In search of microbes around the world

Jessica Green, an assistant professor in the University of Oregon's Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, holds a doctorate in nuclear engineering. But, she says, her real passions are mathematics and physics, "especially anything related to qualitative analysis."

As a faculty member at the UO, her attention now is on a combination of biology and ecology. She says the "ultimate challenge" facing her field today is the understanding of microbes. She says she took great pride when she heard that long-time, ground-breaking biologist E.O. Wilson, during the NOVA special "Lord of the Ants," said that if he were launching his career today he would focus on microbes.

Listen as Green (in photo at right, 300 miles from the North Pole) discusses the three papers described in the UO news feature that referred you to this page:

• Green on her PNAS paper on microbes in the ocean, looking at diversity by latitudes, from the equator to the poles

• Green on her PNAS paper on microbes in the Rocky Mountains, looking at diversity as it appears by altitude

• Green on her paper in the journal Science, in which she tells why the study of traits can provide a roadmap for understanding diversity

In the Science paper, for which Green was the lead author, she wrote:

"Trait-based approaches to microbial biodiversity and biogeography offer the promise of advancing ecological theory and predicting responses to environmental change. Recent theoretical advances in plant sciences using a trait-based framework have provided a mechanistic basis for quantifying the link between functional trait variation and ecosystem processes. A focus on traits that are common to macroorganisms and microorganisms provides a common currency with which to develop and test theory across life's domains. The next step is to revisit these theories in the context of microbial systems."