F (Frank) Lee Harris

F (Frank) Lee Harris

Promovendus

To put it straight, I am a mashup of a soil biologist and microbial ecologist. My research focuses around understanding how plants, microbes and nutrients (primarily nitrogen and carbon) interact. Here at Wageningen my PhD projects generally investigate the rhizosphere and how we can use the plant triggered microbial mechanisms found in crop rhizosphere soil to enhance crop complementarity. While this primarily has been researched in terms of grass-legume combinations, I am interested in investigating what other mechanisms are out there, including the potential beneficial effects of priming.

My interest in soil biology stem from my time as an undergraduate. Back then I studied forest biology and worked in a fungal plant pathology lab for woody plants at Colorado State University. I was particularly fascinated by nodulation, and the line that causal mechanisms of the line which split some root fungi between pathogens and symbiotes. As I dove into this, I discovered the incredible functions of the soil microbiome. I went to study these in my masters at Lund University, eventually completing my thesis on arctic microbes undergoing drying-rewetting in the Rousk lab.

Long term I hope to discover the linkages between microbial community structure and function in relation to carbon and nitrogen by elucidating how and why microbes mineralize these elements in substrates. To do this, I employ many functional-structural tools such as- isotopic pool measurements, activity measurements (such as respiration), and some omics methods. I believe that ultimately, these findings will help us steer both our ability to grow food, but also our ability to reclaim polluted lands and even overcome more severe challenges such as the stresses on soil and plants provided by climate change.