Plant Science — OUR SCIENTISTS

Louise Egerton-Warburton, Ph.D.

Soil Ecologist
Manager, Native Habitats

Ph.D. 1994, Curtin University of Technology, Australia

PUBLICATIONS
(847) 835-6915

Graduate Faculty Memberships:

Northwestern University, Program in Biology
University of Illinois, Chicago, Ecology and Evolution

Research Interests

Mycorrhizal fungal diversity and functioning
Facilitation of exotic invasive species by mycorrhizae
Roles of fungi in nutrient cycling
Effects of fire, nitrogen, and drought on soil-plant relationships
Restoration and the development of designer communities

Statement

My research focuses on soil-plant interactions and in particular mycorrhizal fungi, a ubiquitous fungal-root mutualism, as drivers of the structure and function in the aboveground (plant) community.

There are four major components to my current research, all of which focus largely on the belowground mechanisms that could control plant response to global change:

1) The roles of mycorrhizal fungal in soil carbon and nitrogen storage with nitrogen deposition;

2) The importance of extreme events, such as drought and fire, as agents of selection in mycorrhizal and plant communities;

3) Fungi and exotic species interactions during restoration; and

4) Mycorrhizal resilience. These subject areas are strongly linked as they cover the core components of environmental issues that relate directly to the scenarios of global change.

Representative Publications

Egerton-Warburton, L.M., Querejeta, J.I., and Allen, M.F. (2007). Common mycorrhizal networks provide a potential pathway for the transfer of hydraulically lifted water between plants. Journal of Experimental Botany, pages in press.

Jumpponen, A., and Egerton-Warburton, L.M. (2005). Mycorrhizal fungi in successional environments- a community assembly model incorporating host plant, environmental and biotic filters. In: The Fungal Community: Its Organization and Role in the Ecosystem. 3rd Edition. Eds. J. Dighton, J. White, and P. Oudemans. CRC Press, Boca Raton FL, pp. 139- 168.

Allen, E.B., Allen, M.F., Egerton-Warburton, L.M, Corkidi, L., & Gomez-Pompa, A. (2003). Impacts of early- and late-seral mycorrhizae during restoration in a seasonal tropical forest, Mexico. Ecological Applications 13: 1701-1717.

Querejeta, J.I., L.M. Egerton-Warburton and M.F. Allen. (2003). Direct nocturnal water transfer from oaks to their mycorrhizal symbionts during severe soil drying. Oecologia 134: 55-64.

Egerton-Warburton, L.M., R.C. Graham, E.B. Allen and M.F. Allen (2001). Reconstruction of the historical changes in mycorrhizal fungal communities under anthropogenic nitrogen deposition. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B 268: 2479-2484.

Egerton-Warburton, L.M., and E.B. Allen. (2000). Shifts in the diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi along an anthropogenic nitrogen deposition gradient. Ecological Applications 10, 484- 496.

Plant Science — OUR SCIENTISTS

Louise Egerton-Warburton, Ph.D.

Soil Ecologist Manager, Native Habitats

Soil Ecologist
Manager, Native Habitats