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

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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.  

September 2021:
  • Glade Dlott joins the lab as a postdoc working on the NSF Couples Human Natural Systems (CNH2) grant (and to share his mushroom knowledge!) Welcome Glade!
  • Lukas and Sarah published a paper about leaf endophyte community assemblage in Proceedings of the Royal Society. Check it out!
  •  Jennifer was awarded a USDA NIFA AFRI Postdoctoral Fellowship for her work leveraging the LTER Rain Exclusion Experiment (REX) titled  "Using soil microbial functional traits and trade-offs to explain soil carbon storage and crop response to drought"
  • Corinn was awarded a USDA SARE graduate student grant to study prairie strips' potential to remove harmful insecticides from farm soils. 
  • Another virtual ESA! Jennifer gave 2 presentations  on microbial inoculation and microbial tradeoffs in response to droght. 
  • 2021 KBS Summer Undergraduate Symposium was a success. Great posters presented by Ceco, Emma, Madaris, Milagros and all other summer students!
  • Madaris was awarded the Research Experience for Post-Baccalaureate Students extension to stay with the lab another year! 
  • Field sampling Galore! Jennifer lead microbial sampling the LTER rainout shelters for her NIFA project and the larger REX project (Thanks to all that helped!) Glade prepping to lead CNH2 sampling at farms around Michigan this month. 
June 2021:
  • 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 2021: 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!​​
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