Peter Pellitier
Assistant Professor
Graduate Program Membership:
Research Statement
My research focuses on understanding and predicting the fate of forest ecosystems under climate change. In particular I strive to understand how fungal communities both respond to, and influence forest ecosystem responses to climate change. I primarily focus on mutualistic mycorrhizal fungal communities, their influence on soil carbon cycling, forest drought-stress tolerance, and tree growth in a changing climate. My research spans a broad array of scales and disciplines, linking fungal genes to large-scale forest ecosystem processes. We rely on a range of techniques involving genomics, plant and fungal physiology, and biogeochemistry. Overall, I seek to identify fundamental plant-fungal interactions that influence forest ecosystems and utilize that knowledge to develop applied interventions that improve forest resilience in a changing climate.
Research Interests
General Interests
Specific Interests
- Community and Ecosystem Ecology
- Fungal Biology
- Genetics and Genomics
- Plant Biology
Selected Publications
- Wind Patterns Influence the Dispersal and Assembly of North American Soil Fungal Communities, PT Pellitier, MM Kling, C Qin, ME Van Nuland, K Zhu, KG Peay, Ecology Letters 28 (5), e70130
- A risk assessment framework for the future of forest microbiomes in a changing climate CE Willing, PT Pellitier, ME Van Nuland, J Alvarez-Manjarrez, L Berrios, ... Nature Climate Change 14 (5), 448-461
- Ectomycorrhizal fungal decay traits along a soil nitrogen gradient PT Pellitier, DR Zak New Phytologist 232 (5), 2152-2164
- Ectomycorrhizal access to organic nitrogen mediates CO2 fertilization response in a dominant temperate tree PT Pellitier, I Ibáñez, DR Zak, WA Argiroff, K Acharya Nature Communications 12 (1), 5403