📣 Another Chapter from our group, this time the focus is on earthworms and enchytraeids as indicators of soil health🪱🪱: www.bdspublishing.com/open-access/ With great work of Alix Vidal, Tullia Calogiuri (amazing figures!), Jan Willem van Groenigen and other authors outside SBL✨ Enjoy the read!🎉

📣Our own Gerlinde De Deyn at the World Economic Forum Annual Meetings of the Global Future Councils and Cybersecurity in Dubai! Soil Health as spotlight also in this event!🎉✨

A couple of weeks ago our Gabriel Moinet & Alix Vidal led the Grounding Carbon Farming course in Normandie🐄 together with Ina Möller, Federico Andreotti & guests experts Claire Chenu & Roman Hüppi! 🌱 Lectures 🚜 Farm visits 🧪 Field sampling 🎲 Serious game sessions 🎤 Interviews See you next year?

📢 Hot off the press in New Phytologist! A fresh study explores the link between root traits and ecosystem functions 🌱🌍, with our very own Thom Kuyper among the co-authors! 👏 🔗 Check it out : nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

📣Amazing outreach day yesterday with the Weekend of science! More than 300 visitors looking at plants, soil...🎉 Thank you to all the collaborators, great collective effort to pass our science to the general public and a lot of kids🪱🦠🌱😀! See you next year! weekendvandewetenschap.nl/hotspots/hot...

🎉Come to the Wageningen Hotspot of the Weekend of Science on Sunday 5th Oct!✨ You will find a variety of activities from the Soil Museum, soil painting, measuring photosynthesis, genetics, games with roots & more... Spread the word and see you there! Info: weekendvandewetenschap.nl/hotspots/hot...

🎉Last week first observation together with NIOO, on their beautiful green rooftop, for the Bodemdierendagen! It was great success & we manage to find the tiny ten🪱🐛🐜 ..but also the little eleven🦠✨! Take your observation, is your turn now! How many soil organisms will you find? bodemdierendagen.nl/nl

📣Come on the 5th October to Wageningen University to get some hand on soils and more during the Weekend of Science! Soil Biology group people are also going to be there to inspire about the beauty of soil organisms🪱🦠🐛🌱!! More info: weekendvandewetenschap.nl/hotspots/hot...

📣ART&SOIL ALERT ⁉️ Studio Metaform & our PhD candidate Doina Mani will take you into the invisible world of nematodes and their ecological stories. 🎼 Join Singing Soil @ EnergieKas, The Hague, Sept 25, 2025, Free Admission via this link: lnkd.in/e7VKAUfR Listening Session, Workshop, Co-creation

✨A big thank you to all the participants and lecturers of the Soil Biology Lab skills course for assessing soil functions 🪱🦠🌱! A week full of exchanges, discussions, activities, learning and networking! Looking forward to the next edition!🎉

Find Paolo di Lonardo at EUROSOIL 2025 in Sevilla next week 📅 Monday 8 Sept 18:00–19:00 👉 panelist in the workshop “Missions to Protect Soil” 📅 Tuesday 9 Sept 12:30–12:45 EUSO Stakeholders Forum 👉 “Rethinking Soil Health in Urban Systems: Insights from Research Trends and Field Implementation”.

🎉And yet another edition of our Soil Biology Lab skills course for assessing soil functions started today🦠🪱🐜🐛🌱! Impressive diversity of participants with different backgrounds and expertise! Looking forward to the rest of the week! 🥼🔬☕🎉

🪱 Publication Announcement! 🌱🍄‍🟫 Book chapter “Soil biology, health and ecosystem services: an overview”. We detail the process of selecting indicators to assess soil health in agricultural systems, applied to four key soil functions. 📂 Open access link: lnkd.in/eXW6VQzu Have a nice read!

📣Soil cluster seminar: "Disentangling the soil-plant microbiome nexus for beneficial solutions: from biostimulants to xenobiotics degradation" 🦠 from Prof. Eduardo Puglisi ☑️9th September ☑️10 to 11 am ☑️GAIA building room B001 For joining on Teams: Meeting ID: 326 610 433 473 8 Passcode: Hy9Kp9Pf

📣Paper alert! "Drivers of the geographical distribution of nematode-based indices across Europe" led by the PhD student Doina Mani working between SBL and SGL. Have a nice read: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

📣We are hiring a PhD candidate to work on modeling soil processes in regenerative agriculture 🌱 If you have experience in process-based modeling and a background in agriculture, we invite you to apply. Deadline, September 30, 2025. More info here: lnkd.in/eGFJktsN

📣 Paper alert: publications led by PhD Jonas Schepens at the Soil Biology group (SBL) on SOC accrual in relation to management practices in northwest Europe. Read more here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

📣Last week new doctor Enno Sonntag, joint PhD with Thuenen Institute of Organic Farming, successfully defended his thesis: “Earthworm Farming for Circular Food Systems: Upcycling Residual Biomass into Edible Protein and Organic Soil Amendments.” 🪱🪱 Congratulations Dr. Enno!🎉

📣♻️ Turning dairy processing waste into phosphorus fertilizer? Absolutely — with a little help from soil microbes! 🌱 Dive into the final chapter of Angel Velasco-Sánchez’s PhD thesis @geoderma.bsky.social, also with Gabriel Moinet and @jwvangroenigen.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

🎉Very nice workshop on public engagement, communication and soil literacy last week in collaboration with Stephan Mantel from ISRIC during the Soil@WUR day! Bulding a community here 💪🎉

✨Very nice workshop on art and soils organized by Giulia Bongiorno, Erne Blondeau and Tullia Calogiuri from our department! This is one way to connect with soil.. Thanks to ISRIC for hosting us at the amazing Soil museum and to Erika Henskens for guinding us through the world of soil pigments🎨

✨Congratulations for the new exposition featuring the work of various colleagues of the SBL group!🎉🖌️🎨If you are around campus go to visit it in IMPULSE building! 🪱🐛🦠🐜

📣New publication led by our PhD student Gidena Reda: "Determination of phosphorus pools, sorption capacity and supply potential of agricultural soils of Tigray, Northern Ethiopia".🎉 Enjoy the read! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

🎉New publication led by Guusje Koorneef with authors from our group, Soil Chemistry group, NIOO and France. "Understanding the effects of organic versus conventional farming on soil organic carbon characteristics – a chronosequence study". Enjoy the read! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

❓What do we do as soil biologist in our weekends? This is real love for soils and its inhabitants🪱🦠🐛🐜! Thank you to Giulia Bongiorno from our department, the Bodemdierendagen team of NIOO and ARTIS!

Interested in soil outreach activities? Join the upcoming World of Soils lecture at the ISRIC World Soil Museum: "Soil and people connected through different perspectives - a soil biologist's journey" by Giulia Bongiorno from the SBL group. 📆 11 June ⏰ 12:25-13:00 🔗 Register: lnkd.in/eCNCuHzQ

📣🎉Join the the Month of Art @WUR in June! Also the Soil Science cluster will be participating with an inspiring art-science collaboration and workshops about soil (of course ;) )!🎨🖌️

✨Amazing event yesterday in the center of Wageningen, of course the Soil Biology group was also present to inspire and share knowledge about soil biodiversity🪱🦠 to the public📣! see you next year!

🎉New design addition to the SBL coffee room 😊 our PhD @tulca.bsky.social designed the fabric, our education coordination Florien Vernooy re-upholstered this chair with it. Tullia designed also some SBL logos and is working on her portfolio! Florien is also an upholsterer: www.atelierflorien.nl✨🪱✨

Curious about the state of biodiversity in the Netherlands? 🌿 The latest report has all the insights ▶️ www.naturalis.nl/system/files... (in Dutch). Our very own Thom Kuyper co-authored the section on fungi—who else but the 'mushroom man' himself? 🍄😊

📣The Soil Cluster is participating to the Biodiversity challenge organized by WUR to share its enthusiasm about soil biodiversity 🪱🦠🌱 Where: Wageningen market square When: Saturday 24th April from 9 am till 15! For more information check: www.wur.nl/en/research-...

📣Our own Dr. Paolo di Lonardo I will give a talk during the webinar on 'Soil Health Indicators: from selection to sampling". Paolo will present some of the first results of Soil Health Benchmarks 🦠 🍄‍🟫 🪱 🕷️ ☘️ Don't miss it! For registrations: soilcommunity.app/event-64

📣Are you curious and would like to engage about the outreach activities happening in the Soil Science cluster✨? If yes, this is the event for you! 🪱🌱 Join us on the 23 June 2025 from 12 to 13 in Forum P0631!

📣CURIOSOIL project invites artists of all disciplines to explore the wonders of the soil🪱🌱. Join the Artathon on 5 June 2025 in Wageningen! Up to 4 projects will be selected to receive €5,000 each to exhibit their work in 2026–2027🚀. Info and registration here: curiosoil.eu/event/curios...

📣Publication: Sharing the light, impact of solar parks on plant productivity, soil microbes and soil organic matter🦠🌱🌞 led by our own Luuk Scholten and with great co-authors Ron de Goede, Anna Edlinger, Bas Van Aken, Gerlinde De Deyn!🎉 Have a nice read nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

🎉✨Great 2025 edition of the Earthworm 🪱 charming championship. 17 teams participating including a kids' team and an international team💪! The soil was very dry, but we had a winnner: the PFAS team from the Luis Bolk found 10 earthworms🪱🪱✨ So many different strategies applied to charm the earthworms😀

Congratulations to the first international team participating in the Wageningen Worm Charming Championship! Safe travels back home!

📣Publication alert: " Large underestimations of warming-induced soil carbon emissions from oversimplistic Q10 indicator" from Gabriel Moinet et al., 🌡️🌡️The paper discusses the misuse of Q10 estimates persists in the literature📖. Find here the publication: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

📣We still have places available for the 2025 edition of the 'Lab Skills Course for Assessing Soil Functions'. 🪱🦠 A range of methods related to soil functions will be discussed and will provide practical training in a subset of measures. 🥼Link here: biosisplatform.eu/services/tra... 👈

An exciting day - we have teamed up again with the amazing Wim van Egmond to make one of his fantastic time lapse movies! What will it be about? Enchytraeids, fungi, collembola or perhaps even tardigrades?!?! Stay tuned!!! @soilclusterwur.bsky.social

📣 New publication: “Utilising Soil Diagnostic Features and Environmental Covariates to Estimate Nutrient Content in Ethiopian Soils” led by Gidena T. Reda @gidena.bsky.social in Geoderma Regional. Read the full article here: lnkd.in/d5jA-9Ya. 👈 Congratulations Gidena👏 and all co-authors!🎉🎉

Find our own Alix Vidal and many others SBL and Soil Science cluster at the EGU this week! Enjoy 🚀

📣🎉We are thrilled to share a new paper looking at the impact of different farming practices on a huge range of soil biota🪱🦠. This works come from the Soil Health Benchmarks Horizon Europe. Check it out! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

🎉Last week great good-by party for our colleague Ron de Goede, which is retiring after many years working at the SBL group. Years full of great publications📃, education 🎓and outreach activities🚀, jokes and complains. We will miss you Ron, for the great ecologist and person you are!✨🪱

🚨 New paper alert! 🚨 Soil, rhizosheath formation, and maize 🌱🌽. Congrats to Franziska 🥳 for a fantastic piece of her PhD work! Rewarding to see results from this challenging field experiment with rainout shelters 😅 Check it out ➡️ link.springer.com/article/10.1...

🏆Last week our colleague Paolo di Lonardo was busy co-organizing and participating to the conference 'Soil health now - ai4soilhealth.eu/event/soil-h... organized by @ai4soilhealth.bsky.social. Paolo also led excursions to the SBL labs 🥼 and the famous earthworm hotel CALIWORMIA🪱🪱 thank you Paolo!

✊📚📣Once again, speaking out against the Dutch government’s disastrous cuts to science and research 🚫. Some of our SBL team showed up to make noise and stand up for the future of knowledge! www.fnv.nl/cao-sector/o...

🎉✨Such an honor: Also our own Prof. Gerlinde de Deyn participated in the London Somerset house SOIL exhibition by collaborating with the artist Wim van Egmond in the timelapses video project 'Soil in Action'🪱 ...more about the expo: www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/soil. So proud of this!

📣🪱Paper freshly out in Plant&Soil by our PhD candidate Roos van de Logt (co-supervised by FSE and Louis Bolk). Can earthworm colonization succeed in temperate pastures—and how? 🪱 Check it out ▶️ link.springer.com/article/10.1...

📣We're looking for a Lab Technician to support SBL's research and education activities🥼🎓. If you know someone who might be interested, please share the vacancy within your network📣. For more details and to apply, please see the vacancy page here: www.wur.nl/en/vacancy/l...