September's early career researcher highlight features Izzy Turner, who joined us at our recent conference. We caught up with Izzy to hear more about her work and experiences. Full Article: lnkd.in/p/eSUx2V6Q Newsletter: eepurl.com/hI5Dtb Photo Credit: Izzy Turner

(1/5) August's 'Postcard from the Field' was submitted by Michael Steinwandter, an alpine soil ecologist at the Institute for the Alpine Environment, Eurac Research. Read more about what Michael's work below.

Kudos to the organisation team and speaker of @bes-soilecogroup.bsky.social for the #SoilEcologyInPractice conference in Stirling! 👏 I really enjoyed it, thx that I could show my latest results from #BEN-EAF (poster --> doi.org/10.13140/RG....). Great excursion, great people, hope to see you soon! 🫶

We had a brilliant time attending the #SoilEcologyInPractice conference in Stirling this week! 🌱 We ran a workshop on 'How to achieve real-world impact' alongside Dina in 't Zandt & Tom Parker, and overall had a great time meeting lots of different soil ecologists 🤝 @bes-soilecogroup.bsky.social

(1/2) Lastly, we want to say a huge thank you to every single one of you who attended our first conference and made it such a massive success. We couldn’t have carried this off without you or our incredible committee who gave up so much of their free time to put on this fantastic event!

In our (totally unbiased) opinion this is the perfect way to end a conference. #SoilEcologyInPractice delegates either hiked to the summit of Dumyat Hill, Stirling or took part in a fungal foray. Which would you choose? Drop any photos from today in the comments below ⬇️🍄⬇️

Here are the photos from this afternoon’s workshops! Thank you to everyone who contributed to thoughtful discussion and idea generation. #SoilEcologyInPractice

Join us after lunch for one of our three curated workshops: 1 - Degraded soils and restoration 2 - Resilience of soil communities under climate change 3- Research impact and grant writing #SoilEcologyInPractice

For the final talk in our ‘Conservation and Soil Functional Ecology at Scale’ session Tim Lukins, Forest Research, speaks on Mesoscanner as a tool to complement taxonomic identification of micro-arthropods. All of this mornings speakers then joined our panel discussion! #SoilEcologyInPractice

Mary Kate Doherty, University College Dublin: Using 15N bait lamina strips can tell us about resource flow in soil food webs. #SoilEcologyInPractice

For our ‘Conservation and Soil Functional Ecology at Scale’ session Carole Schöpfer (Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow, and Landscape Research, WSL) combines machine learning and field ecology to understand how micro-arthropods respond to warming and aboveground biodiversity losses.

For our final talk before coffee Louis Mielke, University of Stirling, speaks on quantifying the C losses from rhizosphere priming due to shifting vegetation in arctic ecosystems.

Next up Olivia Azevedo, Forest Research, shows that considering the belowground component is important in tree planting decision making. #SoilEcologyInPractice

Alexandre Robin-Soriano, University of Tartu, finds that grazing abandonment significantly restructures fungal communties and interaction networks. #SoilEcologyInPractice

To kick of the second day of our Soil Ecology in Practice Conference and our third session ‘Conservation and Soil Functional Ecology at Scale’ Nikki Baggaley from the James Hutton Institue helps us realise how we can better bridge the gap between soil science and policy. #SoilEcologyInPractice

Thank you to all of the speakers and delegates today for your presentations and thoughtful questions. We look forward to seeing you again tomorrow!

And to round off the session we heard lightning talks from Tim Lukins, Michael Steinwandter , Chorong Lee, Ros Dodd, Annette Raffan, Levke Borchers, and Ben Jackson!

All of our speakers this afternoon from the ‘Soil Agroecology for Food and Soil Security Session’ came together to answer questions on bridging the gap between soil science and policy guidelines. Thank you to all of our panelists.

For the final submitted talk of our ‘Soil Agroecology for Food and Soil Security’ session Lena Neuenkamp links diverse soil restoration strategies to agricultural goals.

Kaisa Ilmari shares the effects of agroforestry on soil microbial diversity and function. #SoilEcologyInPractice

Beginning the second half of our ‘Soil Agroecology for Food and Soil Security’ session Karla Burke finds higher rates of nutrient cycling in intensive grasslands across Ireland. #SoilEcologyInPractice

Asa Dant shows livestock integration and intercropping can influence formation of mineral-associated organic matter.

Leah Bannon finds a significant positive impact of agroecological practices on soil microbiota in her recent meta-analysis.

Our second talk this afternoon. Cecile Alsbach on sustainable agriculture practices and soil health with climate impacts. #SoilEcologyInPractice

To start our ‘Soil Agroecology for Food and Soil Security Session’ this afternoon Roy Neilson provides insight into soil policy and how to effectively communicate soil health. #SoilEcologyInPractice

Join us for session two after posters and lunch where we explore ‘Soil Agroecology for Food and Soil Security’. #SoilEcologyInPractice

To finish the degraded soils session our speakers got together for an insightful panel session followed by our lightning talks given by: Kolja Enste, Kaisa Ilmari, Phinda Magagula, Izzy Turner, Arman Shamshitov, Mieke Brinkman, Nan Zhang and Jack Bradley. #SoilEcologyInPractice

Our final submitted talk of this session. Mathilde Chomel presents living labs run together with stakeholders to improve soil quality.

Next up Andreas Heinemeyer gave an energetic talk: Peat ecohydrological wetness potential and its link to habitat status, vegetation management, carbon cycling and wildfire risk. He showed that family can make the best field assistants!

Kicking off the second half of our ‘Degraded Soils and Restoration’ session Ainoa Pravia emphasizes mesofauna community gradients as bioindicators of land use and management and left us with an important question: where do we go next in terms of peatland restoration?