Soil Chemistry and Biogeochemical Interfaces
Dr. Jared L. Wilmoth leads the Soil Chemistry and Biogeochemical Interfaces research group in the Department of Environmental Science and Technology at UMD (College Park). The research focuses on understanding the fundamental, mechanistic, connections between environmental soil systems, their biogeochemical cycles, and the Earth’s climate. Current work examines how soil redox conditions and climate-driven perturbations interact in different soil environments using high-resolution chemical and biomolecular characterization techniques. Critical abiotic and biotic pathways that span mineral, microbial, organic matter, and rhizosphere interfaces are regulated by these interactions that operate over different spatiotemporal scales. Current research efforts seek to investigate and disentangle these processes in field and laboratory studies to better understand their relationship with global carbon (C) cycling and environmental sustainability. Key areas of interest in soils research include redox transformations, soil organic matter transformations, changes in soil microbiome function and activity under redox-oscillating conditions, and the combined use of different experimental and modeling approaches to link the small scale of soil biogeochemical interfaces to the large scale of Earth systems. The overall research approach is highly collaborative and inter/multi-disciplinary in nature to explore soil chemistry and biogeochemical interfaces in different environments and to improve our understanding of their global impact.
Degrees and Professional Experience:
Degrees:
-
Ph.D. University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA (2016)
-
M.S. West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA (2009)
-
B.S. West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA (2006)
Postdoctoral:
-
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA; High Meadows Environmental Institute; Carbon Mitigation Initiative (2017-2020)
-
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA; Biosciences Division; Biological and Nanoscale Systems Group (2016-2017)
Publications:
Wilmoth, J.L. (2021) Redox Heterogeneity Entangles Soil and Climate Interactions. Sustainability. 13, 10084: DOI: https://doi.org/ 10.3390/su131810084.
Wilmoth, J.L., Schaefer, J.K., Schlesinger, D.R., Roth, S.W., Hatcher, P.G., Shoemaker, J.K., Zhang, X. (2021) The role of oxygen in stimulating methane production in wetlands. Glob Chang Biol: DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15831.
Calabrese, S., Garcia, A., Wilmoth, J. L., Zhang, X., Porporato, A. (2021) Critical inundation level for methane emissions from wetlands. Environ. Res. Lett. 16, (4), 10: DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/abedea.
Wilmoth, J.L., Sexstone, A.J. and McDonald, L.M. (2019) Humic acid buildup increases CO2 emissions from redox-oscillating upland soils while catalyzing Fe(III) reduction and P desorption. Journal of Environmental Quality (Special Collection). 48 (6):
DOI: 10.2134/jeq2019.01.0038
Weber, J., Thompson, A., Wilmoth, J.L., Batra, V.S., Janulaitis, N. and Kastner, J. (2019) Effect of metal oxide redox state in red mud catalysts on ketonization of fast pyrolysis oil derived oxygenates. Applied Catalysis B-Environmental Journal. 241: DOI: 10.1016/j.apcatb.2018.08.061.
Wilmoth, J.L., Moran, M.A. and Thompson, A. (2018) Transient O2 pulses direct Fe crystallinity and Fe(III)-reducer gene expression within a soil microbiome. BioMed Central (BMC) Microbiome Journal. 6 (1) 189: DOI: 10.1186/s40168-018-0574-5.
Wilmoth, J.L., Doak, P., Timm, A.C., Halsted, M.C., Anderson, J., Ginovart, M., Prats, C., Portell- Canal, X., Retterer, S.T. and Fuentes-Cabrera, M. (2018) A microfluidics and agent-based modeling framework for investigating spatial organization in bacterial colonies: the case of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and type-VI secretion interactions. Frontiers in Microbiology Journal. 33 (9): DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2018.00033.
Chen, CM, Meile, C, Wilmoth, J, Barcellos, D, Thompson, A. (2018) Influence of pO(2) on Iron Redox Cycling and Anaerobic Organic Carbon Mineralization in a Humid Tropical Forest Soil. ES&T. 52 (14): DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.8b01368.
Weber, J., Thompson, A., Wilmoth, J.L., Gulotty, B. and Kastner, J. (2017) Coupling Red-Mud ketonization of a model bio-oil mixture with aqueous phase hydrogenation using activated carbon monoliths. Energy and Fuels Journal, ACS publications. 31 (9): DOI: 10.1021/acs.energyfuels.7b01500.
Timm, A.C., Halsted, M.C., Wilmoth, J.L. and Retterer, S.T. (2017) Assembly and tracking of microbial community development within a microwell array platform. JoVE. 124: DOI: 10.3791/55701.
Ginn, B., Meile, C., Wilmoth, J.L., Tang, Y. and Thompson, A. (2017) Rapid iron reduction rates are stimulated by high-amplitude redox fluctuations in a tropical forest soil. ES&T. 51 (6): DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.6b05709.
Halsted, M.C., Wilmoth, J.L., Briggs, P.A., Hansen, R.R., Briggs, D.P., Timm, A.C. and Retterer, S.T. (2016) Development of transparent microwell arrays for optical monitoring and dissection of microbial communities. JVSTB, Nanotechnology and Microelectronics. 34 (6): DOI: 10.1116/1.4962739.
Courses:
ENST421 Soil Chemistry
ENST798 Graduate Seminar
ENST489 Senior Capstone
Committees:
ENST Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Respect (DEIR) – core member
