Henriette Christel

I am interested to understand biodiversity-ecosystem functioning, especially soil ecosystem functioning. I want to understand the effects of trees on soil microorganisms and their functions and learn how these interactions are distributed on the small spatial scale. Understanding this could bring insights to the inconsistent patterns of tree species diversity effects on soil multifunctionality and carbon storage.

My research is based on two tree Biodiversity-Ecosystem Functioning experiments. One in Germany (MyDiv https://www.idiv.de/de/research/platforms-and-networks/mydiv.html) and the other in subtropical China (BEF-China https://www.idiv.de/de/web/treedi/bef_china.html) where I am focusing on tree-tree and tree-shrub interaction effects on soil multifunctionality. This work is part of the TreeDì (https://www.idiv.de/de/treedi.html) international graduate school which aims to understand tree – tree interactions in Chinese subtropical forest within the BEF-China platform.

Fields of work:

• Soil multifunctionality
• Soil microbial functioning
• Tree diversity experiment
• Tree – tree interaction
• Tree – shrub interactions
• Spatial distribution of aboveground effects on soil multifunctionality

Methods:

• Substrate-induced respiration measurements
• Extracellular enzyme measurements
• Field experiments

Since December 2021

PhD student at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig and the Leipzig University. Part of the international research training group TreeDÌ (https://www.idiv.de/en/treedi.html) and supervised by Prof. Dr. Nico Eisenhauer and Dr. Simone Cesarz.

Title: " Biodiversity drivers of soil ecosystem multifunctionality at the small scale" funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS).

2021

MyDiv: Scaling experiment – Are the effects of tree species richness and mycorrhizal associations on soil multifunctionality sampling scale dependent in an experimental forest ecosystem? (https://www.idiv.de/de/research/platforms-and-networks/mydiv.html)

2022

BrazilDry: Scaling experiment – Are the effects of tree species richness and tree facilitation on soil multifunctionality sampling scale dependent in a tropical tree biodiversity experiment? (https://treedivnet.ugent.be/experiments/BrazilDry.html)

2022 – 2023

MyDiv: Mesocosm experiment – How does the common mycorrhizal network (CMN) influence the effects of tree diversity and composition on soil multifunctionality? (https://www.idiv.de/de/research/platforms-and-networks/mydiv.html)

2023

BEF-China: Tree-shrub interaction experiment– How are the interactions of trees and shrubs affecting soil multifunctionality? (https://www.idiv.de/de/web/treedi/bef_china.html)

Christel, Henriette, Helge Bruelheide, Simone Cesarz, Nico Eisenhauer, Georg J. A. Hähn, and Rémy Beugnon. 2024. ‘The Spatial Distribution of Tree–Tree Interaction Effects on Soil Microbial Biomass and Respiration’. Ecology and Evolution 14 (6): e11530. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.11530.