Avni Malhotra
Avni Malhotra
Biography
Avni Malhotra is a biogeochemist and ecosystem ecologist focused on soil carbon and plant responses to global change, with the overarching goal of improving predictive understanding of ecosystems. Avni specializes in carbon-rich ecosystems such as peatlands and wetlands, which are a globally significant but vulnerable sink of carbon. She employs a multi-scale approach where fine-scale process investigations in the lab and field are placed in a broader context using global data syntheses, and model-data integration.
Avni is currently focused on two pressing knowledge gaps in our understanding of the terrestrial biosphere’s response to global change: 1) plant-soil interactions across ecosystem types and 2) carbon transformations across the terrestrial-aquatic interface, particularly the fate of soil carbon stored in coastal and freshwater wetlands. She also continues to build state-of-the-art ecological and soil databases to aid syntheses and models, with a current focus on soil carbon as a nature-based climate solution. Last but not the least, Avni is interested in driving systemic change to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion in science and achieves this goal through mentorship, leadership and training.
Research Interest
- Global change
- Wetlands
- Peatlands
- Permafrost
- Root traits
- Soil carbon
- Methane
- Carbon dioxide
- Databases
Education
- Doctor of Philosophy, McGill University, Montréal, Canada
- Master of Science, Villanova University, Philadelphia, USA
- Bachelor of Science (Honors), York University, Toronto, Canada
- Postdoctoral training: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Stanford University
Affiliations and Professional Service
Student Advising*
Ongoing:
- Plant above and belowground traits as predictors of peatland carbon function
(PhD, Tiia Määttä)
- Quantifying root litter carbon cycling in degraded peat soils
(Masters student, Nadja Hertel)
- Vegetation-soil/water relations in raised bog areas of different degradation stages
(Masters student, Melina Bucher)
Completed:
- The role of root traits in CH4 fluxes from rice cultivation in degraded peat soil
(Masters student, Nisha Sriskandarajah)
- Boreal peatland fine root responses to climate change: a synthesis
(Bachelors thesis, Melina Bucher). Publication link
*All students are based at the University of Zurich, Switzerland
Synergistic Activities
- Associate Editor for JGR-Biogeosciences
- International Soil Carbon Network, Coordinator
- AmeriFlux Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee, Cochair (2021-present)
- American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting Program Committee and Chair (2018-2021)
- Advisory board member for ICON Science (2022-present)
- ‘Linking root traits and soil carbon on a global scale’ at the Climate Change Science Institute and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, July 2018, Read Eos meeting report here.