USGS scientists measuring infiltration rates, with minidisk infiltrometers, 2 years after the 2020 LNU Lightning Complex Fire. The California chaparral landscape in the foreground was severely burned in the fire.
Courtney Creamer
Courtney's research is broadly focused on how the chemistry and accessibility of soil organic matter influences its turnover and stabilization, and subsequently, how this impacts the functioning of natural and managed ecosystems.
Many of the global challenges we face (climate change, biodiversity loss, food security) are dependent upon soil processes, and her work examines current controls on soil carbon and nitrogen stability with the aim of predicting and managing the response of soils to global change scenarios. Her particular expertise lies in linking the quantity, accessibility, and chemical composition of soil carbon and nitrogen to microbial activity and community composition, using a variety of methods. Previous projects have focused plant-soil-microbe feedbacks in response along gradients of grassland and rangeland degradation (Australia and Texas), nutrient enrichment, and edaphic properties.
Professional Experience
2015 - present Research Microbiologist (post-doc), USGS, Menlo Park CA
2012 - 2015 Office of the Chief Executive Postdoctoral Fellow, CSIRO, Adelaide SA, Australia
2008 - 2012 Graduate Research and Teaching Assistant, Purdue University, West Lafayette IN
2006 - 2007 Undergraduate Research Assistant, Miami University, Oxford OH
2005 - Laboratory Intern, Case Western Reserve, Cleveland, OH
Education and Certifications
Ph.D., Purdue University, Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, 2012
B.A., Miami University (Ohio), Microbiology, 2007
Science and Products
Ultramafic lands: Sustainability Challenges and Resource Opportunities
Characterizing high-resolution soil burn severity, erosion risk, and recovery using Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS)
Response of plant, microbial, and soil functions to drought and fire in California
Understanding Impacts of Sea-Level Rise and Land Management on Critical Coastal Marsh Habitat
Arctic Biogeochemical Response to Permafrost Thaw (ABRUPT)
Understanding Impacts of Sea-Level Rise and Land Management on Critical Coastal Marsh Habitat
Biogeochemistry of the Critical Zone: Origin and Fate of Organic Matter
Plant, soil, and microbial characteristics of marsh collapse in Mississippi River Deltaic wetlands
Phytostabilization in Polymetallic Tailings using Compost and Endophyte Additions
Abiotic sorption of glucose, glutamic acid, hydroxybenzoic acid, and oxalic acid onto amorphous aluminum hydroxide, feldspar, ferrihydrite, and kaolinite
U.S. Geological Survey Soil Sample Archive
Grass Growth in Mining Wastes with Compost and Endophyte Additions
Spatiotemporal dynamics of soil carbon following coastal wetland loss at a Louisiana coastal salt marsh in the Mississippi River Deltaic Plain in 2019
Survey of metals in soils and associated endemic plants across the historic Harshaw Mining District, Southern Arizona
Batch sorption data, respired CO2, extractable DOC, and Raman spectra collected from an incubation with microbial necromass on feldspar or amorphous aluminum hydroxide
USGS scientists measuring infiltration rates, with minidisk infiltrometers, 2 years after the 2020 LNU Lightning Complex Fire. The California chaparral landscape in the foreground was severely burned in the fire.
Two USGS scientists preparing to collect soils and measuring infiltration to quantify microbial, biogeochemical, and hydrological recovery 1 year after the 2021 Dixie Fire. They have been seasonally measuring soil recovery at 11 sites within the footprint of the Dixie Fire.
Two USGS scientists preparing to collect soils and measuring infiltration to quantify microbial, biogeochemical, and hydrological recovery 1 year after the 2021 Dixie Fire. They have been seasonally measuring soil recovery at 11 sites within the footprint of the Dixie Fire.
An established monitoring site to assess soil recovery in a chaparral ecosystem that burned in the 2020 LNU Lightning Complex Fire.
An established monitoring site to assess soil recovery in a chaparral ecosystem that burned in the 2020 LNU Lightning Complex Fire.
Injecting 13C enriched carbon into soil incubations to quantify organo-mineral association of dead microbes with soil minerals.
Injecting 13C enriched carbon into soil incubations to quantify organo-mineral association of dead microbes with soil minerals.
Sampling a marine terrace within the Mattole River soil chronosequence to quantify the impact of simulating soil drying and re-wetting on the release of greenhouse gases.
Sampling a marine terrace within the Mattole River soil chronosequence to quantify the impact of simulating soil drying and re-wetting on the release of greenhouse gases.
Vegetation loss following vertical drowning of Mississippi River deltaic wetlands leads to faster microbial decomposition and decreases in soil carbon
Practical guide to measuring wetland carbon pools and fluxes
Wetlands cover a small portion of the world, but have disproportionate influence on global carbon (C) sequestration, carbon dioxide and methane emissions, and aquatic C fluxes. However, the underlying biogeochemical processes that affect wetland C pools and fluxes are complex and dynamic, making measurements of wetland C challenging. Over decades of research, many observational, experimental, and
A combined compost, dolomite, and endophyte addition is more effective than single amendments for improving phytorestoration of metal contaminated mine tailings
Compost, plants and endophytes versus metal contamination: Choice of a restoration strategy steers the microbiome in polymetallic mine waste
Microbial endophytes and compost improve plant growth in two contrasting types of hard rock mining waste
A model of the spatiotemporal dynamics of soil carbon following coastal wetland loss applied to a Louisiana salt marsh in the Mississippi River Deltaic Plain
Mechanisms for retention of low molecular weight organic carbon varies with soil depth at a coastal prairie ecosystem
Deconstructing the microbial necromass continuum to inform soil carbon sequestration
Response to ‘Stochastic and deterministic interpretation of pool models’
A combined microbial and ecosystem metric of carbon retention efficiency explains land cover-dependent soil microbial biodiversity–ecosystem function relationships
Linking decomposition rates of soil organic amendments to their chemical composition
From pools to flow: The PROMISE framework for new insights on soil carbon cycling in a changing world
Science and Products
Ultramafic lands: Sustainability Challenges and Resource Opportunities
Characterizing high-resolution soil burn severity, erosion risk, and recovery using Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS)
Response of plant, microbial, and soil functions to drought and fire in California
Understanding Impacts of Sea-Level Rise and Land Management on Critical Coastal Marsh Habitat
Arctic Biogeochemical Response to Permafrost Thaw (ABRUPT)
Understanding Impacts of Sea-Level Rise and Land Management on Critical Coastal Marsh Habitat
Biogeochemistry of the Critical Zone: Origin and Fate of Organic Matter
Plant, soil, and microbial characteristics of marsh collapse in Mississippi River Deltaic wetlands
Phytostabilization in Polymetallic Tailings using Compost and Endophyte Additions
Abiotic sorption of glucose, glutamic acid, hydroxybenzoic acid, and oxalic acid onto amorphous aluminum hydroxide, feldspar, ferrihydrite, and kaolinite
U.S. Geological Survey Soil Sample Archive
Grass Growth in Mining Wastes with Compost and Endophyte Additions
Spatiotemporal dynamics of soil carbon following coastal wetland loss at a Louisiana coastal salt marsh in the Mississippi River Deltaic Plain in 2019
Survey of metals in soils and associated endemic plants across the historic Harshaw Mining District, Southern Arizona
Batch sorption data, respired CO2, extractable DOC, and Raman spectra collected from an incubation with microbial necromass on feldspar or amorphous aluminum hydroxide
USGS scientists measuring infiltration rates, with minidisk infiltrometers, 2 years after the 2020 LNU Lightning Complex Fire. The California chaparral landscape in the foreground was severely burned in the fire.
USGS scientists measuring infiltration rates, with minidisk infiltrometers, 2 years after the 2020 LNU Lightning Complex Fire. The California chaparral landscape in the foreground was severely burned in the fire.
Two USGS scientists preparing to collect soils and measuring infiltration to quantify microbial, biogeochemical, and hydrological recovery 1 year after the 2021 Dixie Fire. They have been seasonally measuring soil recovery at 11 sites within the footprint of the Dixie Fire.
Two USGS scientists preparing to collect soils and measuring infiltration to quantify microbial, biogeochemical, and hydrological recovery 1 year after the 2021 Dixie Fire. They have been seasonally measuring soil recovery at 11 sites within the footprint of the Dixie Fire.
An established monitoring site to assess soil recovery in a chaparral ecosystem that burned in the 2020 LNU Lightning Complex Fire.
An established monitoring site to assess soil recovery in a chaparral ecosystem that burned in the 2020 LNU Lightning Complex Fire.
Injecting 13C enriched carbon into soil incubations to quantify organo-mineral association of dead microbes with soil minerals.
Injecting 13C enriched carbon into soil incubations to quantify organo-mineral association of dead microbes with soil minerals.
Sampling a marine terrace within the Mattole River soil chronosequence to quantify the impact of simulating soil drying and re-wetting on the release of greenhouse gases.
Sampling a marine terrace within the Mattole River soil chronosequence to quantify the impact of simulating soil drying and re-wetting on the release of greenhouse gases.
Vegetation loss following vertical drowning of Mississippi River deltaic wetlands leads to faster microbial decomposition and decreases in soil carbon
Practical guide to measuring wetland carbon pools and fluxes
Wetlands cover a small portion of the world, but have disproportionate influence on global carbon (C) sequestration, carbon dioxide and methane emissions, and aquatic C fluxes. However, the underlying biogeochemical processes that affect wetland C pools and fluxes are complex and dynamic, making measurements of wetland C challenging. Over decades of research, many observational, experimental, and