IGCB Exchange Fellow, Dr Guopeng Liang, has been working with IGCB Director, Prof Peter Reich, on the roles of plant-soil interactions in forest carbon cycling. 

As a substantial terrestrial carbon sink, forests play a great role in global climate mitigation. However, uncertainties remain regarding the roles of plant-soil interactions in forest carbon cycling. To address this knowledge gap, Dr Liang will conduct two projects. The first one is to analyze the long-term data of soil respiration from the field study in Minnesota which belongs to the International Diversity Experiment Network with Trees. The response of soil respiration to tree mixture, its underlying mechanisms, and the temporal patterns over 9 years will be determined. For the second project, Dr Liang will use datasets from the Canadian National Forest Inventory and the US Forest Inventory and Analysis to assess whether soil fertility can affect tree mortality rate, and to test if tree mortality can lead to a significant change in soil organic carbon. These two projects will improve our understanding of the roles of plant-soil interactions in forest carbon cycling. 

Photo cred: Artur Stefanski

Researchers involved: