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
Associate Professor, Center for Digital Agriculture, National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA)
Recent Publications
Shan, J., Sanford, R. A., Chee‐Sanford, J., Ooi, S. K., Löffler, F. E., Konstantinidis, K. T., & Yang, W. H. (Accepted/In press). Beyond denitrification: the role of microbial diversity in controlling nitrous oxide reduction and soil nitrous oxide emissions. Global change biology. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15545
Yadav, P., Antony-Babu, S., Hayes, E., Healy, O. M., Pan, D., Yang, W. H., Silver, W. L., Anderson, C. L., Voshall, A., Fernando, S. C., Moriyama, E. N., Herr, J. R., & Weber, K. A. (2021). Complete genome sequence of geobacter sp. Strain FeAm09, a moderately acidophilic soil bacterium. Microbiology Resource Announcements, 10(2), [e00979-20]. https://doi.org/10.1128/MRA.00979-20
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
Dove, N. C., Arogyaswamy, K., Billings, S. A., Botthoff, J. K., Carey, C. J., Cisco, C., Deforest, J. L., Fairbanks, D., Fierer, N., Gallery, R. E., Kaye, J. P., Lohse, K. A., Maltz, M. R., Mayorga, E., Pett-Ridge, J., Yang, W. H., Hart, S. C., & Aronson, E. L. (2020). Continental-scale patterns of extracellular enzyme activity in the subsoil: An overlooked reservoir of microbial activity. Environmental Research Letters, 15(10), [1040A1]. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abb0b3