On November 19–20, 2024, Professor Gu Feng from the College of Resource and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, visited the GBI group. He has over 35 years of experience and is a leading expert working on arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbionts, and  his research focuses on enhancing phosphorus use efficiency and crop production through AM fungi.
During his visit, Prof. Gu Feng delivered an excellent presentation titled "The Biological Cooperation in the Hyphosphere," which sparked a lively, extended, and engaging discussion among GBI group members. He also visited GBI's laboratory facilities and participated in scientific meetings to explore more future collaborations.

 

BGI group including our professor turned lunch break into a lively badminton game, filled with laughs and friendly competition. We’re set to make this a regular tradition whenever the weather’s nice—nothing like a quick rally to brighten our day!

The members of GBI group Guodong Shao and Nataliya Bilyera participated in the conference organized by the SPP 2322 SoilSystems in the University of Humboldt in Berlin. This international conference had offered a platform for new conceptual, experimental and empirical studies on the linking of mass and energy fluxes in soil ecosystems. Guodong Shao has presented the results of EcoEnergetics project in his oral talk on the topic “ Linking soil metabolic activities and energy fluxes using diverse substrates with contrasting oxidation level”.

A member of GBI group Iryna Loginova participated in the conference organized by the Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation of the University of Bonn. She presented an oral talk on “Impact of joint band application of biochar suspension on 33P-uptake by maize”.

For the new group photo, all members had to bring their favorite tool with which they work in the lab or in the field. This was a real challenge, since the tools should not be repeated. The preparation brought a lot of joy and pleasure.

We started our trip by hiking to the Hohenurach castle ruins and enjoying the wonderful view. Then we continued our hike to the mesmerizing 37m tall waterfall and had a big BBQ at the resting place. It was a fun and adventurous day trip for the members of GBI.

International community of soil scientists celebrated 100 years of soil science past achievements and discussed future challenges on 19-21 May 2024 in Florence, Italy. A member of GBI Nataliya Bilyera presented an oral talk on ‘Soil  zymohraphy: a decade of enzymatic imaging in plant-soil-microbe interactions and future prospective’ at the session ‘Plant-soil-microbe interactions in the rhizosphere and their potential to address global agricultural challenges’.

GBI group of 15 people enjoyed a hike from GUZ to Schloss Hohenentringen, which took approximately 2 hours as we wandered through the forest surrounding Tübingen. Following our hike, we savored a delightful lunch inside the Schloss.

GBI group successfully participated in the General Assembly EGU-2024 with three oral talks including invited and one poster presentation:

M. Dippold (invited):  Metabolic responses to hotspot-forming processes: growth modes and their ecological consequences

G. Shao Using metabolic flux modeling to disentangle anabolic and catabolic contributions to soil heat dissipation 

N. Bilyera Soil zymography: a decade in microbial hotspot imaging and future challenges

I. Loginova How biochar suspension influences soil microbial activity and phosphorus availability 

GBI group underwent an “on-hands fire safety training on the safe use of fire extinguishers”.

The aim of the visit was to buildup a strategic partnership initiated by Prof. Xiaohong Tian, dean of Northwest A&F University (China). The Chinese team presented institutions and scientific profiles  and discussed a visit in coming year. They had also a lab tour with a lab manager Callum Banfield. The visit ends with a dinner at Krumme Brücke to sharing cultural experience between German and Chinese scientists.

The members of GBI group participated in the in oral and poster presentations at the Bio-Geosphere Africa Conference 2023: Research for Diversity and Sustainable Development in the Face of Climate Change (BioGARD) organized by University of Hohenheim and the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen in Stuttgart-Hohenheim (Germany) between 14th and 15th of September 2023.

Very inspiring final meeting of Robert Bosch Stiftung Junior professorship 2017 took place in Tübingen and online with partners from SEKU, JOOUST & ICRISAT. The program (here) included many talks reporting scientific acquirements of the Junior professorship 2017 and very fruitful discussions on the results, as well as plans for the future cooperation.

The members of GBI group participated at the Deutsche Bodenkunde Gesselschaft meeting with oral and poster presentations.

The delegation from two Chinese universities - Northwest Normal University (Qingfeng Sun and Xuechen Zhang) and Ludong University (Nan Wu and Xiaohung Guo) visited GBI group on Wednesday 16th of August 2023. The visit was in the framework of the project meeting "Rhizolithes: carbonate crystallization controlled by plant type, root ecology and microbiome in various environmental conditions". It is a DAAD exchange project with China initiated by Kazem Zamanian (University of Hannover) and Qingfeng Sun (Northwest Normal University). Chinese colleagues presented their research topics, discussed current challenges in studies of rhizolithes with the GBI group members and visited the labs.

Chinese colleaugues prepared their traditional Dumplings for the celebration of the official start for the 'Year of Rabbit' and shared their traditions with GBI group members.

GBI  group had the Chrismas Party with a traditional German 'Feuerzangenbowle' and many typical dishes from South African, Polish, Chinese, Indian, Nigerian and Ukrainian cuisine.

Prof. Dr. Sandra Spielvogel from the University of Kiel presented a study on the topic: ‘Organic carbon and nutrients in permafrost soils: Storage and cycling under changing climatic conditions and land-use’.

The talk presented the results of many years research on this topic including recently published paper in Nature Communication with the contribution of scientist from GBI group.

Exchange PhD student from China Xi Zhang together with his friends prepared traditional dumplings for his farewell party at GBI group.

Michaela Dippold presented a study on the topic ‘Belowground C allocation of tropical rainforests in response to drought: an ecosystem 13CO2 labeling experiment’ at Joint European Stable Isotope Users group Meeting JESIUM 2022 was held in Kuopio, Finland. The study is a part of a big joint project run in BIOSPHERE 2. Some outcome of this experiment was already published in Science.

Nataliya Bilyera and Iryna Loginova participated in a 7th Symposium on phosphorus in Soils and Plants: Towards a sustainable phosphorus utilization in agroecosystems in Montevideo, Uruguay. This symposium takes place every 4 years and gather scientists working on the topic of phosphorus worldwide. The virtual presentation has been done on the topic: 'Biological transformation of phosphorus in agricultural soil'.

GBI group combined work and  social activity by participation in garden soil sampling.