Decomposer communities and decomposition processes

Education
I come from Fujian Province in China and studied Biological Sciences at Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University and Texas University during my Bachelor. Following that, I studied Entomology at China Agricultural University. During my master thesis, I got fascinated by the diversity of insects and for my master thesis, I focus on mitochondrial phylogenomics of major subfamilies of Reduviidae, Hemiptera.
This passion for understanding the complex interactions and ecological roles of aboveground animals led me to my current research interests:

Now I am a doctoral candidate in the RTG 2300, subproject 5: “Decomposer communities and decomposition processes”.
In forest ecosystems, carbon assimilated by trees is entering the belowground system either as above- or belowground plant residues. These residues are processed by complex microbial and animal communities. Thereby, the decomposer system provides essential functions and services for the aboveground system. Root-derived and root-associated resources, such as root exudates and mycorrhizal fungi, comprise a major resource pool for the decomposer system, and its importance may even surpass that of litter resources, but this is little studied.
I aim to investigate the role of litter and root-derived resources for the structure and functioning of decomposer food webs in pure and mixed forests of European beech, Norway spruce and Douglas fir, thereby investigating the role of native versus non-native tree species.