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Sören Eliot Weber, Dr. Sc. Nat. (Phd)

botany/mycology/mycorrhizae/global change

I am primarily interested in how arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and other soil biota interact with plants, and in how these interactions influence and respond to ecosystem functions in the context of global change and biodiversity loss. I couple experiments and observations in the greenhouse and field with my expertise in linear mixed effect models to study:

• How the eco-evolutionary dynamics of partner selection in the plant-AMF symbiosis generate patterns of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning

  • AMF diversity improves plant resource uptake across plant functional types

  • Plants receive more P when given ‘choice’ of AMF species

  • AMF acquire more C when given ‘choice’ of plant species (in prep.)

• How do soil biota and plants respond to (sometimes multiple) global change drivers

  • AMF^{1, 2}

  • Other fungi and prokaryotes^{1, 2}

  • Plant-soil feedbacks¹

  • Fine-roots¹

• How do functional differences among mycorrhizal fungi and plants influence their interactions with each other and ecosystem processes?

  • AMF functional groups¹

  • Plant functional traits ^{1, 2, 3, 4}

  • Plant functional groups^1,2

Biography

I am currently a postdoctoral researcher with Eddie Brzostek at West Virginia university, where I investigate the sustainability of Miscanthus × giganteus as a biofuel using FunBioCrop. Previously I researched the responses of fine roots among different plant functional types to warming and elevated CO₂ in the SPRUCE experiment as a postdoctoral researcher with Colleen Iversen at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. For my doctorate I used radio-isotopes to examine the exchange of plant-C and AMF-P in tightly controlled greenhouse experiments testing the responses of resource exchange to a gradient of AMF species richness, plant choice among AMF species, and AMF choice among plant species with Pascal Niklaus at the University of Zürich. During this time I also co-supervised my student Lea Buol for her masters thesis.

Before my doctoral studies, I acted as the laboratory manager and technician for Marko Spasojevic at the University of California Riverside (UCR), measuring plant functional traits, coordinating field campaigns, and mentoring an undergraduate for her summer NSF-REU project. I conducted my masters with Jeffrey Diez and Michael Allen at UCR studying the responses of AMF to multiple global change drivers in coastal sage scrub. I studied for my bachelors at the University of Central Florida, pursuing research in plant-soil feedbacks, AMF, soil CO₂ respiration, and population genetics.