Christopher Baker
Biography
My research interests revolve broadly around patterns and drivers of biodiversity. The Baker Lab investigates the microbial ecology of fungal symbioses, including lichens and fungus farming termites.
Area of Expertise
Microbiology; mycology; entomology; ecology; molecular methods; environmental DNA; biodiversity; bioinformatics
Degrees
PhD, Harvard University, 2015 (Organismic and Evolutionary Biology)
BEc (Hons I), Australian National University, 2001
BSc, Australian National University, 2001
Professional Publications & Contributions
Selected publications (see Baker Lab website for additional )
Ji Y*, CCM Baker*, VD Popescu, J Wang, C Wu, Z Wang, Y Li, L Wang, C Hua, Z Yang, C Yang, CCY Xu, A Diana, Q Wen, NE Pierce and DW Yu (2022). Measuring protected-area effectiveness using vertebrate distributions from leech iDNA. Nature Communications 13:1555 doi:10.1038/s41467-022-28778-8 *equal contributions
Baker CCM, AJ Barker, TA Douglas, SJ Doherty and RA Barbato (2023). Seasonal variation in near-surface seasonally thawed active layer and permafrost soil microbial communities. Environmental Research Letters 18:055001
Baker CCM, JA Castillo Vardaro, DF Doak, J Pansu, J Puissant, RM Pringle and CE Tarnita (2020). Spatial patterning of soil microbial communities created by fungus-farming termites. Molecular Ecology 29:4487–4501
Baker CCM, DJ Martins, JN Pelaez, JPJ Billen, A Pringle, ME Frederickson and NE Pierce (2017). Distinctive fungal communities in an obligate African ant plant mutualism. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 284:20162501
Mushegian AA, CN Peterson, CCM Baker and A Pringle (2011). Bacterial diversity across individual lichens. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 77(12):4249–4252