Dr. Daniel Petticord

Current Research

Dr. Petticord studies how the form, availability, and distribution of nutrients structure ecological communities and ecosystem function. His research integrates metagenomics, biogeochemistry, and ecological theory to investigate how microbial communities mediate nutrient cycling across spatial and environmental gradients. At Cary, Dan collaborates with Dr. Jane Lucas on multiple projects linking soil microbial traits to ecosystem-scale outcomes. In the Stressed Out Soils (SOS) experiment, he is examining how environmental stressors—drought, warming, antibiotics, and fungicide—alter the soil metagenome and downstream dynamics such as microbial diversity and CO₂ flux. In a parallel effort, he is studying canopy soils as a natural vertical gradient to understand how the form and timing of nutrient delivery shape microbial community composition in the rhizosphere, with ultimate consequences for plant community level patterns of diversity and assembly

Previous Research

Dr. Petticord’s prior work focused on phosphorus biogeochemistry in agricultural and natural systems. As a PhD student at Cornell University and a ForEverglades Fellow, he led field-based experiments investigating how plant traits, microbial activity, and redox-driven hydrologic shifts influence the availability and loss of legacy phosphorus. His work integrated soil biogeochemistry, remote sensing, and microbial ecology to understand the mechanisms driving phosphorus retention and release. Dan has worked on a number of projects, including forest soil dynamics, plant–microbe interactions, and responses of terrestrial ecosystems to land use and climate change in systems across China, Central America, Kenya, and the southeastern United States.