In the beginning of December, professor Martin Zobel and senior researcher Mari Moora had an opportunity to visit Brasil and its species-rich grasslands. They collaborated professor Valerio De Patta Pillar (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul) and collected root samples from plant species representing different functional types. It was a pilot study aiming to understand variation of the diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) communities in different soil conditions, including phosphorus deficient latosols.

Plant Ecology Lab is proud to congratulate two of its members for earning PhD degree. On 17^th, Annika Uibopuu defended her thesis titled "Communities of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in spruce forest ecosystem and their effect on performance of forest understorey plant species",dr. Miroslav Vosátka (Institute of Botany, Academy of Sciences of Czech Republic) acting as an opponent. On 19^th, Ülle Saks defended her thesis titled "Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal diversity patterns in boreonemoral forest ecosystems" with dr Concepción Azcón González de Aguilar, (Estación Experimental del Zaidín, CSIC, Spain) acting as an opponent. Dr Concepción Azcón González de Aguilar gave also a seminar introducing her work in the Department of Botany on the following day.