Zach’s CV
Zach is a postdoctoral researcher in the department of Biology. His research into the community ecology of nematodes and mites focuses on drivers of their biodiversity such as soil moisture and the implications this diversity has for ecosystem functioning. Zach works at the Konza Prairie, Shortgrass Steppe, Jornada Basin and McMurdo Dry Valleys Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites, where his research investigates how communities of soil animals are structured at varying levels of soil moisture, and how these communities respond to experimental manipulations of precipitation. This research investigates these trends at both landscape and regional scales and will provide insight into what consequences alterations to precipitation regimes due to global climate change may have for belowground ecosystems and their functioning, especially in grasslands and arid lands, which make up a large portion of the Earth’s terrestrial surface.
Publications
Sylvain, ZA and Wall DH. (2011) Linking soil biodiversity and vegetation: Implications for a changing planet. American Journal of Botany 98, 517-527
Sylvain, ZA and Buddle CM. (2010) Effects of forest stand type on oribatid mite (Acari: Oribatida) assemblages in a southwestern Quebec forest. Pedobiologia 53, 321-325
Saint-Germain, M., Buddle CM, Larrivée M, Mercado A, Motchula T, Reichert E, Sackett TE, Sylvain Z, Webb A. (2007) Should biomass be considered as a currency in terrestrial arthropod community analyses? Journal of Applied Ecology 44, 330-339