Functional Ecology is delighted to announce that the winner of the 2024 Haldane Prize is Yuguo Yang!
The Haldane Prize is awarded annually for the best paper published in the journal by an early career researcher.
Winner: Yuguo Yang
Research: Trade-offs in rooting strategy dimensions along an edaphic gradient in a grassland ecosystem
Yuguo is a postdoctoral scholar at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory working with Dr. Romy Chakraborty, exploring belowground ecosystems. His current research focuses on developing simplified microbial communities using known microbial strains and inoculating them into plant roots. By studying these interactions in a controlled environment, Yuguo aims to uncover fundamental principles of plant-microbe relationships that could inform sustainable agriculture and ecosystem management.
In this blog post, we ask Yuguo some questions about his research and career to date.
How did you get into ecology?
As a plant enthusiast, I feel incredibly fortunate to conduct research that deepens my understanding of plant life. My journey began at Beijing Forestry University, where I earned my undergraduate degree in turfgrass management. There, I was introduced to plant identification, taxonomy, and plant-soil interactions, which sparked my curiosity about the belowground world. Driven by this passion, I pursued a master’s degree in soil ecology at the same university before continuing my academic journey at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. As a Ph.D. student under Dr. Sabrina E. Russo, I studied plant ecological strategies, focusing on how plants develop their root systems in different soil environments and how these roots interact with soil microbes.
What is your research about and how does it advance the field?
In our paper we explored how plants adapt their root systems to different soil conditions in a grassland ecosystem. Specifically, we examined the trade-offs plants make between increasing root biomass, investing in root durability, and relying on fungal symbionts (mycorrhizae) to aid in nutrient absorption.
Our findings enhance our understanding of plant adaptation to belowground conditions, demonstrating that root growth is shaped by a diverse suite of trait combinations rather than one or two trade-off axes.
Have you continued this research and if so, where are you at now with it?
As a postdoctoral scholar at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory working with Dr. Romy Chakraborty, I continue to explore belowground ecosystems. My current research focuses on developing simplified microbial communities using known microbial strains and inoculating them into plant roots. By studying these interactions in a controlled environment, I aim to uncover fundamental principles of plant-microbe relationships that could inform bioenergy, sustainable agriculture, and ecosystem management.
What did you enjoy most about conducting this research?
The part I enjoyed the most was identifying grassland plants. There’s something really satisfying about learning their names and recognizing them in the field. It wasn’t easy —most of the plants at my field sites were grasses, and many weren’t even at their flowering stage, so we had to identify those mainly by subtle differences in their leaf traits. And something that brought more fun was to work on roots the same day after we went back to lab. With the memory of the aboveground plant community still fresh, it was amazing to see what their hidden underground structures looked like.
Were there any particularly funny experiences or surprising discoveries from this research?
The funniest part was that after the research was over and we returned to university, my undergraduate field crew, Joevy Sum and Justin Ho, had developed a new habit — they started spotting roadside grasses in their daily lives and trying to identify them. To me, this was encouraging and rewarding beyond completing the research, as I introduced younger scientists to the field of ecology.
What does winning the Haldane Prize mean to you?
This is a tremendous honour, and it gives me even more motivation to continue my scientific journey. I’m deeply grateful to my advisor and my undergraduate field assistants—our small team made this research possible through mutual support. My study sites were in the Nebraska Sandhills, one of the largest remaining intact grasslands on Earth. I hope that beyond contributing to the science, my work can raise awareness about the importance of protecting these invaluable ecosystems.
Comments from the Senior Editor, Emma Sayer:
A central issue in functional ecology is to identify traits representing ecological or life-history trade-offs that can then be used to predict demographic change and community responses to the environment. For plants, frameworks using leaf trait variation to define broad ecological strategies have been successfully applied in many different settings but similar approaches to define ecological strategies based on root traits have produced mixed results. Yang and colleagues hypothesised that rooting strategies comprise not only root trait variation but also mycorrhizal associations, and above- vs. belowground biomass allocation. They tested their hypothesis by assessing changes in plant community structure, biomass allocation, and eight root traits, including mycorrhizal dependency, along a gradient of water availability. The study reveals that organ-level trait variation alone was insufficient to capture shifts in rooting strategies. Instead, community-level rooting strategies involved multidimensional trade-offs encompassing root traits, whole-plant resource allocation, and mycorrhizal associations. Based on these findings, Yang and Russo present a framework to our advance understanding of community-level rooting strategies in other plant communities and ecosystems. Thus, the paper is an excellent example of the kind of papers Functional Ecology seeks to publish.
Congratulations to Yuguo for his award-winning work! You can read his paper, as well as all those that were shortlisted for the 2024 Haldane Prize, in our virtual issue.
