What we do

Research in the Phillips Lab

Our lab investigates how plants and soil microbes mediate energy flow and nutrient dynamics in forests. Plants and microbes perform vital ecosystem services (e.g., carbon storage, water filtration, nutrient retention) and reduce the impacts of some of society’s greatest environmental threats. We use a complementary suite of approaches that integrate field observations with controlled environmental systems to address questions that intersect plant physiological ecology and soil microbial ecology in an ecosystem context.

The "hidden half"

Much of our work focuses in the role of roots, the "hidden half" of plants. Roots are often considered to be passive portals for soil resources. There is, however, an emerging view that roots, through their activities and interactions with soil microbes, actively alter ecosystem processes. The consequences of root-microbe interactions are critical, as these processes link the carbon, nutrient, and water cycles in ecosystems and have the potential to influence ecosystem dynamics and global climate change.

Three major themes of our research include:

  1. The impacts of belowground processes on carbon and nutrient dynamics across spatial scales
  2. Mycorrhizal associations as trait integrators for biogeochemical cycling in forests
  3. The role of plant and microbial interactions in mediating ecosystem reponses to global change (e.g., warming, drought, rising CO2, N deposition).
The leaves in the deciduous woodland have turned their autumn yellows, oranges, and reds. The yellow leaves in the foreground are those of understory pawpaw trees.

How do plant mycorrhizal associations influence ecosystem functioning?

We're investigating how the traits of trees and their associated microbes influence biogeochemical processes in forests.

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A Russula mushroom with its rosy pink cap, creamy yellow gills, and white stem grows up from debris on the forest floor.

How are plant and mycorrhizal diversity coupled?

We're exploring diversity patterns (plants and mycorrhizal fungi) across multiple scales, and investigating the consequences for diversity couplings on ecosystem processes such as plant productivity and soil C storage.

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A red-eyed 2021 Brood X periodical cicada sits on a leaf.

How do periodical cicadas affect C and N cycling in forests?

We initiated a sampling campaign to quantify and better understand how the 2021 Brood X periodical cicada emergence affected C and nutrient cycling in forests.

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How do traits of trees and characteristics of soils modulate forest resilience to drought?

Our group is investigating the carbon consequences of drought in forests and the degree to which species-specific adaptations to water stress (trees and soil microbes) influence the magnitude of this effect.

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A person outstretches his arms to show the soil and roots he holds in his cupped hands.

How do root-microbe interactions affect ecosystem-scale processes?

We are investigating the mechanisms by which trees and soil microbes mediate carbon retention and loss in forests.

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