Soil Microbial Ecology and Function

Welcome to the Soil Microbial Ecology and Function Lab! We are located in the School of Plant, Environmental, and Soil Sciences at Louisiana State University AgCenter and led by Dr. Holly M. Andrews. Established in August 2025, our team explores soil microbes, their metabolic capabilities, and their interactions with each other and with plants in a diversity of native and agroecosystems. We as ecologists are only beginning to understand the multi-faceted roles of soil microbes in agricultural nutrient management and resilience to extreme weather, particularly in the Coastal South United States. As such, our team employs a variety of techniques in field and lab settings to trace soil microbial community assembly and function, from meta-omics (metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, metabolomics) and stable isotope probing to enzyme kinetics and biogeochemistry.