SOB4ES

📢 We are gearing up to our second mini public event, in Wageningen, the Netherlands, next week! 🌱 In collaboration with @bodemdieren young people will explore why soil matters, what can be done to protect it and how to shape future policies.

🔎 Last week, the @Auth_University team participated in #Agrotica2026 🪱🌱The event provided a valuable platform for knowledge exchange with scientists, companies, and other EU initiatives working on soil health, carbon farming, and sustainable land management.

🌱 This #WorldWildlifeDay, let's talk about the life benath our feet. 💡 Test your knowledge on the critters that live in the soil below and meet our soil biodiversity! 📄 👉 Check out the SHARE handbook: lnkd.in/dzsumZP6

🔎 Takeaways from our SOB4ES x @bioserviceseu workshop on February 24th 🌱 Just like ecosystems, science thrives though collaboration!

🍃Reminiscing about our temporal sampling efforts in fall last year! 🌱 From Swiss pastures, to Spanish wetlands and Swedish forests, #SOB4ES researchers sampled soils across multiple climatic zones and soil types. 🧪In the mean time, we are making data from the samples.

📢 Take aways from our soil biodiversity monitoring experts workshop 🌱 Concrete plans to develop 🇳🇱monitoring program. 🌱 🇳🇱 could become template for other EU nations. 🌱 Select expert panel to direct national policy. 🌱 Foster interaction with other national taskforces

🧪🧬 What if you could just air-dry your soil samples? 🌱 It would save you a whole lot of time! 📢 New #SOB4ES study shows that air-drying of soils does not compromise the quality of eDNA-based biodiversity assessments 👉 Read the whole article here: sob4es.eu/news/air-dried…

📢 🌱 Calling all future soil scientists! 🪱 PhD position "Soil food web functional capacity under climate extremes" 📍 Uppsala, Sweden 🕒 4 year position 🗓️ Deadline: 10th February 🔗 Apply here: slu.se/en/about-slu/w…

🌱 🧠 Our mission to put soil biodiversity on everyone's mind continues! 🗓️ Julia Köninger (@uvigo) and Giles Ross (@niooknaw) were in Ispra, Italy to speak at the first European Soil Biodiversity Monitoring Symposium at the @EU_JRC.

🔎 How can we implement the EU soil monitoring directive? 💪 By talking to the experts! 🌱 🪱 On January 29th, #SOB4ES partner @NIOO-KNAW is hosting an expert workshop discussing how to include soil biodiversity into soil monitoring in the Netherlands.

🌱🪱 During the temporal sampling @niooknaw sampled grassland and arable land plots in 🇳🇱 📢 “We are processing the soil samples for #eDNA to get an idea of the temporal dynamics of the microbiomes and soil fauna across land use types”, says Giles Ross sob4es.eu/news/temporal-…

🪱Studying soil biodiversity from the ground up! 💡Our partners from KU Leuven sampled grassland and peatland sites in 🇧🇪 as part of the temporal sampling. 🌱Curious what happens next? sob4es.eu/news/temporal-…

📢🪱In November, our #SOB4ES partners in 🇧🇪🇳🇱🇸🇪🇪🇸🇮🇪🇨🇭🇷🇴🇸🇮 completed the temporal sampling campaign that was started in Fall 2023! 🤝 8 partners 🗓️ 3 years 🎯 33 sites 🧪 396 samples 🔎Read the full story here: lnkd.in/dak6w_Cx

🆕 The soil microbiome 🪳🐜🐞can be used to predict ecosystem functioning. 🌍 Soil microbiome is a good predictor of soil enzymatic activity or plant productivity, but other functions (e.g., soil respiration). Just published in @NatureComms published in nature.com/articles/s4146…

🌱It's a wrap! 🪱In 2025, we made great progress to integrate soil biodiversity into ecosystem services. 📽️Watch SOB4ES Wrapped below to revisit our highlights from the past year. 🥂We wish you happy holidays and are looking forward to continuing our mission with you in 2026!

🌱 🎉 Last week, we celebrated #WorldSoilDay at the Living Soils Conference at @ucddublin ! 🪱 🪲 Charles Harper, Tancredi Caruso, Olaf Schmidt and Anastasia Gorbunova, represented #SOB4ES and promoted our suvery! #SoilHealth #Biodiversity