Using her single-engine aircraft and a contamination-free air sampling device developed alongside her husband, Jeremy, molecular ecologist, faculty scholar in the School of Health Research and G&B senior lecturer Kimberly Métris collects samples from hundreds of meters above the ground to investigate which organisms are traveling through the air.
After fights over Hartwell, GA and Clemson, back in the laboratory, Métris sequenced fungal DNA from the filters in the device and compared the results with weather records, air-mass models and satellite measurements of vegetation productivity, finding a varied airborne community containing hundreds of fungi associated with plants, animals, soil, wood, dung and decaying leaves.
“We have the genomic makeup of this whole area,” Métris said, describing the long-term potential, “and then how does it change over time?”
Read more in the Clemson News article.
