We got two papers accepted related to our GrassAlt project aiming at determining grassland responses to drought!

Schenkel et al. (2019) https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1462-2920.14599

Here is my last opinion article entitled 'Moving Countries to Navigate the Academic System', published in the journal 'The Niche' (Dec 2018) of the British Ecological Society. If you are a postdoc moving around and waiting to find a permanent position somewhere, you are definitely not alone (#AcademicCrisis) and I support you!

On November 5th, 2018, I wrote and published a post entitled 'Diversity in Ecology: Introverts' on the Journal of Ecology Blog. It took me about a year to decide how to express my feelings and finally share part of myself with the world. The original post is available in this link https://jecologyblog.com/2018/11/05/diversity-in-ecology-introverts/ and below.

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My paper entitled "Stoichiometric NP flexibility and mycorrhizal symbiosis favour plant resistance against drought" published in Journal of Ecology has been highly commended for the Harper Prize 2017. To better explain the findings of this paper that I wrote with Alberto Canarini and Feike Dijkstra, I prepared a video podcast for the Journal of Ecology Blog that you can watch here:

At the beginning of the month, I had the chance to visit Andreas Richter's lab, give a talk to the group and see all the high-tech equipments they have to study soil microbial community composition and their functioning. It was an opportunity to meet again with my friend and past colleague from The University of Sydney, Alberto Canarini, and continue our great collaboration. Andreas advise will also be very valuable for the analysis of soil microbial communities...

Everyone would agree that Ecology Across Borders (#EAB2017), the joint annual meeting of the BES, Gfö, NECOV and EEF, was a great success. As usual, the quality of talks and the ecological concepts and findings developed during the conference was outstanding. However, what struck me the most was the increasing number of workshops and events dedicated to the working lives of ecologists (topics that apply to all scientists).

Check out our new paper published in Trends in Ecology and Evolution entitled: 'Plant-Soil Feedback: Bridging Natural and Agricultural Sciences'. This manuscript is the result of an organized session at the EcoSummit conference in Montpellier, France (from 29 August 2016 to 1 September 2016), sponsored by the Special Interest Group ‘Plant, Soils, Ecosystems...

My paper published in the last issue of Journal of Ecology has been selected as Editor's Choice! It is a great reward for all the work done during my postdoctoral research at The University of Sydney. Of course nothing could have been done without my two amazing colleagues, friends and co-authors ...

Apparently my paper entitled 'Subordinate plant species impact on soil microbial communities and ecosystem functioning in grasslands: Findings from a removal experiment' and published in 2013 in Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics is one of the 5 most cited papers till June 2016.

Than...

After travelling a lot during the past few months, I finally settled down in my new lab in Switzerland (ECOS lab), although I should say my past lab since it is where I did my PhD few years ago (2008-2012). I already had good times with my old and new colleagues here, as for proof this picture below of our team building this summer. I will be here in Lausanne (EPFL) fo...

My postdoc in Australia comes to an end and it is time to say goodbye. Working at The University of Sydney on Camden Campus (CCWF) was amazing. So much work and experiments done in the Dijkstra lab, thanks to a great boss and colleagues. I also met some awesome scientists at the University of Western Sydney and really enjoyed collaborating. Outside work, colleagues became friends with such good times playing Beach Volley and Ul...

Happy New Year 2016!

This new year starts for me with two papers just published in Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolutions and Systematics and Rangeland Ecology &a...

New greenhouse experiment:

Phosphorus uptake by plants under drought along a soil phosphorus gradient including four native australian plant species (C3/C4).

Today: 32P labelling in the greenhouse when it is 41 degrees outside - Australian heat wave made it sweaty.

I am really happy and proud to join the Journal of Ecology team as a New Associate Editor in charge of the Blog.

New blog post in Journal of Applied Ecology: Here!

Associate Editor Paul Kardol discusses a paper recently accepted about the role of subordinate species in sustaining the complex...

Last week I have been invited by the French Embassy in Australia to give a conference at The International French School of Sydney (https://www.facebook.com/Lycee.Condorcet). 

My talk was entitled "Climate Change: Ecology in the service of Agriculture". I spoke about current agricultural practices and the massive use of chemical products (fertiliser, insecticides, fungicide...

An incredible story of this whale in Sydney Harbour, repeatedly getting boaters' attention until they remove a life-threatening plastic bag from its face. The plastic ban is being debated in Australian Parlament *today* and I believe that this video is a direct message from whales asking us to reduce plastic pollution in the oceans... Watch the video:

For those who have not seen this Ted talk, I recommend you to watch it now. Paul Stamets is an American mycologist who received multiple awards for his ideas and research on mushrooms. In this Ted Talk, Paul gives an overview of the importance of fungi and proposes 6 ways mushrooms can save the world, by cleaning pollutated areas, making insecticides, treating viruses and more. This is a very inspiring talk, which gives hope to make changes in the world. This al...

I am currently in Maastricht, participating to the conference "Rhizosphere 4", where I gave the talk "Role of mycorrhizas in plant NP stoichiometry under drought in Australian grasslands". I learned a lot about rhizosphere and the importance of microbes and roots for agricultural practices and ...