global change | peatlands | soil carbon | roots | plant traits | greenhouse gas fluxes | wetlands | permafrost

 

Are you interested in pursuing graduate research on the terrestrial biosphere's response to global change?

My research program focuses on how global change factors such as warming and elevated [CO2] influence plant ecology, and implications for ecosystem to global carbon cycling. Urgent knowledge gaps especially exist at the plant-soil interface and at the terrestrial-aquatic interface. Thus, my current research priorities focus on root-soil interactions in carbon-rich wetlands such as peatlands, using a variety of lab, field, modeling and data synthesis tools.

A range of research opportunties are available! Please send me an email with your CV to discuss further.

Please see my Google Scholar page for a detailed list

Malhotra A, Brice D, Childs J, Graham JD, Hobbie EA, Vander Stel H, Feron SC, Hanson PJ, Iversen CM (2020) Peatland warming strongly increases fine-root growth. PNAS.117:30, 17627-1763410

      Highlighted in Sugden A.M. (2020) Shrubification of Peatlands. Science, 369-6503; 520-521

Malhotra A, Todd-Brown K, Nave LE, Batjes NH, Holmquist JR, Hoyt AM, Iversen CM, Jackson RB,Lajtha K, Lawrence C, Vindušková O, Wieder W, Williams M, Hugelius G, Harden JW (2019) The landscape of soil carbon data: emerging questions, synergies and databases. Progress in Physical Geography 43: 5, 707-719 

Delwiche KB, SH Knox, A Malhotra, and 111 others. FLUXNET-CH₄: A global, multi-ecosystem database and analysis of methane seasonality from freshwater wetlands. Earth System Science Data (in press) doi: 10.5194/essd-2020-307

Billings SA,  Lajtha K, A Malhotra, AA Berhe, M-A de Graaff, S. Earl, J Fraterrigo, K Georgiou, S Grandy, SE Hobbie, JAM Moore, K Nadelhoffer, D Pierson , C. Rasmussen, WL Silver, BN Sulman, S Weintraub, W Wieder (2021) Soil organic carbon is not just for soil scientists: Measurement recommendations for diverse practitioners. Ecological Applications. 00( 00):e02290. 10.1002/eap.2290

Tumber-Dávila SJ and Malhotra A. (2020) Fast plants in deep water: introducing the whole-soil column perspective New Phytologist 225: 1, 7-9

• International Soil Carbon Network, Coordinator
• American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting Program Committee, Chair
• Acquired funding for, led and organized the following workshops:

o   ‘Leveraging big soil data to address soil health questions’. Tilden Hotel, San Francisco, December 9, 2019

o   ‘Linking root traits and soil carbon on a global scale’ at the Climate Change Science Institute and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, July 2018, Read Eos meeting report here.