The Evans Lab studies how microscopic organisms - bacteria, fungi, and archaea - function and respond to their environment. We are interested in how microbes respond to disturbances and stress, and what factors alter the diversity of microbial communities, as well as the ecosystem functions that microbes carry out, like cycling nutrients and facilitating plant growth. We are also interested in equitable science, inclusion in STEM, and scientific solutions to environmental problems. We probe these topics collaboratively as a lab using field manipulations, modeling, biogeochemical and molecular methods, and regularly discussing improving scientific practices. Since microbes are essentially everywhere, knowledge of how these tiny organisms operate can help us better predict ecosystem responses to global change, enhance services, and preserve biodiversity. Everyone is needed to reach these goals, simultaneous efforts to eliminate barriers to STEM will also be essential!

See Research for more detailed description of our projects, Photos to see what doing our science looks like, DEI for activities and resources for broaden participation, and Communication for descriptions for non-scientists. And of course, People, for the fun group that makes it happen. 

Contact information

Picture
Email: evanssa6@msu.edu

Physical location:*
Kellogg Biological Station
Academic 329 (lab)
Stack 243 (molecular lab)
Academic Building 341 (Office)
Michigan State University
3700 E. Gull Lake Dr.
Hickory Corners, Michigan, USA

*2020-2021: working from home indefinitely (sometimes with toddlers) to prevent covid-19 spread. Email is best! 
Sarah tweets (sometimes)

Lab News

Join the lab! Sarah is hiring TWO postdocs right now,. and on the lookout for grad students to start fall 2022 and fall 2023 -check out the Join page for more info.  

June 2020:
  • Robert Logan successfully defended his dissertation. The recording can be found here. 
  • The Evans Lab welcomes Ceco Maples, Emma Reeves, and Madaris Serrano-Perez as undergrad summer researchers (and happy to have Kris and Milagros joining in too:). We are happy to have you.
  • Francesca Cotrufo and Keith Paustian visit KBS as part of the Eminent Ecologist series and challenge us to think more deeply about soil carbon (and the role microbes play in building it). 
  • Tayler's paper in Phytobiomes on microbiomes of different switchgrass varieties was selected as Editor's choice!

April 2020: December 2020 Updates
  • There's a new doctor in town! Heather Kittredge successfully defended her dissertation this December! “Environmental Drivers and Evolutionary Consequences of Horizontal Gene Transfer in Soil Bacteria” We celebrated with a Gull Lake Polar Plunge! She starts her postdoc at the University of Connecticut with Mark Urban in January. Congrats Heather, we’re all so proud of you!
  • Lukas accepted a postdoc position at the Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences working on the GlobalFungi Project with Petr Baldrian starting in April. Congrats Lukas! We’ll miss you!
  • Tayler’s first paper is published in Phytobiomes! She looks at intraspecific variability in roots and edaphic conditions influence soil microbiomes across different switchgrass cultivars. Great work Tayler!
  • Jennifer and Sarah organized the ESA session “Ecological Responses to Drought Across Scales” and  held a similar discussion during Ecology Underground
  • Jennifer, Tayler, Lukas and Tayler gave virtual presentations during ESA 2020. Check out the program for more info on their work. 
  • Corinn shared her prairie strip work with her first poster at the Tri Societies annual meeting.
  • Sarah, Corinn and Tayler hosted “Non-Academic Careers in Soil Ecology: a virtual career panel”. 
  • Jennifer received funding for metagenome sequencing with JGI and GLBRC to study soil microbial traits under drought. 
  • Corinn received the Scientists Engaging and Educating Decisions-makers (SEED) Ambassador Award from the Soil Science Society of America. She’ll be starting a training program to learn about establishing relationships with election officials and advocating for science-driven policy
  • Tayler is working hard on a collaboration with Sasha Kravchenko’s lab using rhizoboxes to study plant interactions influence on root exudates and rhizosphere communities. She’s continuing the work by setting up a huge plant soil feedback experiment. Check out the photos page for some cool pics! 

July 2020-New Grants!
  • ***Sarah will likely be looking for postdocs to work on these grants (starting spring or summer 2021 (ish). Please contact her with your CV if interested! Students starting 2021 or 2022 may be also be able to work on these themes. 
  • Sarah received a new, $1.4M NSF grant in collaboration with Christine Hawkes and Steve Allison- Collaborative Research: Microbes, memory, and moisture: leveraging DroughtNet to predict how microbial moisture responses will impact carbon cycling.  Congratulations Sarah! Read about the grant at NatSci News or MSU Today!
  • A NSF Couples Human Natural Systems grant led by Jen Lau with Sarah as Co-PI has been recommended for funding.  This grant is asks how farmers and soils respond to drought, and whether some practices like irrigation can actually suppress natural drought tolerance, having unintended effects on resilience.  Read about the grad at NatSci News!









July 2020 updates
We've been working from home but are still busy! See our updates from this year so far!
  • BIG NEWS: Sarah was awarded tenure! Congrats Associate Professor Evans. The lab is so proud of you and and all your hard work over the years! We're excited to celebrate!
  • Holly's former lab group publishes their work on fine root growth in warming peatlands in PNAS! That's a lot of root picking! Check out the SPURCE project. 
  • Lukas begins mentoring students through ESA SEEDS and EEB Mentor Match.
  • Tayler receives USDA Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Fellowship to study how farmers' perception of soil health affects their soil management. Congrats Tayler!
  • Field sampling is underway! Corinn is sampling for the LTER prairie strips project and many lab members are coring and sieving soils for the GLBRC. Check out the photos page for some shots of our creative covid work plans! 
  • Tayler presents her work on farmer soil health decisions at the Soil Health Nexus. 
  • Corinn gets KBS Outreach Fellowship and leads off with a Nature Journaling Webinar for K-12 educators.
  • Heather finishes her 100 day experimental evolution project. Can't wait to see the results!
  • Robert and Heather plan a Virtual Professional Development Series for Undergrads. Thanks for keeping the summer experience alive! 
  • Lukas publishes in Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics, reviewing climate disruptions of plant-microbe interactions. Link to come!
  • Heather accepts postdoc with Mark Urban at the University of Connecticut starting in January. Congrats Heather, we're excited to see your next steps! 
  • Sarah is awarded the 2020 Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award from the MSU Graduate School. Thanks to Corinn, Tayler, Heather and Robert for the nomination. We appreciate Sarah's commitment to amazing mentorship!
  • Heather and Robert are awarded a Dissertation Completion Fellowship from the MSU Graduate School. 
  • MMPRNT grad student Darian Smercina defends her dissertation and accepts a postdoc at Pacific Northwest National Lab as a prestigious Linus Pauling Distinguished Fellow. Congrats Dr. Smercina, we'll miss you!
  • MMPRNT holds a completely virtual All Hands Meeting. Thanks to CABBI's Wendy Yang and Angela Kent groups for joining us!
  • Corinn awarded GRRP Fellowship from NSF! She'll be investigating the role of soil microbes in degrading neonicitinoids in prairie strip adjacent agricultural fields. Congrats Corinn!
  • Corinn awarded the Emerging Public Policy Leadership Award from the American Institute of Biological Sciences.
  • Lukas participates in I-Comet conference. The start of virtual conferences!
  • Jennifer publishes her dissertation work on habitat effects on bark decomposition in Functional Ecology and has a blog post delving into the paper.
  • Lukas and Sarah publish study on agricultural land-use and restoration affect on microbial community composition in Journal of Applied Ecology. ​
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