About blue cheese on BlueSky: We recently worked with a client managing four different fields. One of them stood out. It showed significantly lower bacterial and fungal diversity compared to the others. We started digging into the data.

Want to boost your agricultural field trials? Even within an acre, soil texture is not homogenous but has significant spatial structure. Costly field trials can suffer from reduced statistical power when this is not accounted for. Measure soil texture and include it as a covariate in your model.

🌿🦠 New study shows wild Arabidopsis thaliana in diverse plant communities have richer microbiomes & less diseases. But these links shift with season & land use, highlighting how human impact reshapes host-microbe-pathogen interactions. #MicrobeMonday

🌱 Talk Dirt(y) to Me: Why Soil Health Matters I’m kicking off Pint of Science Hamburg 2025 on May 21 with a talk about why soil health is key to our future. Come for the science, stay for the beer, and leave with a new appreciation for dirt! 🍻

🧬 Today is DNA Day! With metabarcoding, we extract and sequence DNA from soil to identify bacteria, fungi, and more. It helps us understand soil health, biodiversity, and ecosystem function. DNA is our window into the hidden life underground. #DNAday #SoilMicrobiome #Metabarcoding #SoilHealth

Soil biodiversity sustains nutrient cycling, carbon storage, and disease regulation. 🌱🌍 It is vital for food security, climate resilience, and even heritage preservation but is increasingly threatened. Understanding its role is key for ecosystem services and One Health. doi.org/10.1371/jour...

#Soil microbiome signatures predict maize yield - and beyond. 🌱🧬 A recent study by us demonstrates that within-field differences in maize yield on a German farm can be well predicted using machine learning models trained on soil microbiome data. (1/2)

Great work by @joellanos.bsky.social and team! This study highlights the power of eDNA in tracking soil biodiversity - especially earthworms, the unsung heroes of healthy soils. A step forward for precision monitoring in regenerative agriculture! 🌍🪱🔬 #SustainableFarming #SoilScience