I am a soil microbial ecologist who combines traditional ecological and microbiological techniques to molecular biology and bioinformatics to answer key ecological questions. My interests are: 1. Study plant-microbe interactions in desert soils. More than understanding interactions, we want to unify microbial physiology with plant-microbe interactions and ecosystem ecology. My main goal is to be able to apply our knowledge about microbial physiology and interactions as management or restoration tools. 2. Forecast changes in microbial communities due to natural and anthropogenic climate change. We currently study the effects of climate change in desert microbial communities, but we are also interested in microbial communities in South Florida, such as mangroves and seagrasses microbial communities. Overall, I work on delineating microbial niches in soil microbiomes and understanding interactions with other organisms, populations, and communities of other microorganisms, as well as on plant recruitment, growth and health.
M. C. Fernandes, Vanessa, Jennifer A. Rudgers, Scott L. Collins, Ferran Garcia-Pichel. 2022. “Rainfall Pulse Regime Drives Biomass and Community Composition in Biological Soil Crusts.” Ecology 103(9): e3744. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.3744
Adelizzi, Rose, E. A. O’Brien, Mikaela Hoellrich, Jennifer A. Rudgers, Michael Mann, Vanessa Moreira Camara Fernandes, Anthony Darrouzet-Nardi, and Eva Stricker. 2022. “Disturbance to Biocrusts Decreased Cyanobacteria, N-Fixer Abundance, and Grass Leaf N but Increased Fungal Abundance.” Ecology 103(4): e3656. https://doi.org/10.1002/ ecy.3656
Moreira C. Fernandes, V., Giraldo-Silva, A., Roush, D. and Garcia-Pichel, F. (2021), Coleofasciculaceae, a Monophyletic Home for the Microcoleus steenstrupii Complex and Other Desiccation-tolerant Filamentous Cyanobacteria. J. Phycol., 57: 1563-1579. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpy.13199
Giraldo-Silva, A.; Fernandes, V.M.C.; Bethany, J.; Garcia-Pichel, F. Niche Partitioning with Temperature among Heterocystous Cyanobacteria (Scytonema spp., Nostoc spp., and Tolypothrix spp.) from Biological Soil Crusts. Microorganisms 2020, 8, 396. https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms8030396
Fernandes, V.M.C., Machado de Lima, N.M., Roush, D., Rudgers, J., Collins, S.L. and Garcia-Pichel, F. (2018), Exposure to predicted precipitation patterns decreases population size and alters community structure of cyanobacteria in biological soil crusts from the Chihuahuan Desert. Environ Microbiol, 20: 259-269. https://doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.13983
See all publications: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=f4uWXqUAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate
Lab Website: https://moreirafernandeslab.weebly.com
