McGuire’s primary focus is understanding how the community assembly processes of soil microbial communities influence the diversity and distribution patterns of plant communities, and what the consequences of these relationships are for nutrient cycling processes. Her main study systems are tropical rainforests. Also investigates how plant-microbial interactions respond to anthropogenic disturbances such as agricultural production, shifting climate, and urbanization. Human activity is causing major alterations in biodiversity and biogeochemical cycling across the planet, and soil fungi and bacteria often mediate ecosystem responses to these changes. McGuire and her team use an integrative approach to research that combines ecosystem-level measurements, field experiments, functional assays, and genomics.
Website kmcguire@uoregon.edu 541-346-8949 Office: Pacific 335C
See more people in: Microbial Ecology, Soil, Plant Ecology, Urban Ecology