Dr Marcela Hernández

Biography

I am a Group Leader and a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Research Fellow at the University of East Anglia, UK. In our group, we study the diversity and function of soil microbiomes in extreme environments, including volcanoes and the Arctic. Our primary research goal is to identify and characterise the key players in biogeochemical cycling of the components of trace gases.

Specifically, in my group, we study the role of microorganisms, which are the earliest colonisers of newly-formed terrestrial surfaces, in the development of ecosystems and the subsequent process of community succession. We use high-throughput sequencing and stable-isotope probing to assess community diversity and function, enabling a comprehensive understanding of their roles in biogeochemical cycles.