Declare Indigenous Lands in the Amazon Free from Extraction! | Amazon Watch Add your voice to this global call in solidarity with Indigenous Peoples from across the Amazon.

We only have one Amazon. It’s full of priceless wonders and sacredness. Declare Indigenous Lands in the Amazon Free from Extraction! amazonwatch.org/take-action/...

🌱 Great energy at our TropiRoot Fall 2025 meeting!

Had a wonderful talk and discussions on several ongoing synthesis projects, data initiatives and new ideas for collaborative work on below ground dynamics!

👇 Read more and join us:
🔗 tropiroottrait.github.io/TropiRootTrait

#TropiRoots #Roots

Please join this starter pack if you are connected or interested to the TropiRoot Network. go.bsky.app/3jG9f7z

Ja das ist mir auch schon aufgefallen. Warum verstummen sie? 😓

That was a fantastic talk. Functional diversity is very likely more informative.

Person standing on a podium with a large screen that depict the various aspects of belowground functions.

Last but not least: @joanabergmann.bsky.social showed her recent synthesis work with sUnderfoot and reminded us that it’s not just fine roots belowground but plants invest in many functions belowground, such as reproduction, defence, etc. Fantastic!!

Person standing on podium with a large screen that shows schematic of model structure and text that says “mycorrhizal modelling”

Mateus Dantas de Paula enlighted us next with his advances on trait-based modelling of mycorrhiza. Including mycorrhizae improved the simulations across an Andean gradient and he inspires to model AM-ECM distribution across the globe. Check out his discussion paper out now.

Person standing on podium with large screen that shows cross section of roots with cortex and steel area highlighted.

Next was Meng Zhou who highlighted how root anatomy is the key player when it comes to root form and function. Her work on grasses considered root orders and life forms and found predictable patterns between cortex area and mycorrhizal colonization.

Person standing behind Pult on a podium with lots of colorful graphs on a screen that show relationship between root traits and seasonality.

Oscar Valverde-Barrantes impressed us next with his detailed study on fine root trait changes throughout the season at the AmazonFACE site. Tropical roots are way more diverse and acquisitive in the wet season, so we learned.

Person standing behind Pult on podium with a large screen that shows a bar graph and text that says 40% higher fine root biomass.

Next was Grace Handy showing us how roots responded to high CO2 in the BiFoR FACE experiment. Trees invested in more roots but did not change their morphology. She was a pro on stage.

A person standing behind a pult on a podium with a big screen. The screen show a large tropical tree and the text says “digging deeper: uncovering tropical root traits and functions”

The brilliant Claire Fortunel kicked us off, covering the many aspect of belowground functional trait diversity in the tropics. Talking about phylogenetic signals on root morphology, deep roots, like very deep roots and how to connect with aboveground traits. She covered it all 🤩

A large podium with 6 people sitting in front of an audience with one person chairing the discussion. In the back is a green screen titled “thematic session - tree root traits and functions: A balanced cross-biome perspective”

View from behind a desk onto a large audience.

Could not make it to #BES2024 or to the cross-biome tree root trait and function session @moniqueweemstra.bsky.social and I organized? No worries, I will summarize it here.

Joana Bergmann presenting at the BES conference in front of the acknowledgement slide which displays the co-authors from the sUnderfoot working group

Panel discussion of the thematic session

It was an absolute pleasure to be part of the thematic session at #BES2024 lead by @moniqueweemstra.bsky.social and @kaaze7.bsky.social. I presented work on holistic belowground functioning by the #sUnderfoot group including results from @josephtumber.bsky.social and @jitkaklimesova.bsky.social

Not a talk, but a *whole Thematic Session* about roots at #BES2024! Chaired by Katrin Fleischer @kaaze7.bsky.social and me! Hope to see y'all there tomorrow morning, or some other time at the meeting @britishecolsoc.bsky.social

TropiRoot Updates 📢📢📢 TropiRoot leadership team met today to discuss about some exciting stuffs: the upcoming leadership elections, new grant proposals and out reach efforts. If you are interested to joining us or learning more, please visit tropiroottrait.github.io/TropiRootTra... #tropiroots

Wat een slecht reactie. Het KAN en MOET veel beter.

On Monday a large demonstration to stop higher education and research cuts will take place 🇳🇱

On Monday the Dutch government will revisit its shortsighted plans.

A failure to do this creates a real setback that neither this nor next generations deserve.
@woinactie.bsky.social #highered #academicsky

Forest floor with dry leaf litter, some small plants and measurement equipment for soil respiration.

Tree stem with colourful markings for measurements next to a boardwalk into the deeper forest.

Tree stems in dense forests covered in lichens, mosses, and a numbered tag.

Hi there. I am Katrin and I work for and often enough in the Amazon rainforest. I want to understand how this magical forests functions belowground and build better models for it. Who wants to know more about that?

Going to BES this year? Come to our session on Tree roots and functions.

Hi there, can you add me
Pls. I am Assist Prof at VU Amsterdam. Yay

I work for understanding tropical forest functions under climate change. Please add me here if possible. Thank you for the effort.

The eye knows. We know. It’s incredibly painful to just watch on while preventable collapse of our live support system unfolds.

Agreed 🟥

That’s terrifying to hear.

Do not want to get near this guy.

Onderwijsprotest geschrapt, Utrecht vreest geweld pro-Palestijnse demonstranten De gemeente heeft de organisatie aangeraden om de betoging af te blazen, omdat een pro-Palestina-organisatie die mogelijk met geweld zou willen kapen.

The long-planned protest against the mega cuts on higher education by the Dutch government has been cancelled. One day ahead. Smells like deliberate fear tactics to keep people quiet. nos.nl/l/2544350u

MPG nimmt schon lange in Kauf, dass es den “jungen Leuten” schlecht geht. Postdocs beim MPG haben dreimal so häufig Depressionen. Hauptsache Exzellenz ist klar. www.postdocnet.mpg.de/134932/surve...

Who dared to say fieldwork would be easy.

The Ancient Amazon Podcast-Folge · The Ancients · 07.11.2024 · 49 Min.

Check out this amazing podcast if you want to know more podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/t...

Potatoes, maize,cacao 🥔🌽🍫- things we eat daily. We are told who “brought them over” but we are hardly told who we should really thank. Ancient Amazonians cultivated them and many other foods already thousands of years ago in ingenious agroforestry style.