Our Lab

The main focus of the research of the Soils lab is the interplay between soil microbial communities and nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. We hope to better understand the link between microbial, both fungal and bacterial, community composition and ecosystem functions, with an interest in how human activities (climate change, nitrogen deposition, etc.) affect this linkage. We combine data and information from microbial ecology, soil science and soil chemistry using methods from all these approaches to examine below-ground dynamics, and in particular as it relates to nutrient cycling.

Donald R. Zak

Alexander H. Smith Distinguished University Professor of Ecology,

Arthur F. Thurnau Professor,


Burton V. Barnes Collegiate Professor of Ecology

University of Michigan
School for Environment and Sustainability

News

Morgan’s paper is out!

Morgan McPherson, a joint post-doctoral scholar in the Zak and Ibáñez lab at SEAS, has a new paper out titled "Arbuscular mycorrhizal diversity increases across a plant productivity gradient driven by soil nitrogen availability". This study characterized the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in soils across a plant productivity gradient, coinciding with a nitrogen mineralization gradient.  The soils were associated with Red and Sugar Maple trees in Manistee National Forest, which are known AMF host species.  AMF-specific 18S rDNA targeted-gene libraries were constructed using in-lab designed primers to examine the communities and diversity of AMF.  Their diversity significantly increased along the...
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