Kyle Mason-Jones

• Soil microbial ecology and biogeochemistry
• Virus ecology
• Soil organic matter
• Microbial storage compounds

• Emmy Noether grant (DFG): “The devil in the details: Phage microhabitats as drivers of soil biogeochemistry”
• MetaRhizoPhage: Elucidation of bacteriophage dynamics in soil and rhizosphere plant-phage interactions by isotopic labelling and metagenome sequencing (Stemmler Stiftung)
• EcoEnergeticS: Economic and bioenergetic controls on microbial metabolism of complex substrates in soils (within SPP 2302: SoilSystems)
• SoilProS: Soil biodiversity analysis for sustainable production systems

Van Rijssel, S.Q., Koorneef, G.J., Veen, G.F. (Ciska), Pulleman, M.M., De Goede, R.G.M., Comans, R.N.J., Van Der Putten, W.H., Mason-Jones, K., 2025. Conventional and organic farms with more intensive management have lower soil functionality. Science 388, 410–415. doi: 10.1126/science.adr0211

Van Sluijs, L., Dietz, C., Van Noort, F., Helder, J., Zwart, M.P., Mason-Jones, K., 2025. Nematodes vector bacteriophages in compost and soil. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 205, 109785. doi: 10.1016/j.soilbio.2025.109785

Mason-Jones, K., Breidenbach, A., Dyckmans, J., Banfield, C.C., Dippold, M.A. 2023. Intracellular carbon storage by microorganisms is an overlooked pathway of biomass growth. Nature Communications 2240. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-37713-4.

Camenzind, T., Mason-Jones, K., Mansour, I., Rillig, M. C., Lehmann, J. 2023. Formation of necromass-derived soil organic carbon determined by microbial death pathways. Nature Geoscience 16, 115-122. doi: 10.1038/s41561-022-01100-3

Breidenbach, A., Schleuss, P-M., Liu, S., Schneider, S., Dippold, M.A., de la Haye, T., Miehe, G., Heitkamp, F., Seeber, E., Mason-Jones, K.,  Xu, X.  Huanming, Y., Xu, J., Dorji, T. Gube, M., Norf, H., Meier, J., Guggenberger, G., Kuzyakov, Y., Spielvogel, S. 2022. Microbial functional changes mark irreversible course of Tibetan grassland degradation. Nature Communications, 13:2681. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-30047-7.

Mason-Jones, K., Robinson, S.L., Veen, G.F., Manzoni, S., van der Putten, W.H. 2021. Microbial storage and its implications for soil ecology. The ISME Journal. doi:10.1038/s41396-021-01110-w

Mason-Jones, K., Schmücker, N., Kuzyakov, Y. 2018. Contrasting effects of organic and mineral nitrogen challenge the N-Mining Hypothesis for soil organic matter priming. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 124, 38-46.

Kuzyakov, Y., Mason-Jones, K. 2018. Viruses in soil: Nano-scale undead drivers of microbial life, biogeochemical turnover and ecosystem functions. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 127, 305-317. doi: 10.1016/j.soilbio.2018.09.032