Welcome to the Soper Lab in the Department of Biology and School of Environment at McGill University!
Our research explores the interface between plant physiology and ecosystem nutrient cycling. What physiological and chemical traits shape plant nutrient uptake? And how do these plant traits drive ecosystem processes such as soil nutrient availability, productivity and trace gas emissions? We work across a range of biomes (with a current focus on tropical forests), and are especially fascinated by drivers and responses to a range of global change processes.
Our research explores the interface between plant physiology and ecosystem nutrient cycling. What physiological and chemical traits shape plant nutrient uptake? And how do these plant traits drive ecosystem processes such as soil nutrient availability, productivity and trace gas emissions? We work across a range of biomes (with a current focus on tropical forests), and are especially fascinated by drivers and responses to a range of global change processes.
News
Photo credit: Maddie Vincent
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The lab is excited to welcome our first students! Mia (MS) and Caroline (PhD) will be starting in the Fall, and Camille will be working on data synthesis this summer.
Aug 202o: Fiona's Global Change Biology paper on invasive mangroves and carbon storage won the Ecological Society of America's Gene Likens paper award! Thanks to the Biogeosciences section for supporting early career scientists. Our work on the tropical carbon sink was also featured in New Scientist magazine. |
Jun 2020: Check out this great article in the Washington Post about our latest field campaign exploring the potential to use volcanically elevated CO2 to study climate change in tropical forests
Nov 2019: After a mammoth effort by a huge team, our new comprehensive handbook on methods for climate change experiments is out now!
Jul 2019: Fiona's first trip to the Amazon was both mind blowing (baby sloths!) and productive (working group on global change and the biogeochemical future of the Basin): thanks to the National Geographic Society for hosting. Our synthesis will be presented at the 2020 ESA and AGU meetings.
Jun 2019: The first INCyTE RCN meeting is a wrap! We'll be launching many new projects and syntheses over the next year. If you're interested in getting involved, submit to our 'Coupled Biogeochemical Cycles' AGU session
Apr 2019: Want to learn more about using stable isotopes to measure nitrogen fixation? Fiona's recent talk at the the University of Michigan Early Career Scientists Symposium (Stable Isotopes in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation) is now up on Youtube.
Feb 2019: We have a new Concepts & Synthesis paper out in Ecology, showing that Paleotropical forests allocate proportionally more biomass to wood (vs leaves) than than their Neotropical counterparts, suggesting that these Paleotropical forests are hotspots for tropical C storage.
Jan 2019: Our recent Proceedings B paper showing that leaf cutter ants engineer greenhouse gas hot spots in tropical rainforests was featured in Science magazine, New Scientist, and Gizmodo!
Nov 2019: After a mammoth effort by a huge team, our new comprehensive handbook on methods for climate change experiments is out now!
Jul 2019: Fiona's first trip to the Amazon was both mind blowing (baby sloths!) and productive (working group on global change and the biogeochemical future of the Basin): thanks to the National Geographic Society for hosting. Our synthesis will be presented at the 2020 ESA and AGU meetings.
Jun 2019: The first INCyTE RCN meeting is a wrap! We'll be launching many new projects and syntheses over the next year. If you're interested in getting involved, submit to our 'Coupled Biogeochemical Cycles' AGU session
Apr 2019: Want to learn more about using stable isotopes to measure nitrogen fixation? Fiona's recent talk at the the University of Michigan Early Career Scientists Symposium (Stable Isotopes in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation) is now up on Youtube.
Feb 2019: We have a new Concepts & Synthesis paper out in Ecology, showing that Paleotropical forests allocate proportionally more biomass to wood (vs leaves) than than their Neotropical counterparts, suggesting that these Paleotropical forests are hotspots for tropical C storage.
Jan 2019: Our recent Proceedings B paper showing that leaf cutter ants engineer greenhouse gas hot spots in tropical rainforests was featured in Science magazine, New Scientist, and Gizmodo!
