Deep-rooted grasses and forbes should be grown on marginal land on farms that they harvest to produce biochar soil amendment to help their operations become net-zero via Carbon Dioxide Removal. agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/... @jeffinerca.bsky.social

Assessing the Effect of a Deep‐Rooted Grass on Belowground Carbon Storage in Cultivated Land: Insights From a Multi‐Site US Study

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum, L.) stored significantly more carbon in root biomass than shallow-rooted crops at 12 sites across the USA Switchgrass had no detectable effect on soil organic carbo...

agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Congratulations to CoE Key Researcher @andreasrichter.bsky.social @cemess.bsky.social @univie.ac.at and ActiveSOIL team Caitlin Singleton @aau.dk, @jeffinerca.bsky.social, LLNL and Michael Obersteiner @ox.ac.uk on receiving €10 million from @novo-nordisk.bsky.social @fwf-at.bsky.social

We composited soil cores and lost 49 AM fungal taxa doing it. Sequencing individual subsamples found them. The ones that vanish are rare, patchy, and phylogenetically clustered. Also drying vs freezing made no difference really. Sample at the scale your question lives at. doi.org/10.1016/j.so...

I just followed this advice to comment on the OMB rule changes. There are about 3 hours left before the deadline (tonight at 11:59p EDT). If you benefit from US Government-funded research make sure to get your comments in. elizabethginexi.substack.com/p/what-we-ne...

What We Need to do NEXT: OMB’s Proposed Federal Financial Assistance Rule (OMB-2026-0034)

What OMB’s Proposed Federal Financial Assistance Rule Means in Practice

elizabethginexi.substack.com

🎉 Herzlichen Glückwunsch an @andreasrichter.bsky.social, Caitlin Singleton, @jeffinerca.bsky.social und Michael Obersteiner zum 10 Mio. € Grant der @novo-nordisk.bsky.social für Active Soil! 🌱 @cemess.bsky.social @microbesplanet.bsky.social @univie.ac.at 🌍👏 www.univie.ac.at/aktuelles/pr...

Andreas Richter erhält hochdotierte Förderung der Novo Nordisk Stiftung

Neues internationales Forschungsprojekt zu Bodengesundheit unter Leitung der Universität Wien

univie.ac.at

Inspired by an incredible week at #ISVC2026! 🌱 Researchers from 5 continents, 14 countries & 28 institutions dug into soil virus ecology. Huge thanks to our invited speakers: Joanne Emerson, @gtrubl.bsky.social, @karthik-a.bsky.social, @simrouxvirus.bsky.social, and @jeffinerca.bsky.social 🦠

Mark Arax in the style of Mark Arax on California and the through line from the gold rush to ag rush to data center and AI rush, with a good detour on “sustainable” groundwater www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

Welcome to California: land of plunder and hypocrisy | Mark Arax

From gold to water, California’s wealth was built on extraction. The AI boom is reviving an old question: who pays the price?

theguardian.com

#SOM2026 in São Paulo has been amazing! Huge thanks to the hosts who invited me to give a keynote talk about surprising biology in deep soils Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz - ESALQ/USP and the CCARBON/USP - Center for Carbon Research in Tropical Agriculture

Great piece by @leahstokes.bsky.social www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...

California shouldn’t abandon a proven way to cut rising energy costs

OPINION: The Demand Side Grid Support Program could save Californians up to $206 million on their electricity bills — unless the state stops funding it, Leah C. Stokes writes.

sfchronicle.com

Thrilled to announce that the Department of Microbiology at the University of Washington, School of Medicine is hiring at the Assistant Professor level (tenure-track)! The Pacific Northwest is an awesome place to live and do science 🧪🦠. Join us! apply.interfolio.com/185622 Applications due 8/1.

The next James Bond should be Gary Oldman in his Jackson Lamb persona.

California gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra just took half a million dollars from the fossil fuel industry. This on top of the max contribution from Chevron. When someone shows you who they are, believe them.

New paper on destabilization of buried soil organic carbon under changing moisture regimes, based on incubation experiments with the Brady Soil, a prominent paleosol in the Great Plains loess sequence. Teneille Nel et al., soil.copernicus.org/articles/12/...

Destabilization of buried carbon under changing moisture regimes

Abstract. Paleosols formed by the burial of topsoil during landscape evolution can sequester substantial amounts of soil organic carbon (SOC) over millennia due to protection from surface disturbances...

soil.copernicus.org

Devastating loss of Dr. Adriana Romero-Olivares this week. She was an amazing mycologist, a leader in her field, & my friend & collaborator. This is a tremendous loss for mycology, science, & the world. There is a meal train for her husband & two small children www.mealtrain.com/trains/l3kg64

Meal Train for Jovani Catalan (Spouse of Adriana Romero Olivares)

Hi all, Please help out the family of Adriana Romero Olivares. Her husband, Jovani, and kids can be helped with meals over the next weeks as Adriana recovers.

mealtrain.com

Dr. Asmeret Asefaw Berhe@aaberhe.com · 3mo ago

Prof. Adriana Romero-Olivares, UC Riverside, was doing incredible work on how fungi and ecosystems respond to global change. A rising voice, a dynamic scientist and educator, a young mother, wife and daughter gone far too soon. A huge loss. Her family, students and community are in my thoughts.

Such heartbreaking news….i have long enjoyed Adriana’s work on fungi and warming, Valley Fever and ways to better engage with the Global South. My heart goes out to her family and colleagues.

Dr. Asmeret Asefaw Berhe@aaberhe.com · 3mo ago

Prof. Adriana Romero-Olivares, UC Riverside, was doing incredible work on how fungi and ecosystems respond to global change. A rising voice, a dynamic scientist and educator, a young mother, wife and daughter gone far too soon. A huge loss. Her family, students and community are in my thoughts.

Today was a good day. Each year in mid-April, I give one of my favorite lectures...at Berkeley High School's 9th grade Climate Conference. We talk about Farming Carbon, how rocks (minerals) + roots + microbes + water = soil. We go over how the earth system is changing...

You wanna know if deeply rooted grasses put more carbon in the ground? "Sometimes you've gotta rent a van and drive around the country..." So said @ericslessarev.bsky.social & team in this wonderful study. 12 sites in central/eastern USA... dx.doi.org/10.1029/2025...

Assessing the Effect of a Deep‐Rooted Grass on Belowground Carbon Storage in Cultivated Land: Insights From a Multi‐Site US Study

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum, L.) stored significantly more carbon in root biomass than shallow-rooted crops at 12 sites across the USA Switchgrass had no detectable effect on soil organic carbo...

dx.doi.org

In light of the Iran war, the UK will require all new homes to be built with solar panels and energy-efficient electric heat pumps. How...logical! www.cnbc.com/2026/03/24/i...

Britain responds to Iran war energy shock by requiring solar panels and heat pumps in all new homes

The move comes as part of Britain's response to the Iran war, with the conflict triggering the largest supply disruption in the history of the oil market.

cnbc.com

Drought Reduces Formation, but Enhances Persistence, of Mineral-Associated Organic Matter in a Grassland Soil、Global Change Biology, #stableisotopes onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Drought Reduces Formation, but Enhances Persistence, of Mineral‐Associated Organic Matter in a Grassland Soil

We used a 13C-CO2 labeling study to track the formation and persistence of mineral-associated soil carbon derived from living root and decaying root inputs under normal moisture and droughted conditi...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

update on the experiment my colleague John Harte started almost 30 years ago www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Rise of the shrubs: what happened when scientists heated a Rocky Mountain wildlife meadow by 2C?

A long-running experiment in Colorado provides an ‘alarming’ view of how rapidly unchecked global heating could transform fragile ecosystems

theguardian.com

Spent the evening helping my 16 yo study for her IB Bio exam — ecology and evolution unit. And darned if I don’t actually know some stuff!! Like… all of it. Somehow reaffirming that— even with all the chaos, funding disappearing, sponsors imploding…I still think I chose the right career.

Associate Senior Lecturer/Assistant Professor position in Molecular Microbiology available at Lund University, Sweden: lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/...

Associate Senior Lecturer/Assistant Professor in Molecular Microbiology

The Department of Biology conducts research and teaching in many subject areas such as ecology, evolutionary biology, organismal biology and molecular biology. A total of approximately 300 people curr

lu.varbi.com

there's a lot going on right now but did you know a massive amount of the world's fertilizer flows through the middle east, and did you know that that fertilizer needs to be shipped to the us *right now* for planting season, and uh did you know we are at war with iran

Trump’s War on Iran Could Screw Over US Farmers

The Middle East supplies a huge amount of the world’s fertilizer. Conflict in the region has sent prices soaring ahead of the critical spring planting season.

wired.com

so in other words, a typical Oakland kid 😎

Rolling Stone@rollingstone.com · 5mo ago

Alysa Liu shares the political issues she cares about most: “Climate, election things, Black Lives Matter, Stop Asian Hate, ICE protests... More empathy needs to happen, for sure.” Interview: www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...

EMSL-JGI meeting in Seattle was pretty great! (although I’ll be happy when we can stop talking nonstop about AI and just use it like any other tool). Best part by far was getting to see my dear friend and former postdoc Ashley Campbell.

Ahh, if theres a massive Feb snowstorm in DC, I must be here for the Genomic Sciences mtg. Without fail…

Felicidades Benito!!! What a wonderful love letter to Puerto Rico, La Isla del Encanto. We are celebrating with tostones, arroz maspasteao, amarillos, pinchos, pastelillos and coco mojitos!!

"For years, a cottage industry of political observers has contorted itself to obscure and occlude the obvious. That regardless of what others see in him, Trump’s entire political career...cannot be understood outside the context of his bitter, deep-seated racism." (gift link)

Opinion | This Is Just Who Trump Is

nytimes.com

We are recruiting a postdoc to study wetland plant-soil-microbe interactions using isotope labeling in our greenhouse at LLNL with me and Erin Nuccio as part of a multidisciplinary project. Experience with wetland plants and SIP a plus. Please share! www.linkedin.com/posts/activi...