Workshop on the role of metals in soil expanded networks, facilitated discussions and revealed gaps

Participants at the workshop on the role of metals in soil at LINXS in April.

Reflecting on the recent workshop on the role of metals in soil, in late April, Environment and Climate theme leader Dimitrios Floudas, and core member, Milda Pucetaite, highlight the insightful and engaged discussions as well as the addition of three new theme members as important outcomes.

Dimitrios Floudas is theme leader and associate senior lecturer at the Department of Biology at Lund University.

The event was originally intended to cover three major metals; iron, copper and manganese, and cover both X-ray and neutron techniques in relation to metal speciation for metals involved in soil microbial decomposition of organic matter. Yet, a last-minute cancellation, in combination with participants’ research interest, shifted focus towards iron and the uses of various X-ray techniques to study that metal in soil. The event also highlighted different data analysis software, and sample preparation methods to conduct experiments with soil and soil microbial systems at large scale infrastructures.

– We accomplished what we wanted which was to create vivid discussions about the role of metals in organic matter decomposition and the use of X-rays in helping us understand these processes, says theme leader Dimitrios Floudas, associate senior lecturer at the Department of Biology, Lund University.

He reflects that the invited speakers; Luis Carlos Colocho Hurtarte from the Diamond Light Source, UK, Prachi Joshi, from the University of Tübingen, Germany, Martin Obst, from the University of Bayreuth, Germany, and Anders Tunlid from Lund University, Sweden, not only gave very informative presentations but also engaged in lengthy discussions about different experiments and sample preparation, which was very appreciated by the participants.

Lack of database leads to loss of valuable beam time

Milda Pucetaite adds that the discussions also identified the current lack of a database for reference materials relevant for research in soil microbiology in particular, and environmental science in general. This lack often leads to loss of experimental beamtime, since it forces researchers to use their beamtime to record this type of data, instead of performing other types of experiments.

Milda Pucetaite is researcher at the Department of Biology at Lund University.

– These types of gaps, or needs is precisely what we want to capture with our theme, so that we can support and advance research on environmental sciences. We have now initiated a contact with the Swedish national database infrastructure (SND) about possibilities to establish such database, which we hope will be fruitful, says Milda Pucetaite, researcher at the Department of Biology at Lund University.

Three new theme members!

An additional outcome of the workshop was that the theme got three new members including Professor Nils Skoglund from the University of Umeå, thereby expanding the ECL network.

– It is great that these workshops can introduce the theme to new researchers, not least outside Lund! After our time at LINXS, we want to continue this work, which makes networking and collaboration building key.

Finally, both Dimitrios Floudas and Milda Pucetaite see this workshop as paving the way for future theme activities, including a workshop with focus on the cycle of phosphorus and a hackathon in relation to data analysis of selected X-ray techniques. For them personally, the day was also inspiring for a proposal they are preparing.

– The role of metals in organic matter stabilization and degradation is still poorly understood, and it’s definitely an area we want to continue to pursue!, they say!