Stephanie Kivlin

Stephanie Kivlin, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee. Her group's research addresses fundamental questions about microorganisms' roles in terrestrial carbon cycling with an overarching goal of linking these processes to large-scale ecosystem fluxes of carbon and nutrients under current and future climates. The group takes a multidisciplinary genes-to-ecosystems approach, integrating microbial traits and gene expression with population demographics, community assembly, and overall ecosystem carbon storage.

Current research interests include (1) altitudinal gradients in fungal phytobiomes and resulting consequences on plant fitness and soil carbon storage, (2) the role of fungi and bacteria in above- and belowground ecosystem response to disturbance in the nearby Smoky Mountains, and (3) global patterns of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal distributions and diversity.