Associate Professor Yolima Carrillo
View Yolima's Researcher Profile
KEYWORDS: soil carbon, nutrient cycling, rhizosphere processes, elevated CO2, drought, soil organic matter
Associate Professor Yolima Carrillo focuses on the cycles of carbon and nutrients in terrestrial ecosystems, both natural and agricultural. She is interested in the mechanisms by which these cycles are affected by environmental change and management. She studies belowground biogeochemical processes and how they are shaped by plants, plant roots and soil biotic communities.
Biographical details
Prior to joining HIE she worked as a Teaching and Research Fellow at the Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Sydney, which she joined after doing post-doctoral work at the University of Wyoming (USA). She obtained a PhD in Ecology at the University of Georgia (USA) where she also obtained a graduate certificate in Conservation Ecology. Dr Carrillo completed her undergraduate studies at the National University of Colombia
Research interests
Associate Professor Carrillo combines field and laboratory experiments to answer questions at the ecosystem level at the plant-soil-microbe interface. As tools for her research she has used a variety of applications of stable isotope tracers of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen, microbial and whole soil community assessments as well as various chemical approaches to the analyses of pools an fluxes of carbon, nitrogen and other nutrients in plants, soil, soil microbes and the atmosphere.
Her current areas of interest include:
- Rhizosphere mediation of soil organic matter dynamics, including decomposition and formation, as affected by climate change factors (including elevated CO2, warming and water stress)
- Mechanisms of impact of water stress and water availability on carbon cycling, stoichiometric relations and microbial communities in soil and potential feedbacks to climate
- Mediation by plant roots on plant water use and plant and microbes nitrogen uptake via impacts on the soil physical environment
- Role of mycorrhizal symbionts on soil organic matter dynamics
- Response of biogeochemical processes and microbial communities to ecosystem restoration
Teaching
She co-founded and also co-leads the Stable Isotope in Biosphere Systems, a multi-institutional intensive 8-day annual workshop directed at researchers of all levels seeking to enhance or bring stable isotope techniques to their work.
Her teaching at Western Sydney University involves contributions to various units: Climate Change Science, Ecosystem Carbon Accounting, Ecosystems in a Changing World and Botany
Awards and Recognition
- Won a Western Sydney University Researcher Development Strategic Initiative Funding – Women’s Fellowship Scheme Award, 2015. The award supported her research project ‘Water and nitrogen in soil: are they a solid couple?’.
Grants/Current projects
Silicon: a novel solution to reduce water use and pest damage in wheat
Co-Researchers: David Tissue and Yolima Carrillo
Partner/funding body: Australian Research Council Linkage
Period: 2023-2027
The role of rewilding in the restoration of invertebrate and microbial biodiversity and ecological processes
Co-Researcher: Uffe Nielsen
Partner/Funding Body: NSW Department of Planning and Environment
Period: 2023-2027
The impact of Loam inoculants on soil carbon building and stability and field-scale greenhouse emissions
Co-Researcher: Jeff Powell
Partner/Funding Body: LoamBio Pty Ltd
Period: 2023-2024
Cumberland Plain Conservation Plan - Research Strategy and Implementation
Co-Researchers: Paul Rymer, Uffe Nielsen, Rachael Nolan, Elise Pendall, Jeff Powell, Catriona Macdonald, Ben Moore, Markus Riegler, Neil Perry and Juan Salazar
Partner/Funding Body: NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment
Period: 2021-2025
Former snowy scheme rehabilitation sites project - biological indicators
Co-Researchers: Jeff Powell and Uffe Nielsen
Partner/Funding Body: NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment
Period: 2021-2022
The role of endophytic fungi in soil carbon sequestration
Co-Researchers: Jeff Powell
Partner/Funding Body: SoilCQuest
Period: 2020
Bushfire Recovery: Endangered dry sclerophyll woodlands, Sydney basin bioregion
Co-Researchers: Elise Pendall, Paul Rymer and Matthias Boer
Partner/Funding Body: Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment
Period: 2020-2021
Causes and consequences of biogeochemical mismatches during drought
Co-Researchers: Uffe Nielsen, Tom Jeffries, Feike Dijkstra and Osvaldo Sala
Partner/Funding Body: Australian Research Council Discovery
Period: 2019-2021
Identifying meaningful ecosystem function indicators for threatened ecological communities
Co-Researchers: Uffe Nielsen, Catriona Macdonald and Jeff Powell
Partner/Funding Body: NSW Office of Environment and Heritage
Period: 2019-2021
Evaluating the use of biological indicators in restoration and rehabilitation
Co-Researchers: Uffe Nielsen, Catriona Macdonald and Jeff Powell
Partner/Funding Body: NSW Office of Environment and Heritage
Period: 2019-2020
Gaseous nitrogen movement in Queensland sugarcane soils and plant nitrogen use: role of fertilizer formulations and plant roots
Co-Researchers: Catriona Macdonald and Elise Pendall
Partner/Funding Body: Wilmar Bioethanol (Australia) Pty Ltd
Period: 2017
Sustainable pasture systems under climate extremes
Co-Researchers: Sally Power, Mark Tjoelker, Elise Pendall, David Tissue, Jeff Powell, Ben Moore, Catriona Macdonald, Brajesh Singh and Jonathan Plett
Partner/funding body: MLA Donor Company Limited and Dairy Australia
Period: 2017-2020
Will trees get enough nitrogen to sustain productivity in elevated CO2? Co-Researchers: David Ellsworth, Oula Ghannoum and Sönke Zaehle
Partner/Funding Body: Australian Research Council Discovery
Period: 2016-2018
Gaseous nitrogen movement in Queensland sugarcane soils and plant nitrogen use: role of fertilizer formulations and plant roots Co-Researchers: Catriona Macdonald and Elise Pendall
Partner/Funding Body: Wilmar Bioethanol (Australia) Pty Ltd
Period: 2017
Future nutrient limitations across terrestrial ecosystems: a dual look at nitrogen and phosphorus
Co-Researchers: Louise Andresen, Tobias Rütting and Klaus Jarosch
Partner/Funding Body: Wilmar Bioethanol (Australia) Pty Ltd
Searching for meaningful belowground indicators of ecosystem threatened ecosystem restoration and rehabilitation of degraded land Co-Researchers: Bryony Horton and Ian Oliver
Partner/Funding Body: Office of Environment and Heritage
Drought and fertility effects on plant/microbe N:P stoichiometry and root morphology and feedbacks to climate change
Co-Researchers: David Tissue and Feike Dijkstra
The role of plant root activity in shaping the fate of water and nitrogen and their availability to plants via its impact on soil structure
Co-Researchers: Margaret Barbour, Feike Dijkstra and Kevin Simonin
People
- Professor Matthias Boer
- Associate Professor Yolima Carrillo
- Associate Professor Chris Cazzonelli
- Professor Brendan Choat
- Professor James Cook (Theme Leader - Plants Animals and Interactions)
- Doctor Eleonora Egidi
- Professor David Ellsworth
- Doctor Manuel Esperon
- Doctor Adam Frew
- Associate Professor Rachael Gallagher
- Professor Oula Ghannoum
- Doctor Christopher Gordon
- Professor Scott Johnson
- Associate Professor Catriona Macdonald
- Doctor James Makinson
- Doctor Jessica Meade
- Distinguished Professor Belinda Medlyn (Theme Leader - Ecosystem Function and Integration)
- Associate Professor Ben Moore
- Professor Uffe Nielsen (Theme Leader - Soil Biology and Genomics)
- Associate Professor Rachael Nolan
- Associate Professor Alexie Papanicolaou
- Professor Elise Pendall
- Associate Professor Jonathan Plett
- Professor Jeff Powell
- Professor Sally Power
- Doctor Renée Marchin Prokopavicius
- Professor Markus Riegler
- Associate Professor Paul Rymer
- Doctor Demi Sargent
- Associate Professor Robert Sharwood
- Distinguished Professor Brajesh Singh
- Professor Ben Smith (Director of Research)
- Distinguished Professor David Tissue
- Professor Mark Tjoelker (Interim Director)
- Doctor Bin Wang
- Doctor Jun-Tao Wang
- Professor Justin Welbergen
- Distinguished Professor Ian Wright (Chief Scientist)
Honorary and Adjunct Appointments
