Bonnie Waring

Tropical forests are experiencing rapid alterations in climate, land use, and nutrient deposition. I seek to understand how forest biomass and composition will respond to these changes. Currently, I am conducting a stand-level fertilization experiment to examine nutrient effects on tropical dry forest productivity.

I work in tropical dry forests that contain a mixture of arbuscular mycorrhizal and ectomycorrhizal trees. I am interested in how nutrient stoichiometry mediates plant-fungal interactions, and the consequences of the mycorrhizal mutualism for ecosystem element cycling.

Heterotrophic bacteria and fungi exert strong control over soil carbon cycling and storage. I have used a combination of manipulative experiments, meta-analyses, and simulation models to explore microbial roles in ecosystem biogeochemistry.