my Research

My passion lies in belowground nutrient cycling, tree roots and mycorrhizal fungi.

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On my first funded project,"Relating root mycorrhizal colonization intensity to rhizosphere activity in a mixed hardwood forest", I developed multiple protocols for measuring mycorrhizal colonization intensity specific for tree species associated with AM and EcM fungi and related the measurements to enzyme and soil chemistry traits  

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On my second project, "Tree species effects on soil nitrogen cycling: Accounting for rhizosphere processes", was funded by the Morton Arboretum - Center for Tree Science as an Early-career and Graduate Fellowship for the year 2022-2023 ($9,171.00). In this project, we set out to measure root exudation rates of 11 tree species in the arboretum using the robust protocol for root exudation by Phillips et al. (2008) and relate tree root exudation rates to various root traits and soil properties.