Peter Pellitier, Don Zak and Tim James has received a mini-grant, titled “Expanding the Plant Microbiome: Inner Bark Endophytes and Plant Resistance to Emerald Ash Boring Beetles”, from the Integrated Training in Microbial Systems (ITiMS). This mini-grant for $10,000 will go towards research for sampling and studying the bark microbiome in forests in order to...
Category: News
Elizabeth’s paper is out
Elizabeth Entwistle’s paper in Ecological Monographs is now online. It is titled “Anthropogenic N deposition increases soil C storage by reducing the relative abundance of lignolytic fungi” and can be found at doi.org/10.1002/ecm.1288 Congrats!
Goodbye Sydney
Sydney Salley, our ever valiant and constant source of bright cheerfulness, will be leaving the Soils lab in order to pursue her PhD UC Davis (Geology) in Dawn Sumner’s lab. During her time in the lab, Sydney was the master of optimizing new-to-us DNA extraction protocols, including for both root and bark samples. She also...
Karl’s paper out
Karl’s paper on the role of increased nitrogen deposition on earthworm activity in Applied Soil Ecology. It is titled “Activity of an introduced earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris) increases under future rates of atmospheric nitrogen deposition in northern temperate forests” and can be found at doi.org/10.1016/j.apsoil.2017.08.007. Congrats to Karl!
Goodbye to Karl
It’s the last day working in the Zak lab for Karl Romanowicz. Karl, our trusty research tech and in-house Yupper, was accepted into Michigan’s EEB PhD program earlier this year. He will be joining George Kling’s lab this fall and is doing research in Alaska this summer. During his time in the Zak lab Karl...
Peter’s Paper is Out
Peter’s paper on the role of ECM in SOM and N-cycling is out in New Phytologist. It is titled “Ectomycorrhizal fungi and the enzymatic liberation of nitrogen from soil organic matter: why evolutionary history matters” and can be found at doi.org/10.1111/nph.14598. Congrats to Peter!
Commentary for Science
Don is a co-author on a recently published technical comment (Norby et al, Technical comment, January 2017) in Science titled Comment on “Mycorrhizal association as a primary control of the CO2 fertilization effect.” The comment is in response to the publication by Terrer et al. (Reports, 1 July 2016, p. 72) which used meta-analysis of...
Lauren’s Paper is Out
Lauren Cline, a former graduate student in the lab now post-doc at Minnesota, has a publication with our lab that is now published. The manuscript, titled “Soil microbial communities and elk foraging intensity: implications for soil biogeochemical cycling in the sagebrush steppe”, was accepted last year and is now online in Ecology Letters. The link...
Karl’s article in special issue of FEMS
A joint thematic issue of FEMS Microbiology Ecology, FEMS Microbiology Letters and FEMS Microbiology Reviews on Ecology of Soil Microorganisms, edited by Petr Baldrian, Wietse de Boer, Kornelia Smalla and Angela Sessitsch, was published online in December. It included Karl’s article “Active microorganisms in forest soils differ from the total community yet are shaped by the same environmental factors:...
Don Zak Named AAAS Fellow
Don Zak was recently elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in the Biological Sciences section. AAAS fellows are acknowledged for their “efforts toward advancing science applications that are deemed scientifically or socially distinguished” [AAAS statement] and will be honored at the meeting in February. Don is one of...