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Courtney Clement standing at the rail of a boat.

Courtney Clement

Graduate Student
Department of Microbiology
Mueller Lab

Courtney Clement

Graduate Student
Department of Microbiology
Mueller Lab

Research

My research focuses on the interactions between Zostera marina (eelgrass), their rhizosphere microbiomes, and estuarine biogeochemical cycling. Eelgrasses act as ecosystem engineers, prevent intensive erosion, provide protective habitats for larval and juvenile fish, and sequester carbon. I aim to understand the movement, and storage, of this carbon through the eelgrass and into the sediment. How available is this carbon to estuarine sediment microbes? What happens to this carbon during a marine heatwave? How resilient are eelgrass sediment microbes to environmental disturbances associated with climate change? To answer these questions, I perform culturing and mesocosm experiments, field collection, and metagenomics.