Dr. Damien Finn

Curriculum Vitae

• 2023 – present: Research Scientist, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Institute for Geoecology
• 2020 – 2023: Post-doctoral Researcher, Johann Heinrich von Thünen Institut, Institute for Biodiversity
• 2016 – 2019: Post-doctoral Researcher, Arizona State University, School of Life Sciences
• 2014 – 2016: Post-doctoral Researcher, University of Queensland, School of Agriculture and Food Sciences

Scientific Education

• 2009 – 2014: University of Queensland, School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, Doctorate of Philosophy (Agricultural Microbial Ecology)
• 2008: University of Queensland, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences (Honours Class I)
• 2005 – 2007: University of Queensland, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences (Bachelor of Science, Microbiology) 

Fellowships, Awards, Honours

• 2023 – present: Handling Editor, Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS) Microbiology Ecology journal
• 2022 – present: Subject Editor, Microbial Ecology, Soil Biology and Biochemistry journal
• 2019 – present: Topic Editor, Terrestrial Microbiology, Frontiers in Microbiology journal
• 2021: FEMS Microbiology Ecology journal award ‘Best Research Paper of 2021’
• 2019: Research and Training fellowship, FEMS
• 2017: Endeavour Research fellowship, Commonwealth of Australia
• 2013: Australian Society for Microbiology Beckton Dickinson Award

2023

• Krüger N, Finn DR, Don A (2023) Soil depth gradients of organic carbon-13 – a review on drivers and processes. Plant and Soil, doi: 10.1007/s11104-023-06328-5
• Finn DR, Rohe L, Krause S, Guliyev A, Loewen A, Tebbe CC (2023) Methanogenesis in biogas reactors under inhibitory ammonia concentration requires community-wide tolerance. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, doi: 10.1007/s00253-023-12752-5
• Finn DR, Schroeder J, Samad MS, Poeplau C, Tebbe CC (2023) Importance of sample pre-treatments for the DNA-based characterization of microbiomes in cropland and forest soils. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 184, 109077
• Zhang Y, Bhattacharryya R, Finn DR, Birt HWG, Dennis PG, Dalal RC, Jones AR, Meyer G, Dayananda B, Wang P, Menzies NW, Kopittke PM (2023) Soil carbon, nitrogen, and biotic properties after long-term no-till and nitrogen fertilization in a subtropical Vertisol. Soil and Tillage Research, 227, 105614
• Pavia MJ, Finn DR, Macedo-Tafur F, Tello-Espinoza R, Penaccio C, Bouskill N, Cadillo-Quiroz H (2022) Genes and genome-resolved metagenomics reveal the microbial functional make up of Amazon peatlands under geochemical gradients. Environmental Microbiology, 25(11), 2388-2403

2022

• Finn DR, App M, Hertzog L, Tebbe CC (2022) Reconciling concepts of black queen and tragedy of the commons in simulated bulk soil and rhizosphere prokaryote communities. Frontiers in Microbiology, 13, 969784
• Reynolds MC, Finn DR, Sarno AF, Allen R, Deathrage JD, Krajmalnik-Brown R, Cadillo-Quiroz H (2022) Delineating the drivers and functionality of methanogenic niches within an arid landfill. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 88(9), e02438-21
• Finn DR, Samad MS, Tebbe CC (2022) One-step PCR amplicon sequencing libraries perform better than two-step when assessing soil microbial biodiversity and community profiles. FEMS Microbiology Letters, 369(1), fnac079
• Glaser DM, Hartnett HE, Finn DR, Perez-Montaño S, Cadillo-Quiroz H, Desch S (2022) Water vapor adsorption provides daily, sustainable water to soils of the hyperarid Atacama Desert. Astrobiology, 22(10), 1222-1238

2021

• Finn DR, Maldonado J, de Martini F, Yu J, Penton CR, Fontenele RS, Schmidlin K, Kraberger S, Varsani A, Gile GH, Barker B, Kollath DR, Muenich RL, Herckes P, Fraser M, Garcia-Pichel F (2021) Agricultural practices drive biological loads, seasonal patterns and potential pathogens in the aerobiome of a mixed-land-use dryland. Science of the Total Environment, 798, 149239
• Finn DR, Lee S, Lanzen A, Bertrand M, Nicol GW, Hazard C (2021) Cropping systems impact changes in soil fungal, but not prokaryote, alpha-diversity and community composition stability over a growing season in a long-term field trial. FEMS Microbiology Ecology 97(10), fiab136
• Zhang Y, Finn DR, Bhattacharyya R, Dennis PG, Doolette AL, Smernik RJ, Dalal RC, Meyer G, Lombi E, Klysubun W, Jones AR, Wang P, Menzies NW, Kopittke PM (2021) Long-term changes in land use influence phosphorus concentrations, speciation, and cycling within subtropical soils. Geoderma, 393, 115010
• Buessecker S, Zamora Z, Sarno AF, Finn DR, Hoyt AM, van Haren J, Urquiza Muñoz JD, Cadillo-Quiroz H (2021) Microbial communities and interactions of nitrogen oxides with methanogenesis in diverse peatlands of the Amazon basin. Frontiers in Microbiology, 12, 659079
• Finn DR, Gergk-Pinto B, Hazard C, Nicol GW, Tebbe CC, Vogel TM (2021) Functional trait releationships demonstrate life strategies in terrestrial prokaryotes. FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 97(5), fiab068  

2020

• Finn DR, Yu J, Ilhan ZE, Fernandes VMC, Penton CR, Krajmalnik-Brown R, Garcia-Pichel F, Vogel TM (2020) MicroNiche: an R package for assessing microbial niche breadth and overlap from amplicon sequencing data. FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 96(8), fiaa131
• Finn DR, Ziv-El M, van Haren J, Gyoon Park J, del Aguila-Pasquel J, Urquiza-Muñoz J, Cadillo-Quiroz H (2020) Methanogens and methanotrophs show nutrient-dependent community assemblage patterns across tropical peatlands of the Pastaza-Marañon Basin, Peruvian Amazonia. Frontiers in Microbiology, 11, 746
• Finn DR, Yu J, Penton CR (2020) Soil quality shapes the composition of microbial community stress response and core cell metabolism functional genes. Applied Soil Ecology, 148, 103483

2019

• Reeves SH, Somasundaram J, Wang WJ, Heenan MA, Finn DR, Dalal RC (2019) Effect of soil aggregate size and long-term contrasting tillage, stubble and nitrogen management regimes on CO2 fluxes from a Vertisol. Geoderma, 337, 1086-1096

2018

• Finn DR, Catton K, Heenan M, Kopittke PM, Ouwerkerk D, Klieve AV, Dalal RC (2018) Differential gene expression in the model Actinomycete Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) supports nitrogen mining dependent on the plant carbon to nitrogen ratio. Agriculture, 8(12), 192
• Kopittke PM, Hernandez-Soriano MC, Dalal RC, Finn DR, Menzies NW, Hoeschen C, Mueller CW (2018) Nitrogen-rich microbial products provide new organo-mineral associations for the stabilization of soil organic matter. Global Change Biology, 24(4), 1762-1770

2017

• Finn DR, Kopittke PM, Dennis PG, Dalal RC (2017) Microbial energy and matter transformations in agricultural soils. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 111, 176-192.
• Kopittke PM, Dalal RC, Finn DR, Menzies NW (2017) Global changes in soil stocks of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulphur as influenced by long-term agricultural production. Global Change Biology, 23(6), 2509-2519

2016

• Finn DR, Oudyn F, Catton K, Dalal RC (2016) Design and validation of an assay for isotope ratio mass spectrometry analysis of biologically relevant dissolved and heat-extracted organic carbon with neutral potassium phosphate buffer. Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis, 47(17), 2017-2025
• Finn DR, Page K, Catton K, Kienzle M, Robertson F, Armstrong R, Dalal RC (2016) Ecological stoichiometry controls the transformation and retention of plant-derived organic matter to humus in response to nitrogen fertilisation. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 99, 117-127

2015

• Finn DR, Page K, Catton K, Strounina E, Kienzle M, Robertson F, Armstrong R, Dalal RC (2015) Effect of added nitrogen on plant litter decomposition depends on initial soil carbon and nitrogen stoichiometry. Soil Biology and Biochemstry, 91, 160-168

2014

• Finn DR, Dalal RC, Klieve A (2014) Methane in Australian agriculture: current emissions, sources and sinks, and potential mitigation strategies. Crop and Pasture Science, 66(1), 1-22

Current Project

• “Prokaryote growth factor cross-feeding as a driver of soil biodiversity and ecosystem processes” (DE: “Prokaryoten-Wachstumsfaktoren als Triebkraft für Biodiversität im Boden und für Ökosystemprozesse“), Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Project Number: 522758166