Tropical rainforests such as the Amazon are of high importance as a global carbon sink. Due to its well-known nutrient limitation, the Amazon rainforest relies heavily on rapid microbial decomposition of biomass to release freshly available nutrients for plant growth. Despite the fundamental importance of decomposers for this ecosystem, little is known about the biodiversity of tropical soil microbiomes, their functional activity, and spatial and seasonal variability.

This is of special importance considering the potential threat climate change poses, i.e. via the increased frequency of severe drought periods as a consequence of El Nino. The question is: How resilient are these vital ecosystems and their microbial communities really, and how does prolonged drought affect the soil mcirobiome's ability to successfully uphold nutrient cycling under dry conditions.

To investigate these questions, we are using a combination of molecular techniques such as high-troughput amplicon and metagenomcis shotgun sequencing, paired with functional predictive analysis, network analysis, and various other tools. During this project we collaborate heavily with the Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura (CENA), with the  Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture (ESALQ/USP) and the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA) in Brazil.