Timothy M. Gallagher

The heterogenous nature of soils, combined with numerous environmental variables, can complicate field-based efforts to characterize soil processes. I conduct laboratory-based experiments, which provide a greater degree of control over physical and biological variables.

 

During manipulations of well-characterized soil material, I regularly monitor the molecular and isotopic composition of soil gas. This allows me to link changes in soil gas composition to specific biotic (e.g. microbial metabolisms, substrate availability) and abiotic processes (e.g. mineral dissolution/precipitation).