- Email:
- franco@iu.edu
- Research areas:
- Ecology and Conservation
- Sustainability and Sustainable Development
- Areas of Interest:
- Soil ecology
- Soil-plant interactions
- Ecosystem functioning
- Global environmental changes
MSBII 314
Education
- PhD, Soil Science, University of São Paulo, 2015
- MS, Bioenergy, Universidade Estadual de Londrina, 2012
- BS, Agronomy, Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz, 2008
Biography
André Franco joined the O'Neill School in 2022 as an assistant professor. Previously a research scientist in the Department of Biology at Colorado State University, Franco focuses on how modern global environmental changes are affecting soils from tropical crop fields and rainforests to temperate grasslands. His work has contributed to unraveling fundamental roles of microscopic soil animals, such as nematodes, and larger ones such as earthworms and termites, in influencing ecosystem responses to changing climate and land-use regimes. He earned his doctorate in soil science at the University of São Paulo in Piracicaba, Brazil.
Highlights
- International Presidential Fellow, Colorado State University (2017)
Selected Works
- “Drought suppresses soil predators and promotes root herbivores in mesic, but not in xeric grasslands,” (with Gherardi, LA; de Tomasel CM; Andriuzzi, WS; Ankrom, KE; Shaw, EA; Bach, EM; Sala, OE; Wall, DH), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). 116, 12883-12888, (2019)
- “Precipitation effects on nematode diversity and carbon footprint across grasslands,” (with Guan, P; Cui, S; de Tomasel, CM; Gherardi, LA; Sala, OE; Wall, DH), Global Change Biology. 28, 2124-2132, (2022)
- “Response of Antarctic soil fauna to climate‐driven changes since the Last Glacial Maximum,” (with Byron J. Adams; Melisa A. Diaz; et al), Global Change Biology, 28 (2) 644-653, (2022)
- “Managing soil biology for multiple human benefits,” (with Fonte, SJ; Wall, DH), Advances in Soil Science – The Soil–Human Health Nexus, Lal, Ratan ed. Taylor & Francis Group, pages 275-302, (2020)
- “Amazonian deforestation and soil biodiversity,” (with Sobral, BW; Silva, ALC; Wall, DH), Conservation Biology, 33, 590-600, (2019)
- “Root herbivory controls the effects of precipitation on the partitioning between above-belowground grass biomass,” (with Gherardi, LA; de Tomasel, CM; Andriuzzi, WS; Ankrom, KE; Bach, EM; Guan, P; Sala, OE; Wall, DH), Functional Ecology, 34, 2403-2410(2020)
- “Linking soil engineers, structural stability, and organic matter allocation to unravel soil carbon responses to land-use change,” (with Cherubin, MR; Cerri, CEP; Six, J; Wall, DH; Cerri, CC), Soil Biology & Biochemistry, 150, 107998 (2020)