Research:
Dr. Stahl obtained his M.S. and Ph.D. in microbiology working with Dr. Carl Woese at the University of Illinois and completed postdoctoral work with Dr. Norman Pace, now at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He has held academic appointments at the University of Illinois and Northwestern University. Stahl is a member of the American Academy of Microbiology, a recipient of the Bergey Award, and has served on numerous national committees, most recently NASA and NRC committees addressing linkages between microbiology and space studies. He is a co-founding editor of the new journal Environmental Microbiology, an editor of Biodegradation, and serves on the editorial boards of Microbial Ecology, MMBR, and Systematic and Applied Microbiology.
Stahl’s lab studies different aspects of environmental biotechnology, microbial evolution, and ecology. Research takes advantage of recent developments in molecular systematics that now provide the conceptual framework and molecular tools for direct studies of microorganisms in the environment, at the level of both populations and single cells. This allows for more comprehensive investigations of how microbial community structure relates to system level processes. Natural systems now being studied include nitrogen and sulfur cycling in salt marshes and microbial mats, and stream and sediment ecology. Laboratory bioreactors provide a controlled context for testing new analytical techniques, mathematical modeling, and assessing population interactions. This research is being complemented by the development of new methods of analysis, including DNA microarray technology.
Selected Publications:
Risatti, J. B., W.C. Capman, and D. A. Stahl. 1994. Community structure of a microbial mat: The phylogenetic dimension. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 91: 10173-10177.
Nealson K.H. and D. A. Stahl. 1997. Microorganisms and biogeochemical cycles: What can we learn from layered microbial communities? In: J. F. Banfield and K. H. Nelson (Eds), P. H. Ribbe (Series Ed.) "Geomicrobiology: Interactions between microbes and minerals." Reviews in Mineralogy Vol. 35. Mineralogical Society of American. Washington D. C.
MacGregor, B.J., D.P. Moser, B.J. Baker, E.W. Alm, M. Maurer, K.H. Nealson, and D.A. Stahl. 2001. Seasonal and spatial variability in Lake Michigan sediment small-subunit rRNA concentrations. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 67: 3908-3922.
Klein, M., M. Friedrich, A.J. Roger, S. Fishbain, P. Hugenholtz, H. Abicht, L.L. Blackall, D.A. Stahl, and M. Wagner. Multiple lateral transfer events of dissimilatory sulfite reductase genes between major lineages of bacteria. J. Bacteriol. 183: 6028-6034 (2001).
Taillefert, M. B.J. MacGregor, J.-F. Gaillard, C.-P. Lienemann, D. Perret, and D.A.Stahl. 2002. Evidence of a Dynamic Cycling between Mn and Co in the Water Column of a Stratified Lake. Env. Sci. Technol. 36: 468-476.
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