Alexandra Ponette-González, associate professor in the Department of Geography and the Environment, was recently selected to serve on the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, the nation's top advisory committee informing air quality standards. Ponette-González's research explores the impact of global environmental change on nutrient and pollutant emissions and deposition to ecosystems. Her ongoing research has shown that oak trees can capture significant quantities of airborne soot, a major climate forcing agent and air pollutant. In June, she co-authored a paper in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment on the diverse community of tiny organisms and non-living materials in precipitation that could potentially play big roles in ecosystems.