Evolutionary ecology of microbial life

From test tubes to the globe, we are motivated by the processes that generate and maintain microbial biodiversity. The Lennon lab is based in the Department of Biology at Indiana University. Visit our lab website to learn more about our team, research, publications, and teaching. Data and code from our projects are available on GitHub, and lab updates are shared on Bluesky

News

2025

Emmi's paper on "Residence time structures microbial communities through niche partitioning" to published in Ecology Letters
"Microbial solutions for climate change require global partnership" in mBio
"A game of life with dormancy" published in the Proceeding of the Royal Society B
"Microbes could help address climate change — why aren’t we using them?" published in Nature
Paper on Resuscitation-promoting factor (Rpf) and diverse soil bacteria published in mSystems special collection on microbial dormancy
"The distribution of genetic diversity in ecological communities: A unifying measure for monitoring biodiversity change" available on EcoEvoRxiv
"Geographical patterns and drivers of dissolved organic matter in the global ocean" now available as a Research Square preprint
"Simple, rapid, and sensitive assay for the quantification of total polysaccharides to estimate extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) in soil" available on bioRxiv
International report: "Microbial solutions for climate change toward an economically resilient future"
"Dormancy in the origin, evolution and persistence of life on Earth" published in the Proceeding of the Royal Society B
Jay speaks on Synthetic Biology for Environmental Health at ASBMB Annual Meeting in Chicago
Jay speaks at "Climate change and health: from micro to macro" at the University of Michigan
"Streptomyces secretes a siderophore that sensitizes competitor bacteria to phage infection" published in Nature Microbiology
Jay gives seminar at Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska
Climate Security Report: Global Consequences of Migration, Human Health, and Disease Vectors - Los Alamos Symposia Series
Jay gives seminar in Department of Biology and University of Maryland
"Cancer dormancy and therapy resistance: From models to the clinic" Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS), Rome
"Dormancy: Life’s first survival strategy?"
"Microbial ecology of permafrost soils: populations, processes, and perspectives" published in Permafrost and Periglacial Processes
We are teaching Quantitative Biodiversity (QB) at IU

2024

"Resuscitation-promoting factor (Rpf) terminates dormancy among diverse soil bacteria" available as bioRxiv preprint
Emmi Mueller's paper on "Residence time structures microbial communities through niche partitioning" available on bioRxiv
"Why dormant microbes matter in a changing climate"
"Bacterium secretes chemical inhibitor that sensitizes competitor to bacteriophage infection" to appear in Nature Microbiology
"Dormancy in the origin, evolution and persistence of life" on EcoEvoRxiv
"A game of life with dormancy" avaible as preprint on arXiv
"Nitrogen enrichment alters selection on rhizobial genes" now available on bioRxiv
"Microbial solutions must be deployed against climate catastrophe" in Nature Microbiology
"Photochemical processes drive thermal responses of dissolved organic matter in the dark ocean" is available on bioRxiv
Jay gives talk at AGU Union Session on "Micromanaging Microorganisms in a Changing World"
"Soil microbiome interventions for carbon sequestration and climate mitigation" to appear in mSystems
Jay gives plenary talk at mLife meeting in Shenzhen
"Microbial ecology of permafrost soils: populations, processes, and perspectives" to appear in Permafrost and Periglacial Processes
Jay gives plenary at Chinese Association for Microbial Ecology in Qingdao
Jay participates in ASM colloquium on "Impacts of the changing climate on water, water-borne pathogens, and human health"
Jay gives plenary at International Symposium on Soil Microbiomes and Soil Health in Yangling
Jay gives seminar at the Institute of Evolution & Marine Biodiversity at Ocean University of China
"Meet the soil stars": harnessing microbes to fight against climate change
In The Atlantic: "How to cool the world without blocking the sun: microbes may help determine our climate future"
"Most life on Earth is dormant, after pulling an emergency brake" in Quanta Magazine
Jay gives seminar in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Southern California
Jay gives seminar at Carnegie Science
"Ecological processes shaping highly connected bacterial communities" published in FEMS Microbiology Ecology
Emma Bueren joins lab as new GEMS postdoc!
"Phage infection fronts trigger early sporulation and collective defense in bacterial populations" now available as bioRxiv preprint
Jay give talk at Harnessing Transformational Technologies Symposium (HTT) in Santa Fe
Anna Lennon joins lab as new Ph.D. student!
Sungyun Kang joins lab as Research Associate!
"Priorities, opportunities, and challenges for integrating microorganisms into Earth system models for climate change prediction" published in mBio
Jay participates in Biodiversity Resilience workshop at iDiv
Jay participates in ASM Microbe miniconferece on Microbial Solutions for Climate Change
Jay convenes ASM Microbe session on Methane Mitigation Strategies
Jay gives seminar in the Department of Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution at UCSD
El Park joins lab as new Ph.D. student!
"Thermal responses of dissolved organic matter under global change" published in Nature Communications
Jay participates in Penn State One Health Microbiome Center seminar series
"Innovative method to understand gut microbiome"
"Patent issued to IU method for forming a gut bioreactor"
Jipeng Luo join lab as postdoc to investigate microbiome-mediated stress tolerance in plant hosts
Canan Karakoç starts postdoc at Georgia Tech with Sam Brown
John McMullen accepts job at Bayer
Jay attends Oath workshop on "Soil microbial strategies for climate mitigation" in Las Vegas
mSphere Thinking Series on "Critical concepts in microbial dormancy"
Quanta Magazine podcast: "Even synthetic life forms with a tiny genome can evolve"
American Society of Microbiology Meet the Policymaker Series: National Climate Assessment
Chembites: "Dissolved organic compounds under a changing climate"

2023

Jay receives Humboldt Research Award
"Evolution of a minimal cell" published in Nature
"Microbiologists push for a seat at the climate change table" in Nature
Jipeng Luo joins lab as new postoc
Jay gives seminar at University of Vienna, Center for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science
Lab receives patent for gut bioreactors
"Macroevolutionary constraints on global microbial diversity" with Ford Fishman published in Ecology and Evolution
Workshop on "Critical phenomena and challenges emerging from dormancy"
Jay gives seminar at University of Aberdeen, School of Biological Sciences
Jay gives seminar at Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies
Artificial cells demonstrate that “life finds a way”
Jay participates in National Science Foundation workshop: "LIFE: Leveraging Innovations From Evolution"
Jay gives talk to Climate Change Coordinating Committee (C4) at the National Science Foundation
"Coevolution with a seed bank" published in ISMEJ
Jay visits Centre for Origin and Prevalence of Life at ETH Zürich
"Human-gut phages harbor sporulation genes" published in mBio
"Anthropogenic activities mediate stratification and stability of microbial communities" published in Microbiome
Joy conducts summer research at Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab
AAM colloquium report on "Microbes in Models" for understanding climate change now published
Jay participates in Quantitative Principles in Microbial Physiology at ICTP in Trieste, Italy
AAM colloquium report on "Role of microbes in mediating methane emissions" now published
Lab receives DURIP award to study "mark-recapture of microorganisms"
Press release: "Viruses steal dormancy genes from bacteria"
Jay presents at ASM mini-conference on "Microbes, climate change, and global scale surveillance"
Jay participates in workshop on "Climate change communication" at ASM Microbe in Houston
The Indiana Daily Student (IDS) highlights lab's research.
AAM report published on "Role of microbes in mediating methane emissions"
Jay presents at AGU on the "geosciences and biothreats for enhancing national and global security"
Daniel joins DSM in the Netherlands as a Microbiology Scientist.
We are teaching Quantitative Biodiversity (QB) at IU
"Climate Change and Microbes" guest track at ASM Microbe 2023 in Houston
"Optimal dormancy strategies in fluctuating environments..." published in Journal of Theoretical Biology
"Microbiology and climate change: a transdisciplinary imperative" to appear in mBio
"Climate change experts tap microbes to protect the planet" in Micrococosms
"Soil health through farmers’ eyes" published in Journal of Soil and Water Conservation

2022

Lab hiring NSF-funded postdoc to study evolutionary ecology of plant-microbe interactions
"Phage-encoded sigma factors alter bacterial dormancy" published in mSphere
Jay presents at Kavli Institute of Theoretical Physics (KITP) program on "Quantitative biology of non-growing microbes"
Jay participates in National Academies Board of Life Science on "Biodiversity of Microbes: Scientific Challenges and Opportunities"
Jay moderates U.S. Congressional briefing “Big problems, tiny solutions: climate change and microbes”
Jay gives seminar at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in the Pacific Biosciences Research Center
Jay recognized as "Highly Cited Researcher"
Paper led by John McMullen on the "Mark recapture of microorganisms" published in Environmental Microbiology
"Optimal dormancy strategies in fluctuating environments" now available on bioRxiv
"Seed banks alter the molecular evolutionary dynamics of Bacillus subtilis published in Genetics
"Macroevolutionary constraints on global microbial diversity" with Ford Fishman available as bioRxiv preprint
Jay attends workshop on "macro-ecology and macro-evolution for biodiversity" at Schoodic Institute
Jay gives Roger Milkman Endowed Lecture at the Marine Biology Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole
"Scaling up and down: movement ecology for microorganisms" with Nathan Wisnoski published in Trends in Microbiology
Daniel presents research at Phage Futures Europe
Jay presents at workshop on dormancy and host-parasite dynamics at Hausdorff Research Institute for Mathematics (HIM)
Jay chairs Climate Change Task Force for the American Academy of Microbiology
"Ecological networks of dissolved organic matter and microorganisms under global change" published in Nature Communications
Ford Fishman accepts job as Data Analysis Specialist at Brandeis University
Jay gives InterActive Biomes CSIRO seminar
Roy Moger-Reischer accepts scientist position at SIMULATE
"Traits of soil bacteria predict plant responses to moisture" published in Ecology
Incoming Ph.D. student, Joy O'Brien, receives SMART scholarship from the Department of Defense.
Lab receives Army Research Office (ARO) award to study "Complexity of the gut microbiome"
"Predicting parallelism and quantifying divergence in microbial evolution experiments" published in mSphere
Jay co-organizes mini-conference on Climate Change & Microbes
At Microbe, Jay discusses "Communicating About Climate Change, Dismantling Barriers to Engagement"
"Microbial and environmental processes shape the link between organic matter functional traits and composition" published in Environmental Science & Technology
Jay gives plenary talk at Indiana Branch ASM meeting in West Lafayette
Jay gives plenary talk at Midwestern Ecology and Evolution Conference (MEEC) at the University of Kansas
"Diverse microbes are key to healthy soil. Climate change is threatening that" in Popular Science
"Microbial trait-based approaches for agroecosystems" published in Advances in Agronomy
Congratulations to Roy on receiving his Ph.D.!
Jay gives opening talk at workshop on Microbial life under extreme energy limitation in Sønderborg, Denmark
"Diversity and composition of methanotroph communities in caves" published in Microbiology Spectrum``
Jay gives seminar at University of Florida's Department of Biology
Paper on "Soil health through farmers’ eyes" to be published in Journal of Soil and Water Conservation
Jay elected to the Governing Board of the Ecological Society of America.

2021

Jay elected as Fellow of the Ecological Society of America (ESA)
"Phage-encoded sigma factors alter bacteria dormancy" led by Daniel Schwartz now available on bioRxiv
Lab's work on minimal cell highlighted in New Scientist
"Microbial population dynamics and evolutionary outcomes under extreme energy-limitation" published in PNAS
"Seed banks alter the rate and direction of molecular evolution in Bacillus subtilis" available as bioRxiv Preprint
Jay named Highly Cited Researcher
Lab's research on microbial longevity highlighted in Nature Reviews Microbiology
Roy gives talk at Minimal Cell Workshop
"Microbial self-recycling and biospherics": a PNAS Commentary on lab's recent work:
"Evolution of a minimal cell" available as bioRxiv Preprint
Press release on bacterial longevity in closed systems
"Principles of seed banks and the emergence of complexity from dormancy" published in Nature Communications
Jay lectures in "Ecology and Evolution of Microbial Communities Program" at Kavli Institute of Theoretical Physics (KITP)
"Stabilizing role of seed banks and the maintenance of bacterial diversity" led by Nathan Wisnoski published in in Ecology Letters
Jay lectures at the Microbial Diversity course at the Marine Biology Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole
"Diversity and composition of cave methanotrophic communities" available as bioRxiv preprint
"Quantifying microbial associations of dissolved organic matter under global change" available as bioRxiv Preprint
"Predicting parallelism and quantifying divergence in experimental evolution", led by Will Shoemaker, available as bioRxiv preprint
"Molecular evolutionary dynamics of energy limited microorganisms" published in Molecular Biology and Evolution
Caleb Hill joins lab and receives Sidney and Becca Fleischer Research Scholarship
"Resuscitation of the microbial seed bank alters plant-soil interactions" published in Molecular Ecology
"Peatland microbial community responses to plant functional group and drought are depth-dependent" to appear in Molecular Ecology
Ford receives Honorable Mention for NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)
Bryan Julijanto joins lab as undergraduate researcher to study host-phage coevolution
Video highlighting lab's research on cave microbiology in Vietnam
John McMullen joins lab as new postdoc to work on GEMS Biology Integration Institute
Canan Karakoç joins lab as new postdoc to work on NASA Exobiology project
Xiaotian Zhou joins lab as visiting Ph.D. student as recepieint of Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC)
"Principles of seed banks: complexity emerging from dormancy" available on arXiv
"Microbial community assembly in a multi-layer dendritic metacommunity" led by Nathan Wisnoski published in Oecologia

2020

Lab receives NSF Bridging Ecology and Evolution award to study bacteria-phage evolution with Daniel Schwartz and Joshua Weitz
Lab receives NASA Exobiology funding to study energetics and evolution of dormancy
Lab part of new NSF-funded Biology Integration Institute
Led by Jen Lau, lab awarded NSF Dynamics of Integrated Socio-Environmental Systems (CNH2) grant from NSF
Jay named Highly Cited Researcher
Welcome to Emily Long, newest member of the lab.
Jay gives plenary talk for Microbial Ecology and Evolution (MEE) Virtual
Paper on microbial responses to sea water intrusion published in L&O Letters
Congratulations to Nathan and Will on successfully defending their Ph.D.s!
Jay elected as a Governor of the American Academy of Microbiology
"Trait-based approach to bacterial growth efficiency" published in Environmental Microbiology
Jay selected for ASM Distinguished Lecturer Program
"Resuscitation of the microbial seed bank alters plant-soil interactions" available on bioRxiv
Roy conducts microbiome internship at the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Systems Center (NSSC)
Podcast highlighting lab's research on seed banks in Quanta Magazine
"Quantifying parallel evolution" led by Will now available as bioRxiv Preprint
Congratulations to Will on receiving Rules-of-Life Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in Biology (PRFB)
Congratulations to Roy on receiving the College of Arts and Sciences Dissertation Research Fellowship
"More evidence for Earth's massive microbiome" published in Biology Direct
"Dormancy dampens the microbial distance-decay relationship" published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B
"Metabolic insight into bacterial community assembly across ecosystem boundaries" led by Nathan published in Ecology
Jay gives opening talk on "Microbial Life under Extreme Energy Limitation" in Sandbjerg, Denmark
Lab organizing and presenting in symposia at ASM Microbe in Chicago
"Low costs of adaptation to dietary restriction" led by Roy published in Biology Letters
Jay gives seminar at Dartmouth College's Ecology, Evolution, Environment and Society Program
"Microbial rescue effects: how microbiomes can save hosts from extinction" led by Emmi published in Functional Ecology

2019

* Jay elected Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology

On the cover, "Microbial aging and longevity" with Roy Moger-Reischer published in Nature Reviews Microbiology
Jay talks about "microbial rescue effects" at NSF sponsored workshop on Deciphering the Microbiome
"Metabolic insight into bacterial community assembly across ecosystem boundaries" available as bioRxiv preprint
Jay lectures in "Evolutionary consequences of dormancy" workshop at the Berlin Institute of Technology
Jay named Highly Cited Researcher
Lab presents research at the Ecological Society of America meetings in Louisville, Kentucky
"Dormancy dampens the microbial distance-decay relationship" available as bioRxiv preprint
Jay lectures at the Microbial Diversity course at the Marine Biology Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole
Emmi presents research at Purudue Microbiome Symposium
Quanta magazine covers lab's research on seed banks
"Dormancy in metacommunities" led by Nathan and with Mathew Leibold published in The American Naturalist
"Microbial dormancy improves predictability of soil respiration at the seasonal time scale" published in Biogeochemistry
Emmi receives Honorable Mention from the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program
"Microbial rescue effects: how microbiomes can save hosts from extinction" available as an OSF Preprint
"Resource heterogeneity structures aquatic bacterial communities" with Mario Muscarella published in ISMEJ
"Nutrient stoichiometry shapes microbial coevolution" published in Ecology Letters
"A residence time theory for biodiversity" published in The American Naturalist

2018

Jay elected AAAS Fellow
"Macroecology to unite all life, large and small" published in Trends in Ecology and Evolution
"There are more microbial species on Earth than stars in the galaxy" in Aeon
Jay gives Distinguished Lecture in Microbiology at University of Wisconsin in Department of Bacteriology
"Trait-based approach to bacterial growth efficiency" available as bioRxiv preprint
"Microbial dormancy improves predictability of soil respiration" preprint in bioRxiv
"Diversity and composition of cave methanotrophic communities" preprint in bioRxiv
Jay gives seminar in Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology at Penn State
"Understanding how microbiomes influence the systems they inhabit" published in Nature Microbiology'
Jay gives talk in microbiome seminar series at Purdue University
"A residence time theory for biodiversity" is available as a PeerJ Preprint
"Resource diversity structures aquatic bacterial communities" available as bioRxiv preprint
EarthArXiv preprint on radiolysis and methane oxidation now published in PLOS ONE
Congratulations to Ken who will be starting a professorship at Diné College in the fall!
Lab receives IUCRG award to study gut microbiomes with Engineering and Medical School
"How, when, and where relic DNA affects microbial diversity" published in mBio
Daniel and Roy participate in Workshop on Molecular Evolution at the MBL
Jay lectures in Microbial Diversity course at the MBL
Jay lectures in Strategies and Techniques for Analyzing Microbial Population Structures (STAMPS) course af the MBL
Jay and Kathleen Treseder organize ASM Microbe symposium on microbial traits
Venus presents research on resuscitating microbial seed banks at ESA meetings in New Orleans
Will presents on global biodiversity estimates at Theory in Biology Meeting in Boston
Nathan presents work on dispersal and dormancy across boundaries at ASLO meeting in Victoria
Will present work on dormancy and adaptive evolution at PEQG Conference Madison in Madison.
Nathan presents work on seed bank bacterioplankton dynamics at Society for Freshwater Science in Detroit.
"Dormancy in metacommunities" led by Nathan and with Mathew Leibold available as OSF preprint
Will receives Graduate Research Excellent Grant–Rosemary Grant Advanced award (GREG-RGA) from SSE
Jay participates in the Madison Microbiome Meeting (M3)
Jay gives plenary at Midwest Ecology and Evolution Conference (MEEC)
"Evolution with a seed bank" led by Will published in Evolutionary Applications
"Evolutionary determinants of genome-wide nucleotide composition" published in Nature Ecology & Evolution
Jordan Bird joins Lennon Lab and McKinlay Lab to work on energy limitation and bacterial evolution

2017

"Nutrient stoichiometry shapes microbial coevolution" available as bioRxiv preprint
Will receives NASA Astrobiology Early Career Collaboration Award
Jay gives seminar in Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University
PNAS Commentary with Jen Lau and Katy Heath: Trees harness the power of microbes to survive climate change
Jay gives seminar at Odum School of Ecology at University of Georgia
Jay attends iDiv workshop on "Comparing microbial and macrobial patterns of biodiversity" in Leipzig, Germany
Jay gives talk at Soil Metagenomics Workshop at Argonne National Laboratory
Jay gives seminar in the Department of Microbiology at University of Tennessee
Welcome to Kenzie Givens who joins the lab as a research technician!
Welcome to Emmi Mueller who joins the lab as Ph.D. student!
Welcome to Daniel Schwartz who joins the lab as a postdoc!
Welcome to Jessica Zellinger and Cari Rice who join the lab as undergaduate researchers!
"A macroecological theory of microbial biodiversity" with Ken and Will published in Nature Ecology and Evolution
Lab receives funding from Army Research Office to connect phenotype to genotype in evolved prokaryotic populations
Lab presents multiple projects at the Ecological Society of America meetings in Portland
Jay gives talk at GRC Microbial Population Biology in Andover, New Hampshire
See video with Megan on her use of computing clusters to understand microbial evolution.
Jay gives talk at GRC Applied and Environmental Microbiology in South Hadley, Massachusetts
With Chris Craft Lab in SPEA, lab receives Joint Genome Institute support to study sea level rise on wetland microbes
Will gives talk at Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution on contribution of dormancy to microbial evolution
Jay gives talk at ASM Microbe in session on "Eco-evo feed backs in microbial communities"
"Relic DNA contributes minimally to estimates of microbial diversity" available as bioRxiv preprint
Paper on subterranean methane oxidation published in Chemical Geology
"Multi-scale ecological filters shape the crayfish microbiome" published in Symbiosis
Jay attends workshop on Marine Viruses - Continuum of Persistence in Cascais, Portugal
Quarterly Review of Biology by Roy and Jay on The Human Superorganism
Venus presents research at the Microbiome Center Research Symposium at the University of Chicago
Jay gives seminar in the Department of Biology at University of Idaho
Mollie receives Huttons Honor College grant to study host-phage evolutionary ecology
"A modeling platform for the simultaneous emergence of ecological patterns" with Ken now available as a PeerJ Preprint
Three postdoc positions in microbial evolution available.
Will organizes Foundations in Science and Mathematics Summer Courses for high school students at IU on Our Evolving World
Megan receives Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Will receives grant from Society for Study of Evolution to develop course in evolutionary biology for Indiana high school students
We are teaching Quantitative Biodiversity again; check it out on GitHub
"A residence-time framework for biodiversity" with Ken Locey now available as a PeerJ Preprint
"Microscale insight into microbial seed banks" published in Frontiers in Microbiology with Ken Locey and Melany Fisk
"Macroecology for microbiology" published in Environmental Microbiology
Kevin's work on isotopic evidence for the migration of thermogenic methane to appear in Journal of Cave and Karst Studies
"Microbial mutualism dynamics governed by dose-dependent toxicity of cross-fed nutrients" published in ISMEJ

2016

Congratulations to Megan, Mario, and Kevin on successfully defending their Ph.D. dissertations!
Congratulations to Will and Nathan on advancing to Ph.D. candidacy!
"Scaling laws predict global microbial diversity" in PNAS. Summary of media coverage and Altmetric
ASM Environmental Task-force releases video: "Can we live in a world without microbes?"
Kevin and Jay give talks at AGU in "Microbiological Approaches to Understand Ecosystem Processes"
Ken receives the Tom Brock Award from the International Society for Microbial Ecology
Jay gives seminar in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior at University of Minnesota
"Underestimation of global microbial diversity" published in mBio
Jay gives seminar in the Department of Plant, Soil, and Microbial Sciences at Michigan State University
Jay gives seminar in the Department of Biology at Hope College
Jay gives talk at National Academies meeting on "Microbiomes of the Built Environment: From Research to Application"
Jay gives talk in Biodiversity Seminar Series at University of British Columbia
Roy and Jay present research at BIOCRUST3 in Moab, Utah
Jay gives seminar in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT
Jay spends time in Woods Hole at the Biological Laboratory (MBL) as Whitman Associate
"Microbial contributions to subterranean methane sinks" published in Geobiology'
Lab presents research at International Society for Microbial Ecology (ISME) meetings in Montreal
"Reply to Willis: Powerful predictions of biodiversity from ecological models and scaling laws" in PNAS
"Microscale insight into microbial seed banks" available as PeerJ Preprint
Venus attends EDAMAME workshop at Michigan State University
"Underestimation of global microbial diversity" available as PeerJ Preprint
"A unifying ecological theory of microbial biodiversity" available as PeerJ Preprint
"Phosphorus release from the drying and reflooding of diverse shallow sediments" published in Biogeochemistry
"Understanding how microbiomes influence the systems they inhabit: insight from ecosystem ecology" available as bioRxiv preprint
Mario goes to Hawaii to participate in the C-MORE Eco-DAS Symposium
"A trait based approach to bacterial biofilms in soil" published in Environmental Microbiology
Nathan helps lead effort in LTER synthesis group on metacommunities
"Bacterial dormancy is more prevalent in freshwater than hypersaline lakes" published in Frontiers in Microbiology
Mario attends the Ramon Margalef Summer Colloquia on "Microbes in a changing world" in Barcelona, Spain
Jay gives seminar at Flathead Lake Biological Station, University of Montana
Jay gives seminar to Cellular, Molecular and Microbial Biology Program at University of Montana
Jay participates in Drought-Net workshop at Sevilleta LTER
Evgeniya Polezhaeva joins the lab to work on our MURI microbial evolution project.
Jay gives seminar in Department of Ecology and Genetics at Uppsala University, Sweden
Mario and Jay attend MBL PRO-MICROBES workshop in Woods Hole
Mario's paper on "Species sorting along a subsidy gradient alters bacterial community stability" to appear in Ecology
Nathan and Jay publish book review in Quarterly Review of Biology on Principles of Microbial Biodiversity
Jay gives guest lecture at Translational Plant Sciences Symposium at Virginia Tech
"Re-examining relationship between marine virus and hosts" in Nature Microbiology Check out interactive dashboard!
Jay gives seminar to Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Montana State University
"Scaling relationships among drivers of aquatic respiration: from the smallest to the largest freshwater ecosystems" in Inland Waters

2015

Lab receives NSF Dimensions of Biodiversity award to study microbial seed banks
IU-led team receives DOD-MURI grant to study "Mechanisms of Prokaryotic Evolution"
"Microbiomes in light of traits: a phylogenetic perspective" published in Science
"Microbial contributions to subterranean methane sinks" available as bioRxiv preprint
Venus Kuo joins the lab as a Ph.D. student
"Species sorting along a subsidy gradient alters community stability" available as bioRxiv preprint
"Scaling laws predict global microbial diversity" available as PeerJ preprint
"Do modern theories of biodiversity fail to predict commonness and rarity among microbes?" available as PeerJ preprint
Paper on "Crop diversity enhances disease suppressive potential in soil" available as bioRxiv preprint
"Re-examining the relationship between virus and microbial cell abundances in the global oceans" available as bioRxiv preprint
Lab presents at the 7th Annual Argonne Soil Metagenomics Meeting
Jay gives seminar to the Program in Ecology at Duke University
Jay gives seminar to the Department of Biology at East Carolina University
Lab presents research at 3rd International Workshop on Microbial Life under Extreme Energy Limitation in Sønderborg, Denmark
Melany Fisk spending some of her sabbatical in the Lennon Lab
Meta-analysis on "linking microbial community structure and microbial processes" published in FEMS Microbiology Ecology
Nathan Wisnoski attends LTER all scientist meeting to present research on microbial metacommunities
Megan Behringer joins laboratory as postdoc to study microbial evolution
Will Shoemaker attends NIMBioS Evolutionary Quantitative Genetics Workshop
Co-organizing session on 'trait-based ecology at the microscale' for ESA's centennial meeting in Baltimore
Read about Mario's research on the microbial diversity of the Huron Mountains
High School student Dakayla Calhoun participates in the Jim Holland Summer Science Research Program; check out her github repo
Jay is a guest lecturer at the EDAMAME workshop at Michigan State University
Will participates in Single Cell Genome Workshop at the Bigelow Lab
Paper with Kathleen Treseder on "Fungal traits that drive ecosystem dynamics" published in Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews
Is the skin microbiome, our first line of defense, sleeping on the job? Watch ASM Live interview with Sarah Cummins and Jay
Jay gives introductory talk at the Summer Soil Institute at Colorado State University
Jay attends DARPA Biocomplexity Workshop
Lab presents research at the ASM meetings in New Orleans
Lab paper on genome of soil bacterium published in Genome Announcements
Congratulations to Nathan Wisnoski on receiving the IU Sustainability Research Development Grant
Jay gives talk at Vietnam National University, Department of Microbiology
"Evolutionary ecology of microorganisms: from the tamed to the wild" with Vincent Denef now available as preprint via PeerJ
Congratulations to Mario Muscarella on receiving NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant (DDIG)
New paper published in Frontiers in Microbiology on the resuscitation of the rare biosphere
Review paper on the consequences of browning for aquatic ecosystems published in Ecosystems
Check out our new course: Quantitative Biodiversity
Paper on the subsidy-stability hypothesis published in Ecology
Paper on the relationship between protein-encoding gene abundance and microbial processes published in ISMEJ
NIMBioS working group paper modeling impacts of viruses on microbial food webs and ecosystem processes to appear in ISMEJ

2014

Kevin Webster receives grant from National Speleological Society to study microbial diversity of caves
Lab paper led by Mario Muscarella on phosphorus resource heterogeneity in microbial food webs published in Aquatic Microbial Ecology
Will Shoemaker and Nathan Wisnoski join the lab as Ph.D. students
Lab paper on "micromanaging" microbial services featured on the cover of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment
Jay gives seminar to Department of Biology at University of Louisville
Mario Muscarella receives grant from the Indiana Academy of Sciences to study microbial carbon cycling
Jay gives seminar to Program in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology at University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana
Jay gives seminar to Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Jay gives seminar to Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology Program at Miami University
Jay gives talk at the ISME meetings in Seoul, South Korea
Interview in Science Magazine on how (not?) to 'Manage a Lab Move'
Jay is a guest lecturer at the EDAMAME workshop at Michigan State University
Lab presents at ESA meetings in Sacramento, California
Jay and Ken attend NEON workshop on Advanced Analysis of Genomic Data in Microbial Ecology
Paper on trait-based microbial diversity published in special issue of Frontiers in Microbiology
Paper on rapid evolution of plant-soil feedbacks published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B
Lab presents research at Joint Aquatic Science Meeting (JASM) in Portland, OR
Sarah Cummins receives ASM Undergraduate Research Fellowship to study the skin microbiome
Paper on plankton assembly published in Journal of Limnology
Jay gives talk to School of Natural Science and Mathematics at Indiana University East and Earlham College
Sarah Cummins presents work on skin microbiome at "Techie Women Have More" conference
Jay gives talk in Department of Plant & Soil Sciences, University of Kentucky
Quote on resurrection ecology in New York Times
Jay gives talk in Department of Biology, Loyola University of Chicago
Mario presents research at the Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference
Jay gives talk in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Purdue University
Co-sponsoring Microbial ecosystem services: The good, bad and ugly at the Joint Aquatic Sciences Meeting
Sarah Bray working in the lab as visiting sabbatical researcher
Lab organizes Wonderlab exhibit on the metabolic potential of microbial communities
Ken Locey joins the lab as a Postdoctoral Researcher
Jay participates in Wilson Center workshop on the "Ecological Implications of Synthetic Biology"
Last meeting for NIMBioS working group on Ocean Viral Dynamics
Ariane Peralta joins faculty in the Department of Biology at East Carolina University

2013

Jay gives seminar at the Department of Integrative Biology, University Texas at Austin
Jay gives keynote lecture at Argonne Soil Metagenomics Meeting
Paper on the under-ice microbiome published in Limnology & Oceanography
Paper on the browning of aquatic ecosystems published in PLOS ONE
Jay gives a keynote lecture at SAME13 in Stresa, Italy
Jay gives talk on the 'impacts of bacteriophage in the environment' at the SGM meetings in Sussex, UK
Lab presents, organizes symposium on "Next Generation Microbial Indicators" at ESA in Minneapolis
Paper on non-lysogenizing siphovirus published in Genome Announcements
Jay helps co-organize Israel-U.S. Kavli Frontiers of Science Symposium
Ariane presents research at the Society of Wetland Scientists Meeting in Duluth
Jay gives seminar at the Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Oregon
Paper on temporal variability of soil microbial communities published in The ISME Journal
Jay gives seminar in Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University California, Santa Barbara
Graduate students present their research at the Midwest Ecology and Evolution Conference
Ariane discusses soil microbial ecology at the Indiana Small Farm Conference
Lab presents research at the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography meetings in New Orleans
Jay gives keynote at workshop on trait-based microbial biodiversity at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology
Jay gives seminar in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan
Lab organizes Wonderlab exhibit on Beneficial Bacteria
Paper on microbial stability published in special issue of Frontiers in Microbiology
Ariane Peralta receives a USDA NIFA Postdoctoral Research grant
Paper on snowfall effects on soil microorganisms published in Soil Biology & Biochemistry

2012

Jay selected as a Kavli Fellow by the National Academy of Sciences
Soil microbes improve plant fitness in novel environments in PNAS; See press release and F1000 Recommendation
Sarah Placella presents lab research at the American Geophysical Union meetings
Jay gives seminar in Department of Biological Sciences, Virginia Tech
Trina McMahon and Jay to host roundtable at ISME on Frontiers in Microbial Ecosystem Science.
Jay gives seminar in Biological Sciences, Northwestern University
Kayla Miller joins lab as a Ph.D. student
Paper on sulfate-dependent denitrification published in Aquatic Microbial Ecology
Jay presents at workshop on Microbial Life Under Extreme Energy Limitation in Aarhus, Denmark
Paper on 'Integrating microbial ecology into ecosystem models' published in Biogeochemistry
Jay visits University of Jyväskylä and Konnevesi Field Station in Finland
David Myrold and Jay organize ESA workshop on "Answering Ecological Questions with Metagenomic Sequencing"
Jay participates in NIMBioS working group on Ocean Viral Dynamics
Lab paper on microbial traits and taxonomy published in Ecology
Mario and Jay receive funding from the Huron Mountain Wildlife Foundation (HMWF) in Michigan's Upper Peninsula
Powell Center funds working group on "Next Generation Microbial Indicators of Ecosystem Function"
Jay gives seminar in Biological Sciences, University of Quebec at Montreal
Stuart Jones receives Lindeman Award for PNAS paper on dormancy; watch award talk at Lake Biwa, Japan
Jay presents lab research at PAG XX
Visit the new website for our summer course in Microbial Metagenomics
Paper on whole-wetland stable isotope additions published in Limnology and Oceanography
NSF funds PEATcosm Experimentto explore plant-microbe interactions and climate change
Ariane Peralta joins lab as a Postdoctoral Researcher

2011

Jay gives seminar at Indiana University Department of Biology
Sarah Placella presents lab research at the American Geophysical Union meetings
Jay gives seminar at University of Massachusetts Department of Microbiology
Megan Larsen gives talk at the Aquatic Virus Workshop in Texel, the Netherlands
Jay gives seminar at Oregon State University's Center for Genome Research and Biocomputing
Jay and Sarah present research at the Argonne Soil Metagenomics Workshop
Lab presents research at ESA meetings in Austin, TX
Jay attends workshop on synthetic biology at the Woodrow Wilson Center
Follow Mario and Megan's sampling adventures in the Upper Peninsula
Summer course in Microbial Metagenomics is taught at Michigan State University
Eco-evolutionary plant-microbial feedback paper with Jen Lau to appear in New Phytologist
Stable Isotope Probing (SIP) paper with Zach Aanderud published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology
Jay presents lab research at National Cooperative Soil Survey (NCSS) conference in Asheville, NC
Kali co-authors Ecology Letters paper on linking evolutionary and ecosystem processes
Sarah Placella joins the lab as a Postdoctoral Researcher
Megan Larsen presents dissertation research at Midwest Ecology and Evolution Conference
Microbial seed bank paper is published in Nature Reviews Microbiology Read press release and see video
Mario and Jay receive funding from the Huron Mountain Wildlife Foundation (HMWF) in Michigan's Upper Peninsula
Lab receives BEACON funding with Jeff Barrick and Chris Klausmeier to study bacteria-phage evolution
Experimental design paper published in Environmental Microbiology
Kali presents thesis research at ASLO in Puerto Rico
Microbial biodiversity paper with Noah Fierer published in special issue of the American Journal of Botany
Jay gives talk at the California Academy of Sciences
Jay and Angela Kent organize a symposium ("Micro-managing the planet") at this year's ESA meeting
Ed Hall visits lab to work on the stoichiometry of plankton-biofilm interactions
NSF project on denitrification led by Nathaniel Ostrom is funded
USDA funds lab to study Microbial Communities in Soils

2010

Paper on sensitivity of soil CO2 to precipitation variability published in Ecosystems
Mario Muscarella joins lab as a Ph.D. student in Microbiology & Molecular Genetics
Lab presents at the Argonne National Lab Soils Workshop
Megan Lowenberg joins lab as a research assistant.
Lab gives talks on dormancy and the rare biosphere at the International Society of Microbial Ecology in Seattle, WA
Jay serves as Chair of the Microbial Ecology Section, Ecological Society of America
Quote from interview on microbes and oil spill in New York Times
Lab presents research at the Ecological Society of America meetings in Pittsburgh, PA
Jay and Andy Dziaolowski conduct field work at the Hydrobiological Station in Mikołajki, Poland
Jay presents at Marine Microbes Gordon Research Conference
Former postdoc, Stuart Jones, starts faculty position at University of Notre Dame
Jay and Tom Schmidt teach Microbial Metagenomics at KBS
Lab research presented at American Society of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) in Santa Fe, NM
Lab paper on dormancy and microbial diversity is published in PNAS. Read press release here
Lab paper on microbial temperature-resource trade-offs is published in Functional Ecology

2009

Megan Larsen, Ph.D. student, joins lab to working on eco-evolution of cyanobacteria and their phage
Lab paper on CH4 flow in plankton food webs is published in Aquatic Microbial Ecology
Stuart and Jay attend the GLEON workshop in Boulder Junction, Wisconsin
Whole-ecosystem DOC experiments are finished
Collaborative project with Jen Fraterrigo funded through Environmental Change Institute to aquatic-terrestrial carbon cycling
Jay presents at Plant Virus Ecology Network (PVEN) workshop in Ca' Tron di Roncade, Italy
Lab receives support from the Broad Institute and Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation for Marine Phage Sequencing Project
Lab presents research at the Ecological Society of America meetings in Albuquerque, NM
Lab presents research at the American Society of Microbiology General Meeting in Philadelphia, PA
Lab presents research at the Aquatic Viral Ecology meeting at the University of Delaware
MSU News covers story on virus research in Lennon Lab
Lab presents research at the Soil Science Society of America in Pittsburgh, PA
In collaboration with Steve Wilhelm, Lab receives NSF funding to study co-evolution of viruses and marine cyanobacteria
Former postdoc, Zach Aanderud, starts faculty position at Brigham Young University
Jay gives tutorial on terrestrial DOC in aquatic systems at ASLO meeting in Nice, France
Lab receives NSF funding to test theory about stability of resource subsidies