Dr. Lur Epelde is a researcher at the Department of Conservation of Natural Resources in NEIKER and at the moment she is the coordinator of its Soil Microbial Ecology Group…
During her PhD (University of the Basque Country, 2009), she worked on metal phytoextraction using hyperaccumulating plants and high biomass crop plants, as well as on metal phytostabilization using tolerant plants. She acquired ample experience on the utilization of microbial indicators of soil health and quality to assess the efficiency of phytoremediation processes.
Nowadays, she continues using soil microbial properties, including high throughput sequencing technologies, for monitoring studies of different sources of environmental stress (e.g., contamination, agricultural practices, climate change). She is also interested on the spread of antibiotic resistance in agricultural fields fertilized with organic amendments of animal or human origin.
Finally, she takes part in the dissemination of the importance of soil health using Health Cards as a tool.
Throughout her career she has carried out research stays at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology, the Institute of Environmental Genomics at the University of Oklahoma, the Department of Genetics in Ecology at the University of Vienna and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
