Soil Nitrifiers: Friends, Foes, and the Climate Problem Beneath Our Feet
Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026
7:00pm to 8:30pm
24
This talk explores a paradoxical group of microbes called nitrifiers, organisms that carry out a critical step in the global nitrogen cycle while also contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and eutrophication.
On the Edge: Emerging Scholars is a speaker series featuring cutting edge research presented by emerging scholars and researchers from Edmonton's academic community. Presented in partnership with the University of Alberta's Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research.
Abstract
The soil is home to bustling microbial communities that influence agriculture, nutrient cycling, and other essential ecosystem functions. We will discuss why efforts to manage these microbes often fall short and how their tendency to grow in biofilms changes the way they respond to control strategies. Finally, this talk considers how we can better study and understand these elusive organisms in order to develop more effective approaches to climate change mitigation.
Speaker: Aderonke Adigun, aoadigun@ualberta.ca
Adigun Aderonke Odunayo is a PhD student in Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta, working in the Climate Change Microbiology Lab. Her research focuses on understanding how nitrifying microbes grow, interact, and persist in soils, with particular interest in the physiology and ecology of ammonia-oxidising microorganisms. Through a combination of laboratory experiments and ecological approaches, her work aims to improve strategies for sustainable nitrogen management and to better predict and mitigate microbially driven greenhouse gas emissions. Outside of the lab, she is an avid reader and loves to learn new languages. She speaks English, Yoruba and Korean.
This is an online event hosted on Zoom. A link to the session will be emailed to registrants a few days beforehand.
Zoom, a third-party app, will be used for this virtual session. By joining, you acknowledge that EPL does not take responsibility for Zoom's privacy policies and practices.