Zak lab awarded NSF Ecosystems Grant!
The Zak lab has recently been awarded an NSF DEB grant! The grant, titled “Ectomycorrhizal Fungi and the Enzymatic Liberation of Nitrogen from Soil Organic Matter: Ecosystem Processes and Underlying Molecular Mechanisms” (link here), will be studying the ECM and C-cycling on multiple fronts. Our goal is to understand more about the interaction of ECM lineage, nutrient cycling and decomposition. Go Zak lab!! ...
Peter awarded two fellowships!
Peter Pellitier has been awarded two student fellowships due to his outstanding work as a graduate student. The Mycological Society of America awards only two Graduate Fellowships each year to promising students of mycology and are evaluated based on their classwork, research and promise as a future mycologist. The Integrated Training in Microbial Systems (ITiMS) program also recently awarded Peter with a 2-year graduate fellowship in acknowledgement of his studies in microbiome work and to encourage research in understanding relationship between structure and functions of microbial communities. Congrats to Peter for these well deserved honors ...
Elizabeth with another paper out
Elizabeth Entwistle’s paper on how N-deposition alters expressed peroxidases, an enzyme critical to the lignin-degrading step during decomposition, is now online. The title is “Anthropogenic N Deposition Alters the Composition of Expressed Class II Fungal Peroxidases” and can be found at doi.org/10.1128/AEM.02816-17 ...
Don’s paper is out!
Yay to Ines and Don! Their paper, “Anthropogenic nitrogen deposition ameliorates the decline in tree growth caused by a drier climate”, in Ecology is now online. It is aboutthe effects of N-dep on tree growth in drier conditions and can be found at doi 10.1002/ecy.2095. Congrats! ...
Mini-grant for bark microbiome research
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 better understand the role that bark endophyte communities play for tree and forest health. Congrats to Peter, Don and Tim! ...
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 was the picogreen master! We thank you for all your hard work and will miss you terribly. Best wishes for moving forward in academia. Enjoy some time in the Cali sun! ...
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! ...
