Daniel Petticord
I work predominantly at the plant-soil interface. Particularly, I’m interested in how the croot and soil ‘microbiome’ influences the interaction between plants and their local environment. My work takes a Tilman-esque approach to plants by thinking of them as consumers of soil resources, and my interests focus around how microbes influence or explain these consumer-resource interactions. Before Cornell, I applied this approach to examine ecosystem-level plant-soil processes that maintain the diversity of tropical tree species. During my PhD, I have transitioned to more applied work. Specifically, my dissertation examines how plant-fungal interactions might play a role in ecologically-damaging nutrient loss from a historically fertilized subtropical pasture. In the future, I hope to bring this approach to study patterns of invasion and succession, particularly in the disturbed ‘wilderness’ of the Anthropocene.