Manjie Jiang
Education
I studied Biological Sciences at Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University and Texas A&M University during my Bachelor's degree. Following that, I completed my Master's degree in Entomology at China Agricultural Univerity. For my master thesis, I focus on the mitochondrial phylogenomics of major subfamilies of Reduviidae, Hemiptera. Reduviidae family members are almost all predatory, except for a few blood-sucking species, some of which are important as disease vectors.Research interests
- Links between above- and belowground multi-taxa systems and their interactions
- Diversity and structure of decomposer food webs
- Effects of decomposers communities for forests and agroforest ecosystem process and functioning
PhD research project
I am a doctoral candidate in the RTG 2300, subproject 5: “Decomposer communities and decomposition processes”.In forest ecosystems, the majority of biomass produced by trees are above- and belowground plant residues, which all enters below the ground and are being processed by complex microbial and animal communities. So the decomposer belowground system provides essential functions and services for the aboveground system. Root-derived resources such as exudates and hyphae of mycorrhizal fungi are being recognized as the most dominant resources entering decomposer system, in addition to litter resources.
The main objective of my project is to investigate the effects on the structure and functioning of decomposer food webs in mixed forest plantings, particularly those including non-native tree species. Secondly, I will investigate the role of root-derived resources as determinants of the structure and functioning of decomposer communities in a root-trenching and litter exclusion experiment.