Soil critter of the month 🪲 This amazing photograph was submitted by Karmannye Chaudhary from the People and Nature Lab at UCL. It features shiny green leaf weevils (Polydrusus formosus) within the soil that were spotted feeding and laying their eggs on birch roots in tree pits across London.

Seminar 📅 Join us on Tuesday the 18th of August 13:00–14:00 BST for our seminar in collaboration with the British Society of Soil Science on mycorrhiza! Featuring exciting talks from Rose Gooda (Imperial College London) and Katie Field (University of Sheffield). Register: lnkd.in/eN-P672a

This month's newsletter featured a postcard submitted by Dr Christopher Taylor, a talented Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Lancaster.

There are just 7 days remaining to submit your abstracts for posters and talks at our Soil Ecology in Practice Conference. For more information and to submit your abstract ➡️ lnkd.in/eibYFFW3

🪲 Our May newsletter's soil critter of the month was submitted by Brenden Beckett, a third year PhD Student at the University of Manchester investigating leaf nutrient dilution and herbivory. Did you guess correctly? Send us your photos to share them with our global community 🌏. lnkd.in/esRm7fRb

Seminar 📅 Join us on Wednesday the 24th of June 13:00–14:00 BST to hear exciting talks from Elaine Haskins and Franciska de Vries @frantecol.bsky.social on how extreme weather and land management affect soils. Register: www.britishecologicalsociety.org/content/the-...

For our latest newsletter Emily Magkourilou from the Katie Field laboratory at The University of Sheffield spoke about her research on how root herbivory affects arbuscular mycorrhiza 🪱 🍄‍🟫 For the full article: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/... Newsletter: eepurl.com/hI5Dtb

Last month's edition of the Soil Ecology Seminar Series on soil fauna is now available to watch on youtube: shorturl.at/Xpo8z Carole Schöpfer and François-Xavier Joly presented their exciting research on soil fauna to over 85 of you. ⏰Join us on Wednesday for the next seminar: shorturl.at/cZke6

(1/3) This month's newsletter featured a postcard was submitted by Mieke Brinkman, a talented PhD candidate at Radboud University, Germany. Send us your postcards for a chance to feature in our next newsletter and to share more about your work. Sign up to the newsletter: eepurl.com/hI5Dtb

🪲 This month's soil critter of the month was submitted by Stef Bokhorst, Assistant Professor at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. Dicyrtomina sp. exploring moss shoots on Schiermonnikoog in the Netherlands. Did you guess correctly? Send us your photos to share them with our global community 🌏.

Passionate about peatlands? For the March ECR highlight Nina Overtoom, a third year PhD candidate at the University of York, told us how warming and increasing droughts are affecting carbon dynamics in peatlands. For the full article: www.linkedin.com/showcase/bri... Newsletter: eepurl.com/hI5Dtb

Check out where we'll be going on our conference field trip 😍. This is Dumyat hill, in the Ochill hill range 🌄 where we will enjoy a hike together to the two summits. www.britishecologicalsociety.org/content/soil... Photo credit: Arthur Broadbent

We are hosting our first conference! Join us in Stirling, UK 📍between the 8th and 10th of September 2026 📅 for an exciting line up of talks, workshops and field excursions 🥾 🪴. We can't wait to meet you all! www.britishecologicalsociety.org/content/soil...

(1/2) The last postcard from the field to feature in our newsletter was sent in by Maud Tissink from the University of Innsbruck. Send us your postcards for a chance to feature and to share more about your work. Sign up to the newsletter: eepurl.com/hI5Dtb

Is bracken indicative of ideal soils for woodland creation? 🥬 For our March newsletter Jake Spong, a PhD student at the University of York, told us how bracken affects soil ecosystems. For the full article check out our LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/showcase/bri... Newsletter: eepurl.com/hI5Dtb

Did you read our article in the spring edition of the Niche? This is just the beginning for the soil ecology group and we are working hard to build a global community of soil ecology researchers. Seminars: lnkd.in/eFaXZhuf Conference: lnkd.in/eibYFFW3 Newsletter: eepurl.com/hI5Dtb

🚨Less than a week to go until the Earth Rover Program Seminar 🚨 Register below 👇

Did you receive our February Newsletter? 📬 In this month's ECR highlight @marcobalducci.bsky.social spoke about his research on Lord Howe Island investigating whether interactions between plants and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) can drive ecological divergence and potentially speciation.

Soil Critters: Illuminating a Hidden World Have you visited Frank Ashwood's website? We are obsessed with these photos! 🐜🐞https://www.frankashwood.com/macrophotography @frankashwood.bsky.social Can you ID this species in the comments? Send us your own photos to feature in our newsletter.

Postcards from the Field 📬📧🌿 Can you beat this?😲 Send us your best fieldwork photo for a chance to feature in this month's newsletter. Featured: Arthur Broadbent shoveling snow for a snow manipulation experiment near Vent in the Austrian Alps (photo credit: Michael Bahn) doi.org/10.1111/gcb....

Did you catch our January Newsletter? @bolajithanni.bsky.social talked to us about how interactions between Scots pine trees and ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi change across nitrogen gradients.

Emily Brooks (comms) - I am a PhD student studying the interactive effects of drought and forest composition on ectomycorrhizal fungal communities and functioning.

@clairemb.bsky.social (ECR rep) - Researches plant-soil-microbe interactions, with a particular emphasis on the ecology and functional roles of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in agricultural systems

Tom Parker (policy) - I am an ecosystem scientist who is interested in how soil organisms control large scale carbon and nutrient fluxes, especially in the context of land use change.

Arthur Broadbent (Events) - My focus is on climate change impacts on soil microbes and biogeochemical cycles in mountain ecosystems.

@fayvoller.bsky.social (Events) - With a background in ectomycorrhiza I’m now broadening my research into soil microbial communities and the impact of environmental change and habitat management on these communities.

Rob Mills (Co-Chair) - I am a biogeochemist with research interests focusing on mountain ecosystems and their response to environmental change. In particular, how soil organisms cycle carbon and nutrients, and how changing snow cover exerts an effect on energy in mountain ecosystems.

Meet the soil ecology SIG steering committee for 2026! @nataliejoram.bsky.social (Co-Chair) - My research focuses on how grassland plant and soil communities withstand extreme weather events (such as drought), how they recover afterwards, and the role management plays in these responses.