Researchers at SEV LTER led efforts to characterize fungi and bacteria in drylands and document their responses to environmental change. SEV LTER pioneered new assays of microbial function, including carbon use efficiency and ecoenzymatic stoichiometry. They quantified how microbes in roots maintain plant species coexistence and temporal stability in plant communities and how biological soil crusts affect community and ecosystem dynamics.
For Further Reading:
Sinsabaugh, RL et al. 2008. Stoichiometry of soil enzyme activity at global scale. Ecology Letters. doi: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2008.01245.x
Chung**, Y. A., S. L. Collins, and J. A. Rudgers. (2019a) Connecting plant-soil feedbacks to long term plant community stability in a Chihuahuan Desert grassland. Ecology May 7:e02756. doi: 10.1002/ecy.2756
Chung**, Y. A., A. Jumpponen, and J. A. Rudgers. (2019b) Divergence in diversity and composition of root-associated fungi between greenhouse and field studies in a semiarid grassland. Microbial Ecology 78: 122-135.
Chung**, Y. A., and J. A. Rudgers (2016) Plant–soil feedbacks promote negative frequency dependence in the coexistence of two aridland grasses. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences 283: 10.1098/rspb.2016.0608r
