Xiuling Wangmicrobes · ecology · data
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Xiuling Wang in the mountains

MICROBIAL ECOLOGY · DATA · REPRODUCIBILITY

Xiuling Wang

Microbial Ecologist & Microbiome Researcher

I connect low-biomass molecular methods, R-based statistics and ecological interpretation to study microbiomes across climate, soil depth and rhizosphere environments.

Seeking postdoctoral and related research opportunities in microbial ecology and microbiome science.

Email me View selected work
01

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.

My work spans experimental design, low-biomass DNA extraction, qPCR, community statistics, scientific visualisation and manuscript writing. In metagenomics, I focus on downstream analysis and ecological interpretation, building on upstream bioinformatics performed by collaborators.

Download academic CV (PDF)
BackgroundDoctoral studies (degree not yet awarded) · MSc in Ecology · BSc in Geography
International projectDFG EarthShape · Germany–Chile · 2018–2025
LanguagesChinese (native) · English
02

Core Expertise

Connecting experiments, data and ecological questions.

01

Climate gradients & deep-soil microbiomes

Investigating how climate, soil depth, and physicochemical properties jointly shape bacterial communities across Chile’s arid-to-humid gradient.

02

Living and relic microbial communities

Separating intracellular DNA (iDNA) from extracellular DNA (eDNA) to improve ecological inference in low-biomass environments.

03

Rhizosphere & food microbiology

Connecting microbial communities with plants, environments, and production processes, from medicinal-plant rhizospheres to mushroom preservation.

04

Microbiome data & statistics

Using R to organise data, analyse community differences and environmental associations, and develop reproducible figures and scientific interpretations.

03

Selected Work

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.
iDNA / eDNA16S rRNA0–200 cmGermany–Chile
View the project
02

Rhizosphere fungi of Ferula species

How do rhizosphere fungal communities vary among Ferula species in their native habitats?

My contribution: First and corresponding author, connecting community-data analysis and manuscript writing with questions in rhizosphere ecology.

ITS · Community ecology · R

Published in Rhizosphere, 2026
03

Soil metagenomes across Chilean environmental gradients

How does soil microbial functional potential vary with environmental conditions and soil depth?

My contribution: Downstream data analysis, statistics, ecological interpretation and manuscript writing, using upstream bioinformatics generated by collaborators.

Metagenomics · Functional profiles · R

Full manuscript drafted · target journal: Geoderma

04

Publications

  4. 04
    2024FIRST AUTHOR

    The effects of climate and soil depth on living and dead bacterial communities along a longitudinal gradient in Chile

    Xiuling Wang, Lars Ganzert, Alexander Bartholomäus, Rahma Amen, Sizhong Yang, Carolina Merino Guzmán, Francisco Matus, Maria Fernanda Albornoz, Felipe Aburto, Rómulo Oses-Pedraza, Thomas Friedl, Dirk Wagner

    Science of the Total Environment · 945 · 173846

    Journal metrics & rankings
    JCR 2024 (PUBLICATION YEAR) · IF 8.0 · Q1XinRui Ranking 2026 · Not currently listed

Manuscripts in Progress

  1. 01
    2026FIRST & CORRESPONDING AUTHORSUBMITTED

    Soil archaeal communities in intra- and extracellular DNA share broad regional patterns but diverge locally along the Chilean Coastal Cordillera

    Xiuling Wang, Alexander Bartholomäus, Lars Ganzert, Thomas Friedl, Rómulo Oses, Dirk Wagner

    Submitted to: Applied Soil Ecology

  2. 02
    2026FIRST & CORRESPONDING AUTHORIN PREPARATION

    Scale-dependent organisation of cell-associated microbial functional genes across climate-soil systems and soil depth in granitoid soils of the Chilean Coastal Cordillera

    Xiuling Wang, Alexander Bartholomäus, Sizhong Yang, Lars Ganzert, Thomas Friedl, Rómulo Oses, Dirk Wagner

    Target journal: Geoderma

05

Experience

Education

Doctoral studies · degree not yet awarded

University of Potsdam · doctoral research at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences; completing the thesis

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

06

Skills

Microbiome analysis, statistical modelling, laboratory methods, and reproducible workflows accelerated by AI.

Statistics & microbiome data

Experienced with SPSS, community and network analyses, multivariate statistics, and scientific visualisation from raw data to publication-ready results.

SPSSCommunity analysisNetworksVisualisation

R & reproducible computation

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.

Rtidyverseggplot2Reproducible analysis

Microbial ecology laboratory work

Low-biomass soil DNA extraction, PCR, qPCR, library preparation, microbial isolation and cultivation, and 16S, ITS, and metagenomic workflows.

16SITSMetagenomicsqPCR

Computational workflows & AI-assisted research

Experienced with Codex, Claude Code and ChatGPT for coding, documentation and repetitive tasks, while retaining methodological judgement, output validation and reproducibility controls.

CodexClaude CodeChatGPTAgent workflows

Contact & Collaboration

Looking for a microbiome researcher for your team?

Seeking postdoctoral and related research opportunities in microbial ecology and microbiome science. Research collaborations are also welcome.

wang.xiuling@outlook.com
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