Morgan McPherson is jointly joining the Zak lab and Ibanez lab (SEAS) for an NSF-funded post-doc to study arbuscular mycorrhizae in our sites in the Manistee National Forest. She comes to us from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she studied AMF in agroecosystems. Welcome Morgan!!
Category: News
Congrats Will!
Congratulations to Will Argiroff for completing his dissertation in SEAS! Will has been in and around the lab for many years, starting as an undergrad working with one of our postdocs (Zac Freedman), then as research technician doing crazy amounts of qPCR and finally as a PhD student. Will’s work for his PhD research broadly...
Yay Jennifer!
Congratulations to Jennifer Wen for successfully completing her thesis to earn her MS from SEAS! Jennifer started in the lab fall 2020 and managed to complete her thesis despite all the hurdles from pandemic restrictions and supply issues alongside all the usual unexpected issues for environmental research. I feel like there should be a special...
Wes Bickford’s paper is out!
A former member of the Zak lab has recently published a paper, titled “Plant effects on and response to soil microbes in native and non-native Phragmites australis” in Ecology. The aim of the study was to examine if Plant–soil feedbacks (PSFs) mediate plant community dynamics with specific focus on if this could contribute to plant...
Postdoc Position Available
The Soils Lab is looking to hire a new postdoc to work on an upcoming NSF-funded research project. Please read the following announcement below for requirements and inquiries. Postdoctoral Research Associate Microbial Ecology and Plant Physiology A postdoctoral research position is available immediately to study the contribution of organic N via mycorrhizal fungi on plant...
Distinguished University Professor Lecture
Don was named as a Distinguished University Professor back in July of 2020, which is a top honor at U of M to recognize faculty that have significant achievements and excellence their their chosen fields. Recently, the University held an event for some of the Distinguished University Professorship honorees to give a lecture on their...
Congrats to Jennifer!
Great news for Jennifer Wen, SEAS MS in the Zak lab. She was recently awarded the Peter and Carolyn Mertz Fellowship for her Master’s work. This only highlights what we all know – she’s pretty exceptional. Congrats to Jen!!
Will’s paper is out!
Will Argrioff, a PhD in SEAs in the Zak lab, has recently published a paper, titled “Decay by ectomycorrhizal fungi couples soil organic matter to nitrogen availability” in Ecology Letters. In this study, interactions between soil nitrogen, fungal community composition and soil organic matter were examined to determine correlations for fungal communities with changes in...
Paper out in Nature Communications
A new paper from the Zak lab. Peter Pellitier, former PhD from SEAs, has recently published a paper, titled “Ectomycorrhizal access to organic nitrogen mediates CO2 fertilization response in a dominant temperate tree”, in Nature Communications. This work focused on the linking metagenomic data for ECM fungi and modeling data for N-foraging traits for inorganic...
New paper from the Zak lab
Peter Pelliter, recent PhD from SEAs, has recently published a paper, titled “Coupled shifts in ectomycorrhizal communities and plant uptake of organic nitrogen along a soil gradient: An isotopic perspective”, which is out online on Ecosystems. The study characterized the ECM communities and various N pools (d15N) in an inorganic N gradient in soil to...