@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
Euasian-root secondees in Brno, CZ on April 17 2026 (Scientifc cafe)
The "Scientific Café" of the Spring Secondees of the EuAsiaN-ROOT Network, consisting of staff from #MULS #Mongolia, #KU #Thailand, and #MENDELU #Czechia. It was a productive day to reflect on the achievements of the 1. year and discuss the tasks ahead. Thanks @excellentia.bsky.social for organizing
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
🚨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!
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
Cover Page EuAsiaN-ROOT deliverable 1.2. l Handbook on site selection
Big 🧪milestone for #EuAsiaN-ROOT 🌍🌳
We built a #Eurasia wide #forest-soil research #network—28 core sites (18 running) + satellite plots across CZ, DE, IT, KZ, MN, TH, with shared protocols & FAIR data to unlock #belowground insights at AM/EM #mycorrhiza #root contrast. euasianroot.ldf.mendelu.cz
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
Ilija explaining a four year old how fruiting bodies are connected to roote via the hyphae network and why this is importent for trees
🎉 2005–2025: Celebrating 20 yrs of 🎓 Researchers' Night 🇪🇺 in CZ 🇨🇿 and at MendelU! The 🧒 next generation of scientists are showing an interest in 🍄 mushrooms, particularly in how fruiting bodies are connected to 🌳 trees roots. Mission to advertise the underground network accomplished @spun.earth
EuAsian-Root "Thailand" Kickoff meeting at the Faculty of Foresty, Kasestsart University, Bangkok
Trenching soil monolits to exclude roots and mycorrhizal fungi
Soil coring for sampling roots, soil and the microbiome
Large trees remnants
It was a fantastic start to establishing the 1. core plot at Kasetsart University's plot near the #Sakaerat Biosphere Res. It will help us understand the effects of EM-tree admixture #Dipterocarpaceae on soil functioning in AM-dominated dry evergreen tropical #forests. #roots #mycorrhiza #soilhealth
Yurts field camp at Binder site, Mongolia
Searching for natural Apple, fruit tree forest plots, larger Almaty area, Kazakhstan
#EuAsiaN-ROOT 🍁 #forest core and satellite site selection and sampling at full swing in #Kazakhstan and #Mongolia. Many thanks to great hosts #KRISSA / #NUM #MULS for hosting @horizoneu.bsky.social 🇪🇺 secondees. Scientific progress (#belowground) by exchange!
Set-up of EuAsiaN-ROOT core plots in Italy by UNINS hosts and Asian secondees, determining aboveground parameters before root and soil sampling.
Experimental 🧪 setup of core sites in full swing by Italian partners Università degli studi dell'Insubria and PR Campo dei fiori. Eager to compare #Ecosystem #functioning at pairs of ecto vs endo #mycorrhizal #forests 🍁
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
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...
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!
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!
Back filling ingrown cores for root productivity estimates with sieves soil from the vicinity and at original density.
Last #root ingrowh cores at Czech 🌳🧪 EuAsiaN-ROOT core sites installed today! Thank you for all the help, and UFE, Mendelu and the Czech State Forests for making the sites available for some exciting years of interdisciplinary 🍁
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.
Root sorting into Acer (left) and Quercus (right) fine and coarse roots
🧪Root sorting at full swing for @euasian-root.bsky.social project. Amazing how intermixed 🌳root systems are ... this sample was collected at a pure 🍁Acer spot (UFE, MENDLEU, CZ) but contained many Quercus roots from many meters away ... thus its not easy to discern AM vs EM effects on soil props
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
Fungal hyphae on soil core sample
🧪🍁EuAsiaN-ROOT aims to unravel the complex relationships between soil, roots, fungi and pathogens within AM- vs. EM-dominated forest ecosystems across Eurasia .. read more on ... euasianroot.ldf.mendelu.cz
Dan Binkley! Mark your calenders... Nothing less than @Excellentia_HE 🧪🍁 #forest #science to be expected :) Wednesday 05.03. 4pm CET. Online (zoom). Everyone welcome, Q&A via chat.
Screenshot of the EuAsiaN-ROOT online kick-off meeting.
Thanks to all the wonderful new and old collaborators for a successful Kick of Meeting! After intensive 7h we are now moving fast to expand our understanding on soil biology and related biogeochemical cycles across Eurasian forests 🍁 and train next gen 🧪 scientists! See you soon at the field sites!