Rebecca MauResearch Associate

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Portrait of Rebecca Mau
Microbial ecology Rebecca.Mau@nau.edu
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Research Interests
Mau is broadly interested in better understanding how ecological principles from macroecology translate to the microbial world. With the use of a novel technique developed in her lab, quantitative stable isotope probing (qSIP), she can not only see what organisms are active in the soil, but can quantitatively compare growth among taxa. Mau is currently using this technique to learn how microbial communities influence terrestrial ecosystem functioning, with an emphasis on climate change.
Current Projects
  • Quantitative microbial growth responses to increased temperature in arctic, boreal, temperate, and tropical soils
  • Quantitative microbial growth in Redwood tree canopy soils
  • Linking quantitative microbial ecology with priming effects and the influence of nitrogen in 4 ecosystems along an elevation gradient in northern Arizona
Full Curriculum Vitae 
Selected Publications

Maestre, F. T., J. L. Quero, N. J. Gotelli, A. Escudero, V. Ochoa, M. Delgado-Baquerizo, M. García-Gómez, M.A. Bowker, S. Soliveres, C. Escolar, P. García-Palacios, M. Berdugo, E. Valencia, B. Gozalo, A. Gallardo, L. Aguilera, T. Arredondo, J. Blones, B. Boeken, D. Bran, A.A. Conceição, O. Cabrera, M. Chaieb, M. Derak, D.J. Eldridge, C.I. Espinosa, A. Florentino, J. Gaitán, M.G. Gatica, W. Ghiloufi, S. Gómez-González, J.R. Gutiérrez, R.M. Hernández, X. Huang, E. Huber-Sannwald, M. Jankju, M. Miriti, J. Monerris, R.L. Mau, E. Morici, K. Naseri, A. Ospina, V. Polo, A. Prina, E. Pucheta, D.A. Ramírez-Collantes, R. Romão, M. Tighe, C. Torres-Díaz, J.Val, J.P. Veiga, D. Wang, E. Zaady (2012) Plant Species Richness and Ecosystem Multifunctionality in Global Drylands. Science 335: 214-218

Bowker, M.A., R.L. Mau, F.T. Maestre, C. Escolar, A.P. Castillo-Monroy (2011) Functional Profiles Reveal Unique Ecological Roles of Various Biological Soil Crust Organisms. Functional Ecology 25 doi:10.1111/j.1365-2435.2011.01835.x

Morrissey, E.M., R.L. Mau, E. Schwartz, T.A. McHugh, P. Dijkstra, B.J. Koch, J.C. Marks, B.A. Hungate (2017) Bacterial carbon use plasticity, phylogenetic diversity and the priming of soil organic matter. The ISME Journal. 11:1890-1899. DOI: 10.1038/ismej.2017.43

Hungate, B.A., R.L. Mau, E. Schwartz, J.G. Caporaso, P. Dijkstra, N. van Gestel, B.J. Koch, C.M. Liu, T.A. McHugh, J.C. Marks, E.M. Morrissey, L.B. Price (2015) Quantitative microbial ecology through stable isotope probing. Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 81(21):7570-7581.

Mau, R.L., C.M. Liu, M. Azia, E. Schwartz, P. Dijkstra, J.C. Marks, L.B. Price, P. Keim, B.A. Hungate (2015) Linking soil bacterial biodiversity and soil carbon stability. ISME journal. 9(6):1477-1480.

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