My teaching and research focus is to understand the physiological characteristics of plants and microbes that control the interaction of plant and soil communities with the atmosphere. I use a wide range of modern ecological methodologies to understand these processes, but always against a higher-level ecosystem and evolutionary backdrop. My current research focuses on how terrestrial ecosystems respond and contribute to environmental conditions. The underlying motivation for understanding the interrelationship between the terrestrial environment, the atmosphere, and the pedosphere is to predict the response of ecosystems to human-driven alterations (pollution, global climate change, disturbance, etc.). My goals in teaching and outreach are to both train new scientists to work in the realm of biosphere-atmosphere interactions and to educate the public about these globally important processes.