New on the Belowground blog: The inverted forest: Why global carbon models miss the mark on subtropical grasslands plantlifebelowground.wordpress.com/2026/04/01/t...

We are looking for a new PhD student: Parallel Evolution of Clonality in Angiosperms www.ibot.cas.cz/en/vacancies...

So glad to see this study finally out after several years of trying to find time to put data together despite fast pace of life and new projects coming along! 🎉We linked plant-soil feedbacks to mycorrhizal associations and soil metabolomics: doi.org/10.1111/ele.... @petriacqp.bsky.social @wiley.com

Using 63 globally distributed grassland and shrubland sites from the International Drought Experiment, this study identifies plant traits linked to drought resistance after 1 year of extreme drought across growth forms, lifespans and climate 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🐑🌱 What drives functional change in grazed grasslands? Eshelman et al. report that increased grazing favours avoidance, resistance, and tolerance traits, with most trait shifts arising from intraspecific variation rather than species turnover.

Postdoctoral position in Forest Genetics at @uni-freiburg.de with a focus on local adaptation and/or stress reaction of trees. The position combines research and teaching (4 SWS), and offers the opportunity to develop an independent research profile (4+ years).

Introducing.... The Soil Ecology Seminar Series 2026! Join us on Wednesday the 25th of February at 1 pm GMT for the first installment. We will delve into microbial ecology with exciting talks from Dr Ashish Malik and Josh Thurston: Register your interest here: urldefense.com/v3/__https:/...

#transgenerational transmission of a core #microbiome that protects against downy mildew from soil to #phyllosphere Fantastic and important study by @jellespooren.bsky.social @rlberendsen.bsky.social @cornepieterse.bsky.social academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc... #plantscience

#TansleyReview: #Mycorrhizas: Epigenetic Regulation & Transgenerational Legacy 📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... by Beltrán-Torres et al. @irissammarco.bsky.social @stephane-maury.bsky.social @vtec.bsky.social Figure was created in BioRender (BioRender.com/8rq6i2c).

Transferred resistance – interspecific transfer of plant defence against soilborne pathogens nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #Commentary by Costa and Mathesius highlighting the recent work by Hama et al. nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/2JZ2PX...

📖Published! Land use change can affect both species diversity and evolution within species🌍🐿️ We find that evolutionary response to land use change can be masked in the field by phenotypic plasticity, revealing hidden adaptation to global change👇️ buff.ly/TRxJ3bM

Have you heard about countergradient variation? We found it plays a role in plant response to grassland land use change: phenotypic plasticity masks evolutionary response to grazing abandonment! @erc.europa.eu @journalofecology.bsky.social doi.org/10.1111/1365...

Check out our new paper, Multilevel selection informs context-dependent mycorrhizal functioning! This is my very first first-authored publication, and I worked w some incredible folks to make it happen: @meafkhami.bsky.social @balachaudhary.bsky.social and Nancy Johnson! doi.org/10.3389/frmb...

“Bektaş et al. (2026) offer a valuable template for future studies embracing the complexity of whole-plant strategies, inviting the scientific community to go beyond the traditionally used traits (Matthus et al., 2025).” Thank you @karlandraczek.bsky.social & @newphyt.bsky.social 🙏🏽

💭Are you a researcher or practitioner with an interest in publishing? We are looking for Associate Editors who can help advance outstanding ecological research by joining the Editorial Board for one of our seven Society-owned journals.

🌿🍄‍🟫🌱🍄We’re recruiting!!🌿🍄‍🟫🌱🍄 I’m looking for two postdocs and a technician to join my group @sheffielduni.bsky.social @sheffieldpps.bsky.social to work with me on my exciting @royalsociety.org Faraday Discovery Fellowship project, details for each post as follows:

Tree evolution is surprisingly quirky! 🌳 Trees are likely ancestral in many plant groups, often re-evolve on islands, and Arabidopsis can be made tree-like by tweaking a few genes. We revisited what genes really make a tree a tree using comparative genomics. @trhvidsten.bsky.social #trees #evolution

Our first paper from the Bug-Network (BugNet) is out! 🎉 BugNet is a global network studying how invertebrate herbivores and fungal pathogens shape plant diversity & ecosystem functioning worldwide. The paper reports on the methods of the experimental part: 📄 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Ecological acclimation: A framework to integrate fast and slow responses to climate change - Stemkovski - 2025 - Functional Ecology - Wiley Online Library besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

🗞️New publication🗞️ How do neighbourhood diversity effects on tree growth change with climatic conditions?🌳🌲🔆🌧️ We adress this question in our new study in @natecoevo.nature.com led by Liting Zheng. www.nature.com/articles/s41... /w @liting-zheng.bsky.social, Peter Reich & #TreeDivNet

Hot off the press 🔥 New Ecological Monographs paper shows why, when and how to include intraspecific trait variability to enhance functional diversity research. Huge shout out to Facundo Palacio for his vision and leadership. Read here 👉 doi.org/10.1002/ecm.... #traits #functionaldiversity 📏🌐

Check out our new paper: Origin matters: mycorrhizal growth response and induced resistance to pathogens depend on mycorrhizal and pathogen source, where we show that mycorrhizal induced resistance occurs within native plant species 🌱 @newphyt.bsky.social

⬆️🌡️Increasing temperatures,☀️ drought,🐮🐑🚫 grazing cessation and nitrogen deposition amount to tough times for vulnerable dry grasslands. A three-decade long case study in Germany by Horka et al. gives us more insights on the changes these communities face. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

led by Cathy Fahey, we used #metabolomics in the #BiodiversiTREE experiment to show that chemically mediated plant–enemy interactions promote positive biodiversity effects on young tree growth - Journal of Ecology #treedivnet besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Ever wondered how plant interactions with soil pathogens and mutualists may regulate both species co-existence and diversity-productivity relationships? It is complicated 📈📉 but we tried to put different threads together:

🦠Research reveals that nitrogen deposition decouples grassland plant community from soil bacterial & fungal communities, posing great challenges for an accurate evaluation of ecosystem functions under future global change scenarios 🧪🌍

Spring is in full swing and we had our traditional yearly botanical trip. Amazing variety and beauty in every habitat - from dessert-like heath to species-rich flooded meadow! 🤩

Barley roots are really hairy! 🤩Tempted to measure if varieties differ in root hair length and density, but how? If you have positive experience, please share your method with us!

Today we had a new record: over 600 pots harvested in one day for a plant-soil feedback experiment with barley + soil leachate collection for 150 pots! 💪👏🥳 #AgroCropFuture project @kkoorem.bsky.social

We are looking for a research fellow to join our group for 2 years! Please share with anyone looking for a new position and interested in 🌱 local adaptation, plant-soil interactions and land use! euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/340833

Global intraspecific trait variation in grasslands: intraspecific responses to local environment can change species trait rankings nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1... @rjgriffin-nolan.bsky.social

Out now by Wang et al. in Journal of Applied Ecology: 'Tree functional strategies and soil microbial communities regulate forest ecosystem services' besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

After every encounter with the current scientific publishing system

Have you heard about the concept of dark diversity 🧙‍♀️? If not, find out what it is and how it can be used in the assessment of human impacts!

Very intriguing findings - quite strong positive effect of AMF on presumably non-mycorrhizal plant!

Very excited to see this work out by visiting PhD in my group Yuanhao Zhang exploring interactions between clonal plant integration and CMNs! Spoiler they interact in big ways! doi.org/10.1111/ppl....

🌿 Understanding how land use affects temporal #stability is key to preserve #biodiversity & #ecosystem functions. Our 13-year study across 300 sites reveals that trait-based #community features are key mediators of #land-use effects on stability drivers. @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

In our recent paper, Anvar Sanaei shows that root traits of 'absorptive fine roots' relate to tree growth! In fact, they are better predictors than traits of 'transport fine roots'. www.nature.com/articles/s42... But there is more to it... 🧵

Nature research paper: Latitudinal scaling of aggregation with abundance and coexistence in forests https://go.nature.com/3CUTWWg

These two people are very dear to us 🥳 Such an inspirational PhD defence today! Check out Eleonora’s work on functional trait spaces: rdcu.be/eaNox

It’s hard to carry on with daily life when all hell breaks loose in the world. So small joys are so important now - look at this cutie that my student Lauri Laaspere put together! Can you guess what is going on? #soil

We are hiring! We have a vacancy for a 2-year postdoc in our department @niooknaw.bsky.social to work on plant and soil community dynamics in long-term experiments in natural grasslands. More info can be found here: nioo.knaw.nl/en/vacancies.... Please spread the word!

📣We're currently recruiting a soil biology postdoc interested in nutrient cycling in grassland systems at Teagasc Johnstown Castle, Wexford, Ireland with @aaronfoxirl.bsky.social #TeagascJC Further details and link to apply topjobs-teagasc.thehirelab.com/LiveJobs/Job... closing date 13/02/2025

📣New paper out in SBB co-authored by our own Gerlinde De Deyn, and many others. Nice collaboration led by @au.dk, Denmark and School of Ecology in China. A metanalysis proposing a new root-trait framework to design plant mixtures for SOC in agroecosystems 🌱. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

🌳🌳🌳 We have a new paper in @pnas.org showing climate warming leads to growth decline in beech because it drives trees to reproduce more frequently. Climate change can cause growth decline even when drought isn’t increasing by shifting where trees allocate resources doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2423181122

So happy to see it finally published! Phylogenetic distance between plant species can affect plant-soil feedbacks in different directions and effects are species-specific.

We are looking for more collaborators who want to run a BugNet site in their region. If you are interested, join our online info event. Please re-skeet, and help us to reach community ecologists, and those interested in plant- herbivore and plant-pathogen interactions around the world! 👇

New paper alert! We find evidence of greater selfing rates in in an annual wildflower after 8 generations of cultivation on a native seed farm: doi.org/10.1111/mec....

New paper out! 🌳 🌲 (and this one is very special to me) ➡️ Diversity boosts forest productivity also (and especially?) through its effect on the number of trees within forests besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @journalofecology.bsky.social @cnrsoccitanieest.bsky.social More ⬇️ 1/7