We study terrestrial ecosystems to better understand how soil microorganisms regulate global biogeochemistry and predict responses to environmental changes. We are a group of microbial ecologists, ecosystem ecologists, biogeochemists, and modellers, who have a shared vision, and under the umbrella of "Microbial Biogeochemistry in Lund", combine empirical and modelling approaches to accomplish this.

Our research focuses on the study of soil carbon and nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems around the globe; from arctic tundra to tropical rainforests and semiarid grasslands. We are specifically interested in aspects influencing the spatial and temporal variability in microbial community function and structure, and their responses to stress, with special emphasis on environmental factors such as soil moisture, temperature, limiting nutrients, salinity and pH, and anthropogenic factors such as tillage, fertilization and metal contamination. We study the microbial control and environmental dependence of ecosystem functions using field and laboratory experiments, and then incorporate validated ecological insights into models operating at different scales.

Principal investigators

• Albert Brangarí – Researcher
  Research interests: microbial responses to environment stress / climate / land use, carbon cycling, mechanistic modelling
• Lettice Hicks – Assistant professor
  Research interests: soil carbon and nutrient cycling, microbial resource use, global change ecology
• Johannes Rousk – Professor
  Research interests: environmental determinants of microbial growth, microbial regulation of soil biogeochemistry, ecosystem functions from microbial trait distributions, climate change

Postdocs

• Carlos Arellano
  Research interests: interactions between soil structure and soil microbiota, and effects on the biogeochemical cycles
• Carla Cruz-Paredes
  Research interests: climate change, microbial ecology, ecotoxicology
• Adrian Gustafson
  Research interests: role of terrestrial ecosystems in a changing Arctic, vegetation and climate modelling
• Guoxiang Niu
  Research interests: SOM dynamics under global change, C partitioning
• Vanesa Santás Miguel
  Research interests: antibiotics, heavy metals, microbial communities
• Lin Yu
  Research interests: dynamic ecosystem modelling, biogeochemical cycling
• Tao Zhang
  Research interests: permafrost warming, GHG, crop rotation

PhD students

• Dániel Tájmel
  PhD project: Microbial temperature dependencies in soil and feedbacks to climate change
• Agnieszka Rzepczynska
  PhD project: Microbial regulation of C:N:P cycling in terrestrial ecosystems
• Sara Winterfeldt
  PhD project: Microbial resistance and resilience to drought
• Mingyue Yuan
  PhD project: Resource limitation for soil microbial growth

Master students

• Honorine Dumontel
  MSc project: Microbial responses to litter additions across a subarctic ecotone
• Maria Joao Silva
  MSc project: Influence of soil depth and land use on microbial responses to drought
• Franklin Lee Harris
  MSc project: Functional responses of soil microbes to drought and rewetting
• Markus Neurauter
  MSc project: Soil microbial resource limitation along a subarctic ecotone

Members around the world

• Laura Rodríguez González (University of Vigo, Spain)
• Yinqi Tang (University of Copenhagen, Denmark)
• Yuqian Tang (China University of Geosciences, China)
• Haifeng Zheng (University of Copenhagen, Denmark)

Alumni

• Ainara Leizeaga (University of Manchester, United Kingdom)
• Jintao Li (Fudan University, China)
• Blandine Lyonnard (Grenoble Alpes University, France)
• Meng Na (Northeast Foresty University, China)
• Huimin Xu (Hohai University, China)