You can also take a look at my "Behind the Paper" blog for Nature to learn more about how we went from soil to this microbial story!
go.nature.com/4nJcP0j

Thanks to @vivianla.bsky.social for covering this paper in @wbur.org! Check out her article here:
www.wbur.org/news/2025/10...

Huge thanks to my brilliant coauthors, mentors, and collaborators (including @chikaetatsumi.bsky.social) at Boston University, our funders, including
@buurban.bsky.social, @buoncities.bsky.social, and to the oak trees that made it possible. 🌳💚
Reach out if you want me to send along the pdf!

Caring for city trees means caring for their microbiomes. 🌿
Healthy soils, cleaner air, and diverse plantings can help “rewild” city microbiomes, making urban forests more resilient for all of us. 💚

These changes were tied to urban stressors: heat 🌡️, drought 💧, and air pollution 🚗.
Even more surprising: city tree microbiomes had a higher potential to produce greenhouse gases and less ability to remove methane. 🌍

🍂 City trees lose many of their beneficial fungal partners that help them absorb water + nutrients.
🦠 Instead, they gain pathogens and decomposers, including microbes linked to plant, animal, and human health.

These microbes help trees grow, fight disease, and even influence ecosystem health. But… city life changes everything. 🌡️

We studied oak trees from downtown Boston to rural Massachusetts forests, and saw dramatic shifts in their microbiomes.

🌳 Big news! My paper “Disruption of the oak tree microbiome with urbanization” is now out in Nature Cities! 🏙️🌿
Cities are full of life we don’t see, including microbes that live in and on trees.
🔗 doi.org/10.1038/s442...

Ever since I started my graduate school career, I've known I want to work in science policy for the federal government, but right now that possibility is looking less and less likely each day. Thanks so much to @vivianla.bsky.social for doing such a wonderful job telling this story!