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 was responsible for creating and optimizing our RNA extraction protocols, moving forward several projects by working on the molecular protocols for both functional and ribosomal genes, keeping up our obligations up for our field sites, all while working as an author and co-author on several papers. We all want to thank you for all your hard work and wish you all best with the next steps in your career. We also hope you have fun in Alaska riding grizzlies! ...

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 CO2 enrichment sites and suggested that plant growth depends on the interaction between mycorrhizal fungi and soil nitrogen availability. The comment challenges key analysis choices, including which response metrics they used (biomass) and which data sets were incorporated. There is a response to this comment by Terrer et al also out in Science ...

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 for the paper is here. Congrats Lauren! ...

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: the influence of pH and soil moisture.” A link to the theme issue can be found here: http://www.femsjournals.com/content/thematic-issue-ecology-soil-microorganisms. Congrats to Karl for this awesome achievement and recognition of your work! ...

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 nine at the University of Michigan named this year, and you can read about him the other fellows here. Congratulations to Don for this well deserved honor ...

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! ...