Environmental Genomics and Bioinformatics

Research in our lab is centered on molecular tools, especially environmental DNA (eDNA), to study the relationships between humans, biological communities, and our ecosystem. A core focus of our lab is translational: partnering with resource managers and conservation practitioners to apply these methods where they matter, such as monitoring fish responses to dam removals, conservation efforts, and other interventions.

Current Projects:

Newly funded: Spider webs as eDNA samplers for forest wildlife, pests, and pathogens

Starting September 2026, a new three-year project funded by the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station (Hatch program) will use spider webs as passive eDNA samplers to monitor forest biodiversity. Spider webs continuously trap airborne genetic material shed by insects, mammals, birds, and fungal pathogens, offering a low-cost, non-invasive complement to camera traps and acoustic recorders. The project builds on pilot sampling at UNH’s College Woods and during Deerfield, NH’s BioBlitz, which was featured by the Southeast Land Trust of NH as the cover story of The Understory.

Working with The Nature Conservancy, the Southeast Land Trust of NH, the Squam Lakes Natural Science Center, and NH Fish & Game, the project has three goals: 1) determine how biomass and distance from a source animal affect detection of NH wildlife species, using controlled wildlife enclosures at Squam Lakes; 2) test how forest management treatments (patch cuts, thinning, and unmanaged reserves) affect detection of wildlife and forest pathogens at TNC’s Green Hills and Surry Mountain Preserves; and 3) integrate spider-web eDNA with camera-trap and passive-acoustic data, in collaboration with Remington Moll and Laura Kloepper, to build multi-method species distribution models across New Hampshire’s Wildlife Management Units.

Newly funded: Spider webs as eDNA samplers for forest wildlife, pests, and pathogens

In collaboration with NH Fish & Game, we are investigating the impact of dams and their removal on two rivers in the Great Bay Watershed. We are sampling around the Oyster River / Mill Pond dam (currently under removal) and the Pickpocket dam (under consideration of removal) on the Squamscott / Exeter River. We are going to characterize the fish communities through the summer of 2024 herring run and the pre/post Mill Pond dam removal.

Other interests, projects, and collaborations:

• Monitoring very different, dynamic estuaries across the the NERRs system with PI Alison Watts
• Tracking the movement and diet of cod with PI Nathan Furey, and PhD students Aliya Caldwell and Sidney Axtell
• Potential of eDNA for inferring population genetic parameters
• In collaboration with Amanda McQuaid and the Lay Lakes Monitoring Program, Peter Countway and Robin Seith at Bigelow Marine Lab, and the town of Wolfeboro, NH, we will target picocyanobacteria from New Hampshire lakes for whole-genome sequencing to 1) assemble more genomes (and toxin producing genes) for pico-sized cyanobacteria, 2) measure the prevalence of toxins of pico-populations from different lakes in New Hampshire.