Dr. Sören Weber

botany/mycology/mycorrhizae/global change

I am a plant and fungal ecologist, deeply interested in how biological interactions within and between these groups of organisms influence the composition of communities and drive nutrient cycling in ecosystems.

Currently, I am researching how root growth distributions in peatlands are responding to climate change (elevated CO₂ and warming) in the SPRUCE experiment as a postdoctoral research associate with Dr. Colleen Iversen at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Peatlands are responsible for an immense amount of carbon stored in terrestrial ecosystems. Plant roots and their mycorrhizal fungi are in direct contact with this carbon, influencing carbon storage or release from these ecosystems.

During my PhD at the University of Zürich with Dr. Pascal Niklaus, I investigated the trade of carbon and phosphorus between plants and their arbuscular mycorrhizal partners. I manipulated the diversity and degree of contract between plants and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in configurable microcosms, labeling their respective carbon and phosphorus with radioisotopes. This allowed me to create several scenarios to investigate how resource exchange shifted with the diversity (aka partner options!) of plants and AMF.