Karl Romanowicz

Advisor

George Kling

Background

Karl is a microbial ecologist pursuing his doctoral degree in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan. He received his BS and MS in Applied Ecology from Michigan Technological University and an additional MS in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Michigan. His research investigates how microbial diversity in soils influences ecosystem functions in response to environmental change. His work draws on biochemistry, microbiology, and ecology from the molecular to ecosystem scale.

His past studies focused on the diversity of microbial communities in peatland soils and the mechanisms regulating their enzymatic expression in response to environmental change. In temperate forests, he examined the long-term effects of chronic nitrogen deposition on the diversity of bacterial and fungal communities and associated changes in their gene expression that has led to greater soil carbon storage. He also discovered that invasive earthworms thrive under elevated soil nitrogen conditions, possibly reversing soil carbon gains through increased consumption of the forest floor.

Currently, his focus is on the microbial response to permafrost thaw in arctic tundra, specifically how microbial diversity differs through the soil profile from the annually-thawed active layer to the underlying permafrost and the implications these community differences have on their functional potential to transform newly released carbon substrates.

Publications

Romanowicz KJ, Kling GW. Summer thaw duration is a strong predictor of the soil microbiome and its response to permafrost thaw in arctic tundra. Environmental Microbiology. In Review.

Lamit LJ, Romanowicz KJ, Potvin LR, Lennon JT, Tringe SG, Chimner RA, Kolka RK, Kane ES, Lilleskov EA. Peatland microbial community responses to plant functional group and drought are depth-dependent. Molecular Ecology 2021, 30(20), 5119-5136.

Romanowicz KJ, Crump BC, Kling GW. Rainfall alters permafrost soil redox conditions, but meta-omics show divergent microbial community responses by tundra type in the Arctic. Soil Systems 2021, 5(1), 1-30.

Zak DR, Argiroff WA, Freedman ZB, Upchurch RA, Entwistle EM, Romanowicz KJ. Anthropogenic N deposition, fungal gene expression, and an increasing soil carbon sink in the Northern Hemisphere. Ecology 2019, 100(10): e02804.

Entwistle EM, Romanowicz KJ, Argiroff WA, Freedman ZB, Morris JJ, Zak DR. Anthropogenic N deposition alters the composition of expressed class II fungal peroxidases. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 2018, 84(9): e02816-17.

Romanowicz KJ, Zak DR. Activity of an introduced earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris) increases under future rates of atmospheric nitrogen deposition in northern temperate forests. Applied Soil Ecology 2017, 120C: 206-210.

Lamit LJ, Romanowicz KJ, Potvin LR, Rivers A, Singh K, Lennon JT, Tringe SG, Kane ES, Lilleskov EA. Patterns and drivers of fungal community depth stratification in Sphagnum peat. FEMS Microbiology Ecology 2017, 93(7): fix082.

Romanowicz KJ, Freedman ZB, Upchurch RA, Argiroff WA, Zak DR. Active microorganisms in forest soils differ from the total community yet are shaped by the same environmental factors: the influence of pH and soil moisture. FEMS Microbiology Ecology 2016, 92(10): fiw149. *Editor’s Choice

Romanowicz KJ, Kane ES, Potvin LR, Kolka RK, Lilleskov EA. Understanding drivers of peatland extracellular enzyme activity in the PEATcosm experiment: mixed evidence for enzymic latch hypothesis. Plant and Soil 2015, 397: 371-386.

Freedman ZB, Romanowicz KJ, Upchurch RA, Zak DR. Differential responses of total and active soil microbial communities to long-term experimental N deposition. Soil Biology & Biochemistry 2015, 90: 275-282.