennifer gave 2 presentations on microbial inoculation and microbial tradeoffs in response to droght.
2021 KBS Summer Undergraduate Symposium was a success. Great posters presented by Ceco, Emma, Madaris, Milagros and all other summer students!
Madaris was awarded the Research Experience for Post-Baccalaureate Students extension to stay with the lab another year!
Field sampling Galore! Jennifer lead microbial sampling the LTER rainout shelters for her NIFA project and the larger REX project (Thanks to all that helped!) Glade prepping to lead CNH2 sampling at farms around Michigan this month.
June 2021:
Robert Logan successfully defended his dissertation. The recording can be found here.
The Evans Lab welcomes Ceco Maples, Emma Reeves, and Madaris Serrano-Perez as undergrad summer researchers (and happy to have Kris and Milagros joining in too:). We are happy to have you.
Francesca Cotrufo and Keith Paustian visit KBS as part of the Eminent Ecologist series and challenge us to think more deeply about soil carbon (and the role microbes play in building it).
Tayler's paper in Phytobiomes on microbiomes of different switchgrass varieties was selected as Editor's choice!
There's a new doctor in town! Heather Kittredge successfully defended her dissertation this December! “Environmental Drivers and Evolutionary Consequences of Horizontal Gene Transfer in Soil Bacteria” We celebrated with a Gull Lake Polar Plunge! She starts her postdoc at the University of Connecticut with Mark Urban in January. Congrats Heather, we’re all so proud of you!
Lukas accepted a postdoc position at the Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences working on the GlobalFungi Project with Petr Baldrian starting in April. Congrats Lukas! We’ll miss you!
Tayler’s first paper is published in Phytobiomes! She looks at intraspecific variability in roots and edaphic conditions influence soil microbiomes across different switchgrass cultivars. Great work Tayler!
Jennifer, Tayler, Lukas and Tayler gave virtual presentations during ESA 2020. Check out the program for more info on their work.
Corinn shared her prairie strip work with her first poster at the Tri Societies annual meeting.
Sarah, Corinn and Tayler hosted “Non-Academic Careers in Soil Ecology: a virtual career panel”.
Jennifer received funding for metagenome sequencing with JGI and GLBRC to study soil microbial traits under drought.
Corinn received the Scientists Engaging and Educating Decisions-makers (SEED) Ambassador Award from the Soil Science Society of America. She’ll be starting a training program to learn about establishing relationships with election officials and advocating for science-driven policy
Tayler is working hard on a collaboration with Sasha Kravchenko’s lab using rhizoboxes to study plant interactions influence on root exudates and rhizosphere communities. She’s continuing the work by setting up a huge plant soil feedback experiment. Check out the photos page for some cool pics!
July 2020-New Grants!
***Sarah will likely be looking for postdocs to work on these grants (starting spring or summer 2021 (ish). Please contact her with your CV if interested! Students starting 2021 or 2022 may be also be able to work on these themes.
Sarah received a new, $1.4M NSF grant in collaboration with Christine Hawkes and Steve Allison- Collaborative Research: Microbes, memory, and moisture: leveraging DroughtNet to predict how microbial moisture responses will impact carbon cycling. Congratulations Sarah! Read about the grant at NatSci News or MSU Today!
A NSF Couples Human Natural Systems grant led by Jen Lau with Sarah as Co-PI has been recommended for funding. This grant is asks how farmers and soils respond to drought, and whether some practices like irrigation can actually suppress natural drought tolerance, having unintended effects on resilience. Read about the grad at NatSci News!
July 2020 updates We've been working from home but are still busy! See our updates from this year so far!
BIG NEWS: Sarah was awarded tenure! Congrats Associate Professor Evans. The lab is so proud of you and and all your hard work over the years! We're excited to celebrate!
Holly's former lab group publishes their work on fine root growth in warming peatlands in PNAS! That's a lot of root picking! Check out the SPURCE project.
Tayler receives USDA Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Fellowship to study how farmers' perception of soil health affects their soil management. Congrats Tayler!
Field sampling is underway! Corinn is sampling for the LTER prairie strips project and many lab members are coring and sieving soils for the GLBRC. Check out the photos page for some shots of our creative covid work plans!
Tayler presents her work on farmer soil health decisions at the Soil Health Nexus.
Corinn gets KBS Outreach Fellowship and leads off with a Nature Journaling Webinar for K-12 educators.
Heather finishes her 100 day experimental evolution project. Can't wait to see the results!
Robert and Heather plan a Virtual Professional Development Series for Undergrads. Thanks for keeping the summer experience alive!
Lukas publishes in Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics, reviewing climate disruptions of plant-microbe interactions. Link to come!
Heather accepts postdoc with Mark Urban at the University of Connecticut starting in January. Congrats Heather, we're excited to see your next steps!
Sarah is awarded the 2020 Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award from the MSU Graduate School. Thanks to Corinn, Tayler, Heather and Robert for the nomination. We appreciate Sarah's commitment to amazing mentorship!
Heather and Robert are awarded a Dissertation Completion Fellowship from the MSU Graduate School.
MMPRNT grad student Darian Smercina defends her dissertation and accepts a postdoc at Pacific Northwest National Lab as a prestigious Linus Pauling Distinguished Fellow. Congrats Dr. Smercina, we'll miss you!
MMPRNT holds a completely virtual All Hands Meeting. Thanks to CABBI's Wendy Yang and Angela Kent groups for joining us!
Corinn awarded GRRP Fellowship from NSF! She'll be investigating the role of soil microbes in degrading neonicitinoids in prairie strip adjacent agricultural fields. Congrats Corinn!
Lukas participates in I-Comet conference. The start of virtual conferences!
Jennifer publishes her dissertation work on habitat effects on bark decomposition in Functional Ecology and has a blog post delving into the paper.
Lukas and Sarah publish study on agricultural land-use and restoration affect on microbial community composition in Journal of Applied Ecology.
May 2020 updates
The Evans Lab is working from home to flatten the curve!
December 2019 updates
Sarah, Jennifer and Corinn presented their work at the KBS LTER All Scientists Meeting. Lukas also attended and led a roundtable discussion.
Sarah, Holly and Lukas attended the GLBRC Environmental Sustainability Meeting. Sarah gave a talk about the switchgrass microbiome and Lukas presented a poster.
MMPRNT held it's annual Fall All Hands meeting. Plans were altered by a crazy snow storm, but we were still able to interact with our guest speakers Wendy Yang and Angela Kent.
Sarah gave promotional talks at MSU and KBS as part of her tenure process. Way to go Sarah!
Evans lab gets crafty! Corinn exhibited her microbe art at the MSU SciComm Science-Art Exhibit. KBS celebrated art and science at the Allurement Salon. Heather, Tayler and Corinn share their creations-check out the photo page for pics!
Sarah has new publication about non-rainfall moisture as a driver of microbial respiration out now in Ecosystems.
Evans lab said good bye to lab tech and molecular biology guru Remy Van Geersdaele as he moved to Corsica. Thanks for all you help Remy and enjoy island life!
August 2019 updates
Tayler presented at Rhizosphere 5, her first oral presentation at a conference!
KBS hosted the Eminent Ecology Series. The lab had a great time interacting with Diana Wall, Kelly Zamudio, Eric Seabloom and Elizabeth Borer.
Sarah collaborated on the art piece "Fog of Dawn" as part of the Science Galley Detroit's Depth exhibit.
Undergrads Ethan, Hope and Andrew presented at the KBS poster symposium. Great work everyone!
Lab Alum Shannon Carvey accepted a Master's program position at the University of New Brunswick with Dr. Heather Major.
Robert, Jennifer and 2018 REU Esbeiry Cordova attended ESA. It was a decomposition filled week as Jennifer presented work on wood decomposition from her dissertation and Esbeiry shared her findings on fungal decay of litter from the Namib. Esbeiry also was a panelist at ESA's Diversity Luncheon.
June 2019 updates
Corinn Rutkoski transitioned from lab tech to PhD student and is starting summer sampling after winning a LTER fellowship.
Emily Burgess joins the lab as research tech! She is a recent graduate of Grinnell college.
Heather Kittredge won 1st place in the student poster contest at the Soil Ecology Conference. Robert Logan won 2nd place for his presentation at MSU's EEBB Reserach Symposium. Congrats!
Sarah attended the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center's All Scientist Meeting.
4 summer undergrads have joined the lab. Welcome Hope, Ethan, Andrew, and Harry (back again!)
Summer sampling is underway for many lab members including Jennifer and Corinn's new LTER projects and Robert's last sampling trip to Namibia!
March 2019 updates
Evans Lab undergrads present at the MSU Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum. Kisanet Gebresilase wins first place for her poster!
Jennifer Jones joins the lab as a postdoc. She comes from Katy Heath and Jim Dalling's lab at University of Illinois
Tayler Chicoine attends the Switchgrass Microbiome Symposium in California.
August 2018 updates
8 Evans lab undergraduates present at the KBS poster symposium. Thank you for all your hard work (mentors and mentees)
Everyone scatters for conferences! Robert and Lukas to ESA, Heather to Evolution, and Tayler to ISME.
MMPRNT (led by Holly and Corinn) completes all-sites trip, and jammin on another great field season
Persis Fitzpatrick-Evans joins the lab
May 2018:
WELCOME to Holly (new lab manager/MMPRNT coordinator), and a clan of great summer undergrads! See People or photos from our summer kickoff BBQ to meet these folks!
MMPRNT kicked off the field season and have so far endured near-freezing temps, thunderstorms, and 95 degree days. See MMPRNT website for updates.
Tayler Chicoine and Sarah Evans present at the Annual DOE Genomic Sciences Program meeting (which we now know the cool kids call "GenSci").
Jan 2018: Happy new year! This month, we had to say goodbye to Kevin, a charter member of the Evans Lab and just a great person to have around. Thank you, and you will be missed. With Kevin's departure we have been brushing up on lab organization and everyone has been great at contributing to this.
Congrats and good luck to Steve as he interviews for grad schools this season, and congratulations to both Steve and Heather on paper submissions
Belated congrats to Robert Logan, PhD Candidate, for passing his comps in December (and presenting at AGU immediately after).
Nov 2017: Sarah heads to University of Michigan for a seminar in their EEB department.
Oct 2017: Welcome to Corinn Rutkoski who started this month as a new lab technician on the MMPRNT project (after surviving her first day of taking soil cores in the rain). Shannon Carvey and YJ Su have also been making amazing progress on MMPRNT samples this fall. Thanks
Sarah gives a talk at the local (Chief Noonday) chapter of the North Country Trail Association
Sept 2017: Sarah and Robert tag-team for a talk on their Namib Desert work at the African Studies Center seminar series. Great questions from a diversity audience and good to see old friends and previous lab members!
June 2017: Summer projects and fieldwork kickoff! Check out new People. Sarah heads to Soil Ecology Society meeting/Soil Health Summit.
We are working with Bethany Bohlen (KBS) this summer to create a video about the MMPRNT switchgrass-N project. Stay tuned for a box office hit!
Julia Ferguson graciously designed a beautiful lab logo for us! We will soon cover the website (and ALL things) with it.
May 2017: Farewell to Will West - Thank you for all your hard work and help in building the lab. We wish you well on next steps doing much-needed work on science ed and diversity!
Two new members are joining in early May: postdoc Lukas Bell-Dereske (from the Rudgers lab at University of New Mexico) and lab technician Daniela Herrera (recent grad of Loyola Univ in Chicago). Gearing up for REU and URA arrivals May 21.
April 2017: Robert and Heather travel to the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies to talk fog biology with Kathleen Weathers, Eli Dueker, and Barbara Han.
January 2017: Lots of winter travel to warmer places - Heather heads to Rice University to learn synthetic biology techniques in the Silberg and Masiello labs (see pictures). And Robert is fog chasing and checking on his UV-shelters in the Namib until mid-February.
December 2016: We are moving the molecular side of labwork into the new Molecular Ecology and Genomics Laboratory at KBS (2nd floor stack). The Evans lab is committed to getting Fitbit steps in.
November 2016: Kathryn and Will head to Qatar to for the World Congress on Undergraduate Research to present their summer work on exudate chemistry and N cycling.
October 2016: MMPRNT all-project retreat, held at KBS's Spruce Lodge, was a great success. And congratulations to Tayler Chicoine for being featured on IBIO website for her fellowship!
September 2016: check out grad student Robert Logan's blog post about our fieldwork in Namibia this summer -
August 2016: Kelechi and Kathryn present their posters at the KBS undergraduate research symposium- Wednesday August 3rd, 3:30-5:30
June 2016: Sarah and Robert join collaborators Kathy and Peter Jacobson for fieldwork in the Namib Desert, Namibia. Photos coming soon, check out Robert's website for a few.
Will West presents an invited talk at the ASLO (Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography) conference about his work on methane emissions. May 2016: a belated welcome to the awesome undergrads working in the Evans Lab this summer: Kathryn Bloodworth, Kalechi Ukachukwu, Ellen James, and Ben Dougherty. All have jumped right in to the lab fray!
Also, we are excited to finally have Robert and Heather at KBS!
April 2016: Congrats to Tayler Chicoine for her NSF Graduate Research Fellowship to study plant-microbe interactions, and to Robert Logan for being awarded a Lauff and Porter research scholarship for his summer field work in Namibia!
Our new DOE-funded project on nitrogen cycling and plant and microbial dynamics in marginal lands has a website. Check it out (and great job, Steve).
March 2016: Tayler Chicoine and Steve Gougherty join the lab! see People for the full gang
February 2016: Sarah gives a seminar at Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in early February, and another later that month at Western Michigan University - and met a lot of really great people.July 2020 updates We've been working from home but are still busy! See our updates from this year so far!
BIG NEWS: Sarah was awarded tenure! Congrats Associate Professor Evans. The lab is so proud of you and and all your hard work over the years! We're excited to celebrate!
Holly's former lab group publishes their work on fine root growth in warming peatlands in PNAS! That's a lot of root picking! Check out the SPURCE project.
Tayler receives USDA Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Fellowship to study how farmers' perception of soil health affects their soil management. Congrats Tayler!
Field sampling is underway! Corinn is sampling for the LTER prairie strips project and many lab members are coring and sieving soils for the GLBRC. Check out the photos page for some shots of our creative covid work plans!
Tayler presents her work on farmer soil health decisions at the Soil Health Nexus.
Corinn gets KBS Outreach Fellowship and leads off with a Nature Journaling Webinar for K-12 educators.
Heather finishes her 100 day experimental evolution project. Can't wait to see the results!
Robert and Heather plan a Virtual Professional Development Series for Undergrads. Thanks for keeping the summer experience alive!
Lukas publishes in Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics, reviewing climate disruptions of plant-microbe interactions. Link to come!
Heather accepts postdoc with Mark Urban at the University of Connecticut starting in January. Congrats Heather, we're excited to see your next steps!
Sarah is awarded the 2020 Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award from the MSU Graduate School. Thanks to Corinn, Tayler, Heather and Robert for the nomination. We appreciate Sarah's commitment to amazing mentorship!
Heather and Robert are awarded a Dissertation Completion Fellowship from the MSU Graduate School.
MMPRNT grad student Darian Smercina defends her dissertation and accepts a postdoc at Pacific Northwest National Lab as a prestigious Linus Pauling Distinguished Fellow. Congrats Dr. Smercina, we'll miss you!
MMPRNT holds a completely virtual All Hands Meeting. Thanks to CABBI's Wendy Yang and Angela Kent groups for joining us!
Corinn awarded GRRP Fellowship from NSF! She'll be investigating the role of soil microbes in degrading neonicitinoids in prairie strip adjacent agricultural fields. Congrats Corinn!