Research Interests
Prof. Yang holds appointments in Plant Biology and Geology. Her research is in terrestrial biogeochemistry and ecosystem ecology with a focus on determining rates and drivers of chemical transformations in the environment, and particularly in soils. Her group investigates controls on greenhouse gas emissions, soil nitrogen and carbon dynamics, and the coupling of biogeochemical cycles beyond carbon and nitrogen. The group also develops novel methodological approaches using tracer and natural abundance stable isotope techniques. See link below for a detailed web site.
Courses Taught
- GEOL/IB 488: Environmental Stable Isotopes
- IB 100: Biology in Today's World
- IB 452: Ecosystem Ecology
Additional Campus Affiliations
Associate Professor, Plant Biology
Affiliate, Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology
Recent Publications
Almaraz, M., Wong, M. Y., & Yang, W. H. (2020). Looking back to look ahead: a vision for soil denitrification research. Ecology, 101(1), [e02917]. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2917
Chee-Sanford, J. C., Connor, L., Krichels, A., Yang, W. H., & Sanford, R. A. (2020). Hierarchical detection of diverse Clade II (atypical) nosZ genes using new primer sets for classical- and multiplex PCR array applications. Journal of Microbiological Methods, 172, [105908]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mimet.2020.105908
Heath, K. D., Podowski, J. C., Heniff, S., Klinger, C. R., Burke, P. V., Weese, D. J., Yang, W. H., & Lau, J. A. (2020). Light availability and rhizobium variation interactively mediate the outcomes of legume–rhizobium symbiosis. American journal of botany, 107(2), 229-238. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajb2.1435
von Haden, A. C., Yang, W. H., & Delucia, E. H. (2020). Soils' dirty little secret: Depth-based comparisons can be inadequate for quantifying changes in soil organic carbon and other mineral soil properties. Global change biology, 26(7), 3759-3770. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15124
Brewer, T. E., Aronson, E. L., Arogyaswamy, K., Billings, S. A., Botthoff, J. K., Campbell, A. N., Dove, N. C., Fairbanks, D., Gallery, R. E., Hart, S. C., Kaye, J., King, G., Logan, G., Lohse, K. A., Maltz, M. R., Mayorga, E., O'Neill, C., Owens, S. M., Packman, A., ... Fierer, N. (2019). Ecological and Genomic Attributes of Novel Bacterial Taxa That Thrive in Subsurface Soil Horizons. mBio, 10(5). https://doi.org/10.1128/mBio.01318-19