Thesis subject

Illuminating soil biodiversity interactions with links to nutrient cycling and therefore global change

Soil biodiversity is driving major nutrient cycling pathways, particularly that of carbon. In fact, bacteria and fungi underlie most carbon released to the atmosphere and with increasing temperature this process will accelerate such as because the dominant soil carbon pool stored in permafrost soils will be released. However, the precise role of this biotic part in carbon cycling is unknown and therefore Earth Systems Models differ mostly in the contribution of soil biota to the carbon cycle. Furthermore, while it is increasingly known that predators control microbiome functioning, the impact and contribution of microbiome predators (protists and nematodes) to microbiome functioning, in particular to carbon cycling but also the cycling of other elements remains unknown.

Your role is to fill the gap and show the importance of soil biodiversity to the cycling of carbon and other elements, particularly focusing on the role of microbiome predators. Using omics, isotope labeling, diverse physicochemical analyses as well as bioinformatic and modeling approaches combined with field and greenhouse studies, you will decipher the biotic drivers underlying elemental cycling and illuminate the role of microbiome predators in this aspect relevant to global change and plant performance.

Be part of this endeavor to help better predict global change based on greenhouse gas emissions!