Ecologist
Research Council of Finland Academy Fellow
My name is Carlos A. Aguilar-Trigueros
I am a ecologist interested in discovering, documenting, and understanding the traits that can predict the function of fungi along the root-soil interface in ecosystems and the assembly of fungal communities. By function, I mean the effects of soil fungi in different ecosystem processes, such as plant productivity or mineralization.
Because fungi are very different from other organism groups, I have teamed up with an interdisciplinary team of researchers to study fungal traits, which is a lot of fun!
Currently, I work as a Research Council of Finland (formerly Academy of Finland) Academy Fellow. My research group includes Simone Stidsborg, who is working toward her PhD. Read more about Simone, her research, and her interests here.
Before becoming a PI at the University of Jyväskylä, I was a post-doctoral Humboldt Fellow in the lab of Jeff Powell at Western Sydney University. I also continue to collaborate with Otso Ovaskainen and Nerea Abrego at the University of Jyväskylä, where I spent one year of my Feodor Lynen Research Fellowship. Before that, I received my PhD at the Freie Universität Berlin in the lab of Matthias Rillig, where I also worked as a postdoc.
My main research questions are
I am part of a team of researchers uncovering a large inter-specific variation in the traits of fungal spores: the structures that many fungi use to reproduce (similar to seeds and eggs). I am interested...Read more
The body of most fungi is unique because it grow as a dynamic network within which nutrients and information are transported. However, it is not clear how widely such networks vary among species or to...Read more
Fungi have a constant love-hate relationship with plant roots. The result of this relationship is a complex and dynamic fungal community associated to roots. I am interested in identifying which traits (both from roots and...Read more
The fungal kingdom encompasses a wide diversity of lifestyles. As result of this diversity, fungi perform many functions in ecosystems. Some are well known, such as carbon cycling,or assisting plants in nutrient acquisition through symbiosis...Read more