The best part of fieldwork? It takes you to some incredible places. This time we’re in Montreal 🇨🇦 collecting samples for holobiome and secondary metabolite analyses. Thanks for having us; we’re excited to be here! paqlab.uqam.ca/news.php?lan...

Still doing NGS? It might be time to think beyond it. Third-Generation Sequencing with #longread #nanopore technology is a game changer for #soilecology, but it’s still underused! We successfully applied it. Read our new Global Change Biology paper here: doi.org/10.1111/gcb....

Differential Effects of Long‐Term Fertilization and Plant Species Richness on Soil Fungi and Protists

Fertilization strongly influences plant and soil biodiversity, yet it remains unclear whether fertilization alone drives shifts in soil biota (fungi and protists) or whether associated losses in plan...

doi.org

Extracting nematodes is always like a box of chocolates—you never know what you're going to get. It's always full of little surprises (though most of them aren't nematodes), and that's what makes it so exciting! 🪱🐛🪲🐜 #nematode #biodiversity

I asked AI to create a graphical abstract for our recently published paper. Very funny and cute! But not entirely accurate. If you want the real story, check out our paper in Applied Soil Ecology: doi.org/10.1016/j.ap... @geobotanymluhalle.bsky.social @idiv-research.bsky.social

It got 99 citations, but none from the paper I'm most proud of. Anyone else know that feeling?

Winning a Paper Prize wasn’t actually on my 2026 bucket list, but I’d be more than happy to receive it 😁

Methods in Ecology and Evolution@methodsinecoevol.bsky.social · 7mo ago

🏅 Shortlisted for the 2025 Robert May prize! 🏅 Our last shortlisted author! @drpeterdietrich.bsky.social talks about his paper introducing a fast, non-destructive, and easy-to-use method for three-dimensional (3D) scanning of vegetation using a standard smartphone 🪴📱 Read more👇 buff.ly/YONl9r9

Kleine Organismen, große Wirkung? MLU-Biologe @drpeterdietrich.bsky.social erforscht Mikroorganismen in & auf Bäumen. 🌳 Mit Hilfe modernster Sequenzierungstechnik will er verstehen, wie sich z. B. der Klimawandel auf die Gemeinschaft dieser Organismen auswirkt & welche Folgen das hat. mlu.de/bcjf6

New season, new experiment. This week we are at IDENT Freiburg to collect leaf and bark samples. 🌲🌳🪾 The team includes @alex-sternberg.bsky.social and Sophia, who will use these samples for their doctoral theses (microbiome and secondary metabolites). @michakoehlerbotany.bsky.social

What actually lives in green roof substrate? Curious about what we, the "Biodiversity" team, is studying on the UFZ green roof (and other green roofs in Leipzig/Halle)? Check out the latest UFZ Green Roof Newsletter for all the details: www.ufz.de/export/data/... @ufz.de @unihalle.bsky.social

🚨 Postdoc paper alert! 🚨 🌳✨ In a subtropical forest plantation (BEF-China), we asked: How flexible are tree leaves when light & neighbours change? Using Vis/NIR spectroscopy, we measured 14 leaf traits from ~5000 leaves 🌿 across diversity levels. doi.org/10.1002/ecy....

🚨 Doctoral Student Paper Alert 🚨 🌿🍄 What shapes fungal endophyte diversity inside tree leaves? We found that leaf traits, both their average values and variation within a single tree, strongly influence foliar fungal endophyte communities. doi.org/10.1002/ece3...

Foliar Endophytic Fungal Communities Are Driven by Leaf Traits—Evidence From a Temperate Tree Diversity Experiment

Our study demonstrates that functional leaf traits play a crucial role in shaping fungal endophyte richness and community composition, even beyond the effects of tree species identity. Traits associa...

doi.org

You're interested in urban biodiversity and green spaces? You live in or near Leipzig? There's a great green roof research facility at the @ufz.de. You can find all the important information in our new article: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #greenroof #urban #biodiversity

Research green roof in Leipzig, Germany

Due to the progressing climate change, cities face the challenge of adapting to new weather conditions, including heavy rains and draught periods. Gre…

sciencedirect.com

Five months later, our trees have grown well, so we have finally planted them in our tubes. Stay tuned to see how our trees grow and resist pollution. @treedi.bsky.social

Geobotany at MLU Halle@geobotanymluhalle.bsky.social · 2y ago

Yesterday, our 2 TreeDì PhD students, Justus and Tibor, officially launched this year's tree diversity greenhouse experiment (autoclaving soil). Next week, we will start cultivating the plants. Stay tuned to follow the progress of the experiment! More information here: www.idiv.de/career/assoc...

Happy that one of this year's 23 doctoral students is one of us. We will be investigating whether more diverse forests can defend themselves better?! (research on the effects of tree diversity on secondary metabolites in Germany and globally). Stay tuned 🥳

DBU Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt@umweltstiftung.bsky.social · last yr.

🚀 23 neue Promovierende starten ins #DBUstipendium! Mit starken Themen: Batteriebrände, Klimabildung vs. Fake News, Algen fürs Abwasser. Welcome in der Community – wir freuen uns auf eure Ergebnisse! 👉 Jetzt selbst bewerben: dbu.de/promotionsstipendien

Excited to see our paper now published in Methods in Ecology and Evolution @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social ! 🎉 doi.org/10.1111/2041...

Peter Dietrich@drpeterdietrich.bsky.social · 2y ago

Preprint alert!🚨 You want biomass data without clipping the vegetation? Use your smartphone for a 3D scan! In our manuscript you get instructions & a complete Jupyter notebook for immediate use! doi.org/10.32942/X2T... 🪴+📱=💚 #biodiversity #ecology #globalchange #photogrammetry

All in the name of science — even if it means crawling through the undergrowth! Together with @alex-sternberg.bsky.social (PhD student 👌) and an amazing team of helpers, we’re currently sampling at the IDENT site in Sardinia. Stay tuned for more updates! 🌲🌲🦠🍄‍🟫🪱🌲🌳

Fun achievement today: the unofficial fifth chapter of my PhD thesis is among the top 10% of most-read papers in @ecol-evol.bsky.social in 2023. It's great to know that the things one does are of interest to others! doi.org/10.1002/ece3...

Linking plant diversity–productivity relationships to plant functional traits of dominant species and changes in soil properties in 15‐year‐old experimental grasslands

We sampled 15-year-old plant communities of a biodiversity experiment (Jena Experiment) and tested whether and how changes in plant functional traits and soil properties over time and along the plant....

doi.org

Last week was an outstanding one for us: Lina submitted her PhD thesis and Pablo @castretis.bsky.social defended his thesis excellently. This was the first PhD defence in our beautifully renovated lecture hall in the Botanical Garden. Congratulations to you both! You did a fantastic job! 🥳🎉🥂

This week we identified fungal fruiting bodies from the #MyDiv tree diversity experiment, and found an impressive richness. One of our highlights is Dissoderma odoratum growing as a parasite on a Hebeloma mesophaeum fruiting body. Very rare and endangered! Nature is an incredible thing! #MLU

Preprint alert!🚨 You want biomass data without clipping the vegetation? Use your smartphone for a 3D scan! In our manuscript you get instructions & a complete Jupyter notebook for immediate use! doi.org/10.32942/X2T... 🪴+📱=💚 #biodiversity #ecology #globalchange #photogrammetry

Biodiversity stabilizes productivity. Check ☑️ Biodiversity also increases ecosystem multifunctionality. Check ☑️ But does biodiversity also increase the stability of multifunctionality? Spoiler: yes! Our study in Global Change Biology: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Plant diversity and community age stabilize ecosystem multifunctionality

Biodiversity and community age are known to stabilize ecosystem functioning, but this knowledge is almost exclusively based on analyses of single ecosystem functions. Here, we tested whether biodiver...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com