Andreas Richter

New Paper: Chlamydiae give up extracellular stage to thrive in social amoebae Many intracellular bacteria rely on an extracellular stage to move between hosts – but what happens when that’s no longer needed? A new study, now published in Current Biology, reveals a striking exam...

Exciting new research! Matthias Horn & Lukas Helmlinger from #CeMESS uncover how chlamydiae thrive in social amoebae by skipping their extracellular stage.

Read their groundbreaking study in Current Biology (@currentbiology.bsky.social):

🔗 cemess.univie.ac.at/news/detail-...

Wondering where to submit your abstract for #AGU25 @agu.org?

Check out our session co-organized with @kristenobacter.bsky.social (UMass), Ulas Karaoz and Nicola Falco (Berkeley Lab).

In-person invited speakers: @andreasrichter.bsky.social (U of Vienna) & Amilcare Porporato (Princeton) 🤩

We are hiring: Full Professor of Environmental Biogeochemistry of Metals Human activities are driving rapid environmental change on a global scale, with pollutants playing a critical role in pushing planetary systems beyond safe limits. These changes have profound conseque...

CeMESS is hiring!

Join us at the Division of Environmental Geosciences (@edge-vienna.bsky.social) as Full Professor of ENVIRONMENTAL BIOGEOCHEMISTRY OF METALS. Collaborate across a leading institution in microbiome science and environmental research.

🔗 Learn more and apply: tinyurl.com/47bev45k

Congratulations to Megan Sørensen on receiving an FWF-ASTRA Award! We’re thrilled to announce that Megan Sørensen has been awarded a prestigious FWF-ASTRA grant to investigate at CeMESS how microbial partnerships have shaped evolution.

We’re thrilled to announce that Megan Sørensen has been awarded an FWF-ASTRA for her upcoming research at #CeMESS on microbial partnerships and evolution!

Read more about the grant and project 🔗 cemess.univie.ac.at/news/detail-...

Soils rock, obviously. And microbes too!

Professorship opening @ter-cemess.bsky.social. Fantastic team and world-class research environment!
Join us at @cemess.bsky.social, @univie.ac.at

Warming Weakens Soil Nitrogen Stabilization Pathways Driving Proportional Carbon Losses in Subarctic Ecosystems Schematic representation of the main effects of soil warming on nitrogen (N) retention in ecosystem pools. During the snowmelt period (lower panel), warming reduces soil microbial biomass and fine ro...

10/ A joined effort of @creaf.cat @ter-cemess.bsky.social with @jpreixach.bsky.social @andreasrichter.bsky.social and other excellent researchers

👉 dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb....

#Science #Soils #Ecosystems #Nitrogen #Carbon

Exciting news #2! CoE Key Researcher Dagmar Woebken (@cemess.bsky.social, @univie.ac.at) receives an ERC Advanced Grant to explore how desert microbes thrive on non-rainwater (dew, water vapor).
#Microsky #ERCAdG @erc.europa.eu @fwf-at.bsky.social

Open pages of profil EXTRA Magazin from 12.4.2025 with the article on David Berry's research

#CeMESS professor David Berry (@davidberry1.bsky.social) is featured in the latest @profil.at EXTRA issue, offering insights into microbiome research and its relevance to our health.

🔗 Learn more about his current research: dome.univie.ac.at/berry/

Universität Wien richtet neues Center for Advanced Studies ein Im Mai folgt die erste Ausschreibung von insgesamt 20 Fellowships

#univie richtet neues Center for Advanced Studies ein. 🆕
Sprecher des Leitungsgremiums ist der Molekularbiologe @michiwagner4.bsky.social. Das Center spielt eine wichtige strategische Rolle, um internationale Reputation und Sichtbarkeit weiter zu stärken und globale Kooperationen auszubauen.

The University of Vienna established a new Center for Advanced Studies! #CeMESS molecular biologist @michiwagner4.bsky.social will serve as the speaker of the leadership committee.

🔗 More info: medienportal.univie.ac.at/en/media/rec...

Für die Forschung sind die Zeiten vielerorts schwieriger geworden. In #Wien wurden die Bedingungen stetig besser. Ich bin überzeugt, dass dieser Trend anhält, die Unterstützung dafür stark bleibt und werde meinen Teil dazu beitragen. Ich lebe und forsche gerne in Wien!

#IchForscheGernInWien

We’re standing up for science ! 🤝
On March 7 at 1 pm, the #MarchforScience will start in front of the University of Vienna - an initiative of scientists raising their voices worldwide for free science.
The University of Vienna shares this important cause.‼️🏛️ #standupforscience2025 #scienceforall

A red Amanita fruiting with leaf litter around

How does variation in ectomycorrhizal fungal diversity affect tree growth? What are the knowledge gaps to more fully answering this question?

See my review out today in Fungal Ecology: doi.org/10.1016/j.fu...

Jillian Petersen appointed Full Professor at CeMESS We are delighted to announce that Jillian Petersen has been appointed Full Professor (§ 99/4) at the Center for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science (CeMESS). This appointment marks an excit...

Congratulations @jillianmpetersen.bsky.social. Great to have you at @cemess.bsky.social as a wonderful and inspiring colleague!

dome.univie.ac.at/news-events/...

Happy to announce our new paper: Soil microbes prefer organic acids over sugars in simulated root exudation (doi.org/10.1016/j.so...). 1/6

Thank you very much, Mathilde! Looking forward to another great #ForHot meeting.

In 2025, we continue to advocate for policy based on scientific evidence. This 2020 Editorial, “We need leaders that believe in scientific evidence”, resonates today as loudly as ever: plos.io/34lyl59. PLOS Biology also continues to push for DEI and a diverse scientific community:
plos.io/3rzxczU 🧪

TER - We had our annual Science Retreat yesterday. Great science, discussions, and fun!
#TerrestrialEcosystemResearch
@cemess.bsky.social

Ksenia Guseva is a new senior scientist at TER We are thrilled to announce that Ksenia Guseva has joined our team as a senior scientist.

Congratulations to @kseniaguseva.bsky.social for becoming Senior Scientist at @ter-cemess.bsky.social, @cemess.bsky.social,
@univie.ac.at
Wonderful to have you on board!

ter.univie.ac.at/news-talks/n...

New @fwf-at.bsky.social CoE Microplanet Paper in @naturecomms.bsky.social: Study by @andreasrichter.bsky.social lab @cemess.bsky.social, @univie.ac.at shows that fungi remain fully active and can even invest in storage compound synthesis under severe drought. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Physiology, the functioning of a cell at a given time and in a given set of physiochemical conditions, is an emergent property that cannot be reliably predicted from genomic data or metabolic reconstructions alone. #testthy(metagenomic)hypotheses

Great talk and visit of @chmoei.bsky.social, the co-director of our @fwf-at.bsky.social Cluster of Excellence "Microbiomes drive Planetary Health" (@microbesplanet.bsky.social), at our Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science (@cemess.bsky.social) @univie.ac.at. 🧪 #MicroSky

Not really. As far as we can see, it's more a case of the AMF fungi not growing at all. Probably because they are no longer getting C from the plants.

This was a very fun study to work on!

Decoupled responses of plants and soil biota to global change across the world’s land ecosystems - Nature Communications Understanding how global changes affect both aboveground plants and belowground soil organisms is essential for preserving ecosystem functions and biodiversity. This study synthesizes extensive data, ...

we perform a global meta-analysis of 13,209 global change factors in experimental observations across the world’s land ecosystems to quantify plant (biomass and diversity) and soil biota (biomass, diversity, and abundances) responses to GCFs in different biomes www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The fantastic first author of this paper @albertocanarini.bsky.social also just joint the blue #science wave.

Soil fungi remain active and invest in storage compounds during drought independent of future climate conditions Nature Communications - How climate change will impact microbial community growth is unclear. Here, the authors use a field experiment with varying global change factors, finding fungal growth more...

Out in @naturecomms.bsky.social with @loutsi.bsky.social @andreasrichter.bsky.social and many others.
rdcu.be/d1Tyg
This is really amazing if you are into drought and soil microbes.
The method developed here will be part of my ERC_project, #postdoc deadline December 5th. More details below ⏬️

2/2
For this study, we developed a new method, #2H-vapor-PLFA-SIP, which labels soil with 2H-labelled water vapor, allowing to study the activity/growth of microbial communities without altering the soil moisture. Thanks to all involved!
#TER @cemess.bsky.social, @univie.ac.at vie.ac.at

Soil fungi remain active and invest in storage compounds during drought independent of future climate conditions Nature Communications - How climate change will impact microbial community growth is unclear. Here, the authors use a field experiment with varying global change factors, finding fungal growth more...

Excited to share our new study in @naturecomms.bsky.social showing that soil fungi, unlike bacteria, remain fully active under severe drought conditions, and also invest in synthesis of storage compounds.
Led by the amazing @loutsi.bsky.social and Alberto Canarini.
Thread 1/2

rdcu.be/d1Tyg

Soil microbiomes show consistent and predictable responses to extreme events - Nature Soils from 30 grasslands across Europe were subjected to 4 contrasting extreme climatic events under drought, flood, freezing and heat conditions, with the results suggesting that soil microbiomes fro...

Science takes time - a lot of time. Time that is more and more difficult to make available because of increased workloads. Time that exceeds the temporary contracts of postdocs and PhDs.

I'll illustrate this using our paper published in Nature yesterday. 🧵 (1/x)
www.nature.com/articles/s41...