Plants, Soils, Ecosystems Group
Secretary: Franciska De Vries
A new BES Special Interest Group on plant-soil interactions, with a focus on biogeochemical cycling, community dynamics, and ecosystem functioning.
Aims:
- To promote research on plant-soil interactions and their role in ecosystems through workshops, symposia, and events at BES meetings – To provide opportunities for networking and collaboration among researchers involved in the study of plant-soil interactions and ecosystem ecology – To serve as a platform to discuss and share techniques, expertise, and data – To promote research across scientific disciplines to students, facilitate training opportunities in different techniques, and provide support for early-career researchers
Background:
The study of plant-soil interactions is a rapidly growing area in terrestrial ecology. Plant ecologists can no longer ignore the importance of soil organisms for plant growth and community dynamics, and soil ecologists increasingly consider plants as major drivers of soil biota and the processes they regulate. Recent research combining aboveground and belowground approaches has shown that plant-soil interactions are a driving force for primary productivity, nutrient and carbon cycling, vegetation dynamics, and ecosystem responses to global change. In tandem with rapid advances in the area of plant-soil interactions, there is increasing scientific and political recognition that soil processes underpin ecosystem services such as nutrient cycling, food production and climate mitigation, and are central to the restoration of degraded soils and sustainable agriculture.
Current / Future Meetings
18 March 2013: Rhizosphere Interactions meeting at The James Hutton Institute, Invergowrie, Dundee. Keynote speaker is Alex Dumbrell, the University of Essex: ‘Recent advances in the understanding of the community ecology of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi’. For more information see the British Soil Science website or contact Tim Daniell. Plants, Soils, Ecosystems will award a bottle of wine for the best presentations!
INTECOL 2013: Symposium ‘Soil biodiversity and ecosystem function: recent advancement and new challenges’, organised by Richard Bardgett and Wim van der Putten 2-3 October 2013: Meeting/workshop in Charles Darwin House, London. Topic to be announced!
Past Meetings
Contact:
Sign up for our email list by sending an email to listserv@jiscmail.ac.uk Subject: BLANK Message: SUBSCRIBE PLANT-SOIL-ECO Firstname Lastname
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Committee:
The organizing committee currently consists of Franciska de Vries, The University of Manchester (Secretary)
Emma Sayer, The Open University
Paul Kardol, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Tim Daniell, The James Hutton Institute
Dave Johnson, Aberdeen University
Mike Whitfield, Lancaster University
Sarah Pierce, Imperial College, as student representative.
Richard Bardgett, The University of Manchester, will support the committee in an advisory role.