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 assess these processes using a combination of ecosystem and theoretical modeling, field manipulations, and biogeochemical and molecular methods in the laboratory. Since microbes are essentially everywhere, knowledge of how these tiny organisms operate can help us better predict ecosystem responses to global change, optimize ecosystem services, and understand the importance of microbes for the many larger organisms they are associated with. 

See Research for more detailed description of our projects, Photos to see what doing our science looks like, 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
Sarah tweets (sometimes)

Lab News

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. 


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. 

May 2020 updates
  • The Evans Lab is working from home to flatten the curve!
December 2019 updates
  • Sarah, Jennifer and Corinn presented their work at the KBS LTER All Scientists Meeting. Lukas also attended and led a roundtable discussion.
  • Sarah, Holly and Lukas attended the GLBRC Environmental Sustainability Meeting. Sarah gave a talk about the switchgrass microbiome and Lukas presented a poster. 
  • MMPRNT held it's annual Fall All Hands meeting. Plans were altered by a crazy snow storm, but we were still able to interact with our guest speakers Wendy Yang and Angela Kent. 
  • Sarah gave promotional talks at MSU and KBS as part of her tenure process. Way to go Sarah!
  • Evans lab gets crafty! Corinn exhibited her microbe art at the MSU SciComm Science-Art Exhibit. KBS celebrated art and science at the Allurement Salon. Heather, Tayler and Corinn share their creations-check out the photo page for pics!
  • Sarah has new publication about non-rainfall moisture as a driver of microbial respiration out now in Ecosystems. 
  • Evans lab said good bye to lab tech and molecular biology guru Remy Van Geersdaele as he moved to Corsica. Thanks for all you help Remy and enjoy island life!
August 2019 updates
  • Tayler presented at Rhizosphere 5, her first oral presentation at a conference! 
  • KBS hosted the Eminent Ecology Series. The lab had a great time interacting with Diana Wall, Kelly Zamudio, Eric Seabloom and Elizabeth Borer.
  • Sarah collaborated on the art piece "Fog of Dawn" as part of the Science Galley Detroit's Depth exhibit. 
  • Undergrads Ethan, Hope and Andrew presented at the KBS poster symposium. Great work everyone!
  • Lab Alum Shannon Carvey accepted a Master's program position at the University of New Brunswick with Dr. Heather Major. 
  • Robert, Jennifer and 2018 REU Esbeiry Cordova attended ESA. It was a decomposition filled week as Jennifer presented work on wood decomposition from her dissertation and Esbeiry shared her findings on fungal decay of litter from the Namib. Esbeiry also was a panelist at ESA's Diversity Luncheon. 

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