Amanda Daly

Amanda Daly, NRESS Ph.D. student

Research Topic

Soil Microbial Ecology and Biogeochemistry

Amanda has been enthusiastically working to forward understanding of soil microbe-driven biogeochemical processes and enhance the sustainability of agroecosystems.  Her research aims to uncover the microbial and ecological mechanisms that release nitrogen from organic sources in the soil.  Greater knowledge of these plant-soil-microbe interactions will help enable farm managers to match soil nitrogen availability with plant demand for nitrogen, thereby reducing the impacts of agricultural nitrogen pollution on the greater environment.

Previous Awards and Activities

  • 2016 Fellow, NSF Graduate Research Opportunities Worldwide (one year stipend to work with international collaborators in Austria at the University of Vienna)
  • 2013 Collaborator and a primary author, USDA NIFA AFRI, “Nitrogen synchrony at the crop-soil interface: optimizing root-microbe interactions to minimize environmental nitrogen losses,” PI: A. Stuart Grandy
  • 2013   Fellow, NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP; provides funding for three years of stipend and educational expenses)
  • 2013   Full tuition scholarship to Microbial Diversity summer course at WHOI MBL (Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory; declined due to field season conflict)
  • 2012   Finalist, DOE SCGF (Department of Energy Science Graduate Fellowship)
  • 2012   University of New Hampshire Farrington Fund Travel Grant
  • 2012   University of New Hampshire Graduate School Travel Scholarship
  • 2007   HELiX Mini-Grant ($500) for Undergraduate Research, University of Vermont, Burlington VT
  • 2007   Outstanding Research in Ecology/Evolution, Biology Department, University of Vermont
  • 2007   Outstanding Senior in Environmental Science, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Vermont

Selected Presentations and Publications

Presentations

  • AB Daly, AS Grandy.  April 2016.  How agricultural management shapes soil microbial communities: patterns emerging from genetic and genomic studies. Contributed talk at the European Geological Union Annual Meeting, Vienna, Austria.
  • AB Daly, AS Grandy.  June 2015.  Roots and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi influence nitrogen cycling in agricultural soils under contrasting management. Contributed talk at the Soil Ecology Society, Colorado Springs, CO.
  • AB Daly, AS Grandy. October 2013. Proposed methodology for investigating plant-microbe controls on nitrogen priming in an agroecosystem. Poster presented at the Argonne Soil Metagenomics Workshop, Bloomingdale, IL.
  • AB Daly, K Wickings, AS Grandy. August 2012. Enzyme activities of mesofaunal endosymbionts across host species and ecosystem. Poster presented at the Ecological Society of America Conference, Portland OR.
  • AB Daly, M Goodwin, V Sueblinvong, A Panoskaltsis-Mortari, and DJ Weiss.  October 2010.  MSCs spontaneously express pro-SPC when cultured in intact de-cellularized mouse lungs. Fifteen-minute presentation at New England Stem Cell Consortium, Burlington VT
  • AB Daly, M Goodwin, V Sueblinvong, A Panoskaltsis-Mortari, and DJ Weiss.  August 2010.  MSCs spontaneously express pro-SPC when cultured in intact de-cellularized mouse lungs. Poster presented at FASEB Lung Epithelium in Health and Disease Conference, Saxtons River VT

Publications

  • RG Smith, AS Davis, NR Jordan, LW Atwood, AB Daly, AS Grandy, MC Hunter, RT Koide, DA Mortensen, P Ewing, D Kane, M Li, Y Lou, SS Snapp, KA Spokas, and AC Yannarell. 2014. Structural equation modeling facilitates transdisciplinary research on agriculture and climate change.  Crop Science 54, 475-483.
  • JM Wallis, ZD Borg, AB Daly, B Deng, BA Baliff, GB Allen, DM Jaworski, D Weiss. Accepted 2011.  Comparative assessment of detergent-based protocols for mouse lung de-cellularization and re-cellularization. Tissue Engineering Part C: Methods, in press (available at www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/ten.TEC.2011.0567).
  • AB Daly, JM Wallis, ZD Borg, RW Bonvillain, B Deng, BA Baliff, DM Jaworski, GB Allen, D Weiss. Accepted 2011. Initial binding and re-cellularization of de-cellularized mouse lung scaffolds with bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells.  Tissue Engineering Part A, in press (available at www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/ten.tea.2011.0301).
  • S Helms Cahan, AB Daly, T Schwander, and HA Woods. 2010. Genetic caste determination does not impose growth rate costs in Pogonomyrmex harvester ants. Functional Ecology 24, 301-309.

Education

B.S. cum laude, Environmental Science, and B.A., Spanish, University of Vermont.  Honors thesis: Mechanisms driving increased colony growth rates in hybrid ant species

Professional Positions

  • 2008—2011    Laboratory Research Assistant/Manager (Departments of Medicine and Molecular Genetics, UVM
  • 2007—2008    Organic Extractions Analyst (TestAmerica, South Burlington, Vermont)
  • 2005—2007    Undergraduate Honors Research (Biology Department, University of Vermont)
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