I am broadly interested in how microbes shape the biosphere, and how the biosphere, in turn, shapes microbes. My research takes a model system approach to address questions in microbial ecology through a combination of laboratory, field and bioinformatics studies. In the Chisholm lab, my work uses the Prochlorococcus system to explore questions such as: What are the ecological roles of bacterial extracellular vesicles? What are the specific interactions that occur among microbes, and how do these interactions impact function and stabilize communities? What are the mechanisms that drive co-evolution in microbial communities? How is bacterial diversity structured across physical scales, and how does this impact ecosystem function?