• terrestrial ecology and microbiology
• cold temperate, alpine and arctic regions
• climate change
• soil microbial communities
• soil food web

• PhD thesis: “Exploring the diversity of nivicolous myxomycetes: An analysis of the genetic diversity, species distribution and community composition”.
  Supervised by Professor Martin Schnittler.
• Establishing species barcoding and a reference database for dark-spored myxomycetes. Investigating community structure in a parallel barcoding study of the myxoamoebal, bacterial and fungal community from soil along a natural altitudinal gradient.
  Fieldwork: German Alps and Rocky Mountain.
  Lab work: DNA extraction, Illumina library construction (18S SSU, 16S SSU, ITS) from soil samples, Sanger sequencing, Scanning Electron Microscopying (SEM).
  Analysis: Bioinformatic pipelines, multivariate statistics and network analysis.
  Software: R (open source), Usearch (open source; Edgar, 2010), MEGA6^TM, ImageJ (open source), Gephi (open source), STAMP (open source).
• Master thesis: “Effects of increased warming and shading on soil fungi in Arctic”. Supervised by Professor MSO Anders Priemé.
• Investigating fungal community composition and response to in situ climate change manipulation treatments of increased shading or temperature in a subarctic shrub heath.
  Fieldwork: 6 weeks of extensive fieldwork in Kobbefjord, SV Greenland. Measures of in situ CO₂-flux’ (Li-COR, IRGA), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI, ‘greenness’) and pin-point analysis (vegetation composition and cover).
• Lab work: Illumina library construction (fungal ITS2 amplicons from soil samples), qPCR and enzyme assays (cellulase, laccase). spectrophotometric technics was used to estimate the microbial biomass (MicC, -N and -P) and nutrients (TOC, DON, inorganic-N and -P) in extracts from chloroform fumigated soil samples.
  Analysis: multivariate statistics: ordinations and cluster analysis.
  Software: R (open source), CANOCO 5^TM, STAMP (open source), SAS Enterprise Guide 6.1^TM, MEGA6^TM.

Söllinger A, Ahlers LS, Dahl MB, Sigurðsson P, Le Noir de Carlan C, Bhattarai B, Gall C, Martin VS, Rottensteiner C, Motleleng LL, Breines EM, Verbruggen E, Ostonen I, Sigurdsson BD, Richter A, Tveit AT. Microorganisms in subarctic soils are depleted of ribosomes under short-, medium-, and long-term warming. ISME J. 2024 Jan 8;18(1):wrae081. doi: 10.1093/ismejo/wrae081.

Fiore-Donno AM,  Freudenthal J,  Dahl MB,  Rixen C,  Urich T,  Bonkowski M. Biotic interactions explain seasonal dynamics of the alpine soil microbiome. ISME Communications, 4(1). Doi: 10.1038/s43705-023-00239-8 

Dahl MB, Söllinger A, Sigurðsson P, Janssens I, Peñuelas  J, Sigurdsson BD, Richter A, Urich T. Long-term warming-induced trophic downgrading in the soil microbial food web. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 2023. Doi: 10.1016/j.soilbio.2023.109044

Dahl MB, Kreyling J, Petters S, Wang H, Mortensen MS, Maccario L, Sørensen SJ, Urich T, Weigel R. Warmer winters result in reshaping of the European beech forest soil microbiome (bacteria, archaea and fungi)—With potential implications for ecosystem functioning. Environmental Microbiology 2023. Doi: 10.1111/1462-2920.16347 

Söllinger A, Séneca J, Dahl MB, Motleleng LL, Prommer J, Verbruggen E, et al. Down-regulation of the bacterial protein biosynthesis machinery in response to weeks, years, and decades of soil warming. Science Advances 2022; 8: eabm3230

Märtens CM, Schöpfel J, Bollmann S … Dahl MB…  et al. Evaluation of a pneumatic tube sys-tem carrier prototype with fixing mechanism allowing for automated unloading. Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine 2022. Doi: 10.1515/cclm-2022-0193

Dahl MB, Peršoh D, Jentsch A, Kreyling J. Root-associated mycobiomes of common temperate plants (Calluna vulgaris and Holcus lanatus) are strongly affected by winter climate conditions. Microbial Ecology 2021. Doi: 10.1007/s00248-020-01667-7

Shchepin O, Novozhilov Y, Woyzichovski J… Dahl MB,… et al. Genetic structure of the Protist Physarum Albescens (Amoebozoa) revealed by multiple markers and genotyping by sequenc-ing. Molecular Ecology 2021. Doi: 10.1111/mec.16239

Keutmann S, Zylla, S, Dahl MB, Friedrich N, Landgraf R, Heinemann L, Kallner A, Nauck M, Pe-tersmann A. Measurement uncertainty impacts diagnosis of diabetes mellitus: Reliable mini-mal difference of plasma glucose results. Diabetes Therapy 2020. Doi: 10.6084/m9.figshare.10790468

Dahl MB, Krebs M, Unterseher M, Urich T, Gaudig G. Temporal dynamics in the taxonomic and functional profile of the Sphagnum-associated fungi (mycobiomes) in a Sphagnum farming field site in Northwestern Germany. FEMS microbiology ecology 2020. Doi: 

Würth D, Dahl MB, Trouillier M, Wilmking M, Unterseher M, Scholler M, Mortensen M, Sørensen S and Schnittler M (2019) The needle mycobiome of Picea glauca – a dynamic system reflecting surrounding environment and tree phenological traits. Fungal Ecology.

Dahl MB, Brejnrod A, Russel J, Sørensen S and Schnittler M (2019) Fine scale niche differentiation among amoebal communities of dark-spored myxomycetes determined by landscape structures as well as biotic factors. Microbial Ecology. doi: 10.1007/s00248-019-01347-1.

Shchepin O, Schnittler M, Erastova D, Prikhodko I, Dahl MB, Azarov D, Chernyaeva E and Novozhilov Y (2019) Community of dark-spored myxomycetes in ground litter and soil of taiga forest (Nizhne-Svirskiy Reserve, Russia) revealed by DNA metabarcoding. Fungal Ecology. doi: 10.1016/j.funeco.2018.11.006.

Dahl MB, Shchepin O, Schunk C, Menzel A, Novozhilov YK and Schnittler M (2018) A four year survey reveals a coherent pattern between occurrence of fruit bodies and soil amoebae populations for nivicolous myxomycetes. Scientific Reports. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-30131-3

Dahl MB, Brejnrod A, Unterseher M, Hoppe T, Feng Y, Novozhilov Y, Sørensen S and Schnittler M (2017) Genetic barcoding of dark-spored myxomycetes (Amoebozoa) – identification, evaluation and application of an identification threshold for species differentiation in NGS studies. Molecular Ecology Resources. doi: 10.1111/1755-0998.12725.

Dahl MB, Priemé A, Brejnrod A, Brusvang P, Lund M, Nymand J, Kramshøj M, Ro-Poulsen H and Haugwitz M (2017) Warming, shading and a moth outbreak reduce tundra carbon sink strength dramatically by changing plant cover and soil microbial activity. Scientific Report. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-16007-y.

Unterseher M, Karunarathna S, Garcia Cruz R, Dagamac N, Dahl MB... et al (2017). Mycobiomes of sympatric Amorphophallus albispathus (Araceae) and Camellia sinensis (Theaceae) – a case study reveals clear tissue preferences and differences in diversity and composition. Mycological Progress. doi: 10.1007/s11557-018-1375-8.
Schnittler M, Shchepin O, Dagamac N, Dahl MB and Novozhilov Y (2017) Barcoding myxomycetes with molecular markers: challenges and opportunities. Nova Hedwigia 104: 323–341.

Eusemann P, Schnittler M, Nilsson H, Jumpponen A, Dahl MB, Würth D, Buras A, Wilmking M and Unterseher M (2016) Habitat conditions and phenological tree traits overrule the influence of tree genotype in the needle mycobiome – Picea glauca system at an arctic treeline ecotone. New Phytologist. doi: 10.1111/nph.13988.