Rich Phillips

Biologists at Indiana University Bloomington have been locked out of their labs for more than a week, after the university suddenly changed locks on its biology building on 7 May. The move comes amid an investigation by the US government. go.nature.com/4dAr9oe

Breaking news: Indiana University plant microbiologist Roger Innes has been locked out of his laboratory by the school in response to a request by one of his federal funders. The move comes after Innes complained about the government’s prosecution of Chinese postdocs. scim.ag/4u133d3

BREAKING: The USDA told IU to lock down the lab of Professor Roger Innes, a biologist and former employer of deported Chinese postdoc Youhuang Xiang. Three other labs were locked down at the same time as well as several offices @WFIUWTIUNews ipm.org/news/2026-05-0…

@mrillig I think you may be averaging one per hour - when do you sleep?

Paper just accepted: Host-mediated interactions between arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and saprotrophs drive soil organic carbon dynamics Will share details once available

Plant Ecology in a Changing World also provides online student and instructor resources, supplemental materials, problem sets, study and exam questions, essays, and models. Explore and learn more at plantecology.site Please visit today.

@karst_justine Interesting results! That enzyme activities were only greater under EM (than AM) hosts at low fertility suggests enzymes track C:N of the litter-O horizon. Common gardens isolate spp. effects, but they can have biases too (“young” soils w/ diff. fertility from a natural forest)

Lots of intriguing results in this new study by Kranabetter et al. including that ‘Peroxidase activity under an EM host was low and equivalent to an AM host on more productive sites and only diverged with increasingly limited soil fertility’ sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

Even though transience is part of lab culture, it’s still hard to say goodbye. This summer we bid adieu to long-time lab manager Elizabeth Huenupi, tech Zoe Worman & post-doc Daniel Beverly. Thanks for helping us do amazing science and bringing kindness & generosity to the lab!

🚨Interested in plants, microbes & biogeochemistry? If yes, ya'll have 2d to submit your abstract to our session "B088: The Effect of Plant Communities and Their Microbial Associations on Soil Biogeochemistry" agu.confex.com/agu/agu25/prel… Convened by @carboncaitlin Amelia Fitch & me

New TSMP: EXERCISE AS MIRACLE DRUG Two big studies in the last 12 months: 1. Euan Ashley, the chair of medicine at Stanford, and a team of bioinformatics researchers put rats on treadmills, cut into their tissues, and found that exercise basically improved every measurable system, including metabolism, mitochondrial function, immunity, inflammation, and tissue-specific adaptation. He has estimated that "one minute of exercise, on average, extends one's life by five minutes." 2. In a recent NEJM study, 900 patients who had undergone surgery on their advanced colon cancer were randomly assigned to two groups: a “structured exercise program" vs. a control group. The exercise group saw “significantly” more years without cancer, a 7 percentage point increase in the overall survival rate after 8 years, and a dramatic reduction in new primary cancers. The MAHA movement, and RFK's weird antagonism toward vaccines and therapies, has polarized aspects of healthy living as anti-science woo-woo, in some circles, But exercise is probably the single most potent medical invention ever devised—more broadly effective, at a population level, than any medicine discovered in the natural world or created in a laboratory.

We used NEON data to explore the relationship between fine root and soil carbon stocks. With @JosephTumber @mingzhen_lu @aaberhe et al. doi.org/10.1038/s43247…

📜New on our blog: NSF DEB is reaffirming its commitment to ecological research, with updates on funding, engagement opportunities, and proposal tips. Don’t miss your chance to connect — DEB Program Officers will be at the Annual Meeting this August! esa.org/esablog/2025/0…

Growth–Mortality Coordination Differs Among Xerophytic Versus Mesophytic Tree Species During Severe Drought 🔗 buff.ly/EusvJo2

What’s it all mean? Lots of factors controls MAOM formation! That different factors control C & N stabilization to minerals - microbial synthesis for N; direct sorption for C – also means that efforts to increase soil C storage may not necessarily increase N retention.

We found 1) most variation in MAOM related to FeOx (60-68%), 2) bacterial diversity contributes to MAOM when low (but not high) melanin necromass is present, 3) low melanin forms MAOM more readily than high melanin necromass, & 4) necromass N forms 7x more MAOM than necromass C

Exciting new work from the amazin’ @BeidlerKatilyn & @UMNFuN. Much of the OM that “sticks” to minerals comes from dead fungi. But what controls formation rates: input chemistry, mineral reactivity or microbes involved in hyphal decay? authors.elsevier.com/c/1l7Zt8g13fGgH

Just published in Soil Biology and Biochemistry and well done Dr Manon @RumeauManon, funded by @NERCscience and @BIFoRUoB . @LES_UniBham Root exudate stoichiometry is a key driver of soil N cycling: implicat... sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

So? N resorption has consequences for plant economics & litter-soil-nutrient feedbacks. Given that root foraging is not the only way to acquire soil N, detecting AG-BG trait linkages in forests may require accounting for myco symbionts, tree neighborhoods and site fertility.

Trees in the garden that resorbed more N produced more roots indicating resorption patterns can cascade to affect litter qual & N availability. In mature stands, we couldn't detect resorption-root relationships despite a strong neg relationship btwn resorption and litter quality.

This took a minute but excited to share it now link.springer.com/10.1007/s00442… Trees get N by resorbing from foliage & foraging in soil - but are the two coordinated? We tested hypotheses abt relationships btwn resorption & root production for 12 spp in mature forests & 9 spp in a garden