@spununderground #UnderEarthDay logo 2026
Beneath our feet lies a living world that sustains ecosystems, regulates climate, and supports all life above ground. This #UnderEarthDay, let’s recognize the hidden biodiversity of soils and the critical role of underground ecosystems in a changing world. Protecting what we don’t see! @spun.earth
Dear colleagues, please find below attached the invitation to the online lecture The AmazonFACE experiment is about to start! Hypotheses generated from previous FACE experiments delivered by Richard Norby (University of Tennessee, USA) When: 1 April 2026 at 16:00 CET / CEST (GMT+1/+2) Online: via Zoom Join Zoom Meeting https://cesnet.zoom.us/j/99692171285?pwd=zUEjygILVoUv0cnzTAXSKaj5c0Uazx.1 Meeting ID: 996 9217 1285 Passcode: 589224 The lecture is held within the frame of „The Challenges in Forest Ecology“ seminar series featuring top scientists from around the world. It provides a unique opportunity to discuss the state of the art in forest ecology from different perspectives and approaches with the leading experts in the field. For more information, please see the attached invitation or visit the EXCELLENTIA project website https://excellentia.ldf.mendelu.cz/seminar-series We look forward to seeing you on 1 April 2026 at 16:00. The EXCELLENTIA team.
🚨Join us on Wednesday, 1. April 2026, 16:00 CET (Prague) for🧪 #forest🍁#ecology #seminar. Welcome Richard Norby, U Tennessee 🌳🌲'The AmazonFACE experiment is about to start! Hypotheses generated from previous #FACE experiments' ZOOM: excellentia.ldf.mendelu.cz/SEMINAR-SERIES
🚨Join us on Wednesday, 11. February 2026, 16:00 CET (Prague) for🧪 #forest🍁#ecology #seminar. Welcome Lars Vesterdal, U Copenhagen 🌳🌲'Soil and ecosystem C sequestration over 50 years in resampled oak and Norway spruce afforestation chronosequences on former cropland' ZOOM: excellentia.ldf.mendelu.cz/SEMINAR-SERIES
🚨Join us on Wednesday, 11. February 2026, 16:00 CET (Prague) for🧪 #forest🍁#ecology #seminar. Welcome Lars Vesterdal, U Copenhagen 🌳🌲'Soil and ecosystem C sequestration over 50 years in resampled oak and Norway spruce afforestation chronosequences ...' ZOOM: excellentia.ldf.mendelu.cz/SEMINAR-SERIES
🚨EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION EXTENDED until 15. FEBRUARY🚨 for the 9th International 🧪 Symposium on Woody Root Research! 🌳🍁 Please register/submit at wrix.favmeeting.it, conference website www.uninsubria.eu/woody-roots-ix Abstract deadlines: 31. March for oral (selected), 30. April for posters!
Invitation poster for a talk on Wednesday, 21. January 2026, 16:00 CET (Prague) in the🧪 #forest🍁#ecology #seminar at MENDELU, BRNO. Anouncing Boris Rewald from the Mendel University to talk about 🌲'Mixed #tree #plantations: the good, the plastic and the uncertain' - with a lot of #root #plasticity. free availabile via ZOOM at the link https://excellentia.ldf.mendelu.cz/SEMINAR-SERIES
🚨Join us on Wednesday, 21. January 2026, 16:00 CET (Prague) for🧪 #forest🍁#ecology #seminar. Welcome our own @borisrewald.bsky.social (MENDELU) 🌳🌲'Mixed #tree #plantations: the good, the plastic and the uncertain' - with a lot of #root #plasticity... ZOOM: excellentia.ldf.mendelu.cz/SEMINAR-SERIES
🚨REGISTRATION & ABSTRACT SUBMISSION OPEN 🚨 for the 9th International 🧪 Symposium on Woody Root Research! 🌳Please register/submit at wrix.favmeeting.it. Early bird registration ends on 1. February 2026. Abstract deadlines: 31. March for potential oral presentations (selected), 30. April for posters.
Fig. 3. Standardized effects of climatic, edaphic, and vegetation variables on the net diversity effect on topsoil C stocks (NDE C) across nine sites (n = 110) on a logarithmic scale (first y-axis; left) and natural scale (second y-axis; right). Error bars denote standard errors. Climatic variables include mean annual temperature (MAT), mean annual precipitation (MAP), as well as variability in temperature and precipitation (interannual CV). Edaphic variables include the inverted first principal component axis for soil pH and C:N ratio (Fertility index) as well as soil texture (based on clay content). Effects of standing stock is represented by basal area per hectare (BA ha-1). Significant effects on NDE C are indicated as *** = p 0.05, n.s. = not significant. Values below 0 indicate negative correlation between NDE C and predictors. see Werner R, Jensen J, Fransson P, Baum C, Sandén H, Rewald B, Godbold DL, Mayer M, Guillemot J, Robin A, Brancalion PHS, Koricheva J, Ponette Q, Muys B, Verheyen K, Scherer-Lorenzen M, Bauhus J, Beyer F, Hajek P, Jactel H, Weih M (2025) Effects of tree species richness on topsoil carbon and fungal diversity in European planted mixed forests are modulated by environmental conditions. Geoderma 464:117591. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2025.117591 for details
🚨New paper in Geoderma🚨 Across 9 #TreeDivNet 🧪experiments in Europe, we show that mixed-species 🍁 #forests 🌳🌲store ~9% more #soilcarbon than monocultures. Gains are strongest on cool, <fertile, #climate stable sites, and linked to >fungal richness. #soilcarbon 👉 doi.org/10.1016/j.ge...
Look into the canopy of a mixed forest at the University Forest Enterprise, Mendel University in Brno
On the CZ Day of the Fight for Freedom and Democracy we remember: rights aren’t given, they’re defended. The same holds for #forests – without active, 🧪 science-based care 🍁we lose 🌳 #biodiversity, 🌍 #climate-resilience and 🍄 #healthy-soils. Democratic freedoms let us protect these common goods.
It's great to see Douglas L Godbold, @borisrewald.bsky.social, Marian Schönauer, & Pavlína Pancová Šimková applying their #EXCELLENTIA expertise in urban #trees, #soil-health #mycorrhizae, soil water #modelling, and EU #research-funding to address urgent needs in #Sarajevo, BiH with #UNSA colleagues
Join us on Wednesday, 5 November 2025, 16:00 CEST (Prague) for our 🧪 #forest🍁#ecology seminar. Welcome Francis Martin (INRAE Nancy, France) on 'Into the Heart of Darkness - #Genomics🧬 #Saptrotrophy-to-Symbiosis 🌳Forest #Soil #Fungioom' 🍄 ZOOM: https://excellentia.ldf.mendelu.cz/SEMINAR-SERIES. Free. Q&A. Holds the excellentia logo, a qr code and reference to funding bodies.
🚨Join us on Wednesday, 5 November 2025, 16:00 CEST (Prague) for🧪 #forest🍁#ecology #seminar. Welcome Francis M. Martin @fmartin54.bsky.social (INRAE Nancy) 'Into the Heart of Darkness - #Genomics🧬 #Saptrotrophy-to-Symbiosis 🌳Forest #Soil #Fungioom' 🍄 ZOOM: excellentia.ldf.mendelu.cz/SEMINAR-SERIES
🚨Publication ALERT🚨 #Root #phenology in mixed 🍁 #forests 🧪2-yr study (oak, hornbeam, lime, maple): roots start > leaves; maple, hornbeam peak < oak, lime; #mixing mirrors dominant sp; leaf–root lag; winter growth at 4.2 °C; temp link flips; Qiwen Guo et al. 2025, Funct Ecol 👉 doi.org/10.1111/1365...
🚨Publication alert🚨 #Forest 🌳 #diversity ≠ automatic #drought resilience. Across #treedivnet 🧪🍁experiments, single-year drought growth reflected #trees’ #hydraulic safety margins & drought intensity, not richness. In consecutive droughts, div effects grew—direction varied by site. #Traits matter.
🚨Publication alert🚨Across 21 #forest 🧪🍁 experiments (84k #trees, 89 spp.), productivity ⬆️ with🌳 #richness (saturating) and variability ⬇️. #Functionaldiversity mediated gains; #structuraldiversity trended ⬇️. Selection effects dominate. Acquisitive, low-WD species benefited. doi.org/10.1111/gcb....
INvitation poster for Join us on Wednesday, 8 October 2025, 16:00 CEST (Prague) for our 🧪 #forest🍁#ecology seminar, MENDELU, CZ "Landsharing: can #agroforestry enhance #biodiversity" by Martin Lukac @mtnlkc.bsky.social, University of Reading, UK. Shows text in front of an agroforestry plantation photo and the Excellentia and EU logos
🚨Join us on Wednesday, 8 October 2025, 16:00 CEST (Prague) for our 🧪 #forest🍁#ecology seminar, MENDELU, CZ "Landsharing: can #agroforestry enhance #biodiversity?" by Martin Lukac @mtnlkc.bsky.social, University of Reading, UK. Zoom: excellentia.ldf.mendelu.cz/seminar-series. Free. Q&A via chat
Children looking at mushrooms at the excellentia booth during the night of Science 2025, Mendelu, Brno
2005–2025: 🎉 Celebrating 20 years of 🧪Researchers' Night in the Czech Republic and 🎓 MendelU! With the younger 🧒 generation showing a growing interest in mushrooms, particularly the tasty 🍄 fruiting bodies, but less so in hyphae /mycorrhizal 🌳 functions 😅
Open-access article collection on destructive / sustainable #forest #soil #management, combining forest and soil #ecology #biodiversity with forest #engineering and #remotesensing topics - drawing attention to practices that hinder / improve ecosystems belowground. link.springer.com/collections/...
Welcome to the 9th International Symposium on Physiological Processes in Roots of Woody Plants. Join leading researchers, students, and professionals in Como, Italy to explore how woody roots contribute to sustainability, soil health, and plant production across diverse ecosystems. Main Themes & Highlights Immagine logo Root-driven sustainability Soil protection and health Plant production in changing environments Root-soil-ecosystem interactions Technological innovation in root research Sessions will cover topics such as root ecology, mycorrhizal dynamics, belowground monitoring technologies, agroforestry applications, and global change impacts. The event will include keynote presentations, oral sessions, posters, and a field visit.
🚨SAVE the DATE🚨 "9th International 🧪 Symposium on 🍁Woody Root research" 3-5 June 2026, Como, Italy. www.uninsubria.eu/about-us/our.... Sessions will cover #root #ecology, #mycorrhizal dynamics, #belowground #technologies, #agroforestry applications, & #globalchange. Reserve your accomodation soon!
Invitation to the #Excellentia co-organized 🧪conference on "Sustainable Water Management & Urban Blue-Green Infrastructure for Advancing Sponge City Perspectives in Bosnia and Herzegovina" 20-22 Oct 2025, #Sarajevo BiH, register until 15. Oct. Program at www.sfsa.unsa.ba/web/invitati...
Agroforestry coffee plot in the Sidama region, Ethiopia
🚨PUBLICATION ALERT🧪Soil carbon to go: #Agroforestry🌳practices including 🍁 #coffee sequester the highest amounts of #soil #C in mountainous Southern #Ethiopia. Agroforestry Systems. doi:10.1007/s10457-025-01298-2; Access: rdcu.be/eFJ90 AF systems based on coffee are key to enhancing soil C storage.
🚨Publication Alert🚨Patterns in #Root Phenology of Woody Plants Across Climate Regions: Drivers, Constraints, and Ecosystem Implications - Qiwen Guo et al. doi.org/10.3390/f160... - the 🍁study synthesizes data from ~60 🧪 studies to identify #phenological patterns of woody plants / #trees #belowground
Working hard to distribute branch Wood equally across windthrow sites at the University Forest Enterprise, Mendel University in Brno. Testing for effects of different deadwood retention measures after stand replacing windthrows on soil processes, biodiversity conservation and tree regeneration
The long-term 🌳#windthrow plots are fully set up one year after the 🌀 storm. It's always surprising how much 💪 physical work #forest #ecology 🍁 fieldwork involves, but the data on soil C dynamics, microfauna and flora expected in the years to come is much needed for sound 🌲🌳 management decisions...
Ancient graveyard on mountain top in the middle of a beautiful mixed forest in Sarajevo Canton.
Beautiful (urban) forests (and some ancient grave stones) in the Sarajevo Canton, Bosnia. Thanks to the Forestry Faculty, University of Sarajevo for the excellent kick off workshop of our project "Blue Green Infrastructure"... Fostering CZ - BiH Forestry collab. on water, drought and tree health...
Density of belowground publications (n cell-1) in Thailand displayed as overlay on satelite image, grid cell size 13600 km2.
🧪 Counting #roots, #mycorrhizae and #pathogens in the #Eurasian soil transect to synthesise in-situ knowledge of "soil biology" for 🍁 #forests belowground. Great progress thanks to a highly engaged consortium! Example for Thailand: some soil data but little information on roots / mycorrhizae... dig!
The main map shows colour-coded stands of four tree species included in the tree-ring width dataset (TRWall), details of Austria and Germany (TRWAWS) with automatic weather stations (AWS, black dots; top right), and an example overlay of ERA5-Land grid cells (blue lines), locations of AWS and sites (bottom right). The ACE2 (Altimeter Corrected Elevations, v.2) digital elevation model is used as the background. Citation: Schönauer MJ, Pucher C, Altman J, Weißbacher J, Sprengel L, Rewald B (2025) Beyond meterological data: Modelling Tree Growth with ERA5-Land. Agr Forest Meteorol 372:110679. doi:10.1016/j.agrformet.2025.110679
🚨The new 🧪publication by Marian Schönauer, @borisrewald.bsky.social et al. demonstrates that #ERA5-Land data is equally well suited to modelling 🍁 #tree growth as weather station data. ERA5-Land opens up possibilities for modelling and overcomes issues of data accessibility. doi.org/10.1016/j.ag...
Join us on Wednesday, 11 June 2025, 16:00 CET (Prague) for our #forest🍁#ecology seminar, MENDELU, CZ "Heartbeat of the Forest: Drivers and Consequences of Mast-Seeding in Forest Trees" by Mario Pesendorfer @ Boku University Zoom link: excellentia.ldf.mendelu.cz/seminar-series. Q&A via chat.
🧪Join us on Wednesday, 11 June 2025, 16:00 CET (Prague) for our #forest🍁#ecology seminar, MENDELU, CZ "Heartbeat of the Forest: Drivers and Consequences of Mast-Seeding ..." by Mario Pesendorfer @mbpesendorfer.bsky.social @BOKU University. Zoom: excellentia.ldf.mendelu.cz/seminar-series Q&A via chat
Mycorrhizal Ingrowth Bags to determine hyphae production in situ
🚨🧪SUMMER SCHOOL: THE HIDDEN HALF OF 🍁🌳ECOSYSTEMS (22 - 26 September 2025) at the Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, Mendel University in Brno, Czechia. Programm and registration: excellentia.ldf.mendelu.cz/summer-school. Deadline for registration: 30th June 2025 (15 participants). See u soon!
Overmotivated phd student and his supervisor like to play with forest soil until it hurts (mostly hands and back)
Yes, we "hate" #roots and #mycorrhiza so much, we trench them as deep as possible... Just to show how soil Carbon will thrive (read: being lost) when they are not around! All 🧪power to the saprotrophs!... Two more trenches to do in CZ then it's summer secondment in 🍁Thailand! Yeah!
Six types of mineral weathering bags provided by LUH Hanover, Germany before installation at Mongolian aridity gradient at EuAsiaN-ROOT satellite plots.
Chemical weathering of rocks and minerals is 🧪 important to 🍁forest ecosystem because it is the principal source of several macronutrients: Ca, Mg, K, P, Fe, Mn. First dozen EuAsiaN-ROOT satellites are now equipped across Mongolia by @burenjargal-2025.bsky.social and DL Godbold. Great start WP4.
Fig. 3. Chronology of climate-induced disturbances and related forest development options considering different initial stand conditions and the level of resistance (stand) and resilience (regeneration). (I.-VII. denote the seven main topics). Franka Huth, Alexander Tischer, Petia Nikolova, Heike Feldhaar, Alexandra Wehnert, Lisa Hülsmann, Jürgen Bauhus, Katrin Heer, Juliane Vogt, Christian Ammer, Uta Berger, Markus Bernhardt-Römermann, Manuela Böhme, Harald Bugmann, Jörn Buse, Laura Demant, Inken Dörfler, Jörg Ewald, Eike Feldmann, Andreas Fichtner, Martin M. Gossner, Thorsten E.E. Grams, Karl-Heinz Häberle, Jonas Hagge, Henrik Hartmann, Sven Herzog, Ansgar Kahmen, Ulrich Kohnle, Doris Krabel, Klara Krämer-Klement, Jürgen Kreyling, Michael Manthey, Karl Mellert, Peter Meyer, Andreas Mölder, Lena Muffler, Bettina Ohse, Lars Opgenoorth, Boris Rewald, Andreas Rothe, Nadine Ruehr, Tobias Scharnweber, Michael Scherer-Lorenzen, Jonas Schmeddes, Joachim Schmerbeck, Markus Schmidt, Dominik Seidel, Frank M. Thomas, Malin Tiebel, Goddert von Oheimb, Sven Wagner, Robert Weigel, Martin Wilmking, Christian Zang, Bernhard Schuldt, Ecological assessment of forest management approaches to develop resilient forests in the face of global change in Central Europe, Basic and Applied Ecology, 2025, ISSN 1439-1791, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2025.05.001 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1439179125000404
🚨Publication🚨🍁🧪Ecological assessment of #forest #management approaches to develop resilient forests in the face of #global_change in Central #Europe. uge collaborative effort by Huth et al. 2025 dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ba... (124 pages :))
Field sampling at University Forest Enterprise in CZ started in Acer or Quercus dominated forest patches. Colleagues from Kasetsart University, TH & Kazakh Research Institute of Soil Science, KZ and @ @excellentia.bsky.social PhD students dig deeper :)
Eurasian Network for Tree-Root-Mycorrhizal-Pathogen Interactions in Forest Soils (EuAsiaN-ROOT) - Field sampling at University Forest Enterprise in CZ started. Colleagues from Kasetsart University, TH & Kazakh Research Institute of Soil Science, KZ and @ @excellentia.bsky.social PhD students