Research Interests

• In situ growth and activity of soil microorganisms
• Scaling in situ microbial activity to ecosystem function
• Determining potential lab artifacts while studying microbial growth and function
• Influence of microbes on global biogeochemical cycling and their response to climate warming
• Biogeography of microorganisms

Publications in Prep or under Review

1. Foley MM, Tristan Caro, Noah W. Sokol, Steven J. Blazewicz, Paul Dijkstra, Michaela Hayer, Kirsten Hofmockel, Brianna K. Finley, Benjamin J. Koch, Michelle Mack, Jane Marks, Rebecca Mau, Victoria Monsaint-Queeney, Ember Morrissey, Jeffrey Propster, Alicia Purcell, Egbert Schwartz, Bram W.G. Stone, Jennifer Pett-Ridge, Noah Fierer, Bruce A. Hungate. Microbial Growth in Soil. Nat. Eco. Evo. (In review)


2. Purcell AM, Dijkstra P, Hayer M, Koch BJ, Mau RL, Schwartz E, and Hungate BA. Laboratory measures of soil microbial taxon-specific growth fail to predict field growth. Submitted.


3. Mau R, Hayer M, Purcell AM, Geisen S, Hungate B, Schwartz E. Measurements of soil protist richness and community composition are influenced by primer pair, annealing temperature, and bioinformatics choices. Submitted.

Publications

1. Purcell AM, Dijkstra P, Hungate BA, McMillen K, Schwartz E, van Gestel N. Rapid growth rate responses of terrestrial bacteria to field warming on the Antarctic Peninsula. The ISME Journal. 2023 Oct 23:1-3. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-023-01536-4


2. Walkup J, Dang C, Mau RL, Hayer M, Schwartz E, Stone BW, Hofmockel KS, Koch BJ, Purcell AM, Pett-Ridge J, Wang C, Hungate, BA, Morrissey, E. The predictive power of phylogeny on growth rates in soil bacterial communities. ISME communications. 2023 Jul 15;3(1):73. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43705-023-00281-1


3. Stone BW, Dijkstra P, Finley BK, Fitzpatrick R, Foley MM, Hayer M, Hofmockel KS, Koch BJ, Li J, Liu XJ, Martinez A, Mau RL, Marks J, Monsaint-Queeney V, Morrissey EM, Propster J, Pett-Ridge J, Purcell AM, Schwartz E, Hungate BA. Life history strategies among soil bacteria—dichotomy for few, continuum for many. The ISME Journal. 2023 Apr;17(4):611-9. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-022-01354-0


4. Mikucki JA, Schuler CG, Digel I, Kowalski J, Tuttle MJ, Chua M, Davis R, Purcell AM, Ghosh D, Francke G, Feldmann M, Espe C, Heinen D, Dachwald B, Clemens J, Lyons WB, Tulaczyk S, and the MIDGE Science Team. Field-Based Planetary Protection Operations for Melt Probes: Validation of Clean Access into the Blood Falls, Antarctica, Englacial Ecosystem. Astrobiology. 2023 Nov 1;23(11):1165-78.


5. Purcell AM, Hayer M, Koch BJ, Mau RL, Blazewicz SJ, Dijkstra P, Mack MC, Marks JC, Morrissey EM, Pett-Ridge J, Rubin RL. Decreased growth of wild soil microbes after fifteen years of transplant-induced warming in a montane meadow. Global Change Biology. 2021 Sep 29.


6. Hungate, B. A., Jane Marks, Mary Power, Egbert Schwartz, Kees Jan van Groenigen, Steven Blazewicz, Peter Chuckran, Paul Dijkstra, B Finley, Mary Firestone, Megan Foley, Alex Greenlon, Michaela Hayer, Kirsten Hofmockel, Benjamin Koch, Michelle Mack, Rebecca Mau, Samantha Miller, Ember Morrissey, Jeffrey Propster, Alicia Purcell, Ella Sieradzki, Evan Starr, Bram Stone, Cesar Terrer, and Jennifer Pett-Ridge (2021). The Functional Significance of Bacterial Predators. mBio ASM.


7. Wang, Chao, Ember M. Morrissey, Rebecca L. Mau, Michaela Hayer, Juan Pineiro, Michelle C. Mack, Jane C. Marks, Sheryl L. Bell, Samantha N. Miller, Egbert Schwartz, Paul Dijkstra, Benjamin J. Koch, Bram W. Stone, Alicia M. Purcell, Steven J. Blazewicz, Kirsten S. Hofmockel, Jennifer Pett-Ridge, and Bruce Hungate. "The temperature sensitivity of soil: microbial biodiversity, growth, and carbon mineralization." The ISME Journal (2021): 1-10.


8. Purcell, A.M., Dijkstra, P., Finley, B., Hayer, M., Koch, B.J., Mau, R.L., Morrissey, E., Papp, K., Schwartz, E., Stone, B.W. and Hungate, B.A. (2020). Quantitative Stable Isotope Probing with H 2 18 O to Measure Taxon-Specific Microbial Growth. Methods of Soil Analysis, 4(1).


9. Finley, B.K., Hayer, M., Mau, R.L., Purcell, A.M., Koch, B.J., van Gestel, N.C., Schwartz, E. and Hungate, B.A. (2019). Microbial taxon-specific isotope incorporation with DNA quantitative stable isotope probing. In Stable Isotope Probing (pp. 137-149). Humana, New York, NY.


10. Vick-Majors TJ, Mitchell AC, Achberger AM, Christner BC, Dore JE, Michaud AB, Mikucki JA, Purcell AM, Skidmore ML, Priscu JC, Team TW (2016). Physiological ecology of microorganisms in Subglacial Lake Whillans. Front. Microbiol. 7.


11. Mikucki, J. A., P. A. Lee, J., D. Ghosh, A. M. Purcell, A. C. Mitchell, K. D. Mankoff, et al., and the WISSARD Science Team (2015). Subglacial Lake Whillans Biogeochemistry: A synthesis of current knowledge. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. London, Soc. A. 374(2059).


12. Bible, A., G. Kalsham, C. Green, P. Mishra, A. M. Purcell, A. Aksenova, G. Hurst, and G. Alexandre (2015). Specific changes during clumping and flocculation facilitate metabolic stress adaptation in Azospirillum brasilense. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 81(24):8346-57.


13. Purcell, A. M., J. A. Mikucki, I. Alekhina, A.A. Achberger, C. Barbante, B.C. Christner, D. Ghosh, A.B. Michaud, A.C. Mitchell, J.C. Priscu, R. Scherer, M.L. Skidmore, T.J. Vick-Majors, and the WISSARD Science Team. (2014). Microbial sulfur transformations in sediments from Subglacial Lake Whillans. Front. Microbiol. 5:594. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2014.00594