Phone: (352) 374-5930

1600-1700 SW 23rd Drive
Gainesville, FL 32608

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Ph.D. Biological Oceanography, Massachusetts Institute of Technology/ Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2009

B.A. Biology/Chemistry, New College of Florida, 2001

My research focuses on developing new software and computational methods to advance agriculture by understanding and controlling microbial communities and applying artificial intelligence and machine learning to agricultural data.

Research areas

• Applying machine learning to agricultural data (sequence, image, and chemometric data)
• Engineering and optimizing microbial consortia
• Developing software (e.g. Itsxpress, Guidemaker) for bioinformatics
• Applying volatiles mass spectrometry and machine learning to agricultural challenges
• Viral metagenomics

Service areas

• Design and sequencing of amplicon, metagenome, and metatranscriptome experiments
• The development of training courses for ARS, like our 2019 UF/ARS Machine learning Workshop
• Guiding SCINet ARS’s scientific computing initiative as Chair of the SCINet Advisory Committee
• Establishing the ARS AI Center of Excellence in collaboration with our Associate Administrator and Chief Scientific information officer
• Editorial board for the journal ACS Agriculture Science and Technology

• Projects

  Applied Agricultural Genomics and Bioinformatics Research In-House Appropriated (D)   Accession Number:434717

  Developing a Cyberinformatic Platform for the Rapid Identification of Salmonella Outbreak Strains Using Population Metagenomics and Machine Learning Interagency Reimbursable Agreement (I)   Accession Number:436487

  Bioinformatics and Application Development Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement (S)   Accession Number:438896

  Development of Tn-Seq Methods for the Functional Characterization of Bacteria Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement (S)   Accession Number:433541

  The Real-time Pen-side Detection of Bovine Respiratory Disease by Chemical Analysis Trust Fund Cooperative Agreement (T)   Accession Number:440147

  Sex Determination of Eggs by High-speed Volatile Compound Mass Spectrometry and Machine Learning Trust Fund Cooperative Agreement (T)   Accession Number:436241

• Publications

  • (Clicking on the reprint icon will take you to the publication reprint.)
  • Changes in rhizosphere soil microbial communities across plant developmental stages of high and low methane emitting rice genotypes -(Peer Reviewed Journal)
    Fernandez-Baca, C.P., Rivers, A.R., Kim, W., McClung, A.M., Roberts, D.P., Reddy, V., Barnaby, J.Y. 2021. Changes in rhizosphere soil microbial communities across plant developmental stages of high and low methane emitting rice genotypes. Soil Biology and Biochemistry. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2021.108233.
    
  • Rice plant-soil microbiome interactions driven by root and shoot biomass -(Peer Reviewed Journal)
    Fernandez-Baca, C.P., Rivers, A.R., Maul, J.E., Kim, W., McClung, A.M., Roberts, D.P., Reddy, V., Barnaby, J.Y. 2021. Rice plant-soil microbiome interactions driven by root and shoot biomass. Diversity. https://doi.org/10.3390/d13030125.
    
  • Harnessing AI to transform agriculture and inform agricultural research -(Peer Reviewed Journal)
    Peters, D.C., Rivers, A.R., Hatfield, J.L., Lemay, D.G., Liu, S.Y., Basso, B. 2020. Harnessing AI to transform agriculture and inform agricultural research. IEEE IT Professional. 22(3):16-21. https://doi.org/10.1109/MITP.2020.2986124.
    
  • Under-the-radar dengue virus infections in natural populations of aedes aegypti mosquitoes -(Peer Reviewed Journal)
    Boyles, S., Mavian, C., Finol, E., Ukhanova, M., Stephenson, C., Hamerlinck, G., Kang, S., Baumgartner, C., Geesey, M., Rivers, A.R. 2020. Under-the-radar dengue virus infections in natural populations of aedes aegypti mosquitoes. mSphere. 5(2):e00316-20. https://doi.org/10.1128/mSphere.00316-20.
    
  • AI down on the farm -(Peer Reviewed Journal)
    Sudduth, K.A., Woodward Greene, M.J., Penning, B., Locke, M.A., Rivers, A.R., Veum, K.S. 2020. AI down on the farm. IEEE IT Professional. 22(3):22-26. https://doi.org/10.1109/MITP.2020.2986104.
    
  • Rice plant biomass traits influencing rhizosphere soil microbial community composition-(Proceedings)
    Fernandez-Baca, C., Rivers, A.R., Maul, J.E., Kim, W., McClung, A.M., Roberts, D.P., Barnaby, J.Y. 2020. Rice plant biomass traits influencing rhizosphere soil microbial community composition. Proceedings of Rice Technical Working Group Meeting, February 24-27, 2020, Orange Beach, Alabama. p 65. Electronic Publication.
    
  • Genomic signatures for sedimentary microbial utilization of phytoplankton detritus in a fast-flowing estuary-(Peer Reviewed Journal)
    Smith, M.W., Herfort, L., Rivers, A.R., Tringe, S.G., Simon, H.M. 2019. Genomic signatures for sedimentary microbial utilization of phytoplankton detritus in a fast-flowing estuary. Frontiers in Microbiology. Volume 10, Article 2475. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2019.02475.
    
  • QIIME 2: Reproducible, interactive, scalable, and extensible microbiome data science -(Peer Reviewed Journal)
    Bolyen, E., Rideout, J., Dillon, M., Bokulich, N., Abnet, C., Al-Ghalith, G., Alexander, H., Alm, E., Arumugam, M., Asnicar, F., Rivers, A.R. 2019. QIIME 2: Reproducible, interactive, scalable, and extensible microbiome data science. Nature Biotechnology. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-019-0209-9.
    
  • Rice soil microbiome interactions with plant growth characteristics and methane emissions-(Abstract Only)
    Fernandez-Baca, C.P., Rivers, A.R., Maul, J.E., Kim, W., Yarwood, S.A., Roberts, D.P., McClung, A.M., Barnaby, J.Y. 2019. Rice soil microbiome interactions with plant growth characteristics and methane emissions. American Society for Microbiology.
    
  • Nine new RNA viruses associated with the fire ant Solenopsis invicta from its native range -(Peer Reviewed Journal)
    Valles, S.M., Rivers, A.R. 2019. Nine new RNA viruses associated with the fire ant Solenopsis invicta from its native range. Virus Genes. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11262-019-01652-4.
    
  • ITSxpress: software to rapidly trim internally transcribed spacer sequences with quality scores for marker gene analysis -(Peer Reviewed Journal)
    Rivers, A.R., Weber, K.C., Gardner, T.G., Liu, S., Armstrong, S. 2018. ITSxpress: software to rapidly trim internally transcribed spacer sequences with quality scores for marker gene analysis. F1000Research. 7:1418. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.15704.1.
    
  • A metagenomics study of the corn kernel and silk microbiome following infection with aflatoxigenic and non-aflatoxigenic Aspergillus flavus strains-(Abstract Only)
    
    
  • Profiles of rhizosphere soil microbial composition affecting methane emissions-(Abstract Only)
    Barnaby, J.Y., Kim, W., Rivers, A.R., McClung, A.M., Maul, J.E. 2018. Profiles of rhizosphere soil microbial composition affecting methane emissions. 5th International Rice Conference Abstract. Available: http://ricecongress2018.irri.org/sites/default/files/Profiles%20of%20Rhizosphere%20soil%20microbial%20composition%20affecting%20methane%20emmissions.pdf.
    
  • Understanding the physiological and molecular mechanisms of rice-microbial interactions that produce methane-(Abstract Only)
    Woojae, K., Liem, B., Chun, J., McClung, A.M., Adviento-Borbe, A.A., Rivers, A.R., Pinson, S.R., Maul, J.E., Reddy, V., Barnaby, J.Y. 2018. Understanding the physiological and molecular mechanisms of rice-microbial interactions that produce methane. 29th Annual Beltsville Poster Day Book, pg 33.
    
  • Minimum information about a single amplified genome (MISAG) and a metagenome-assembled genome (MIMAG) of bacteria and archaea -(Peer Reviewed Journal)
    Bowers, R.M., Kyrpides, N.C., Stepanauskas, R., Harmon-Smith, M., Schulz, F., Doud, D., Reddy, T.K., Jarett, J., Rivers, A.R., Eloe-Fadrosh, E.A., Tringe, S.G., Ivanova, N., Copeland, A., Clum, A., Becraft, E.D., Malmstrom, R.R., Birren, B., Schriml, L., Podar, M., Bork, P., Weinstock, G.W., Banfield, .F., Garrity, G.M., Hugenholtz, P., Parks, D.H., Tyson, G.W., Rinke, C., Dodsworth, J.A., Yooseph, S., Sutton, G., Yilmaz, P., Glöckner, F.O., Meyer, F., Gilbert, J.A., Nelson, W.C., Hallam, S.J., Jungbluth, S.P., Ettema, T.J., Tighe, S., Konstantinidis, K.T., Liu, W., Baker, B.J., Rattei, T., Eisen, J.A., Hedlund, B., Mcmahon, K.D., Fierer, N., Knight, R., Finn, R., Karsch-Mizrachi, I., Eren, A.M., Woyke, T. 2017. Minimum information about a single amplified genome (MISAG) and a metagenome-assembled genome (MIMAG) of bacteria and archaea. Nature Biotechnology. 35, 725–731. doi:10.1038/nbt.3893.
    
  • Patterns and drivers of fungal community depth stratification in Sphagnum peat -(Peer Reviewed Journal)
    Lamit, L.J., Romanowicz, K.J., Potvin, L.R., Rivers, A.R., Singh, K., Lennon, J.T., Tringe, S., Kane, E.S., Lilleskov, E.A. 2017. Patterns and drivers of fungal community depth stratification in Sphagnum peat. FEMS Microbiology Ecology. https://doi: 10.1093/femsec/fix082.
    

• ARS News Articles

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