Branco Weiss Fellow Since
2025
Research Category
Geobiology, phycology, arts
Research Location
Institute for Quantitative Biosciences, University of California Berkeley, USA
Background
It is canonically understood that plants dominate terrestrial photosynthesis, while microbes dominate marine photosynthesis. Yet photosynthetic microbes are just as ubiquitous on land as in the ocean, including in soil, where their contributions are far less appreciated. Globally, soil contains more carbon than the atmosphere and all land vegetation combined, and the cycling of that carbon is controlled by the activities of complex and poorly understood microbial communities.
Details of Research
Dr. Lingappa will investigate soil algae through both a reductionist lens to understand life with molecular resolution in the lab, and a holistic lens to understand life in the context of ecosystems and geological processes. In the lab, she will leverage the highly resolved model organism Chlamydomonas reinhardtii to explore how algal biochemistry controls their contributions to ecological processes. In the field, she will explore the abundance and diversity of soil algae together with their surrounding biotic, physical, and chemical environments. In parallel to working to understand the relationship between life and the environment through science, she works to awaken human connections to nature through the arts.
