Microbial Ecologist · Open to New Opportunities
Hi, I’m Xiuling.
I work at the intersection of microbial ecology and data.
I study how climate, depth, hosts, and environments shape bacterial and fungal communities, connecting experiments, statistics, and reproducible data analysis into complete research workflows.
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Profile
My research connects geography, ecology, biochemistry, and microbiome data science. During my PhD at the University of Potsdam and the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, I focused on microbial communities across Chilean climate gradients and deep-soil profiles, alongside work on rhizosphere and edible-mushroom bacterial and fungal communities.
I can independently lead research from experimental design, low-biomass DNA extraction, qPCR, and sequencing preparation to community analysis, statistical modelling, network analysis, scientific visualisation, and manuscript writing. I am also interested in future work on human-associated communities such as dental plaque and in cross-environment reviews.
Request my full CV02
Research Areas
From soils, rhizospheres, and edible fungi to broader host-associated environments, I study how microbial communities assemble, change, and function.
Climate gradients & deep-soil microbiomes
Investigating how climate, soil depth, and physicochemical properties jointly shape bacterial communities across Chile’s arid-to-humid gradient.
Living and relic microbial communities
Separating intracellular DNA (iDNA) from extracellular DNA (eDNA) to improve ecological inference in low-biomass environments.
Rhizosphere & food microbiology
Connecting microbial communities with plants, environments, and production processes, from medicinal-plant rhizospheres to mushroom preservation.
Fungi & cross-environment microbiomes
Extending future research and review interests to fungi, edible mushrooms, dental plaque, and microbial communities across contrasting environments.
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Selected Project
EARTHSHAPE · DFG · 2018–2025
Germany–Chile EarthShape BIOSOILS Project
I contributed to deep-soil research across climate zones, linking climate, soil depth, and microbial communities through experiments and data analysis. I also optimised a low-biomass soil DNA extraction workflow adopted by the GFZ laboratory.View the project04
Publications & Manuscripts
01020304050607
IN REVISIONFIRST AUTHORMINOR REVISION RETURNED · AWAITING DECISION
Rhizosphere fungal communities of four Ferula species in their native habitats in northern Xinjiang
RhizosphereJCR 2025 · IF 3.5 · Q1
IN REVIEWCORRESPONDING AUTHORMAJOR REVISION
Depth-dependent differences between direct total DNA and an intracellular-DNA-enriched fraction in bulk-soil bacterial and fungal communities of a Lonicera japonica field
BMC MicrobiologyJCR 2025 · IF 5.4 · Q1
2026CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Mechanical Damage Modulates Bacterial and Fungal Succession on the Surface of Hypsizygus marmoreus During Refrigerated Storage
Microorganisms · 14(4) · 762JCR 2025 · IF 4.7 · Q2
2024FIRST AUTHOR
The effects of climate and soil depth on living and dead bacterial communities along a longitudinal gradient in Chile
Science of the Total Environment · 945 · 173846JCR 2024 (PUBLICATION YEAR) · IF 8.0 · Q1
2019FIRST AUTHOR
Low Temperature (15 °C) Reduces Bacterial Diversity and Prolongs the Preservation Time of Volvariella volvacea
Microorganisms · 7(10) · 475JCR 2025 · IF 4.7 · Q2
2018FIRST AUTHOR
Bacterial diversity and community structure in the rhizosphere of four Ferula species
Scientific Reports · 8 · 5345JCR 2025 · IF 4.9 · Q1
2016SECOND AUTHOR
A unique mountainous vertical distribution patterns and related environmental interpretation – a case study on the northern slope of the Ili River Valley
Pakistan Journal of Botany · 48(5) · 1877–1886JCR 2025 · IF 1.1 · Q3
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Experience
Education
PhD in Biochemistry
University of Potsdam · doctoral research at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences
MSc in Ecology
Shihezi University · microbial ecology
BSc in Geography
Zhengzhou Normal University
Research Experience
Doctoral Researcher
GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences · Geomicrobiology · Potsdam
Research Intern
Institute of Edible Fungi, Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences
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Skills
Research workflows integrating laboratory work, data, and AI agents.
AI agents & research workflows
Advanced Codex user with extensive experience in Claude Code and ChatGPT; skilled in task decomposition, agent collaboration, prompting, output validation, and long-running workflows.
R & AI-assisted programming
Around five years of R experience (2021–present) across data wrangling, statistical modelling, microbial community analysis, and visualisation. I now work primarily through AI-assisted development while retaining methodological judgement, debugging, and reproducibility skills.
Statistics & microbiome data
Experienced with SPSS, community and network analyses, multivariate statistics, and scientific visualisation from raw data to publication-ready results.
Microbial ecology laboratory work
Low-biomass soil DNA extraction, PCR, qPCR, library preparation, microbial isolation and cultivation, and 16S, ITS, and metagenomic workflows.
Codex Claude Code ChatGPT R SPSS Microbiome data 16S / ITS
Contact & Collaboration