And here it comes — summer! A bit late with this post from our group’s pre-vacation gathering. Proud to lead this team of seven: Raul and I in senior roles, Vinna, Maret, and Ovidiu as PhD students, and Katariina and Boris providing irreplaceable technical expertise. #proudPI

My long-waited first #sedaDNA conference in beautiful Tromsø.

Yesterday, we had the chance to present our proposal to the Estonian Environmental Board and Climate Ministry: 29 more fungal species for protection, in addition to the ~40 already listed. My favorite: Rigidoporus crocatus—locally common in wet alder forests, globally rare. Our responsibility!

Helping hands! This week, Lisa Collin and Enzo Lelandais—two interns from Lycée Agro-Viticole de Blanquefort—are assisting with our soil organic matter decomposition experiment. It is part of PhD student Vinna Cruz’s work (supervised by me and @ivikaostonen.bsky.social).

This week, I had the chance to serve as a committee member at the PhD defense of Paulina Bergmark at SLU Umeå, in northeast Sweden! I picked up many essential skills—among them, an effective Umeå-style way of saying "yes": a soundless inhaled "jhu’". Jhu’!

Oh... When we set up this experiment on fungi and decomposition last autumn, we did not quite expect it to be swimming by spring. Looks like we will be offering a submerging test for Tomst data loggers 😂

That happy moment when months of prep are done, you are ready to lead your team into the field… and still blissfully unaware that the protocol you designed is wildly beyond human capability 😂

Extracting conservation-relevant signals from eDNA has followed me across studies. In this one led by Ovidiu Copot, we find that terrestrial fungal communities leave a blurred but detectable trace in running water — enough to distinguish catchments by drainage intensity!
doi.org/10.1007/s106...

Nothing less than legends at the @oikosfinland.bsky.social conference in Jyväskylä! Here is Matthew Leibold explaining the back-and-forth in our understanding of species metacommunities.

Today we kicked off year two of our partnership with #biocomp project, led by @sebseibold.bsky.social by setting up audiorecorders and camera traps. About time! A few snow patches still there, but the forest is gearing up for a busy season!

Method development today: From Archimedes' "water displacement" to a 3D scanner for measuring the volume of complicated structures! Testing with #JanPisek, our partner within @futurescapes-ee.bsky.social. This is a wood block from our #decomposition experiment.

Black alder: a widespread tree thriving in wet places where others can’t. Yet, alder fens like this are rare, covering little of #hemiborealia. Why? Alder wood has low value, but Frankia symbionts enrich the soil—drain the fens, and preferred forestry species grow fast. Biodiversity vs. industry?

My first bsky post, and introducing our small working group. There are seven of us at the moment: one researcher, PhD students, and specialists. Pics from our season event, and first time on skates for some of us. Could not be a more proud #FreshPi
!