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Boris Rewald

@borisrewald.bsky.social

🚨New paper in Geoderma🚨 Across 9 #TreeDivNet 🧪experiments in Europe, we show that mixed-species 🍁 #forests 🌳🌲store ~9% more #soilcarbon than monocultures. Gains are strongest on cool, #climate stable sites, and linked to >fungal richness. #soilcarbon 👉 doi.org/10.1016/j.ge...

Fig. 3. Standardized effects of climatic, edaphic, and vegetation variables on the net diversity effect on topsoil C stocks (NDE C) across nine sites (n = 110) on a logarithmic scale (first y-axis; left) and natural scale (second y-axis; right). Error bars denote standard errors. Climatic variables include mean annual temperature (MAT), mean annual precipitation (MAP), as well as variability in temperature and precipitation (interannual CV). Edaphic variables include the inverted first principal component axis for soil pH and C:N ratio (Fertility index) as well as soil texture (based on clay content). Effects of standing stock is represented by basal area per hectare (BA ha-1). Significant effects on NDE C are indicated as *** = p 0.05, n.s. = not significant. Values below 0 indicate negative correlation between NDE C and predictors.

see

Werner R, Jensen J, Fransson P, Baum C, Sandén H, Rewald B, Godbold DL, Mayer M, Guillemot J, Robin A, Brancalion PHS, Koricheva J, Ponette Q, Muys B, Verheyen K, Scherer-Lorenzen M, Bauhus J, Beyer F, Hajek P, Jactel H, Weih M (2025) Effects of tree species richness on topsoil carbon and fungal diversity in European planted mixed forests are modulated by environmental conditions. Geoderma 464:117591. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2025.117591

for details

November 18, 2025 at 10:42 AM

Boris Rewald

@borisrewald.bsky.social

Excited to be participating in the conference 'Soil Cities' on #soil-sensitive architecture and #urban planning. #greeninfrastructure #urbandevelopment, 20–21 November 2025, Altes Fundamt, Bremen. We'll explore how #healthy #soils can shape #climate-resilient #cities. See you at:
www.soilcities.org

Invitation poster to the international conference ‘Soil Cities’ organised by the School of Architecture at City University of Applied Sciences Bremen on 20–21 November 2025 at the Altes Fundamt in Bremen. The conference is dedicated to soil-sensitive architecture and urban design and brings together international experts from the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, soil and forestry science, as well as ethnology, urban research, art and education to focus on soil as a living habitat and the basis for sustainable and climate-adapted cities.

Programme: www.soilcities.org
Venue: Alten Fundamt, Auf der Kuhlen 1a, 28203 Bremen

The conference language is English (with German on Friday).
It is recognized by the Bremen Chamber of Architects and the Bremen Chamber of Engineers as a continuing education event.

The conference is funded by the BMTFR as part of the ‘HAW-Europa Netzwerke’ programme.

November 17, 2025 at 9:14 AM

Boris Rewald

@borisrewald.bsky.social

A look back at the very engaging and productive💧🏙️SPONGE-City BiH conference bit.ly/47apbZx where we
brought together experts from MendelU CZ and UNSA BiH on #Water Manag. & #Urban #Blue-Green 🌳 Infrastr. for #Sponge Cities. Thank you to all who participated & special thanks to Prof. Emira Hukic🧪

Sustainable Water Management and Urban Blue-Green Infrastructure for Advancing Sponge City Perspectives in Bosnia and Herzegovina . Participants of workshop on tree stability lead by Ludek Praus, MendelU, CZ

Sustainable Water Management and Urban Blue-Green Infrastructure for Advancing Sponge City Perspectives in Bosnia and Herzegovina - Lecture on urban green infrastucture by Boris Rewald, MENDELU, CZ

Sustainable Water Management and Urban Blue-Green Infrastructure for Advancing Sponge City Perspectives in Bosnia and Herzegovina, workshop on Modeling water balance components - inclusive
remote sensing by Marian Schönauer, MENDELU and Ismet Fazlić, UNSA

October 27, 2025 at 9:27 AM

Boris Rewald

@borisrewald.bsky.social

🚨Article collection OPEN🚨
🧪🍁 #Forest #Soils: How Harvesting Methods and Management Shape Soil Properties, Functions, and Resilience. Edited by Marian Schönauer and me at 🌲"Discover Forests". 🌳 APC currently waived, open till mid 2026 (tbd). link.springer.com/collections/... ... OA, reviews, welcome!

Article collection / special issue: Forest Soils: How Harvesting Methods and Management Shape Soil Properties, Functions, and Resilience

Journal: Discover Forests

Url: https://link.springer.com/collections/dgafjfgejh

Intensifying climate pressures and timber demands are refocusing attention on forest soils, the foundation of productivity, biodiversity, and ecosystem services. Harvesting methods can alter physical soil properties, hydrology, and nutrient cycles, while management incentives such as increased structural and species diversity, retention of deadwood and legacy trees, or the maintenance of refugia may buffer or reverse impacts.

Together, these practices govern soil carbon dynamics, greenhouse-gas fluxes, microbial and faunal communities, mycorrhizal networks, and erosion and water quality, yet the mechanistic links and context dependencies remain underexplored across forest types and pedoclimatic zones. This collection invites original research, perspectives and reviews that quantify how harvesting systems (e.g., reduced-impact logging, mechanized operations, continuous-cover forestry) and diversity/retention strategies (e.g., mixed-species stands, structural complexity, coarse woody debris) affect soil properties and functions.

We especially welcome studies that bridge scales, from plot to landscape and from short-term responses to long-term recovery, and that integrate physiology, biogeochemistry, soil ecology, and hydrology using field experiments, long-term trials, chrono sequences, remote sensing, geostatistical analysis, synthesis/meta-analysis, and/or innovative analytics (e.g., modelling, eDNA, isotopes). Submissions with regional to global scope and data-driven policy relevance (i.e., nature-based solutions) are encouraged.

Our goal is to draw attention to forest management practices that hinder or improve ecosystem functions and services by hampering or stewarding soil life and function.

September 25, 2025 at 10:27 AM

Boris Rewald

@borisrewald.bsky.social

🚨SAVE the DATE🚨 "9th International 🧪 Symposium on 🍁Woody Root research" 3-5 June 2026, Como, Italy. www.uninsubria.eu/about-us/our.... Sessions will cover #root #ecology, #mycorrhizal dynamics, #belowground #technologies, #agroforestry applications, & #globalchange. Reserve your accomodation soon!

September 25, 2025 at 7:17 AM

Boris Rewald

@borisrewald.bsky.social

🧪CONFERENCE "Sustainable #Water Management and 🏙️ #Urban Blue-Green 🌳 #Infrastructure for Advancing 💧 #Sponge City Perspectives in #BiH" October 20-22, 2025, University of #Sarajevo, BiH. Free admission. Register until October 15, link at www.sfsa.unsa.ba/web/invitati...

Invitation posterfor participation at the Conference “Sustainable Water Management and Urban Blue-Green Infrastructure for Advancing Sponge City Perspectives in Bosnia and Herzegovina (SPONGE CITY-BH)”

We are pleased to announce the international conference “Sustainable Water Management and Urban Blue-Green Infrastructure for Advancing Sponge City Perspectives in Bosnia and Herzegovina (SPONGE CITY-BH)”, which will take place in Sarajevo from October 20–22, 2025.

Organized by the Faculty of Forestry, University of Sarajevo, the Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Sarajevo, and Mendel University in Brno, this event will bring together leading experts, researchers, practitioners, and students to address one of the most pressing challenges of our time—ensuring sustainable management of water resources in rapidly urbanizing environments.

The conference will provide a platform for exchanging innovative ideas, best practices, and research findings on integrating blue and green infrastructure into urban landscapes. Particular emphasis will be placed on advancing the Sponge City concept, a nature-based solution that aims to enhance resilience to climate change, mitigate flood risks, and improve urban living conditions.

In addition to scientific presentations and professional lectures, the conference will host a student research competition, recognizing the outstanding contributions of PhD, MSc, and BSc students. Through this initiative, we aim to encourage young researchers to showcase their work, foster dialogue across generations of experts, and highlight innovative approaches to sustainable urban water management.

September 25, 2025 at 6:02 AM

Boris Rewald

@borisrewald.bsky.social

🚨PUBLICATION ALERT🧪Soil carbon to go: #Agroforestry🌳practices including 🍁 #coffee sequester the highest amounts of #soil #C in mountainous Southern #Ethiopia. Agroforestry Systems. doi:10.1007/s10457-025-01298-2; Access: rdcu.be/eFJ90 AF systems based on coffee are key to enhancing soil C storage.

Agroforestry coffee plot in the Sidama region, Ethiopia

September 15, 2025 at 7:43 AM

Boris Rewald

@borisrewald.bsky.social

Thank you for the great atmosphere, the care you show for trees, and for providing a platform for #roots, #mycorrhiza and #soilhealth in #urban areas. Stressed city trees need us to look beneath our feet – 'Rooted Realities'. CZ National Arborist Conference: 'Tree for Life – Life for a Tree 2025'.

Titel slide of a keynote lecture on "Rooted Realities: A Soil-Centric Agenda for Arboriculture", Tree for Life – Life for a Tree 2025 / "Risk" conference in Brno, CZ by Boris Rewald | lecture in English

September 12, 2025 at 12:59 PM

Boris Rewald

@borisrewald.bsky.social

🚨Publication Alert🚨Root mixture analysis: methods and vision. Marco Lombardi et al. doi.org/10.1016/j.tp... - A 🧪 rational why we need (better) tools to study (crop) #root mixtures to move toward #sustainable #production of #food #feed #energy. Download 50 days: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lZUN4rGdj...

Figure 1. Key figure. Advanced spectroscopy-based pipeline for root species differentiation.

(A) Root phenotyping system. The root phenotyping system consists of a minirhizotron installed in the field trials at various angles from the vertical axis, best suited for accommodating the camera system. (B) Light spectrum. The light spectrum consists of three main regions: UV, visible light, and IR. The IR region is further divided into two groups: near-IR (NIR) spanning 750–1000 nm and short-wave IR (SWIR) covering 1000–2500 nm. Examples of six features that could be detected in roots in multispectral analysis encoding for blue, green, red, water, nitrogen, and carbon. The wavelength scale is expressed in nanometers (nm). (C) Multispectral camera system. The camera is mounted on an aluminum tube, which allows smooth movement along the minirhizotron for efficient data collection. On the right is an example of image overlay of different multispectral bands. (D) Root species differentiation. Left: The large volume of multispectral images captured by the camera system is processed and segmented using software that leverages deep learning and machine learning for high-throughput segmentation. The segmentation involves distinguishing and separating root objects from nonroot objects within root and soil mixtures. Center: The segmented roots are clustered using unsupervised methods, including k-means clustering and principal component analysis. Right: Supervised statistical analysis predicts root species (species 1 and species 2) in a mixture. Created in BioRender (https://BioRender.com/k43u259).

© 2025 Elsevier Ltd. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tplants.2025.07.003

August 8, 2025 at 10:46 AM

Boris Rewald

@borisrewald.bsky.social

Back from fieldwork in Thailand - studying the effects of #Dipterocarps on #forest #soil processes incl. #weathering, #decomposition and ecosystem properties (C allocation, #root traits). Big thanks to the @euasian-root.bsky.social team from #Kasetsart University and Sakaerat Research Station!

Identifying Dipterocarp tree patches at the research site

Digging tranches to exclude roots and maycorrhizae

Large field team at Sakaerat Environmental Research Station

August 8, 2025 at 10:28 AM

Boris Rewald

@borisrewald.bsky.social

In beautiful #Thailand, eager to dig for @euasian-root.bsky.social into #roots #mycorrhiza but before a weekend treat with some big beauties 🐘 (hope they don't 💩 poop, sit, take interest on our new 🌳 dipterocarp plots though)

Not only elephants enjoy a good mud bath, peeling and massage...

July 12, 2025 at 4:05 PM

Boris Rewald

@borisrewald.bsky.social

🎉 Congratulations to 🎓Dr. Pavel Baykalov on successfully defending his 🧪PhD thesis on "advanced #root imaging" @BOKU AND @vienna-scientific.bsky.social, 🙏funded by @horizoneu.bsky.social #MSCA Future Arctic #ATTRACT. 👏, Pavel! 🔗 www.researchgate.net/profile/Pave...

Pavel Baykalov after explaining smart root imaging Technology to the ecologists, image shows three persons in a seminar room with the first slide of the defensio presentation

July 3, 2025 at 7:43 PM

Boris Rewald

@borisrewald.bsky.social

🧪Root sorting at full swing for @euasian-root.bsky.social project. Amazing how intermixed 🌳root systems are ... this sample was collected at a pure 🍁Acer spot (UFE, MENDLEU, CZ) but contained many Quercus roots from many meters away ... thus its not easy to discern AM vs EM effects on soil props

Root sorting into Acer (left) and Quercus (right) fine and coarse roots

May 16, 2025 at 8:36 AM

Boris Rewald

@borisrewald.bsky.social

🚨Publication🚨🍁🧪Ecological assessment of #forest #management approaches to develop resilient forests in the face of #global_change in Central #Europe. uge collaborative effort by Huth et al. 2025 dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ba... (124 pages :))

Fig. 3. Chronology of climate-induced disturbances and related forest development options considering different initial stand conditions and the level of resistance (stand) and resilience (regeneration). (I.-VII. denote the seven main topics).
Franka Huth, Alexander Tischer, Petia Nikolova, Heike Feldhaar, Alexandra Wehnert, Lisa Hülsmann, Jürgen Bauhus, Katrin Heer, Juliane Vogt, Christian Ammer, Uta Berger, Markus Bernhardt-Römermann, Manuela Böhme, Harald Bugmann, Jörn Buse, Laura Demant, Inken Dörfler, Jörg Ewald, Eike Feldmann, Andreas Fichtner, Martin M. Gossner, Thorsten E.E. Grams, Karl-Heinz Häberle, Jonas Hagge, Henrik Hartmann, Sven Herzog, Ansgar Kahmen, Ulrich Kohnle, Doris Krabel, Klara Krämer-Klement, Jürgen Kreyling, Michael Manthey, Karl Mellert, Peter Meyer, Andreas Mölder, Lena Muffler, Bettina Ohse, Lars Opgenoorth, Boris Rewald, Andreas Rothe, Nadine Ruehr, Tobias Scharnweber, Michael Scherer-Lorenzen, Jonas Schmeddes, Joachim Schmerbeck, Markus Schmidt, Dominik Seidel, Frank M. Thomas, Malin Tiebel, Goddert von Oheimb, Sven Wagner, Robert Weigel, Martin Wilmking, Christian Zang, Bernhard Schuldt,
Ecological assessment of forest management approaches to develop resilient forests in the face of global change in Central Europe,
Basic and Applied Ecology,
2025,

ISSN 1439-1791,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2025.05.001

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1439179125000404

May 12, 2025 at 3:57 PM

Boris Rewald

@borisrewald.bsky.social

🧪 CONFERENCE @egu.eu 2025, Vienna (oral, on site): Join us for "Beyond Mean Reaction Norms: Trait Plasticity and Growth of 🍁 Trees under Interspecific Competition Above and Below Ground" by B Rewald, H Sandén, DL Godbold, R Werner. 🌳Thu, 01 May, 17:05–17:15, Room 2.23 🌳
doi.org/10.5194/egus...

Conceptual changes in intraspecific trait variability (ITV) in response to interspecific interactions. ITV is depicted as the Kernel density plots depicting individual species’ trait value distributions in monocultures (mono) and plastic responses in mixtures (mix). The panels illustrate different hypothetical reaction norms (RN) between diversity levels: (A) RN type A, illustrates no trait plasticity; (B) RN type B, shows increased variability in mixtures without shifts in mean traits; (C) RN type C, illustrates shifts in mean traits while maintaining stable variability; and (D) RN type D, exhibits shifts in mean traits alongside increased variability in a mixture compared to a monoculture. For simplicity, only positive changes in trait means and Gaussian distributions are shown.

March 20, 2025 at 8:01 AM

Boris Rewald

@borisrewald.bsky.social

🧪Call for Abstracts #EGU25 "Critical Zones in #urban Areas"- #Geophysical processes rocks, #soil, parks - urban #forests, grey or blue infrastructure ... (interdisciplinary) processes, fluxes. Deadline for abstracts 15.01.25! meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU25/sessio...

The continuous increase of world’s cities sprawl, in a context of global change, makes it urgent to promote the sustainability of these areas. But an integrated and systemic approach is required to face with simultaneous environmental, economic and social challenges. The concept of critical zone offers an adapted framework to develop integrated approach, but it needs to be adapted to the specificities of the zones where humans live and work. The critical zone is defined initially as the thin and heterogeneous and near surface environment in which occur interactions involving rock, soil, water, air, and terrestrial ecosystems. In urban areas, the critical zone is strongly transformed by the infrastructure, facilities and buildings, and impacted by human activities and usages which heavily affect the fluxes and balances of water, energy, and chemicals including pollutants….In this session, we will address the question of the biophysical processes specificities of the urban critical zone that interact with anthropic processes controlled by human activities and stakeholders. Most of the urban geophysical processes are studied are very local and small levels, it is necessary to produce interdisciplinary knowledge are more global scales.

We invite contributions of experience on urban critical zones and especially those including observations, measurements of fluxes, description of biogeochemical, physical and human resilience processes and development of models to respond to these crosscutting issues. Proposals coming from diverse urban contexts (size, growth patterns, geographical, social) at different spatial and temporal scales will be appreciated. We aim at forstering interdisciplinary dialogue to make the Urban Critical Zone a unifying concept.

December 2, 2024 at 8:26 AM

Boris Rewald

@borisrewald.bsky.social

🧪Sunday dedication to #forest #ecology... Determining baseline soil C, #mycorrhizal and soil #pathogen community, and #root biomass values after 🌳 #windthrow for long term study plots at the MendelU university forest. 👏👏 @excellentia.bsky.social

Sunday dedication in the laboratory to #forest #ecology... Determining baseline soil C, #mycorrhizal and soil #pathogen community, and #root biomass values after 🌳 #windthrow for long term study plots at the MendelU university forest.

December 1, 2024 at 11:01 AM

Boris Rewald

@borisrewald.bsky.social

🧪🚨Preprint of Steinparzer et al. - studying "Forest Temperature Buffering in Pure and Mixed Stands". Read more on the High-Resolution Temporal Analysis at papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Fig. 2. Seasonal pattern of temperature offsets at time of day (TOD 12) for A. platanoides (blue line) with a 5 % confidence interval band (transparent blue). The letters mark important time points throughout the season: A (DOY 60), B (DOY 80), C (DOY 90, bud break A. platanoides + C. betulus), D (DOY 120 end of bud break Q. robur + T. cordata), E (DOY 140 leaf unfolding finished), F (DOY 172, summer solstice), G (DOY 260, phenological start of leaf fall), H (DOY 290, leaf fall completed), I (DOY 320), J (DOY 355, winter solstice). Y-axis: Temperature offsets in °C between forest plots and open field measurements in the year 2021, X-axis: Day of the year DOY.

May 13, 2024 at 8:27 AM

Boris Rewald

@borisrewald.bsky.social

Hag pesach sameach

April 22, 2024 at 8:13 PM

Boris Rewald

@borisrewald.bsky.social

🚨🧪#Tree #diversity reduces variability in sapling survival under drought: a new #TreeDivNet synthesis paper by
Blondeel et al. just published in J Ecology
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Difference in species survival percentage (∆survival) in response to the survival of that species in monoculture, varying by SPEI (panel a) and REW (panel b).

April 9, 2024 at 11:55 AM

Boris Rewald

@borisrewald.bsky.social

Hello! My 🧪Scientific interests as captured by this word cloud of publications in Google scholar... Cooperation and exchange always welcome! Just get in contact..

Word cloud of the scientific publications authored by Boris Rewald, large emphasis on roots, forests, soil, tree, traits

February 8, 2024 at 11:25 PM

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