News

Big days at EGU26!

On Thursday at EGU26, Minsu gave an excellent overview of her work on nitrogen modelling. Friday was our big day at EGU: with Asma presenting a poster, and Janne, Ruilin, Philipp and Carlos having talks.

Award for Bettina Weber!

We are delighted to announce that Bettina was awarded the Alina Kabata-Pendias Medal at EGU26!

Luciano at EGU26

Yesterday at EGU26, Luciano presented our new soilOFM measurement setup! There, we were able to simultaneously measure the concentration of nitrogen compounds in the wet and gaseous phase

Fieldwork in Spain

Back from an exciting trip to the Tabernas Desert and Cabo de Gata in Spain to sample biocrusts for the WinMicAct project, together with Bettina Weber from the University of Graz and Dagmar Woebken from the University of Vienna! We were stunned by the amazing badlands and beautiful biocrusts and thank Emilio Rodríguez-Caballero and Raúl Román Fernández for their hospitality and support in sampling. We are already looking forward to our next trip!

5. Helsinki Day

Fascinating presentations, posters and academic discussions at Helsinki Day, the fifth mini-symposium held at the Institute of Biology! Our PhD students Asma Fathinejadposhkoohi and Ruilin Chen presented their research projects on the topics of "Biopatinas on buildings in urban environments: biofilters, CO2 sinks and cooling systems with an aesthetic-architectural effect” and “Mapping of Rodent-Induced Disturbance Impact on Biological Soil Crusts via Deep Learning-Informed Graph Cut”. Ruilin won second place for Best Talk!

Join us at EGU26!

How do cryptogamic and microbial communities shape ecosystem processes? Session BG3.28 at EGU26 invites contributions on biodiversity and functional roles of cryptogamic or microbial communities from local to global scales. Abstract submission deadline: 15 Jan 2026

EGU26: Dryland Remote Sensing

Interested in dryland ecosystems? EGU26, Session BG9: Dryland Remote Sensing – Applications, Challenges, and Opportunities invites studies on surface component mapping, monitoring, and integrating field & remote sensing data. Abstract submission deadline: 15 Jan 2026

EGU26: Call for abstracts!

Join us at EGU26 in Vienna & online for session SSS6.3 on Next-Generation Soil Physics. We welcome contributions on remote sensing, AI, and process-based modeling across scales. Abstract submission deadline: 15 Jan 2026

More news

New article published!

We are pleased to announce that our article on "Image-based analysis of long-term biocrust degradation utilising joint energy-based deep learning" has…

New PNAS paper published!

We are happy to announce that our study on the relevance of nitrogen in CO2 fertilization has been published by PNAS. The study was conducted by the…

ATTO Workshop 2025

Since more than 10 years, we now conduct research at the Amazon Tall Tower Observatory (ATTO). At the annual ATTO workshop in Manaus, Brazil, we…

Nature Article Published!

New Paper Published!

Our study, showing how deep learning can be applied to distinguish livermosses of the genus Riccia, has been…

New Publication: Biodiversity in mountain soils above the treeline

We are extremely happy that our publication Biodiversity in mountain soils above the treeline has been published in Biological Reviews:

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