Linda Amaral Zettler, PhD

Linda Amaral Zettler explores patterns of microbial diversity and adaptation in extreme and marine environments. Current research objectives include understanding the environmental factors that help shape microbial community structure at the three-domain level and below. One of her long-term field sites focusing on Astrobiology  research includes the acidic, heavy-metal laden Río Tinto (southwestern Spain)- a terrestrial analog for Mars. Her NSF Biodiversity Survey and Inventories project called MIRADA LTERs also explores three-domain diversity, but at a much larger scale in a biogeographic study that involves Microbial Inventory Research Across 13 Diverse Aquatic LTER sites.
A second research theme explores the presence and persistence of human pathogens in the marine environment with an emphasis on the role of marine amoebae as vectors for emerging diseases as part of the Woods Hole Centers for Oceans Health. This research involves field work in Mount Hope Bay, MA and Lake Pontchartrain, LA.
She also serve as the Secretariat and education and outreach leader for the International Census of Marine Microbes- one of 14 ocean realm projects in the Census of Marine Life in an international effort to census microbial life in the ocean.
Source: Amaral Zettler Laboratory

In Micro B3 she will be our MIRADA-LTERs liaison on standards, training and large-scale integrated ecosystems biology and modelling.