Sam Lord

Research Summary

Sam Lord leads the Soil Ecology Laboratory, where his research explores how microbial communities govern the health, resilience, and function of the soil and broader terrestrial ecosystems. His laboratory combines metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, microbial ecology, and soil health to investigate the ecological roles of bacteria, archaea, fungi, viruses, and plasmids within complex environmental microbiomes. Dr. Lord's research focuses on microbial functional ecology, the movement and persistence of genes across microbial communities, the influence of viruses and mobile genetic elements on ecosystem processes, and the development of genomic tools to evaluate soil health, restoration, and sustainable land management. His goal is to transform soil microbiomes from an overlooked component of ecosystems into a predictive tool for managing healthy, resilient landscapes.