Reid is interested in the use of engineered and managed ecosystems as sustainable tools for water quality protection. His research is focused on the coupled biological, chemical, and physical processes that govern contaminant fate in soils, and on how these natural processes can be harnessed to preserve water quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from nutrient cycling. He addresses these problems primarily through well-controlled experiments in model systems and a combination of analytical approaches from environmental chemistry, microbiology, and modeling. Current projects include: 1) Microbial cycling of arsenic in rice paddy soils and implications for arsenic uptake into rice plants, 2) Nutrient dynamics and greenhouse gas emissions in on-site, soil-based wastewater treatment systems, and 3) Characterizing coupled biological and physical-chemical controls on nitrous oxide emissions from engineered wetland soils.
