On our way back from Sainte-Croix, France after a very successful field course for our third year Zoology students. Beautiful landscapes, plenty of inverts, snakes, and birds, and great food to fuel the science 😁 @liverpooluni.bsky.social

📜New paper: using sodium alginate beads for bacterial inoculation of plant roots. Best time to inoculate is at root emergence for plant benefits. Data collated from MRes, BSc and summer student projects - proud supervisor!🎓 resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Register now for "Roots to Regenerative Agriculture" 🌱 📆 18 - 20th November 📍 York, UK & Online 🚜 🌍 Join us as we connect science & farming to explore the future of #regenag Find out more 🔗 buff.ly/jDltSdu #sustainableagriculture #plantscience

New lab paper: Mbaluto & Zytynska (2025) New Phytologist 🦠🌾🦗 with @crispus-mbaluto.bsky.social Rhizobacteria inoculation primes barley defences against aphids — microbes fine-tune plant resistance over time. #PlantMicrobiome #InsectResistance 🔗 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Enjoying another EU Cost Action meeting! It's in Germany, so some early starts 😅😴 but tomorrow I get to present some new data 😁 www.root-benefit.eu

Hello agri ecologists! We have a new BES SIG account! Do drop it a follow at @bes-aeg.bsky.social to hear all about events, current research, workshops, networking opportunities and more! 🌱🫛

Check out these exciting opportunities for a dual award PhD in plant and soil sciences 🤩 at @sheffieldpps.bsky.social and @westsyduhie.bsky.social: www.sheffield.ac.uk/biosciences/... each PhD project will involve at least 1 year spent at each institution - pls repost 🙏

Had a lovely time last week for Oriana's PhD defence (well done!!), it was great to visit Freising and see so many people again 😄

Unfortunately I can't make this one, but really enjoyed it last year! One to go to if you like plants and microbes 🌱

3/3 Postdoc in "Integrating Plant Microbiome Omics Data for Causal Inference" with Prof. Aalt-Jan van Dijk werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...

Just registered and submitted my abstract for this #agriculture #ecology #climate meeting on 11th March in London @britishecologicalsociety.org Abstract deadline Mon 17th Feb, for talks and posters

Join the #BES Agricultural Special Interest Group to explore research at the intersection of Agriculture, Ecology and Climate Change and contribute to rejuvenating the SIG! Tuesday 11th March at British Ecological Society, London www.britishecologicalsociety.org/content/inte...

BBSRC NWD Funded PhD Opportunity (UK and International) on #plant #microbiomes, this project will examine and predict microbial networks of plants for stress resilience. @liverpooluni.bsky.social All info at bit.ly/3BAmYtm

I just published: How to hire the best people Steve Jobs was obsessed with hiring “the best people.” You should be too. link.medium.com/SAqkMnHlnPb

At #BES2024 Andrew Beckerman starting the session on networks. Let's find solutions to global challenges instead of just documenting and modelling the doom!

Reminder for #PhD opportunity on #plant #microbiomes tinyurl.com/35kx6n7y UK and International funding - info session online Wed 11th Dec, register at docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

New PhD opportunity in my lab at Liverpool, UK. Competition funded, info session online Wed 11th Dec 10-11am UK time. #grass #microbiomes #climate-resilience all info at tinyurl.com/35kx6n7y application deadline 8th Jan

Science takes time - a lot of time. Time that is more and more difficult to make available because of increased workloads. Time that exceeds the temporary contracts of postdocs and PhDs. I'll illustrate this using our paper published in Nature yesterday. 🧵 (1/x) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🌾🌱🧪🦠🌍 New study out today! Please share! Meta-analysis of 302 globally sourced AMF inoculant trials. Only 12% of commercial products both boosted crop growth and had effective root colonization by mycorrhizal fungi. #soilscience #PlantScience #mycosky nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The Faculty of Science at Stockholm University is recruiting up to three Assistant Professors in Biodiversity to tackle the critical global issue of biodiversity loss caused by human-driven factors such as climate change, habitat alteration and pollution. www.su.se/department-o...

Rhizobacterium Acidovorax radicis inoculation of barley alters eco-evolutionary interactions between Sitobion avenae aphid genotypes - potential to drive rapid evolution. Work with Xinqiang Xi and Andy Dean, happy to see it out! doi.org/10.1111/oik....

A Saturday mycorrhizal treat - I'm so pleased to share our latest findings from our research into the interactions between plants, mycorrhizal fungi and parasitic nematodes in @NatureComms, open access link to the article here: rdcu.be/dw3NU

The best start of the week, with a paper accepted in Functional Ecology. In this paper, led by Oriana Sánchez-Mahecha, we investigated how different climatic factors impact on microbe-induced resistance against aphids in barley. It turns out they are quite consistent! @szytynska.bsky.social

Come and lead a vibrant department full of bright and lovely people. And me. Dept of Evolution, Ecology and Behaviour is looking for a new head @LivUni @LivUniHLS tinyurl.com/2p8rrenp Deadline 21/1/24. Happy to discuss

📢We have plenty of competition-funded PhD opportunities on offer for start Oct24 - very exciting! For my associated projects see details at findaphd.com/phds/?Keywor...

📢Funded PhD position in my group for 2024 entry. We study microbe-induced plant (crop) resistance to insects, and this project will examine interactions between bacteria and fungi in the soil. 🌍🌱🦗🦠 Come join us! deadline 8th Jan All info at: www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

I've been in the lab with my students today harvesting bacteria, and this afternoon we're setting up a field soil experiment for functional microbiome analysis. This is far more fun than my usual workday activities 😁

PhD position in Germany with @robinheinennl.bsky.social working on the lovely chemically-diverse tansy plant and its aphids!

Open PhD position on grassland global change ecology in my new group at Uni Würzburg land use climate change aboveground belowground multitrophic interactions Gut content metabarcoding Field work GCEF Great collaborators Apply by October 29th www.biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de/gce/aktuelle...

Need a first post here to get started.. so let's introduce my group with a photo of us when we were very happy having completed yet another day of counting aphids in our field trial 😃 lots of survey data, microbiome data, and plant gene expression now being analysed!