A. D. Steen

A global atlas of subsurface microbiomes reveals phylogenetic novelty, large scale biodiversity gradients, and a marine-terrestrial divide

The paper analyzes subsurface microbiomes globally, finding a marine-terrestrial phylogenetic divide and revealing that marine subsurface environments host significant microbial diversity.

Complex organic matter degradation by secondary consumers in chemolithoautotrophy-based subsurface geothermal ecosystems

The paper examines enzyme activity in geothermal ecosystems, finding that peptidases dominate over CAZymes, indicating reliance on bacterial biomass rather than plant matter for organic carbon.

Functional Redundancy in Ocean Microbiomes Controls Trait Stability

The paper uses a new metric to show that functional redundancy in ocean microbiomes correlates with trait stability and physiochemical factors.

Sustained ability of a natural microbial community to remove nitrate from groundwater

This study demonstrates that a natural microbial community can sustain nitrate removal from groundwater even after prolonged absence of an electron donor.

Contribution Evenness: A functional redundancy metric sensitive to trait stability in microbial communities

This paper introduces Contribution Evenness (CE), a metric for assessing functional redundancy in microbial communities, and demonstrates its application to nitrogen cycle pathways in marine environments.

Kinetics and identities of extracellular peptidases in subsurface sediments of the White Oak River Estuary, NC

The paper measures extracellular peptidase kinetics and identifies peptidase classes in anoxic estuarine sediments, showing adaptation to degraded organic matter.

Quantitatively Partitioning Microbial Genomic Traits among Taxonomic Ranks across the Microbial Tree of Life

The paper quantifies how taxonomic ranks correlate with microbial genomic traits across the tree of life using COG-FC enrichment in 13,735 microbial lineages.

Characterization of the interactive effects of labile and recalcitrant organic matter on microbial growth and metabolism

The paper tests how different organic matter pools affect marine bacteria growth and respiration, finding species-specific and transient interactive effects.

Phylogenetically novel uncultured microbial cells dominate Earth microbiomes

The paper quantifies the abundance of uncultured microbial groups in various environments, finding they dominate non-human ecosystems and are more active than cultured clades.