Going underground: root traits and organic matter dynamics in grassland soils

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A major challenge facing global food security is the need to maintain, and enhance, the essential functions of soil that underpin the delivery of ecosystem services, such as carbon storage and efficient nutrient cycling, whilst also maintaining economically viable yield. Several factors regulate the functioning of soils, but of central importance are interactions between plants and soil microbial communities, which regulate the biogeochemical processes on which soil fertility and plant growth depend. Whilst there is growing awareness of the functional importance of such relationships between plants and soil microbial communities, our understanding of the mechanisms involved remains poor. This studentship tackles this challenge by testing the efficacy of a trait-based approach for exploring how changes in vegetation composition impact microbial communities and their functioning in soil, with a particular focus on priming, i.e. enhanced breakdown of organic matter in soil. Using grasslands as a model system, the student will test the hypothesis that variation in root trait syndromes among grassland plant species act as major drivers of soil organic matter priming through their impact on microbial communities in soil. Information from these studies will be used to develop a trait-based framework for predicting how changes in plant functional diversity, resulting from land use change, impact soil microbial communities and the priming of organic matter in soil, a key function related to soil carbon storage. The student will be trained in the use of state of the art biological and geochemical approaches used controlled environments and in the field.