This month we are excited to welcome our first postdoctoral researcher to the lab, Bex Le Grice, who will be leading research on soil food web structure and ecosystem functioning in kauri dominated forests. This research is funded as part of the National Science Challenge: New Zealand’s Biological Heritage, within the programme Ngā Rākau Taketake – Saving our Iconic Trees. Bex has recently completed her PhD research looking at the factors influencing spatial distributions of seaweed-associated fly assemblages across New Zealand. Now she will be turning her attention to belowground systems, investigating the spatial and energetic structure of soil food webs in kauri forest and the influence of kauri dieback (Phytophthora agathidicida) on the stability of associated ecosystem functions in these unique forests.
The EcoDiv Lab 