Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment

• Grants
• Selected Publications
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I joined the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment in August 2012 as a postdoctoral research fellow in the Ecosystem Function and Integration group. I consider myself a biogeochemist and an ecophysiologist, and I am interested in the interactions between soil nutrient cycling and plant physiological responses to climate change.

I was trained as a tree ecophysiologist in Evan DeLucia’s lab at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and obtained my Ph.D in 2010. I studied biogeochemistry as a postdoc in Adrien Finzi’s lab at Boston University from 2010 to 2012, focusing on the effects of roots on soil nutrient fluxes.

Previous research

I was part of a large collaborative research project at the Duke Free-Air CO₂ Enrichment (FACE) site for part of my Ph.D project. At Duke FACE, a warm-temperate pine forest was exposed to elevated atmospheric CO₂ concentrations for 15 years. My work on fine-root respiration and whole-ecosystem element budgets helped to establish that the long-term stimulation of C storage under elevated CO₂ was made possible by increased mining of soil N by the trees at this site, likely via increased root exudation and allocation to ectomycorrhizal fungi. Also as part of my Ph.D, I established a chronosequence of loblolly pine forests and investigated how the physiological controls of forest C fluxes changed as the dominant pines aged and the forest experienced secondary successional change in species composition. Photosynthesis of the pines decreased with forest age as these trees became taller and increasing experienced hydraulic limitation of photosynthesis, however the decline in pine productivity was partially ameliorated at the ecosystem level by increasing production of later-successional broadleaved trees.

I was involved in a number of research projects during my post-doc at Boston University. For one of these projects, I simulated root exudation in the field in a cold-temperate forest by trickling solutions of carbohydrates and organic acids through ‘fake root’ microlysimeters. I demonstrated that root exudation alone is sufficient to stimulate microbial biomass and enzyme activity in soils, but only when these exudates contain a small amount of N to support the synthesis of the N-rich microbes and enzymes. This suggests that root exudation of amino acids is critically important for the interaction between roots and soil microbes.

Areas of research / teaching expertise

• Tree ecophysiology, including photosynthesis, respiration, and water-relations
• Belowground processes such as root respiration and soil exo-enzyme activities
• Whole ecosystem biogeochemistry, C and nutrient budgets

Awards and recognition

• 2011 The Elizabeth Sulzman Award for best work done as a graduate student, 96th annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America. Austin, TX. $250, Biogeosciences section
• 2010 Billings Award for the best student oral presentation at the 95th annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America. Pittsburgh, PA. $500, Physiological Ecology Section
• 2008, 2009 Election to the list of teachers ranked excellent by their students, University of Illinois, “outstanding” rating. Was ranked in top 10% of teachers in the category “overall teaching effectiveness” by students.
• 2007 Election to Phi Kappa Phi, University of Illinois
• 2005 University of Illinois Distinguished Fellowship
• 2005 Summa Cum Laude, 3.93 GPA, Hope College
• 2005 Election to Phi Beta Kappa, Hope College Chapter
• 2005 Senior Sigma Xi Research Award, Hope College
• 2005 Patterson Memorial Prize, outstanding biology student, Hope College
• 2005 De. Kruif Writing Prize in Biology, best research paper, Hope College

Grants

• 2011 Partitioning CO2 fluxes with isotopologue measurements and modeling to understand mechanisms of forest carbon sequestration. Scott Saleska (PI), with Eric Davidson, Adrien Finzi, Rich Wehr, and Paul Moorcroft (co-PIs). Contributed to proposal and research, but my institution did not allow post-docs to be named as co-PIs. $1,040,000. Department of Energy, Office of Biological and Environmental Research.
• 2011 Microbial Diversity in Winter Soils in Temperate Forest Ecosystems. Grant to Alison Greco and Adrien Finzi through the Undergraduate Research Opportunities program at Boston University, $1500. I contributed to the proposal, research, and mentoring of this undergraduate student.
• 2011 The stoichiometry of root exudation in New England forests: insights from a theoretical model and field experiment. Grant to Bridget Darby and Adrien Finzi through the Undergraduate Research Opportunities program at Boston University, $1500. I lead the proposal, research, and mentoring of this undergraduate student.
• 2009 Summer Research Grant, $1000, University of Illinois
• 2006 Travel Grant, $500, University of Illinois

Selected publications

Drake JE, Darby BA, Giasson M-A, Kramer MA, Phillips RP, Finzi AC, (2013) 'Stoichiometry constrains microbial response to root exudation-insights from a model and a field experiment in a temperate forest', Biogeosciences, vol.10, no.2, pp 821-838

Pfautsch S, Aspinwall M, Drake J, Choat B, Tissue D, Burykin T, Tjoelker M, (2013) 'Putting the puzzle together: Investigating hydraulic functioning and water transport at high spatial resolution in tall trees', Acta Horticulturae, vol.991, pp 245-252

Drake JE, Darby BA, Giasson M-A, Kramer MA, Phillips RP, Finzi AC, (2012) 'Stoichiometry constrains microbial response to root exudation – insights from a model and a field experiment in a temperate forest', Biogeosciences Discussions, vol.9, pp 6899-6945

Drake JE, Oishi AC, Giasson M-A, Oren R, Johnsen KH, Finzi AC, (2012) 'Trenching reduces soil heterotrophic activity in a loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) forest exposed to elevated atmospheric [CO₂] and N fertilization', Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, vol.165, pp 43-52

Drake JE, Gallet-Budynek A, Hofmockel KS, Bernhardt ES, Billings SA, Jackson RB, Johnsen KS, Lichter J, McCarthy HR, McCormack ML, Moore DJP, Oren R, Palmroth S, Phillips RP, Pippen JS, Pritchard SG, Treseder KK, Schlesinger WH, DeLucia EH, Finzi AC, (2011) 'Increases in the Flux of Carbon Belowground Stimulate Nitrogen Uptake and Sustain the Long-Term Enhancement of Forest Productivity under Elevated CO₂',  Ecology Letters, vol.14, no.4, pp 349-357

Drake JE, Davis SC, Raetz LM, DeLucia EH, (2011) 'Mechanisms of age-related changes in forest production: the influence of physiological and successional changes', Global Change Biology, vol.17, no.4, pp 1522-1535

Drake JE, Raetz LM, Davis SC, DeLucia EH, (2010) 'Hydraulic limitation not declining nitrogen availability causes the age-related photosynthetic decline in loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.)', Plant, Cell and Environment, vol.33, no.10, pp 1756-1766

Peterson T, Rossmann B, Drake JE, Westervelt J, (2009) 'A spatially explicit model of red imported fire ant behavior for managing species at risk on military lands', US Army Corps of Engineers Research Laboratory, CERL Report No. TR-09-19

Drake JE, Stoy PC, Jackson RB, DeLucia EH, (2008) 'Fine-root respiration in a loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) forest exposed to elevated CO₂ and N fertilization', Plant, Cell and Environment, vol.31, no.11, pp 1663-1672

DeLucia EH, Drake JE, Thomas RB, Gonzalez-Meler M, (2007) 'Forest carbon-use-efficiency: is respiration a constant fraction of gross primary production?', Global Change Biology, vol.13, no.6, pp 1157-1167