Dr. Zoe Cardon

My research group is interested in how interactions among organisms and soils shape, and are shaped by, terrestrial biogeochemistry. Currently, we are particularly focused on how plants redistribute water in the soil column in semi-arid lands, and the effects of that dynamic redistribution on microbial activity (carbon and nutrient cycling) in the rhizosphere (the soil around plant roots). More broadly, our research emphasizes function at multiple scales, including micrometers (e.g., using living, bacterial microbiosensors in soil to examine conditions, availability of resources, and microbial growth rates), whole root systems and whole plants (e.g., examining stomatal behavior and carbon allocation patterns, and their implications for plant resource distribution and rhizosphere microbial activity), and natural and agro-ecosystems (e.g., determining how the size and dynamics of new and old soil carbon pools are influenced by elevated CO!