Yuan Liu(刘源)

Soil organic matter (SOM) is ultimately the foundation for soil health and sustainability in crop production systems and may be an important climate change mitigation solution. My research aims to uncover the mechanisms underlying how plant-microbe-soil systems control soil organic matter (SOM) dynamics, including soil carbon (C) stabilization mechanisms, accrual, decomposition, and nutrient cycling in natural and agriculture systems under climate change scenarios. To achieve my research aims, I use a combination of field and laboratory experiments, to generate biogeochemical as well as microbiological data via fundamental soil and biogeochemical analyses, isotopic labelling, soil biomarkers, microbiome sequencing and soil spectroscopy in combination with meta-analyses and cutting-edge machine learning techniques like random forest analyses.