Scott mangan

Assistant Professor

Scott’s lab has been flourishing with students of all ages coming in with an interest in ecology and coming out with a newfound passion. His own experience as a rising scientist informs his approach to mentoring.

“We really try to foster our students’ upbringing as scientists. We always make it a point to make sure that they have an opportunity to ask their own questions and come up with their own research approaches with the ultimate goal of publication or a poster. We don’t just want to show them the techniques, we also want to actually put the foundation under them to become scientists.”

Over the past two decades, Scott has made countless trips to Panama, conducting large-scale experiments on plant-soil interactions. His work here at Tyson involves numerous mesocosms of differing plant species and soil compositions to better understand the primary mechanisms driving biodiversity. The work has implications for agriculture, climate change, and the fundamental mechanisms driving native ecosystems.

“When I want to convey the importance of my research to the general public, I tell a story. My work is on how soil pathogens shape plant diversity in native or natural systems. But most people wouldn’t care about that at first, right? What they really care about is having a plentiful supply of food. When you grow the same crop in a field for too many years, the amount of food that the field produces declines. Most people assume that is because nutrients are used up, but that might not be the only reason. Just like native plant species, a crop species accumulates its own pathogens, it’s just like a human getting sick. When a farm field accumulates a lot of pathogens year after year then that crop species can’t obtain the same yield. This is a great example of an ecological pattern where the underlying causes can only be understood through experiments.”

Scott leads the Natural Enemies team. Learn more about their plant-microbial communities research here.