Bruns is using high-throughput sequencing, among other tools, to tease apart this “DNA soup” that is contained within soil. Her research on nitrogen-cycling microbes at the field scale fits into the bigger picture of reducing nutrient transport to coastal dead zones. “Overall, 50% of the nitrogen in fertilizer that’s applied to crops is not taken up by the crops. Instead it leaches to the groundwater or runs off in sediment. Much of that nitrogen eventually makes its way into the Gulf of Mexico and the Chesapeake Bay, where it upsets ecosystems. I’m interested in how we can stop this process at the source, how we can make our nitrogen application and management methods less wasteful.”

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