Benjamin Houlton

Overview

We investigate how people and ecosystems shape our world. Our mission is to increase science and solutions for the benefit of humanity, nature, food security, and the economy. We combine tools from microbial genetics, chemistry, data science, remote sensing and modeling in our global research studies. This includes investigating challenges facing food security, carbon capture and climate change, planetary health and resilience, and basic advances in Earth's biogeochemical cycles.

Keywords

Climate Change; Agricultural and Environmental Sustainability; Biogeochemical Cycles; Global Ecology; Carbon Capture and Removal; Planetary Resilience

Departments/Programs

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Graduate Fields

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Research

We are currently exploring the role of enhanced mineral weathering as a scalable carbon capture strategy across more than 100 acres of farmland. This work ties together farmers, ranchers, tribes and commercial industry. We are exploring biogeochemical principles and scientific questions related to geo-biology, carbon sequestration and plant-microbe interactions, in addition to questions of policy, model forecasting, and economics in this research. Additional work is focused on large scale biogeochemical cycles, particularly nitrogen-carbon interactions, nutrient limitations to ecological pattern and process, climate change risk, and the fate of the terrestrial carbon sink in the 21st century.