Welcome
to the Aldrich-Wolfe lab
Welcome to the Aldrich-Wolfe Lab. We are interested in building a nuanced understanding of life belowground, the life that is largely invisible to us, and how it influences the life we can see aboveground. We are soil and plant ecologists who focus on fungi that live in the rhizosphere. Because many of these fungi are unknown or undescribed, an important part of our job is determining what these fungi are and the roles that they play belowground and in interaction with aboveground communities. Because humans have altered ecosystems everywhere on Earth and continue to do so, we also seek to understand how changes in land use have affected belowground fungal communities, how such changes may constrain ecosystem restoration, and the roles that rhizosphere fungi may play in facilitating restoration efforts and sustainable land use.
As ecologists, we spend a lot of time in the field, with opportunities to compare the ferocity of mosquitos between such notorious places as northern Minnesota and southern Costa Rica. Since our study organisms include the microscopic, we take advantage of the tools of molecular biology to identify many of them. When not preparing samples for high-throughput sequencing, we can be found at the microscope, in the growth chamber or common garden, or in the field in the Great Plains or Costa Rica.
Please stop by for a visit. Other highlights of a trip to Fargo, North Dakota include a real movie theatre, the woodchipper, and the finest opera between Seattle and the Twin Cities.