Biography

Jennifer Soong is a soil ecologist, biogeochemist and ecosystem ecologist. Her research focuses on pressing issues on the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems under various natural and human-influenced environmental conditions. She is most interested in the interface between plant and soil processes with a focus on soil organic matter formation and decomposition. Dr. Soong conducts observational and empirical studies in field and laboratory setting across a broad range of ecosystem types. She utilizes a range of techniques including stable isotope probing, molecular techniques and modeling to quantify how organic and inorganic materials are transported and transformed as they move through plant-soil-microbial-atmospheric interfaces and the consequences of those processes on ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services. She work closely with modelers to scale new mechanistic insights across ecosystem and global scales.

Dr. Soong is currently working on the TES-SFA whole soil warming project to increase process-level understanding of the controls of soil carbon turnover and stocks, and to improve predictions of soil carbon responses to climate change and land use change. Her other interests include teaching, mentoring and scientific outreach, with a keen interest in increasing the opportunities for involvement of women and underrepresented minorities in Earth and environmental sciences.