Soils play a vital role in the productivity and resilience of natural and managed lands, while also cycling large amounts of carbon annually. Our lab works to understand and promote sustainable and equitable soil carbon management towards building resilient soil systems under an uncertain future.
RECENT LAB NEWS & HIGHLIGHTS
04.2026 – New paper in Science: Higher carbon storage in primary than secondary boreal forests in Sweden
04.2026 – Hannah Lieberman joins the lab as a postdoctoral researcher! Welcome, Hannah!
04.2026 – New discussion paper in Earth System Science Data: An open-source database for the synthesis of soil radiocarbon data: International Soil Radiocarbon Database (ISRaD) version 2.0
04.2026 – New paper in Nature Communications: Global hotspots of particulate organic carbon losses under climate change
03.2026 – New review paper in Plants, People, Planet: Persistence and potential of soil organic carbon in nature-based climate solutions: a review of managed disturbances
03.2026 – New paper in Geoderma: Self-supervised and multi-fidelity learning for extended predictive soil spectroscopy
03.2026 – New paper in Nature Communications: Clay-organic matter interactions drive microbial necromass preservation in soils
02.2026 – New paper in Biogeochemistry: Do we have globally representative data to understand soil processes?
02.2026 – New paper in Geoderma: Methods matter: Examining the apparent saturation of soil mineral-associated organic carbon.
01.2026 – Katerina is interviewed for the EGU Soil System Sciences blog
12.2025 – New paper in Nature Geoscience: Neglecting vertical transport leads to underestimated soil carbon dynamics
11.2025 – Lilly Schellinger joins the lab as an undergrad honors student in Ecological Engineering! Welcome, Lilly!
08.2025 – New paper in Communications Earth & Environment: Evidence for the existence and ecological relevance of fast-cycling mineral-associated organic matter
07.2025 – New paper in Communications Earth & Environment: Fine root and soil carbon stocks are positively related in grasslands but not in forests
05.2025 – Anthony defended his PhD on "Cryptic Carbon: Improving Wetland Representation and Soil Carbon Characterization across Forested Landscapes." Congrats, Anthony!
05.2025 – New invited review paper in Global Change Biology: Soil carbon saturation: what do we really know?
05.2025 – Katerina gave an award lecture at EGU for the Outstanding ECS Award in Soil System Sciences. A recording of the talk is available online here!
03.2025 – New paper in Nature Communications: Nonlinear microbial thermal response and its implications for abrupt soil organic carbon responses to warming
02.2025 – New paper in Biogeochemistry: Moisture and soil depth govern relationships between soil organic carbon and oxalate-extractable metals at the global scale
12.2024 – Check out our presentations and organized sessions at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting!
10.2024 – Katerina is awarded the European Geosciences Union Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award in the Division of Soil System Sciences.
09.2024 – The lab will be moving to Oregon State University in 2025! Reach out for PhD and postdoc opportunities.
09.2024 – New paper in Nature Communications: Emerging multiscale insights on microbial carbon use efficiency in the land carbon cycle
07.2024 – Anthony Stewart joins as a DOE SCGSR Fellow! Welcome, Anthony!
06.2024 – New paper in JGR Biogeosciences: Bridging 20 years of soil organic matter frameworks: Empirical support, model representation, and next steps
06.2024 – New paper in JAMES: Simulating global terrestrial carbon and nitrogen biogeochemical cycles with implicit and explicit representations of soil microbial activity
05.2024 – New paper in Global Change Biology: Controls and relationships of soil organic carbon abundance and persistence vary across pedo-climatic regions
04.2024 – Anthony Stewart is awarded a DOE SCGSR Fellowship to join us at LLNL. Congrats, Anthony!
03.2024 – New matters arising paper in Nature: Model uncertainty obscures major driver of soil carbon
02.2024 – Zhen Li joins as a postdoctoral researcher. Welcome, Zhen!
02.2024 – New paper in Nature Geoscience: Emergent temperature sensitivity of soil organic carbon driven by mineral associations
04.2026 – Hannah Lieberman joins the lab as a postdoctoral researcher! Welcome, Hannah!
04.2026 – New discussion paper in Earth System Science Data: An open-source database for the synthesis of soil radiocarbon data: International Soil Radiocarbon Database (ISRaD) version 2.0
04.2026 – New paper in Nature Communications: Global hotspots of particulate organic carbon losses under climate change
03.2026 – New review paper in Plants, People, Planet: Persistence and potential of soil organic carbon in nature-based climate solutions: a review of managed disturbances
03.2026 – New paper in Geoderma: Self-supervised and multi-fidelity learning for extended predictive soil spectroscopy
03.2026 – New paper in Nature Communications: Clay-organic matter interactions drive microbial necromass preservation in soils
02.2026 – New paper in Biogeochemistry: Do we have globally representative data to understand soil processes?
02.2026 – New paper in Geoderma: Methods matter: Examining the apparent saturation of soil mineral-associated organic carbon.
01.2026 – Katerina is interviewed for the EGU Soil System Sciences blog
12.2025 – New paper in Nature Geoscience: Neglecting vertical transport leads to underestimated soil carbon dynamics
11.2025 – Lilly Schellinger joins the lab as an undergrad honors student in Ecological Engineering! Welcome, Lilly!
08.2025 – New paper in Communications Earth & Environment: Evidence for the existence and ecological relevance of fast-cycling mineral-associated organic matter
07.2025 – New paper in Communications Earth & Environment: Fine root and soil carbon stocks are positively related in grasslands but not in forests
05.2025 – Anthony defended his PhD on "Cryptic Carbon: Improving Wetland Representation and Soil Carbon Characterization across Forested Landscapes." Congrats, Anthony!
05.2025 – New invited review paper in Global Change Biology: Soil carbon saturation: what do we really know?
05.2025 – Katerina gave an award lecture at EGU for the Outstanding ECS Award in Soil System Sciences. A recording of the talk is available online here!
03.2025 – New paper in Nature Communications: Nonlinear microbial thermal response and its implications for abrupt soil organic carbon responses to warming
02.2025 – New paper in Biogeochemistry: Moisture and soil depth govern relationships between soil organic carbon and oxalate-extractable metals at the global scale
12.2024 – Check out our presentations and organized sessions at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting!
- B41D / B42C / B43F – Soils in the Anthropocene: Cross-Scale Mechanisms of Stabilization and Change
- B51C / B53E – Land Biogeochemical Cycling Under Global Environmental Change: Patterns, Drivers, and Mechanisms
- Kat Georgiou: B32C-07 – Global capacity and vulnerability of mineral-associated soil organic carbon (Invited)
- Zhen Li: GC51W-0274 – Engineering Plant Traits in Sorghum for Enhanced Carbon Sequestration
- Anthony Stewart: B42C-02 – Mineral-associated drivers of soil carbon stabilization across wetland and upland soils: evaluating redox patterns and radiocarbon age at a watershed scale
- Katie Grant: B43F-1615 – Rock Derived Carbon Contributes Radiocarbon-Free Organic Carbon to Soils Across the Continental USA
- Eric Slessarev: B41D-07 – What makes a Mollisol? The role of calcium in creating carbon-rich grassland soils
10.2024 – Katerina is awarded the European Geosciences Union Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award in the Division of Soil System Sciences.
09.2024 – The lab will be moving to Oregon State University in 2025! Reach out for PhD and postdoc opportunities.
09.2024 – New paper in Nature Communications: Emerging multiscale insights on microbial carbon use efficiency in the land carbon cycle
07.2024 – Anthony Stewart joins as a DOE SCGSR Fellow! Welcome, Anthony!
06.2024 – New paper in JGR Biogeosciences: Bridging 20 years of soil organic matter frameworks: Empirical support, model representation, and next steps
06.2024 – New paper in JAMES: Simulating global terrestrial carbon and nitrogen biogeochemical cycles with implicit and explicit representations of soil microbial activity
05.2024 – New paper in Global Change Biology: Controls and relationships of soil organic carbon abundance and persistence vary across pedo-climatic regions
04.2024 – Anthony Stewart is awarded a DOE SCGSR Fellowship to join us at LLNL. Congrats, Anthony!
03.2024 – New matters arising paper in Nature: Model uncertainty obscures major driver of soil carbon
02.2024 – Zhen Li joins as a postdoctoral researcher. Welcome, Zhen!
02.2024 – New paper in Nature Geoscience: Emergent temperature sensitivity of soil organic carbon driven by mineral associations