The Students
Sean Gibbons, Ph.D.
Hometown:Missoula, MT
Education:University of Chicago, Ph.D. 2015
Email:sgibbons@uchicago.edu
Dual Mentors: Jack Gilbert, Maureen Coleman
The Big Picture
I study the ecology and evolution of microbial communities across fluctuating niche landscapes.
I am interested in how the interactions of constituent ensembles within a system coalesce to produce sophisticated emergent behaviors. In particular, I investigate the relationship between ecosystem disturbance and community diversity, the non-linear dynamics of ecological communities at transition points between alternative stable states, and metagenomic patterns along changing environmental gradients.
For further details, please see here
Publications
Effects of Diurnal Variation of Gut Microbes and High-Fat Feeding on Host Circadian Clock Function and Metabolism, Cell Host & Microbe
Available online 16 April 2015. Vanessa Leone, Sean M. Gibbons, Kristina Martinez, Alan L. Hutchison, et al., ISSN 1931-3128, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chom.2015.03.006.
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1931312815001237)
Ecological succession and viability of human-associated microbiota on restroom surfaces.
Gibbons, Sean M., Tara Schwartz, Jennifer Fouquier, Michelle Mitchell, Naseer Sangwan, Jack A. Gilbert,
and Scott T. Kelley. Applied and environmental microbiology (2014): AEM-03117. http://aem.asm.org/content/early/2014/11/10/AEM.03117-14.abstract
The role of macrobiota in structuring microbial communities along rocky shores.
Pfister CA, Gilbert JA, Gibbons SM. (2014) PeerJ 2:e631 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.631
Longitudinal analysis of microbial interaction between humans and the indoor environment.
Simon Lax, Daniel P. Smith, Jarrad Hampton-Marcell, Sarah M. Owens, Kim M. Handley, Nicole M. Scott, Sean M. Gibbons, Peter Larsen, Benjamin D. Shogan, Sophie Weiss, Jessica L. Metcalf, Luke K. Ursell, Yoshiki Vázquez-Baeza, Will Van Treuren, Nur A. Hasan, Molly K. Gibson, Rita Colwell, Gautam Dantas, Rob Knight, and Jack A. Gilbert. Science 29 August 2014: 345 (6200), 1048-1052. [DOI:10.1126/science.1254529]
Human and Environmental Impacts on River Sediment Microbial Communities
Gibbons SM, Jones E, Bearquiver A, Blackwolf F, Roundstone W, et al. (2014). PLoS ONE 9(5): e97435. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0097435
Subsampled open-reference clustering creates consistent, comprehensive OTU definitions and scales to billions of sequences.
Rideout JR, He Y, Navas-Molina JA, Walters WA, Ursell LK, Gibbons SM, Chase J, McDonald D, Gonzalez A, Robbins-Pianka A, Clemente JC, Gilbert JA, Huse SM, Zhou H, Knight R, Caporaso JG. (2014) PeerJ 2:e545 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.545
Will different OTU delineation methods change interpretation of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal community patterns?
Lekberg, Y., Gibbons, S. M. and Rosendahl, S. (2014), New Phytologist. doi:10.1111/nph.1275
Characterizing changes in soil bacterial community structure in response to short-term warming.
Xiong, Jinbo, Huaibo Sun, Fei Peng, Huayong Zhang, Xian Xue, Sean M. Gibbons, Jack A. Gilbert, and Haiyan Chu. FEMS Microbiology Ecology (2014). doi: 10.1111/1574-6941.1228
Understanding Cultivar-Specificity and Soil Determinants of the Cannabis Microbiome.
Winston ME, Hampton-Marcell J, Zarraonaindia I, Owens SM, Moreau CS, Gilbert JA, Hartsel J, Kennedey SJ, Gibbons SM. (2014) PLoS ONE 9(6): e99641. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.
Investigating the impact of storage conditions on microbial community composition in soil samples.
Rubin BER, Gibbons SM, Kennedy S, Hampton-Marcell J, Owens S, et al.
(2013) PLoS ONE 8(7): e70460. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0070460
Heavy metal tolerance genes alter celllular dynamics in Pseudomnas putida and river Pseudomonas spp. and influence amebal predation.
McTee MR, Gibbons SM, Feris K, Gordan NS, Gannon JE, and Ramsey PW. (2013) FEMS Microbiology Letters DOI:10.1111/1574-6968.12226
Evidence for a persistent microbial seed bank throughout the global ocean.
Gibbons SM, Caporaso JG, Pirung M, Field D, Knight R, Gilbert JA. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2013:110(12):4651-5. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1217767110. Epub 2013 Mar 4. PMID: 23487761
Severe plant invasions can increase the abundance and diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi.
Lekberg Y, Gibbons SM, Rosendahl S, Ramsey PW. ISME J. 2013: Jul;7(7):1424-33. doi: 10.1038/ismej.2013.41. Epub 2013 Mar 14. PubMed PMID: 23486251; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3695300
Ocean acidification shows negligible impacts on high-latitude bacterial community structure in coastal pelagic mesocosms.
A.-S. Roy, S.M. Gibbons, H. Schunck, S. Owens, J.G. Caporaso, M. Sperling, J. Nissimov, S. Romac, L. Bittner, U. Riebesell, J. LaRoche and J.A. Gilbert. 2013 Biogeochemistry 10, 555-556, doi:10.5194/bg-10-555-2013
Modeling microbial community structure and functional diversity across time and space.
Larsen PE, Gibbons SM, Gilbert JA. FEMS Microbiol Lett. 2012 Jul;332(2):91-8 PMC3396557
454 sequencing reveals stochastic local reassembly and high disturbance tolerance within arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities.
Ylva Lekberg, Tim Schnoor, Rasmus Kjoller, Sean M. Gibbons, Lars H. Hansen, Waleed Abu Al-Soud, Soren Sorensen, and Soren Rosendahl. (2011) Journal of Ecology DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2745.2011.01894.
Relative strengths of relationships between plant, microbial, and environmental parameters in heavy-metal contaminated floodplain soil.
Philip W. Ramsey, Sean M. Gibbons, Peter Rice, Daniel L. Mummey, Kevin P. Feris, Johnnie N. Moore, Matthias C. Rillig, and James E. Gannon. (2011) Pedobiologia doi:10.1016/j.pedobi.2011.07.008
Use of microcalorimetry to determine the costs and benefits to Pseudomonas putida strain KT2440 of harboring cadmium efflux genes.
Gibbons SM, Feris K, McGuirl MA, Morales SE, Hynninen A, Ramsey PW, Gannon JE. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2011 Jan;77(1):108-13 PMC3019710
Hyporheic microbial community development is a sensitive indicator of metal contamination
Feris KP, Ramsey PW, Gibbons SM, Frazar C, Rillig MC, Moore JN, Gannon JE, Holben WE. Environ Sci Technol. 2009 Aug 15;43(16):6158-63 PMID: 19746707