BIOCOMP

#BIOCOMP Ghana
It has indeed been a remarkable year for the collaboration.

#BIOCOMP Mongolia
Quite the decomposition...😄

End-of-year thrill! TU Dresden's Tharandt campus now has 5 state-of-the-art climate chambers to power our BIOCOMP module 3 experiment.
Huge thanks to the EU & Freistaat Sachsen via EFRE InfraProNet for funding "KlimaWald - Aufbau klimastabiler Waldökosysteme"!

#BIOCOMP Uganda

Martin, John Paul and their team are tirelessly working to set up the site.

#BIOCOMP Romania

BIOCOMP MOD 2 Experiment Update! We placed fifty 50 cm logs in a German site. After four months, the bark on several logs has slipped off! This rapid debarking signals active bark beetle and some vertebrates activities.

#BIOCOMP Mexico
Amazing diversity... :D

#BIOCOMP Mexico
Very excited and fortunate with the collaboration.

Thank you. #BIOCOMP

Glimpses of field work from #BIOCOMP Mexico, where Orthon and his team are working hard

Male sika deer in the early evening

Female sika deer

No surprise that there's so little regeneration of broadleaf trees in Glengarriff oak forest with all these sika deer around @biocomp-erc.bsky.social

Big red fungus growing out of the side of an oak tree next to an acoustic monitor

That fungus definitely wasn't there when I set up the audio monitor six months ago. Wonder if we can hear it growing. @biocomp-erc.bsky.social

Pine marten

Most of the camera triggers from our coniferous plot are sika deer or lost hikers, so this pine marten is a welcome spot @biocomp-erc.bsky.social

Prof. Akira Mori and his group, who manage the #BIOCOMP Japan site, visited us in Dresden last week.
Thank you so much, Prof. Mori.

#1: Traditional German dinner
#2: Hike in Saxon Switzerland National Park
#3: After an intense discussion on what's next in BIOCOMP

Throwback to when we set up our very first ever BIOCOMP plot in Germany — muddy boots and big ideas!

Two years later, the journey continues — decomposers still at work

#BIOCOMP ISA

Uncertainty or stochasticity is the norm in fieldwork. Everything can be planned, but nature has its own way. Our natural forest site in Germany was destroyed by a wild boar attack last January. However, thanks to the local foresters, we could replace it quickly, now well protected. #BIOCOMP ISA

This year, we started a new experiment as part of BIOCOMP studying interactions between insects and fungi in deadwood, especially vectoring, and their effects on decomposition. The first site in Germany has been set up, and some model insect species have moved into their new homes.

We recently shipped the first samples for analysis, gathered in the Biocomp project site in the Netherlands: the forest reserve in the Speulderbos!
We are one of 47 global experiment sites to find out how decomposer communities impact carbon fluxes @biocomp-erc.bsky.social @patrickjansen.bsky.social

Great chance to visit the BIOCOMP field site in Swedish boreal forest. Thanks to Joakim Hjälten, Jörgen Sjögren, Anne-Maarit Hekkala and the Restoration Ecology Group at SLU in Umea for the trip and the excellent scientific discussions! @biocomp-erc.bsky.social

🌲 Greetings from the Carpathian Mountains, Brasov, Romania!
Happy to be part of the BIOCOMP project — exploring the hidden biodiversity of deadwood, soil, and decomposers across forest ecosystems worldwide.

Follow our journey: @biocomp-erc.bsky.social
#BIOCOMP #ForestBiodiversity #Carpathians

Bluesky account of the BIOCOMP project launched! We study diversity patterns of arthropods and microbes related to deadwood and soil as well as wood decomposition rates in managed and natural forests across the globe. Involving a large group of awesome collaborators! @biocomp-erc.bsky.social