Carles Castaño Soler

With forestry as an academic background, my first contact with fungi started on 2007, when I worked 4 years as a forest pathologist at the Forest Science Center of Catalonia (CTFC). On 2015 I started an industrial phD at the University of Lleida about how forest management and abiotic parameters affect soil fungal communities. During that time, I also collaborated in studies investigating the ecology of the black truffle in Spain and drought resistance of soil fungi and pine seedlings. On November 2018 I came to the Department with Karina Clemmensen and Sara Hallin to investigate how fungal communities may influence vegetation shifts and how microbes may determine important ecosystem processes such as nitrogen and carbon cycling in soils by using molecular and biochemical methods. 

My ongoing projects include investigation of how reindeer affects soil fungi and soil processes in the arctic, and investigation of the soil fungal communities inhabiting semi-natural grasslands.

A pivotal theme in my research is to understand the ecosystem mechanisms driven by microbial communities that influence soil nutrient cycling, carbon storage, and plant colonization, approached from an ecosystem ecology perspective. A central interest is to incorporate the effects of management and disturbances (e.g., tree harvesting, pests, climate change, land-use changes) into this research. To address these questions, I employ both molecular and biochemical methods.

Other topics of interest include ecology of black truffle and drought responses of tree-associated soil fungi and mechanisms for drought adaptation.

Projects funded as principal investigator:

• FORMAS Mobility Grant. 
  Feeling the heat(h): Can reindeer grazing stabilize soil organic matter in arctic and alpine tundra heath under climate warming (2021-2025).

Projects funded as co-investigator:

• The Swedish Research Council
  Tree establishment in ericaceous understory – importance of mycorrhizal networks and guild interactions (2023-2028).