Postdocs

Competence Areas
Current Research

Andrea Vincent

My main research interests are:

Plant – soil – climate feedbacks
Interface between plant ecology (community assembly, functional diversity, productivity) and the biogeochemistry of P, N, and C
Use of biochemical tools such as 31P and 13C NMR spectroscopy to test ecological hypotheses
Effects of global anthropogenic change on nutrient cycling and plant community ecology

In my current postdoc with Prof. David Wardle I investigate whether ecosystem retrogression in boreal forests is associated with changes in the composition of organic phosphorus (P), specifically with an increase in the abundance of compounds considered to be recalcitrant. To this purpuse I use a combination of solution ³¹P nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy with state-of-the-art, two-dimensional ¹H, ³¹P correlation NMR (Vestergren et al., 2012). I find this project exciting because ecosystem retrogression and associated declines in plant productivity are usually thought to be driven by massive declines in soil phosphorus availability, but the mechanisms driving these declines, or even what a ‘decline in soil P availability’ looks like, are not well understood for high latitude soils. I am also interested in understanding the effects of charcoal on carbon sequestration in humus soils, and as part of N. Pluchon’s PhD project, I use solid state, ¹³C-NMR to this purpose. Ongoing side projects include studies of phosphorus dynamics in subarctic tundra, with M. Sundqvist, D. Wardle and R. Giesler, and with ecosystem development and podzolization, with J. Vestergren, J. Schleucher, G. Gröbner, R. Giesler and P. Persson.

I have a background in tropical forest ecology, and highly enjoy the opportunity to work with tropical and high latitude ecosystems. My brain has not short-circuited yet, which is a good thing.

Education
Ph.D (Plant Ecology), Dept. of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, UK (2003 - 2007).
BSc (Environmental Sciences), Dept. of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, UK (1999 - 2001)Click Read More for Contact Information
Personal website

Andreas Drott

My primary research interest is soil chemistry, in particular the biogeochemistry of mercury. A strong focus is the linkage between chemical speciation and methylation/demethylation reactions in sediments. At present, I am also involved in several projects dealing with mercury biogeochemistry in the boreal forest landscape, e.g. in wetlands and on forest clear-cuts.

List of publications:

Skyllberg U., Drott A. Competition between Disordered Iron Sulfide and Natural Organic Matter Associated Thiols for Mercury(II)-An EXAFS Study. Environmental Science and Technology 2010, 44:1254-1259.

Drott A., Lambertsson L., Björn E., Skyllberg U. Potential demethylation rate determinations in relation to concentrations of MeHg, Hg and pore water speciation of MeHg in contaminated sediments. Marine Chemistry 2008, 112:93-101

Drott A., Lambertsson L., Björn E., Skyllberg U. Do potential methylation rates reflect accumulated methyl mercury in contaminated sediments? Environmental Science and Technology 2008, 42:153-158

Skyllberg U., Drott A., Lambertsson L., Björn E., Karlsson T., Johnson T., Heinemo S-Å., Holmström H.. Net methylmercury production as a basis for improved risk assessment of mercury-contaminated sediments. Ambio 2007, 36:437-442

Drott A., Lambertsson L., Björn E., Skyllberg U. Importance of dissolved neutral mercury sulfides for methyl mercury production in contaminated sediments. Environmental Science and Technology 2007, 41:2270-2276

Drott A., Lambertsson L., Björn E., Skyllberg U. Effects of oxic and anoxic filtration on determined methyl mercury concentrations in sediment pore waters. Marine Chemistry 2007, 103:76-83

Drott A., Skyllberg U. Linkage between Hg(II) pore water speciation and methyl mercury production in contaminated sediments. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 2007, 71:A238

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Andy Siegenthaler

Details in my personnal webpage: http://www.ipeat.ch Click Read More for Contact Information
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Ciska Veen

I am a community ecologist interested to understand diversity, species composition and the functioning of ecological communities. I aim to understand how interactions between aboveground and belowground organisms shape ecological communities and ecosystem processes. In my current research project I investigate how extrinsic drivers modify species-specific relationships between plants and decomposers and how that affects the breakdown of plant litter and soil nutrient cycling.

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Erich Inselsbacher

I am working as a postdoc at this department since September 2009. My major research focus lies on soil nitrogen cycling and the nitrogen nutrition of plants. I am especially interested in estimating the supply rates of nitrogen in soils via diffusion, mass flow and root interception. My future vision is to gain more accurate and reliable information on nitrogen fluxes in soils by monitoring these fluxes in situ.For this purpose I adapted a novel technique based on passive microdialysis sampling to allow the application directly in the field. Further development of this technique will greatly help to improve our understanding on the impact of nitrogen availability on plant performance and ecosystem responses to climate change.

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Gregoire Freschet

The primary work I have been conducting at SLU, in collaboration with David Wardle and Lars Östlund focused on determining the effects that low-intensity, spatially broad but persistent past land use by Sami people has on the current functioning of boreal forest ecosystems.

I have also led several projects in New-Zealand, in collaboration with David Wardle, Peter Bellingham and Duane Peltzer, regarding how plant leaf and root traits related to environmental resource capture respond, among and within plant species, to environmental gradients.

In parallel I have been involved in several meta-analyses and review papers on plant litter decomposition, together with Hans Cornelissen, James Weedon, Will Cornwell, Ciska Veen and David Wardle and co-supervised one chapter of the PhD thesis by Bright Kumordzi.

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Johan Asplund

I am interested in factors influencing species-driven ecological processes such as herbivory and litter decomposition, because of the importance of these processes in regulating ecosystem nutrient and carbon fluxes. I have a special interest in lichens since the importance of them as ecosystem drivers are understudied

I am aiming at increasing our understanding of the ecological significance of lichens by determining whether and how they release nutrients and carbon during decomposition and when consumed by herbivores, as well as the role of their traits in regulating this. Lichenized fungi produce more than 800 carbon based secondary compounds (CBSCs), better known as lichen compounds. The role of these compounds in regulating lichenivory has lately been described. However, their role in regulating decomposability remains to be explored. I am also interested in how various traits, especially CBSCs, regulating lichenivory and decomposability varies along environmental gradients and with time.

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Katie Fenn

Hello, I’m Katie and I’ve been working at SLU as a Post-doc since autumn 2010. I’m interested in ecosystem carbon cycling, particularly soil processes and the controls on site ecosystem respiration.

Previously, for my PhD, I studied an ancient temperate woodland system using field measurements to construct estimates of ecosystem productivity and respiration, and to estimate the relative contributions of individual plant and soil components.

Here at SLU I work with Mats Nilsson on elements of the carbon cycle at the boreal mire site Degerö Stormyr. More specifically:

1. What controls the mire’s transition from net carbon source to sink in spring, and back to source in autumn?

2. Does the temperature sensitivity of peat decomposition change with the age of peat and the concurrent decline in labile carbon compounds?

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Mahsa Haei

My research deals mainly with the environmental factors that control biogeochemical processes in frozen soils, with emphasis on soil carbon mineralization. My work involves application of NMR spectroscopy with the aim to elucidate the pathways for microbial substrate utilization in soil systems at low temperatures.

I did my PhD at the Dept. of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Umeå University, with a thesis entitled “Importance of winter climate and soil frost for dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in boreal forest soils and streams - implications for a changing climate”.

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Maja Sundqvist

sundqvist_m_webb Temperature and soil nutrients are key factors limiting plant growth in the Swedish subarctic tundra, and rising temperatures associated with global climate change are thus predicted to have major impacts on tundra ecosystem functioning. Elevational gradients provide excellent opportunities to study how changes in temperature and associated climatic factors that shift with elevation influence community and ecosystem properties, and the processes that govern nutrient availability for plants. In collaboration with researchers here and at the Climate Impacts Research Centre (CIRC), Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University, I study the effect of elevation on soil nutrient availability, plant and soil microbial communities, and plant-soil linkages in subarctic tundra. For this research, we use an elevational gradient situated near the town of Abisko in the northermost part of Sweden.

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Forest Ecology & Management