Huijie Gan

Huijie Gan

Postdoctoral Research Associate, Entomology Department, Cornell University

Address: 326 Barton Lab, 630 West North Street, Geneva, New York 14456

Email:; Phone: 734-276-4074

Lab webpage:

Education

2004-2008, B.S. in Ecology, Peking University, China

2008- 2013, Ph.D., University of Michigan, United States.

Dissertation research:Oribatid mite communities in soil: structure, function and response to global environmental change. Advisors: Donald Zak and Mark Hunter

General research interests include understanding the mechanisms underlying community assembly, and the effects of ecological communities on ecosystem functioning. I’m also interested in how global environmental change influences community structure, and subsequent feedbacks with ecosystem processes. I’m particularly interested in the community assembly of soil fauna and their effects on soil processes, including decomposition and nutrient dynamics.

Employment

Postdoctoral Research Associate: Entomology Department, New York State Agricultural and Experiment Station, Cornell University. Mentor: Dr. Kyle Wickings, 2014. 01- 2014. 12.

Graduate Student Instructor.Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.University of Michigan. 2009.01-2012.04.

Laboratory Assistant. Soil Lab. School of Natural Resource and Environment. University of Michigan.2013.09-2013.12

Training

Soil Acarology. Summer Course. Ohio State University. 2010.

Awards and Fellowships

National Scholarship (¥ 8000), Peking University, China. 2007

Du Pont Scholarship (¥ 2000), Peking University, China 2006

Research Grants

Gan, H. J. 2012.The response of the macrofauna community to nitrogen deposition. Block Grant, University of Michigan. $1260

Gan, H. J. 2011 The contribution of microarthropod community on litter decomposition under the scenario of N deposition. Block Grant, University of Michigan. $ 760

Gan, H. J. 2010.The response of the soil microarthropod community to nitrogen deposition and subsequent feedback on the decomposition process.Block Grant, University of Michigan, $ 2064.

Teaching

Introductory Biology Lab & Discussion: 2009, 2011 & 2012.

General Ecology Discussion: 2010

Plant Biology Lab & Discussion: 2012

Other research experiences

  1. Morphology database of Fuji Ants Museum of Natural History, University of Michigan. Research Assistant. Sep 2010 - Apr 2010

Morphology, size and shape of an organism, reflects a combination of differences in the ecology and phylogenetic history of species. This project seeks to understand the relationships between morphological diversity and functional organization of Fuji ant community, which is a diverse and important component in this tropical island. I was in charge of digitizing ant specimens using automotage technique in software ImagePro, and building up the morphology database from the taken images.

  1. Chinese White-Dolphin (Sousa chinensis) Conservation. Ecology Department, Peking University. Research Intern. Jun 2007---Sep 2007

As a member of Green Life Association, I participated in a summer program (2007) in the PKU-QinZhou Chinese White-Dolphin Research Institute to investigate factors that threaten the survival of Chinese White-Dolphin, an endangered species.

  1. N:P stoichiometry of plant species in Xilin River Basin, Inner Mongolia. Jun 2006 --- Jun 2007

This research program is supported by Hui-Chun Chin and Tsung-Dao Lee Chinese Undergraduate Research Endowment (CURE),PekingUniversity. Based on a previous research of the chemical elements analysis of 122 plant species in the year 1979, we sampled the leaves of 90 of the same species in the year 2006 in the same study area. We analyze the N:P stoichiometric pattern and its change over the last 27 years under the global environmental change.

Skills

Lab|Oribatid mite identification; Phospholipid fatty acid analysis (PLFA); Terminal restriction fragmentation length polymorphism analysis (T-RFLP); Enzyme assays

Computational|Multivariate analysis in R (Vegan package); rarefaction in EstimateS

Presentations

  1. Atmospheric Nitrogen deposition and soil fauna: The effect on litter decay process. Poster presentation. ESA 2012, Portland OR.
  2. Community structure of soil fauna: Does dispersal limitation matter? EEB lunch seminar, University of Michigan. 2012
  3. The response of microarthropods to atmospheric N deposition. Oral Presentation. ESA 2011, Austin TX.

Publications

  1. Gan, Huijie, Donald R. Zak, and Mark D. Hunter. 2014. Trophic stability of soil oribatid mites in the face of environmental change. Soil Biology and Biochemistry. 68:71-77.
  2. Gan, Huijie, Donald R. Zak, and Mark D. Hunter. 2013. Chronic nitrogen deposition alters the structure and function of detrital food webs in a northern hardwood ecosystem. Ecological Applications. 23:1311–1321.
  3. Xu, B, Cheng Y. X., Gan, H. J., Zhou W. J., He J. S.*. 2010. Correlations between leaf and fine root traits among and within species of typical temperate grassland in Xilin River Basin, Inner Mongolia, China.Chinese Journal of Plant Ecology, 34(1): 29-38.

Manuscripts in revision

  1. Gan, H. J, Zak, D.R and Hunter M.D. Do small species get far? The diversity and composition of oribatid mite communities across a glacial chronosequence..

2Gan, H. J, Zak, D.R and Hunter M.D. Change in microarthropod communities under chronic N deposition feed back to influence fungal communities but not litter decay.

Services

  1. EEB Admission Committee. 2012 – 2013. University of Michigan
  2. EEB Lunch Seminar Committee. 2011 – 2012. University of Michigan

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