Rachel L RubinWashington Department of Natural Resources
Rachel L Rubin
PhD
About
13
Publications
3,433
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
664
Citations
Introduction
Education
August 2014 - May 2019
September 2007 - June 2011
Publications
Publications (13)
Nitrogen pollution is the most pressing threat to Cape Cod's distinctive bays and estuaries. Today's nitrogen crisis has emerged from increased development and overreliance on antiquated septic systems, which leach excess nitrogen into groundwater, rivers and estuaries. Together with our partners, we are developing innovative methods to remove nitr...
Microbial communities are early responders to wetland degradation, and instrumental players in the reversal of this degradation. However, our understanding of soil microbial community structure and function throughout wetland development remains incomplete. We conducted a survey across cranberry farms, young retired farms, old retired farms, floode...
Regional consistency is necessary for carbon credit integrity.
Soil amendments are a broad class of materials that enhance physical, chemical or biological characteristics in croplands, pastures, or rangelands. While organic soil amendments such as manure, mulch and seaweed have well established agronomic benefits, there has been renewed private and governmental interest in quantifying and incentivizing their...
Heat waves are increasing in frequency and intensity, presenting a challenge for the already difficult practice of ecological restoration. We investigated whether pre‐heating locally sourced rhizosphere soil (inoculum) could acclimatize plants to a field‐imposed heat wave in a restoration setting. Soil heating in the laboratory caused a marked shif...
The carbon stored in soil exceeds that of plant biomass and atmospheric carbon and its stability can impact global climate. Growth of decomposer microorganisms mediates both the accrual and loss of soil carbon. Growth is sensitive to temperature and given the vast biological diversity of soil microorganisms, the response of decomposer growth rates...
Organic soil amendments such as biochar and compost are thought to improve soil development, but it is unclear whether they affect nutrient leaching and greenhouse gas emissions. Using mesocosms, we investigated the effects of biochar and compost on nutrient leaching and greenhouse gas emissions across varying hydrologic regimes. Increased biochar...
Root endophytes are a promising tool for increasing plant growth, but it is unclear whether they perform consistently across plant hosts. We characterized the blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis) root microbiome using two sequencing methods, quantified the effects of root endophytes in the original host (blue grama) and an agricultural recipient, corn (...
Half of earths land area is degraded, and most of this degradation has occurred over the past forty years. However, microbiome science offers an unprecedented ability to restore degraded croplands and wildlands. In three related research projects, I have shown that plant-associated microbes play a large, yet underappreciated role in influencing pla...
Mechanical cutting and mastication of juniper trees aims to restore grassland habitat by reducing the density of encroaching woody species. However, the associated soil disturbance may also create conduits for invasive species, a risk that must be mitigated by land managers. We characterized herbaceous communities in treated and adjacent untreated...
Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) have been shown to reduce abiotic stress on plants, but these effects have not been quantitatively synthesized. We evaluated the degree to which plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) improve plant performance with and without drought stress. We used meta-analysis to summarize 52 published articles o...
Balancing the joint production of multiple ecosystem services, also referred to as the ‘multifunctionality’ of an ecosystem or landscape, requires understanding of the ecological processes that produce and economic processes that evaluate those services. Here, we review the ecological tradeoffs and compatibilities among ecosystem processes that inf...
1. The response of northern tundra plant communities to warming temperatures is of critical concern because permafrost ecosystems play a key role in global carbon (C) storage, and climate‐induced ecological shifts in the plant community will affect the transfer of carbon‐dioxide between biological and atmospheric pools.
2. This study, which focuses...