Justin Meschter

Justin Meschter is a master’s student at the University of Maryland, College Park, in the Marine Estuarine Environmental Science Graduate Program, with a specialization in environmental science. He conducts research at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center as part of the Biogeochemistry Laboratory and field work at the Smithsonian Global Change Research Wetland. Justin is studying the effects of the invasive plant Phramities australis on below-ground microbial communities. He is also interested in the interactive effects between the invasive Phragmities austalis and projected climate change scenarios such as increased nitrogen pollution and elevated atmospheric CO₂. The understanding of the interaction between below-ground and above-ground ecosystems can play an important role in determining future environmental conditions related to climate change.   

“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” - John Muir.