Brian Darby

Brian Darby's Soil Ecology and Ecological Genomics laboratory.

Soils are filled with an incredible diversity of life; many of the animals are too small to be seen with the naked eye but are still important for ecosystem functioning. Recent technological advances in molecular biology allow us to also study the genomics of soil organisms in a way that wasn't previously possible.

Our research seeks to understand the ecology of these soil organisms, what genes and genome components are important for their belowground life, and how they influence soil and ecosystem processes. Research projects are at the intersection of ecology and genomics and include field, laboratory, microscopy, molecular, genomic, and computational approaches.