Category: News

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!

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 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!

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 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...

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 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...

Will’s manuscript, based on his thesis work, was accepted last month and has now been published online in Microbial Ecology. It is titled “Microbial Community Functional Potential and Composition Are Shaped by Hydrologic Connectivity in Riverine Floodplain Soils” and can be found at doi.org/10.1007/s00248-016-0883-9. Congrats to Will!

Zac Freedman’s manuscript in PLOS ONE, titled “Microbial Potential for Ecosystem N Loss Is Increased by Experimental N Deposition” was accepted recently. It’s out online at doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0164531. Congrats to Zac!

Congratulations to Elizabeth Entwistle who successfully defended her dissertation, Anthropogenic Nitrogen Deposition and Decomposer Fungi: Altered Composition and Function Fosters Greater Soil Carbon Storage. Also congrats to her committee: Don Zak (chair), Ines Ibáñez, Tim James and Greg Dick. Elizabeth has also accepted and begun work as a post-doc at the University of Alabama at Birmingham under...