Fig. 3. Cell-specific silicon concentrations in selected individual sedges acquired using CryoSEM-EDX. For each species, a schematic diagram is shown of the different anatomical areas, together with a qualitative representation of the distributions of silicon (green) and carbon (purple) (Si-C), and a heatmap of silicon concentration, [Si]. (A) Machaerina junceae, (B, C, E) Cyathochaeta equitans, (D) Schoenus rigens, and (F) Mesomelaena tetragona. Scale bars are 100 µm in (A–D, F) and 25 µm in (E).

"Cell walls dominate the cellular allocation of silicon in sedges" by @felix-detombeur.bsky.social et al. I act as a kind of senior advisor! X-ray microtomography, cryo-SEM–energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy #plantscience #silicon #silica #phytoliths 🧪
academic.oup.com/jxb/advance-...

Apologies for not posting after coffee - I was chairing! Back now with more methods - #phytoliths, micro-contextualism, preservation experiments in silos and #rice paddy ecologies. #IWGP2025 #Groningen #archaeology #archaeobotany #archaeologicalscience

Back from coffee and shifting to the #plant management session. Grapes, olives, wetlands and arable farming are all on the books as well as #archaeobotany, #isotopes, #archaeogenetics, #phytoliths, #charcoal.
#IWGP2025 #archaeology #archaeologicalscience

#phytoliths #archaeobotany #palaeoecology #archaeology #openscience #openresearch

Interesting use of #phytoliths on pig teeth.

Els fitòlits
Cèl·lules silicificades de les plantes. Ens permeten saber quines espècies vegetals es feien servir i quines parts s’utilitzaven.
#phytoliths

Could large‐scale silicon supplementation of crop‐lands mitigate the impacts of climate change? Intervention strategies that involve supplementing crop-lands with silicon have significant scope for carbon capture and drought mitigation, offering wide-ranging societal impacts. These include cont...

Just spotted this very interesting paper, combining silicon supplementation of crops with carbon sequestration in #phytoliths. Surely this has to be worth further investigation? #climatechange #plantscience #soil 🧪
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

JRI Webinar Poster

LAST CHANCE! Free webinar with @felix-detombeur.bsky.social & me on April 2 from 19:00 to 20:30 UK time. It will be hosted by @johnrayinitiative.bsky.social. Open to all—science is not essential! Details and booking are below.
#phytoliths #plantscience #soil #climate 🧪
jri.org.uk/book_events/...

Come join our first 2025 Open Research Meetings by ICOPS to listen, share, and chat about open methods.

Register here: turing-uk.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Speaker: Julia Kurz - Protocols.io

@open-phytoliths.bsky.social

#phytoliths #palaeoecology #archaeobotany #openresearch

Webinar advert.

Free webinar with @felix-detombeur.bsky.social & me on April 2 @ 19:00-20:30 UK time. Hosted by @johnrayinitiative.bsky.social. Open to all- science not essential! Details and booking below.
#phytoliths #plantscience #soil #climate 🧪
jri.org.uk/book_events/...

Visiting terrace sites of the Tayrona at the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, taking sediments for phytoliths analysis. 🌿

#SierraNevadaDeSantaMarta #Terraces #TayronaCulture #Phytoliths

JRI webinar with Felix de Tombeur and Martin Hodson

A @johnrayinitiative.bsky.social webinar with @felix-detombeur.bsky.social and me looking at carbon sequestration in #Phytoliths asking if it can save the world. Answer- probably not, but it might help! All welcome- no science assumed! Sign up for your free place here: jri.org.uk/book_events/...

Martin Hodson's Google Scholar word cloud

I thought I would run this again, as it is a year since I last tried, and a lot has happened since then! Pretty accurate I think! #phytoliths #siliceousplants
Look what I made! 🦋 With help from Scholar Goggler scholargoggler.com

Auto-fluorescent phytoliths: can we detect past fires in tropical and subtropical contexts? - Vegetation History and Archaeobotany To understand human practices and landscape evolution it is crucial to be able to trace evidence of past fires, notably in tropical environments. In such anthromes, phytoliths are generally well prese...

The third of our series of papers on this topic, in which I had a minor part: 🧪 🏺 "Auto-fluorescent #phytoliths : can we detect past fires in tropical and subtropical contexts?" 𝑉𝑒𝑔𝑒𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝐻𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐴𝑟𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑒𝑜𝑏𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑦. #plantscience
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Please add me. Starting to learn about #phytoliths in Paleoclimate (we have plenty in our ocean core) 🙏🏼

Environmental scientist spends more than four decades researching a potential climate game-changer - Oxford Brookes University In the ongoing fight against climate change, one remarkable discovery has gained significant attention over the past years: phytoliths.

My section is on " #Phytoliths & Carbon Sequestration". I have done a lot on that recently (below). Joerg Schaller looks at #soil carbon. @felix-detombeur.bsky.social covers "Enhanced Weathering" & @juliacooke.bsky.social "Changing CO2 & costs and benefits of Si" 🧪 www.brookes.ac.uk/about-brooke...

Chapter Nine - "Microfossils and the Multi-proxy Approach" has a lot on #phytoliths and starch grains. 🏺

Exploring silica accumulation in bamboo leaves: A study on phytolith morphology and epidermal patterning in the tropical giant bamboo Dendrocalamus copelandii AbstractBackground and Aims. Bamboo is a grass in the Poaceae family with various applications. Bamboo leaves can accumulate high silica. However, silica d

🌡️ Key takeaway: climate and leaf age are significant in determining how much silicon bamboo leaves store. Perfect for adapting plants to changing environments. (8/8)

👉 botany.fyi/un4l8e

#Bamboo #PlantScience #Phytoliths #AoBpapers

Phytoliths: Doing Carbon Capture and Storage Naturally. Dr Martin Hodson. OXFORD CAFE SCIENTIFIQUE

TOMORROW NIGHT!!
#Phytoliths : Doing Carbon Capture and Storage Naturally. Dr Martin Hodson
OXFORD CAFE SCIENTIFIQUE-
6.45pm-8.45pm Tuesday 10th December 2024 -
Department of Pharmacology, off Mansfield Road (north end), Oxford. More details: www.rowingservice.com/cafescientif...

Phytoliths: Doing Carbon Capture and Storage Naturally. Dr Martin Hodson

#Phytoliths: Doing Carbon Capture and Storage Naturally.
Dr Martin Hodson
THIS MONTH'S OXFORD CAFE SCIENTIFIQUE-
6.45pm-8.45pm Tuesday 10th December 2024 -
Department of Pharmacology, off Mansfield Road (north end), Oxford. More details:
www.rowingservice.com/cafescientif...

Cell-specific silicon (Si) and carbon (C) concentrations in Chorizandra enodis and Mesomelaena tetragona acquired using CryoSEM-EDX.

My latest paper: Félix de Tombeur et al. (2024) Anatomical and Trait Analyses Reveal a Silicon-Carbon Trade-Off in the Epidermis of Sedges. Plant Cell and Environment #plantscience #phytoliths #siliceousplants 🧪
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Subscription request for the PHYTO-CHAT-L discussion list Hello and thank you for your interest in the PHYTO-CHAT discussion list! In an effort to block spam messages, subscribers to PHYTO-CHAT-L will be added manually by the list owner. Once added to the l...

PHYTO-CHAT-L, the new email discussion list for anything #phytolith related is now up and running. Fill out the subscription form with your name, affiliation, and email address, and you will be subscribed to the list:

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

#phytoliths
#archaeobotany
#paleoecology

#Phytoliths are silica bodies formed in plants ( #PlantScience ). They enter the #Soil when the plant dies, and are used by palaeoecologists and archaeologists 🏺and other scientists 🧪 in many ways! If you work on any of this or are interested I have a starter pack (below).

Yet another starter pack! This one is for archaeobotany as I've not seen one around so far! I am sure I've missed many of you so please share it and comment to be included :) go.bsky.app/5fRwi48 #archaeobotany #palaeoethnobotany #carpology #phytoliths #ancientstarch #anthracology #palynology

Proofs arrive! 48 hours to look at them! Fluorescent #phytoliths and heat/fire number 3.

I thought I would make a starter pack of scientists working on #phytoliths. Please share if this is of interest to you, and do ask if you want to be added!
go.bsky.app/8HEDmb9

How important is carbon sequestration in phytoliths within the soil? - Plant and Soil Background and aims An overlooked fraction of the terrestrial carbon (C) pool is that associated with biogenic silica deposited in plants (phytoliths), so-called PhytOC. This fraction is small compare...

I am not really totally new, but have not done much here yet! I teach climate change and related issues at both universities in Oxford, UK. Quite a lot of my research concerns carbon sequestration in #phytoliths which could be important in the soil. Natural CCS!!
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Phytolith

Hi! Currently back working on carbon sequestration in #phytoliths. It is quite exciting as they seem to have the potential to sequester a lot!

My gloved hand holding a 15ml centrifuge test tube with a teeny bit of sediment at the bottom

So I started with 3g of sediment and this is what I have left after an acid bath in HCl to get rid of carbonates, separating out the clays, baking the organics out at 500 degrees C and separating out the silica 😳 But it’s ok! Gonna have lots of microfossils to look at! #phytoliths #sponges and more!

Having fun with #phytoliths and ChatGPT