In the Shao Lab we study how soil microorganisms shape the carbon and nutrient cycles of whole ecosystems. We build process-based models in which microbes are active players rather than hidden inside the equations, and combine them with experimental and observational data to address questions that experiments alone cannot resolve. We work across peatlands, forests, and agricultural systems, in collaboration with field and laboratory research groups.
Models of the Earth system usually treat soil biology as a passive modifier of geochemistry. Our work starts from the opposite premise: that microbial and fungal activity often sets the rate, and that models which leave it implicit get the wrong answer. Representing that biology faithfully means moving between scales — from traits measured on a single fungal isolate to fluxes integrated over a landscape — and between disciplines, from microbial ecology to soil geochemistry to numerical modeling. Meeting that challenge is what makes it possible to predict how ecosystems will respond to climate change and to management.
Lab News¶
August 2026 — The Shao Lab opened in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
2026 — Co-PI on a Department of Energy Genesis Mission award for autonomous multi-agent AI workflows in coupled bio-hydrogeochemical modeling.
December 2025 — Invited talk at AGU Fall Meeting, New Orleans; convened Session B068 on peatland carbon cycling.