Dr Louis Mielke

My passion combines fungal ecology and soil science from the arctic to the tropics.

At Stirling, my work as a postdoctoral research fellow encompasses the MYCONET project, which aims to understand how the highly organic soils in alpine ecosystems will respond to increased abundance of trees and woody shrubs and root associated organisms by examining processes in the ‘mycorrhizosphere’ using culture based methods, radiocarbon analyses, statistical modelling, metagenomics and intensive field campaigns. The role of fungi may be important determinants for the balance of globally important soil carbon stores, and this is what we aim to test. This UKRI-NERC funded project is in cooperation with the University of Edinburgh, National Environmental Isotope Facility - SUERC, The James Hutton Institute and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.

Additionally, I am the UK node representative for the pan-European Fungal Diversity project (https://fun-dive.eu) where we are making DNA barcoding more accessible for community mycologists - please get in touch if you have specific target species of interest to sequence. Additionally, I have been awarded a small grant from the Mycological Society of America to study mycorrhizal fungi in Andean cloud forests in collaboration with UNSAAC in Cusco, Perú.

Mycorrhizal Symbiosis, Soil Biology, Fungi, Conservation Biology, Ecosystem Ecology