Growing crops as bioenergy feedstocks requires researchers to focus on soil management and better understand the soil carbon cycle. However, the data on soil microbiology is still limited, preventing researchers from incorporating this information into biogeochemical models. To this end, the project focuses on the microbial interactions in agricultural soils, with the goal of identifying…

Filamentous fungi such as Trichoderma reesei and various Aspergillus species are the workhorses of the biotechnology industry, annually producing a vast array of products that includes billions of dollars in enzymes. These enzymes play key roles in biofuels production because they can break down plant biomass into fermentable sugars. The demand for fungal protein expression…

Basidiomycetes and Ascomycetes are key organisms in the degradation of wood, plant and animal material. Ascomycetes are less capable of rapid wood decay than basidiomycetes, but they are considered more important degraders of plant biomass in compromised environmental systems. As factors such as increasing soil temperatures impact the various processes that regulate life on the…

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Department of Energy have emphasized the need to better understand and predict how changing climate conditions might impact carbon cycling and carbon sequestration in ecosystems. Grasslands and rangelands account for about 40 percent to 70 percent of terrestrial ecosystems, so understanding the interactions between common grass species…