Hinsby Cadillo-Quiroz, microbiologist and associate professor with Arizona State University’s School of Life Sciences and the Biodesign Swette Center for Environmental Biotechnology, has been awarded a prestigious 5-year, $650,000+ National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award for his work exploring connections between microbes and components within Peruvian Amazonian peatland ecosystems that affect the consumption and production of methane gas. Cadillo-Quiroz and his international team that includes researchers from Arizona State University, the Universidad de la Amazonia Peruan, and Centro de Investigaciones de Recursos Naturales de la Amazonia Peruana (CIRNA, UNAP) are using a portable gas analyzer that can detect nearly 200 different gases emitted from the peatlands. They are also characterizing microbes that live both inside and outside of the ecosystems, to determine what roles microbes play in the absorption or release of greenhouse gases.