Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment

• Awards and Recognition
• Grants / Current Projects
• Selected Publications
• Contact Details

Dr Jeff Powell obtained his PhD from the University of Guelph, Canada, in 2008, where he studied the impacts of genetically-modified crops on soil ecosystems. His postdoctoral research at the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, examined various aspects of microbial ecology, including the functional consequences of fungal traits in the arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis, the importance of niche dynamics in microbial community assembly, and strategies for describing communities from metagenomics data. In April 2011, he started in the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment as a Lecturer of Ecological Bioinformatics.

Areas of Research / Teaching Expertise

Dr Jeff Powell is interested in the processes underlying the assembly of communities and the functional consequences of these processes. Trained as a soil ecologist, he primarily works with plants and the soil microorganisms that they interact with and uses a variety of approaches in this research (phylogenetic, trait-based, and neutral approaches, for example). A goal of his research is to understand the contributions of microbial biodiversity to ecosystem functioning and stability, particularly in systems experiencing environmental change. Linked to this, he is also interested in the informatics approaches that are used to describe these communities, particularly in the application of improved, evolutionarily-informed approaches for species delineation in community metagenomics surveys.

Fields of Research

Community Ecology; Microbial Ecology; Soil Biology; Ecological Impacts of Climate Change; Invasive Species Ecology

Socio-Economic Objectives

Flora, Fauna, and Biodiversity; Soils; Ecosystem Adaptation to Climate Change; Control of Pests, Diseases, and Exotic Species

Awards and Recognition

• Awarded first runner up, ProSPER.Net-Scopus 2011 Asia Pacific Young Scientist of the Year in the category of Biodiversity and Natural Resource Management. He was presented with this at the ProSPER.Net-Scopus symposium held at the University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines, on 13 July 2011
• Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship, European Commission, 2009
• NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, 2008
• Humboldt Research Fellowship, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, 2007
• Section Editor Plant and Soil, Editorial Board Member Fungal Ecology
• Regular reviewer for numerous international journals including Ecology Letters, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B, Journal of Animal Ecology, Soil Biology and Biochemistry, Mycorrhiza, Microbial Ecology, and PLoS One

Grants / Current Projects

Switching partners: a driving force for tree productivity in a changing environment?
Co-Researchers: Professor John Cairney, Professor Ian Anderson, Professor Matthias Rillig
Partner/Funding Body: Australian Research Council, Discovery Grant
Period: 2013-2015

Trophic diversity, resource compartmentation, and the stability of ecosystems
Co-Researchers: Professor Matthias Rillig
Partner/Funding Body: European Commission, Marie Curie Actions
Period: 2009-2011

Selected Publications

Book Chapters

Powell JR (2007) ‘Linking soil organisms within food webs to ecosystem functioning and environmental change’, Advances in Agronomy, vol.96, pp 307-350, doi: 10.1016/S0065-2113(07)96007-1

Powell JR, Dunfield KE, (2007) ‘Non-target impacts of genetically-modified, herbicide-tolerant crops on soil microbial and faunal communities’, pages 127-137, in The First Decade of Herbicide-Resistant Crops in Canada, Topics in Canadian Weed Science, vol. 4 (R.H. Gulden and C.J. Swanton, Eds), Canadian Weed Science Society – Société canadienne de malherbologie: Sainte Anne de Bellevue, QC

Powell JR, Klironomos JN, (2007) ‘The ecology of plant-microbial mutualisms’, Chapter 10 in Soil Microbiology, Ecology, and Biochemistry, 3rd ed. (Paul EA, Ed.), Academic Press

Journal Articles

Powell JR, Anderson IC, Rillig MC, (2013) 'A new tool of the trade: plant-trait based approaches in microbial ecology', Plant and Soil, vol.365, no.s 1-2, pp 35-40

Abhilash PC, Powell JR, Singh HB, Singh BK, (2012), 'Plant-microbe interactions: Novel applications for exploitation in multipurpose remediation technologies', Trends in Biotechnology, vol.30, no.8, pp 416-420

Caruso T, Hempel S, Powell JR, Barto EK, Rillig MC, (2012) 'Compositional divergence and convergence in arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities', Ecology, vol.93, no.5, pp 1115-1124 

Caruso T, Powell JR, Rillig MC, (2012) 'Compositional Divergence and Convergence in Local Communities and Spatially Structured Landscapes', PLOS ONE, vol.7, no.4, Article No.e35942  

Lehmann A, Barto EK, Powell JR, Rillig MC, (2012) 'Mycorrhizal responsiveness trends in annual crop plants and their wild relatives-a meta-analysis on studies from 1981 to 2010', Plant and Soil, vol.355, no. 1-2, pp 231-250

Powell JR, (2012) 'Accounting for uncertainty in species delineation during the analysis of environmental DNA sequence data', Methods in Ecology and Evolution, vol.3, no.1, pp 1-11

Yang ZL, Powell JR, Zhang CH, Du GZ, (2012) 'The effect of environmental and phylogenetic drivers on community assembly in an alpine meadow community', Ecology, vol.93, no.11, pp 2321-2328  

Powell JR (2011) ‘Accounting for uncertainty in species delineation during the analysis of environmental DNA sequence data', Methods in Ecology and Evolution, accepted 22 April 2011.

Cipollini D, Wang Q, Whitehill JGA, Powell JR, Bonello P, Herms DA, (2011) 'Distinguishing Defensive Characteristics in the Phloem of Ash Species Resistant and Susceptible to Emerald Ash Borer', Journal of Chemical Ecology, vol.37, no.5, pp 450-459

Powell JR, Monaghan MT, Öpik M, Rillig MC, (2011) ‘Evolutionary criteria outperform operational approaches in producing ecologically-relevant fungal species inventories’, Molecular Ecology, vol.20, no.3, pp 655-666, doi: 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2010.04964.x

Wehner J, Antunes PM, Powell JR, Caruso T, Rillig M, (2011) 'Indigenous arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal assemblages protect grassland host plants from pathogens', PLoS ONE, vol.6, no.11, Article number e27381

Barto EK, Powell JR, Cipollini D, (2010) ‘How novel are the chemical weapons of garlic mustard in North American forest understories?’, Biological Invasions, vol.12, no.10, pp 3465-3471, doi: 10.1007/s10530-010-9744-5

Sikes BA**, Powell JR**, Rillig MC, (2010) ‘Deciphering the relative contributions of multiple functions within plant-microbe symbioses’, Ecology, vol.91, no.6, pp 1591-1597, doi: 10.1890/09-1858 **equal contribution

Wehner J, Antunes PM, Powell JR, Mazukatow J, Rillig MC, (2010) ‘Plant pathogen protection by arbuscular mycorrhizas: a role for fungal diversity?’, Pedobiologia, vol.53, no.3, pp 197-201, doi:10.1016/j.pedobi.2009.10.002

Hart MM, Powell JR, Gulden RH, Dunfield KE, Pauls KP, Swanton CJ, Klironomos JN, Antunes PM, Koch AM, Trevors JT, (2009) ‘Separating the effect of crop from herbicide on soil microbial communities in glyphosate-resistant corn’, Pedobiologia, vol. 52, pp 253-262

Hart MM, Powell JR, Gulden RH, Levy-Booth DJ, Dunfield KE, Pauls KP, Swanton CJ, Klironomos JN, Trevors JT, (2009) ‘Detection of transgenic cp4 epsps genes in the soil food web’, Agronomy for Sustainable Development, vol. 29, pp 497-501

Levy-Booth DJ, Gulden RH, Campbell RG, Powell JR, Klironomos JN, Pauls KP, Swanton CJ, Trevors JT, Dunfield KE, (2009) ‘Roundup Ready soybean gene concentrations in field soil aggregate size classes’, FEMS Microbiology Letters, vol. 291, pp 175-179

Powell JR, Parrent JL, Hart MM, Klironomos JN, Rillig MC, Maherali H, (2009) ‘Phylogenetic trait conservatism and the evolution of functional tradeoffs in arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi’, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol.276, no.1676, pp 4237-4245, doi: 10.1098/rspb.2009.1015

Powell JR, Levy-Booth DJ, Gulden RH, Asbil WL, Campbell RG, Dunfield KE, Hamill AS, Hart MM, Lerat S, Nurse RE, Pauls KP, Sikkema PH, Swanton CJ, Trevors JT, Klironomos JN, (2009) ‘Effects of genetically-modified, herbicide-tolerant crops and their management on soil food web properties and crop litter decomposition’, Journal of Applied Ecology, vol.46, no.2, pp 388-396, doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2664.2009.01617.x

Powell JR, Campbell RG, Dunfield KE, Gulden RH, Hart MM, Levy-Booth DJ, Klironomos JN, Pauls KP, Swanton CJ, Trevors JT, Antunes PM, (2009) ‘Effect of glyphosate on the tripartite symbiosis formed by Glomus intraradices, Bradyrhizobium japonicum, and genetically-modified soybean’, Applied Soil Ecology, vol.41, no.1, pp 128-136, doi: 10.1016/j.apsoil.2008.10.002

Gulden RH, Lerat SL, Blackshaw RE, Powell JR, Levy-Booth DJ, Dunfield KE, Trevors JT, Pauls KP, Klironomos JN, Swanton CJ, (2008), ‘Factors affecting the presence and persistence of plant DNA in the soil environment in corn and soybean rotations’, Weed Science, vol.56, pp 767-774

Levy-Booth DJ, Campbell RG, Gulden RH, Hart MM, Powell JR, Klironomos JN, Pauls KP, Swanton CJ, Trevors JT, Dunfield KE, (2008), ‘Real-time polymerase chain reaction monitoring of recombinant DNA entry into soil from decomposing Roundup Ready leaf biomass’, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, vol. 56, pp 6339-6347

Powell JR, Swanton CJ, (2008) ‘A critique of studies evaluating glyphosate effects on diseases associated with Fusarium spp.’, Weed Research, vol.48, no.4, pp 307-318, doi: 10.1111/j.1365-3180.2008.00634.x

Gulden RH, Levy-Booth D, Campbell R, Powell JR, Hart MM, Trevors JT, Pauls KP, Klironomos JN, Swanton CJ, (2007) ‘An empirical approach to absolute target DNA quantification in environmental samples using single polymerase chain reactions’, Soil Biology and Biochemistry, vol.39, pp 1956-1967

Lerat S, Gulden RH, Hart MM, Powell JR, England LS, Pauls KP, Swanton CJ, Klironomos JN, Trevors JT, (2007) ‘Quantification and persistence of recombinant DNA of Roundup Ready corn and soybean in rotation’, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, vol.55, pp 10226-10231

Levy-Booth DJ, Campbell RG, Gulden RH, Hart MM, Powell JR, Klironomos JN, Pauls KP, Swanton CJ, Trevors JT, Dunfield KE, (2007) ‘Cycling of extracellular DNA in the soil environment’, Soil Biology and Biochemistry, vol.39, pp 2977-2991

Powell JR (2007) ‘Linking soil organisms within food webs to ecosystem functioning and environmental change’, Advances in Agronomy, vol.96, pp 307-350

Powell JR, Dunfield KE, (2007) ‘Non-target impacts of genetically-modified, herbicide-tolerant crops on soil microbial and faunal communities’, pages 127-137, in The First Decade of Herbicide-Resistant Crops in Canada, Topics in Canadian Weed Science, vol. 4 (R.H. Gulden and C.J. Swanton, Eds), Canadian Weed Science Society – Société canadienne de malherbologie: Sainte Anne de Bellevue, QC

Powell JR, Gulden RH, Hart MM, Campbell RG, Levy-Booth DJ, Dunfield KE, Pauls KP, Swanton CJ, Trevors JT, Klironomos JN, (2007) ‘Mycorrhizal and rhizobial colonization of genetically-modified and conventional soybeans’, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, vol.73, no.13, pp 4365-4367, doi: 10.1128/AEM.00594-07

Powell JR, Klironomos JN, (2007) ‘The ecology of plant-microbial mutualisms’, Chapter 10 in Soil Microbiology, Ecology, and Biochemistry, 3rd ed. (Paul EA, Ed.), Academic Press

Stinson KA, Campbell SA, Powell JR, Wolfe BE, Callaway RM, Thelen GC, Hallett SG, Prati D, Klironomos JN, (2006) ‘Invasive plant suppresses the growth of native tree seedlings by disrupting belowground mutualisms’, PLoS Biology, vol.4, pp 727-731, doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0040140

Gulden RH, Lerat S, Hart MM, Powell JR, Trevors JT, Pauls KP, Klironomos JN, Swanton CJ, (2005) ‘Quantitation of transgenic plant DNA in leachate water: real-time PCR analysis’, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, vol.53, pp 5858-5865

Klironomos JN, Allen MF, Rillig MC, Piotrowski J, Makvandi-Nejad S, Wolfe BE, Powell JR, (2005) ‘Abrupt rise in atmospheric CO₂ overestimates community response in a model plant-soil system’, Nature, vol.433, 10 Feb 2005, pp 621-624, doi: 10.1038/nature03268

Powell JR, Webster JM, (2004) ‘Interguild antagonism between biological controls: impact of entomopathogenic nematode application on an aphid predator, Aphidoletes aphidimyza (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae)’, Biological Control, vol.30, no.1, pp 110-118, doi: 10.1016/j.biocontrol.2003.09.006

Powell JR, Webster JM, (2004) ‘Target host finding by Steinernema feltiae and Heterorhabditis bacteriophora in the presence of a non-target insect host’, Journal of Nematology, vol.36, no.3, pp 285-289, PMCID: PMC2620770