Steve Kutos

Assistant Professor

Office

Dorothy Day 051
Department of Biology
Loyola University Maryland
4501 North Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21210-2699

Biography

As an ecologist and microbiologist, I am interested in where plant-associated microbes are across landscapes, what they are doing, and how we can use them to conserve ecosystem health. Recently, we have expanded our knowledge of plant microbiomes and their functions which are vital for soil health, carbon sequestration, and plant productivity. However, there are many open questions on these complex communities.

For my research, I link environmental microbiology, genomics, bioinformatics, and ecological theory to investigate the factors that influence plant-associated microbiomes and their functions across landscapes through space and time. I have explored these themes in urban landscapes in New York City, dry rangeland landscapes throughout New Mexico, coffee agricultural landscapes in Central and Latin America, and most recently farming landscapes in the Northern Virginia area.

Overall, my research goal is to promote long-term conservation of working landscapes and ensure the livelihoods of the farmers and land stewards. My goal is also to have an inclusive lab that accomplishes cross-disciplinary research focused on terrestrial ecosystem conservation by uncovering the link between soil health, microbiomes, and agroecological landscape productivity.

Publications

Muletz-Wolz C, Kutos S, Jiménez R, Osborne O, Ellison A, Cleland T, Gratwicke B. Novel antimicrobial peptides and peptide-microbiome crosstalk in Appalachian salamander skin (In Review)
Kutos S, Bennett RE, Santos D, Botero-Delgadillo E, Muletz-Wolz CR. 2025. Soil and cherry bacterial communities predict flavor on coffee farms. Scientific Reports, 15(1), p.19387.
Naghshineh N, Barnes EM, Kutos S, Lewis JD. Reorganization of bacterial community network structure in the eastern redback salamander (Plethodon cinereus) and its soil reservoir across a gradient of land use. FEMS Microbiology Ecology-24-11-0266.R1
Kutos S, Bennett R, Rao M, Fleischer R, Rice R, Muletz Wolz C. 2024. Farm management and shade tree species influence coffee soil microbiomes in Central and South America. Applied Soil Ecology, 202, 105571. org/10.1016/j.apsoil.2024.105571.
Bethany J, Kutos S, Oliver K, Stricker E. 2024. Spring manure- and biosolid compost additions affect soil, vegetation, and microbial characteristic in dry rangelands. Rangeland Ecology and Management, 94:78-82. org/10.1016/j.rama.2024.01.011
Kutos S, Stricker E, Cooper A, Ryals R, Creque J, Machmuller M, Kroegar M, Silver WL. 2023. Compost amendment to enhance carbon sequestration in rangelands. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, 78(2):163-77. doi.org/10.2489/jswc.2023.00072.
Kutos S, Barnes EM, Lewis JD. 2022. Soil fungal communities vary more with soil characteristics than tree diversity at a local scale. Canadian Journal of Forest Research, cjfr-2021-0360. org/10.1139/cjfr-2021-0360.
Kutos S, Barnes EM, Bhutada A, Lewis JD. 2022. Preferential associations of soil fungal taxa under mixed compositions of eastern American tree species. FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 98(6)fiac056. doi.org/10.1093/femsec/fiac056.
Kutos S*, Barnes EM*, Naghshineh N, Mesko M, You Q, Lewis JD. 2021. Assembly of the amphibian microbiome is influenced by the effects of land‐use change on environmental reservoirs. Environmental Microbiology, 23(8) 4595-4611. org/10.1111/1462-2920.15653. *Co-first

Area of Specialization

Community and Microbial Ecology