Alum profile: Megan Midgley: BioNews: Spring 2019: Newsletters: News & Events: Department of Biology: Indiana University Bloomington

Alum Profile: Meghan Midgley

Monday, April 15, 2019

I speak for the trees for the trees have no tongues.
The Lorax, Dr. Seuss

In her own way, IU Biology alumna Meghan Midgley [PhD ‘15 Evolution, Ecology & Behavior] speaks for the trees.

Midgley is a soil ecologist at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, IL—a nonprofit organic garden outside of Chicago with a mission to enhance tree conservation, health, and growth. There she studies plant-soil interactions. Through field experiments and observations as well as laboratory studies, Midgley works to understand how interactions among plants, microbes, and soil bring about ecosystem-specific responses to environmental changes.

Focusing on temperate hardwood forest ecosystems, Midgley investigates how plants impact the physical, chemical, and biological properties of the soils in which they grow. She uses this information to (1) predict ecosystem-specific responses to environmental changes and (2) manage the urban soil environment for healthy, long-lived trees.

Her research projects include:

Linking root and microbial traits with soil biogeochemistry
The Tollway Trees Initiative: From right tree/right site to right soil/right tree
Vacant lots and soil ecosystem services
Invasive earthworm impacts on forest soils and seedlings
Nitrogen deposition effects on current and future forests
Controlled burn impacts on soil biogeochemistry and forest dynamics

(1) Midgley collecting soil from under a sugar maple tree at The Morton Arboretum. She is using trees planted in the arboretum’s collection to examine the effects of roots on soil processes. (2) A mesocosm experiment designed to examine the impacts of invasive Amanthas spp. worms on different types of forest soils. Midgley and her master’s student are evaluating whether Amanthas (aka, jumping worms) have different impacts on white pine, white oak, sugar maple, or European buckthorn soils. (3) Midgley picking up a nitrogen deposition collector from a Cook County Forest Preserve. Midgley has deployed nitrogen deposition collectors around Chicagoland to assess nitrogen pollution at fine scales and relate deposition rates to soil properties and tree seedlings. Courtesy photos

One of the arboretum’s goals is to encourage the planting and conservation of trees and plants, so part of Midgley’s time is spent conveying her research findings to practitioners and the general public. She meets with area land manager groups such as Chicago’s oak ecosystem recovery working group and the Obama Center’s landscape contractors. She presents workshops for the public and writes informational articles.

Although Midgley’s job involves speaking for the trees, she finds that listening is just as important.

“I’ve learned that ‘practitioners’ are not one homogenous group and ‘the general public’ isn’t really a thing,” she says. “We all care about different things in our lives for different reasons. To get people excited about my research, it’s critical to connect it to the things they care about, not the things I think they should care about.”

For details about Meghan Midgley’s research, visit https://www.mortonarb.org/science-conservation/scientists-and-staff/meghan-midgley.

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