On 4th September, Oscar Zárate Martínez successfully defended his thesis "Soil microbial communities in changing landscapes: spatiotemporal patterns in arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi" and earned a PhD degree in Botany and Mycology. The opponent was Karina Engelbrecht Clemmensen from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, and Oscar's supervisors were Meelis Pärtel and Maarja Öpik (Soil Ecology Workgroup).
In September, Karl Hendrik Tamkivi started his PhD in our workgroup! He also did got his BSc degree in our workgroup and then did a MSc degree in data science. We are very happy to have him back in our workgroup again! In his PhD studies Karl Hednrik will focus on the uncertainty principles within the dark diversity and functional diversity paradigms. His supervisors are Meelis Pärtel and Carlos Carmona.
Jing Yang worked in our workgroup as a Research Fellow in Functional Ecology from 2024 to 2026. Recently, she was awarded the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship, which means that she will start her new project IntraDivS ("Decoding the intraspecific engine of functional diversity in a changing world") in September in Spain working at CSIC with Carlos Carmona. Together they will investigate how intraspecific trait variability shapes functional diversity under climate change and competition. We wish all the best to Jing and hope to see her again soon!
On 3rd July, the New Phytologist symposium "Collections through time: legacy and innovation" took place at the University of Tartu. It was organised by Maarja Öpik and the Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences. From our workgroup Jing Yang gave a poster presentation and a speed talk introducing the poster. She presented fresh results about extinction debt in tropical forests. Several other workgroup members also participated at the conference without giving presentations.
In June, we welcomed Marta Baumane to our workgroup as a new postdoctoral researcher! Marta finished her PhD studies in 2024 in the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, where she studied biodiversity, plant functional traits, and carbon cycling in wetlands. This was followed by a postdoc at Aarhus University, where she worked on estimating the restoration potential of protected freshwater habitats in Natura 2000 sites across the EU. In the University of Tartu, Marta will work with Meelis Pärtel and Aveliina Helm (Landscape Biodiversity workgroup) on her project "Assessing Wetland Restoration Success Through the Dark Diversity Concept".
With the TraitDivNet project we continue collaboration with our guest professor Carlos Carmona and his new workgroup in Pontevedra, Spain. This spring our workgroup members Juni, Riin and Aivi travelled to Spain to help them with field- and labwork in the Madrid region. We collected plant above- and belowground trait data with a special focus on intraspecific trait diversity. We also instructed our Spanish colleagues in following the trait measurement lab protocols. The trait data will also be included in our workgroup TraitDivNet project.
On 6th May our workgroup took a road trip to Laelatu for our traditional spring seminar. The topic of the seminar was "Macroecology across taxonomic groups" and presentations were given by Meelis, Jing, Juni, Oscar and our guests Diego, Marta and Karl Hendrik, who soon also start work in our workgroup. In addition to scientific discussions, we enjoyed the sauna and a visit to the Farm Museum of Carl Robert Jakobson.
We participated again in Eco Fair, an event where our university biology students can meet all the workgroups of Botany and Zoology departments. We had Blanca, Oscar and Riin introducing our workgroup and thesis topics, and we also premiered our new workgroup roll up and workgroup stickers!
New study was published in Journal of Ecology about how competition reshapes functional trait differences among tree species and how these changes can promote coexistence. The study was led by Jing Yang and Carlos Carmona, with Enrico Tordoni and our former postdoctoral researcher Jonathan A. Bennett also contributing as co-authors. In a three-year greenhouse experiment with 5,818 seedlings from seven coexisting tree species, the authors found that competition made species more similar in aboveground traits but more different in fine-root traits. Despite these contrasting responses, both shifts reduced competition intensity and helped explain how multiple tree species can coexist. The study builds on earlier work from our group on trait variation and competition, including Bennett et al. (2016) and Carmona et al. (2019).
Yang, J., Shen, G., Lyu, S., Bennett, J. A., Tordoni, E., Wu, S., Wang, X., & Carmona, C. P. 2026. Shifts in above- and below-ground trait dissimilarity under competition mediate the future impact of neighbours. Journal of Ecology 114: e70320.
Bennett, J. A., Riibak, K., Tamme, R., Lewis, R. J., & Pärtel, M. 2016. The reciprocal relationship between competition and intraspecific trait variation. Journal of Ecology 104: 1410–1420. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.12614
Carmona, C. P., de Bello, F., Azcárate, F. M., Mason, N. W. H., & Peco, B. 2019. Trait hierarchies and intraspecific variability drive competitive interactions in Mediterranean annual plants. Journal of Ecology 107: 2078–2089. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.13248
Enrico Tordoni worked in our workgroup as a researcher for nearly 6 years (2020-2026). However, recently he was elected as a new Assistant Professor in his home country Italy. He will start working in the University of Bologna and continue his research in taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity. We wish Enrico good luck at his new position and hope to see again soon!