microbes4change
ABOUT
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I am a PhD candidate at the University of Minnesota, St Paul studying under Dr. Julie Grossman. Prior to commencing my graduate studies, I served as a Peace Corps volunteer (Togo, 2016-2018), worked in a plant pathology lab, and studied general biology at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota.
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As a soil ecologist in training, my goal is to address global problems by connecting microbial community function with human practices and values. The two grand challenges I seek to address through my work are the existential threat of climate change and ensuring adequate food for a burgeoning global population. I believe that soil microbes are a natural point of intersection between these issues.
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Marie Schaedel
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PhD Candidate
Agroecology, Applied Plant Sciences Program
University of Minnesota, St Paul
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NSF GRFP Fellow
Fellow in the Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change
Email:
RESEARCH
I am based in Minnesota and collaborate with scientists, farmers, and technicians in East Africa. My thesis research is made possible with significant support from this incredible group of people.
Current Projects
Nitrogen cycling under perennial forage crops in Rwanda
Feed inefficiencies in Rwandan dairy farms result in outsized contributions to agricultural greenhouse gas emissions - a pattern that holds true across many rain-fed livestock systems. Perennial forage crops provide an opportunity to counteract these emissions by providing high quality feed during the dry season and altering soil microbial nitrogen transformations. Biological nitrification inhibition (BNI) in perennial grasses such as Brachiaria spp. limit the oxidation of ammonia to forms that are more easily lost from the soil, such as nitrate and the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide. I am investigating the use of novel perennial forage intercropping strategies to contribute to sustainable nitrogen cycling on Rwandan smallholder dairy farms.
Root nodule microbiome of Desmodium distortum
Non-rhizobia inhabitants of tropical perennial legume species are sometimes present in large numbers, with theoretical roles in stress adaptation and phosphate solubilization. While legumes are often cited as a low-cost strategy for smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa to enhance soil fertility, microbial associations in such crops are largely unexplored. Understanding more about which microbes inhabit tropical legume root nodules could ultimately serve to improve nitrogen fixation and agroecosystem services.
Nitrogen fixation, forage quality, and rhizosphere microbial communities
One possible benefit of intercropping a perennial forage legume (Desmodium distortum) with forage grasses and food crops is to provide the non-legume intercrop with fixed atmospheric nitrogen. To determine whether this cropping arrangement would truly be beneficial to farmers, I am measuring nitrogen fixation in D. distortum and estimating belowground transfer of nitrogen. At the same time, I also plan to analyze plant tissue samples for protein and digestibility - two measures of feed quality that are highly relevant for milk production. Finally, I will sequence rhizosphere microbiomes to understand which communities, if any, contribute to higher rates of nitrogen fixation and transfer.
CV
TEACHING
PHILOSOPHY
I realized that I wanted to be an educator during my time as a food security Peace Corps volunteer in Togo, West Africa. The largest part of my job was engaging with local farmers in my community to get them excited about sustainable growing practices and ultimately recruit others, resulting in a cascade of behavior change to enrich soils and create prosperity. The best way to do this, as I was promptly informed, was to intermittently lead the group in song and dance. The other key was to keep my content relatable and practical. While I had set out to inspire farmers in my community, they ultimately had a much larger impact on my own thinking and development as an educator. They inspired and challenged me to think about how to most effectively harness the power of knowledge. Listening closely to the topics that most interested them, using real-life examples, using our hands whenever possible, and cultivating our friendship proved to be the most successful. I soon applied these experiences to teaching in other areas, most notably in a nation-wide science camp for middle school girls that I helped to organize and facilitate in Togo. I came up with creative solutions to teach complex ideas with limited resources - and danced and sang a lot along the way. We dissected root nodules, cultured hand microbes, and cultivated peer leadership skills in small groups.
Now as a PhD candidate at the University of Minnesota, I still believe that the teaching principles I learned in Togo apply well to teaching in higher education. My experiences as both a learner and a teacher have taught me that the most important lessons are learned outside of the classroom. Through various TA-ing and lecturing opportunities, I sought to prioritize experiential learning and group work. I have come to realize that helping a student to make connections between their own knowledge and that of their peers is critical to build understanding and lesson retention. I reflected on my own teaching through student evaluations, and also used mini reflections as a way to gauge the efficacy of my teaching. The COVID19 pandemic challenged the way that I envisioned pedagogy, but served as a valuable learning experience that made me a more flexible instructor.
EXPERIENCE
Camp Scientifille
Camp Scientifille was a national summer science camp for girls that took place annually for a number of years in Togo and which I co-organized in 2017 and 2018. In addition to managing all logistical and financial aspects of the camp, I designed lab notebooks, created innovative biology experiments that could be performed with limited resources, and facilitated large classroom sessions.
Preparing Future Faculty
PFF is a program for doctoral and post-doctoral scholars at the University of Minnesota that I completed in Spring 2020. As part of the requirements of PFF, I shadowed Dr. O'Connell at Macalester College and guest-lectured three class sessions in undergraduate agroecology that I designed myself.
Prepping for banana DNA extraction
(Camp Scientifille)
Dissecting peanut nodules
(Camp Scientifille)
FDSY 4101
I served as a TA for Dr. Grossman's course 'Holistic Approaches to Improving Food Systems.' In addition to grading, I helped to connect students with community partners for the main semester-long project. I also coordinated guest speakers and helped to facilitate class sessions.
HORT 3131
I TA'd for Dr. Grossman's Organic Farm Management class in fall 2020. We were able to hold several in-person lab activities, which I organized and helped to design and facilitate. Once class turned entirely virtual, I created take-home lab kits and came up with lesson plans that students could perform remotely. I also wrote and graded the graduate-level final project.
Laying down plastic to over-winter spinach
(HORT 3131)