Lee J. Kerkhof

Professor
Marine microbiology-molecular ecology, microbial population dynamics

email:
phone: 732-932-6555 x.335

Education: 1991 Ph.D., University of California, San Diego

Research Interests:  Microbial ecology is in the midst of a revolution.  Tremendous strides have been made over the last 25 years in documenting the extent of microbial diversity in a variety of habitats by the direct analysis of nucleic acids in bacterial biomass.  Little is known, however, about the factors driving microbial diversity.  Many significant questions remain about microbial populations in nature, including:

1. Which of the various species of bacteria are dominant in a natural sample?
2. How fast are these groups of bacteria growing?
3. How are bacterial populations changing in abundance over space and time?
4. Does biogeography play a role in microbial communities
5. How does the composition of the microbial community affect biogeochemical transformation rates?

The purpose of my research is not to record overall diversity of the microbial world.  We know, a priori, that any environmental setting is diverse with respect to the single-celled inhabitants.  Rather, the focus of our studies has been to elucidate the active players in a variety of complex environments, and to understand the mechanisms driving microbial diversity and biogeochemical processes.

 

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