Ashish Malik

Ashish Malik
UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology | CEH

BSc, MSc, PhD

About

31
Publications
15,453
Reads
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3,488
Citations
Introduction
My research interest lies in understanding microbial processes in the environment, microbial communities and interactions. I have worked in the field of microbial ecology in varied environments ranging from marine to estuarine and now terrestrial ecosystems.
Additional affiliations
July 2015 - present
UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Position
  • PostDoc Position
July 2014 - February 2015
Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry
Position
  • PostDoc Position
February 2013 - August 2013
UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Position
  • PhD Student
Description
  • Molecular Biology, Ecology, Microbiolgy
Education
September 2006 - June 2008
Bangalore University
Field of study
  • Microbiology
July 2003 - May 2006
Goa University
Field of study
  • Biology (Major subject: Microbiology)

Publications

Publications (31)
Article
Full-text available
Despite several lines of observational evidence, there is a lack of consensus on whether higher fungal:bacterial (F:B) ratios directly cause higher soil carbon (C) storage. We employed RNA sequencing, protein profiling and isotope tracer techniques to evaluate whether differing F:B ratios are associated with differences in C storage. A mesocosm ¹³C...
Article
Full-text available
Plant diversity strongly influences ecosystem functions and services, such as soil carbon storage. However, the mechanisms underlying the positive plant diversity effects on soil carbon storage are poorly understood. We explored this relationship using long-term data from a grassland biodiversity experiment (The Jena Experiment) and radiocarbon (14...
Article
Full-text available
Using a pulse chase ¹³CO2 plant labeling experiment we compared the flow of plant carbon into macromolecular fractions of rhizosphere soil microorganisms. Time dependent ¹³C dilution patterns in microbial cellular fractions were used to calculate their turnover time. The turnover times of microbial biomolecules were found to vary: microbial RNA (19...
Article
Soil dissolved organic carbon (DOC) sources and its seasonal dynamics are poorly known. We aimed to determine the contribution of plant and soil organic matter (SOM) to size classes of DOC in a field experiment with C3 to C4 vegetation change on two soil types through different seasons. Stable isotope ratios of DOC size classes were measured using...
Article
Microbes drive fundamental ecosystem processes such as decomposition. Environmental stressors are known to affect microbes, their fitness, and the ecosystem functions that they perform, yet understanding the causal mechanisms behind this influence has been difficult. We used leaf litter on soil surface as a model in situ system to assess changes in...
Article
The soil microbiome determines the fate of plant-fixed carbon. The shifts in soil properties caused by land use change leads to modifications in microbiome function, resulting in either loss or gain of soil organic carbon (SOC). Soil pH is the primary factor regulating microbiome characteristics leading to distinct pathways of microbial carbon cycl...
Article
Full-text available
The coastal waters of Goa and Ratnagiri lying on the West coast of India are influenced by terrestrial influx. However, Goa is influenced anthropogenically by iron-ore mining, while Ratnagiri is influenced by deposition of heavy minerals containing iron brought from the hinterlands. We hypothesize that there could be a shift in biological response...
Preprint
Full-text available
Interactions between plants and microorganisms strongly affect ecosystem functioning as processes of plant productivity, litter decomposition and nutrient cycling are controlled by both organisms. Though two-sided interactions between plants and microorganisms and between microorganisms and litter decomposition are areas of major scientific researc...
Article
Full-text available
Drought represents a significant stress to microorganisms and is known to reduce microbial activity and organic matter decomposition in Mediterranean ecosystems. However, we lack a detailed understanding of the drought stress response of microbial decomposers. Here we present metatranscriptomic and metabolomic data on the physiological response of...
Preprint
Full-text available
Drought represents a significant stress to soil microorganisms and is known to reduce microbial activity and organic matter decomposition in Mediterranean ecosystems. However, we still lack a detailed understanding of the drought stress adaptations of microbial decomposers. We hypothesised that drought causes greater microbial allocation to stress...
Article
Resource acquisition and growth yield are fundamental microbial traits that affect biogeochemical processes and have consequences for ecosystem functioning. However, there is a lack of empirical observations linking these traits. Using a landscape-scale survey of temperate near-neutral pH soils, we show tradeoffs in key community-level parameters l...
Preprint
Full-text available
Resource acquisition and growth yield are fundamental traits of microorganisms that have consequences for ecosystem functioning. However, there is a lack of empirical observations linking these traits. Using a landscape-scale survey of temperate near-neutral pH soils, we show tradeoffs in key community-level parameters linked to these traits. Incre...
Article
Full-text available
Soil microorganisms act as gatekeepers for soil-atmosphere carbon exchange by balancing the accumulation and release of soil organic matter. However, poor understanding of the mechanisms responsible hinders the development of effective land management strategies to enhance soil carbon storage. Here we empirically test the link between microbial eco...
Article
Full-text available
Environmental factors relating to soil pH are important regulators of bacterial taxonomic biodiversity, yet it remains unclear if such drivers affect community functional potential. To address this, we applied whole-genome metagenomics to eight geographically distributed soils at opposing ends of a landscape soil pH gradient (where “low-pH” is ~pH...
Preprint
Full-text available
Environmental factors relating to soil pH are widely known to be important in structuring soil bacterial communities, yet the relationship between taxonomic community composition and functional diversity remains to be determined. Here, we analyze geographically distributed soils spanning a wide pH gradient and assess the functional gene capacity wi...
Article
Microbial contribution to the maintenance and turnover of soil organic matter is significant. Yet, we do not have a thorough understanding of how biochemical composition of soil microbial biomass is related to carbon turnover and persistence of different microbial components. Using a suite of state-of-the-art analytical techniques, we investigated...
Article
Full-text available
The coastal waters of Goa and Ratnagiri lying on the West coast of India are influenced by terrestrial influx. However, Goa is influenced anthropogenically by iron-ore mining, while Ratnagiri is influenced by deposition of heavy minerals containing iron brought from the hinterlands. We hypothesize that there could be a shift in biological response...
Article
There is a shift in environmental variables in upwelling region.•There are changes in intensity, direction and network of interactions.•Abiotic factors influenced phytoplankton and bacteria.•Viable bacteria represent a prominent and stable node in the web interactions.•They indirectly yet significantly augment the productivity of upwelling areas.
Article
Stable isotopic content of dissolved organic carbon (δ(13)C-DOC) provides valuable information on its origin and fate. In an attempt to get additional insights into DOC cycling, we developed a method for δ(13)C measurement of DOC size classes by coupling high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-size exclusion chromatography (SEC) to online iso...

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