Dr Louis Mielke

I completed my PhD in Biology at the Dept. of Forest Mycology and Plant Pathology at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala. My thesis focused on basic research elucidating ecto- and ericoid mycorrhizal effects on carbon dynamics in boreal forest soils. I also worked on a more applied project evaluating the effectiveness of established forest conservation methods to detect the richness and diversity of soil fungi using DNA metabarcoding.

At Stirling, my work encompasses the MYCONET project, which aims to understand how the highly organic soils in the Scottish Highlands and Subarctic will respond to increased abundance of trees and woody shrubs and their mycorrhizal symbionts by examining processes in the ‘mycorrhizosphere’ using culture based methods, radiocarbon analyses, statistical modelling, metagenomics and intensive field campaigns. These processes may be important determinants for the balance of globally important soil carbon stores. This project is in cooperation with the University of Edinburgh, The James Hutton Institute and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.

Fungi, Mycorrhizas, Soil Biology, Conservation Biology, Ecosystem Ecology