Laura Dane

PhD Candidate

Research Description

Influence of Microbial Bodies on Soil Humification Processes

I am interested in the ways in which microbial bodies are broken down and metabolized by other microbes and transformed into soil organic matter. My research uses 13C labeled microbial cells (gram positive, gram negative, fungi & actinomycetes) to follow the uptake and respiration of microbial carbon by living microbial biomass in two soil types. Microbial cell uptake is being monitored in a tropical rainforest (Puerto Rico) and temperate forest (Blodgett, CA).

Carbon Cycling in Temperate and Tropical Forests

My project is a comparison of carbon cycling and sequestration processes occurring in temperate and tropical forests. I am following the uptake of 13C labeled microbial carbon by living biomass and subsequent stabilization or respiration out of the soil system as CO2. I am sampling soils along a time series both in situ and under controlled laboratory conditions.