Research
Microbial dark matter: linking structure, functional genetics and bioremediation potential of microbial communities in a degraded hypersaline estuary.
My PhD research project is concerned with the functional genetics and ecology of microbial communities controlling nutrient and carbon cycling in hypersaline environments (a relatively understudied ecosystem in this field). This research is conducted in the Coorong National Park, at the Murray-Darling Basin Estuary in South Australia - an internationally important migratory bird habitat, and a Ramsar-listed wetland ecosystem (also a pretty amazing place to do fieldwork).
This project is supervised by Dr. Virginie Gaget, Dr. Stephen Kidd, Prof. Justin Brookes, and is lucky to have an additional large group of brilliant collaborators from the Project Coorong team. Together, our research aims to help understand nutrient cycling pathways, to find a path to bioremediation of the study site, and inform policy and management in the region to that end. It also aims to contribute to the scientific literature on similar ‘extreme’ systems on a broader scale - e.g. microbial stress adaptation, climate, early earth evolution and astrobiology.