CRAIG NELSONAssociate Geochemist, WRRC; Associate Professor, Department of Oceanography and Sea Grant College Program

EDUCATION:

• PhD, Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2008
• BA, Integrative Biology & English, University of California, Berkeley, 1998

FIELDS OF INTEREST:

• Microbial ecology of aquatic ecosystems (coral reefs, oceanic gyres, alpine lakes)
• Dissolved organic matter biogeochemistry
• Comparative phylogenetics and metagenomics of bacterial communities
• Landscape biogeochemistry and ecosystem metabolism

I am interested in how microbial communities control ecosystem processes in aquatic habitats. I am particularly interested in the role of microbes in transforming the complex mixtures of organic compounds and metabolites that comprise dissolved organic matter in the ocean, rivers and lakes. I work primarily on bacterioplankton but also study the microbiomes of many different host organisms, including coral, algae, fish and invertebrates in marine habitats.