Rachel is a community ecologist focused on the ecology of soil microbes and plant-microbe interactions. Working in lowland neotropical forests, semi-arid grasslands, and high elevation mixed conifer forests, her experimental research approach examines the effects of species-specific plant-microbe interactions on plant population dynamics and community diversity, how disturbance and environmental gradients alter taxonomic and functional diversity of plant and soil microbiomes, and the impacts of these shifts on carbon storage and nutrient cycling.