Xun Wen Chen

Welcome

My research focuses on investigating the complex interactions between plants and microbes under stressed conditions, such as exposure to pollutants and physical stress. My research aims to answer several fundamental scientific questions, including:

1. How do microbes alter the behavior and fate of pollutants in terrestrial ecosystems?
2. How and why does microbial assembly evolve over time and space?
3. What are the environmental implications of these interactions in the context of ecological restoration?

To address these questions, I use a variety of research approaches, including ecological monitoring of sites with controlled treatments, well-controlled pot trials and petri dish experiments, and numerical modeling of microbial assembly. The ultimate goal of my research is to gain a deeper understanding of the complex systems underlying plant-microbe interactions and to extract general principles that can be applied to advance the ecological restoration and sustainable development.