CONFERENCE "SUSTAINABLE WATER MANAGEMENT AND URBAN BLUE-GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE FOR ADVANCING SPONGE CITE PERSPECTIVES IN BOSNIA AND HERCEGOVINA
Registration
- Deadline: October 15, 2025
- Registration form: MS Office Forms link
Reasons to join
· Exchange knowledge with experts in sustainable water management.
· Network with academics, students, and professionals.
· Showcase your research and compete for awards.
We are pleased to announce the international conference “Sustainable Water Management and Urban Blue-Green Infrastructure for Advancing Sponge City Perspectives in Bosnia and Herzegovina (SPONGE CITY-BH)”, which will take place in Sarajevo from October 20–22, 2025.
Organised by the Faculty of Forestry, University of Sarajevo, the Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Sarajevo, and Mendel University in Brno, this event will bring together leading experts, researchers, practitioners, and students to address one of the most pressing challenges of our time—ensuring sustainable management of water resources in rapidly urbanising environments.
The conference will provide a platform for exchanging innovative ideas, best practices, and research findings on integrating blue and green infrastructure into urban landscapes. Particular emphasis will be placed on advancing the Sponge City concept, a nature-based solution that aims to enhance resilience to climate change, mitigate flood risks, and improve urban living conditions.
A SPECIAL ISSUE IN THE JOURNAL "DISCOVER FORESTS"
Forest Soils: How Harvesting Methods and Management Shape Soil Properties, Functions, and Resilience
Expected submission deadline: end of May 2026.
Editors: Boris Rewald, Marian Schönauer
Intensifying climate pressures and timber demands are refocusing attention on forest soils, the foundation of productivity, biodiversity, and ecosystem services. Harvesting methods can alter physical soil properties, hydrology, and nutrient cycles, while management incentives such as increased structural and species diversity, retention of deadwood and legacy trees, or the maintenance of refugia may buffer or reverse impacts.
Together, these practices govern soil carbon dynamics, greenhouse-gas fluxes, microbial and faunal communities, mycorrhizal networks, and erosion and water quality, yet the mechanistic links and context dependencies remain underexplored across forest types and pedoclimatic zones. This collection invites original research, perspectives and reviews that quantify how harvesting systems (e.g., reduced-impact logging, mechanised operations, continuous-cover forestry) and diversity/retention strategies (e.g., mixed-species stands, structural complexity, coarse woody debris) affect soil properties and functions.
We especially welcome studies that bridge scales, from plot to landscape and from short-term responses to long-term recovery, and that integrate physiology, biogeochemistry, soil ecology, and hydrology using field experiments, long-term trials, chrono sequences, remote sensing, geostatistical analysis, synthesis/meta-analysis, and/or innovative analytics (e.g., modelling, eDNA, isotopes). Submissions with a regional to global scope and data-driven policy relevance (i.e., nature-based solutions) are encouraged.
Our goal is to draw attention to forest management practices that either hinder or improve ecosystem functions and services by either harming or stewarding soil life and function.
9TH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON WOODY ROOTS SYSTEM
3 - 5 June 2026, Como, Italy
Douglas L. Godbold and Boris Rewald, the members of the organisation committee, invites you to join leading researchers, students, and professionals in Como, Italy to explore how woody roots contribute to sustainability, soil health, and plant production across diverse ecosystems.
RESEARCHERS´ NIGHT (26 SEPTEMBER 2025)
Researchers’ Night, an event that, for one evening, brings life to hundreds of science buildings that no ordinary mortal can enter.
EXCELLENTIA participated with the programme: Hidden Wealth Beneath Our Feet
Soil may look like ordinary dirt, but its one of Earth´s richest treasures. Beneath the forest floor lies a living, breathing network of tiny roots, fungi, and microbes—working together to sustain our forests. These underground communities help trees grow, protect them from disease, store carbon, and even break down rocks to release nutrients in a process called weathering. Visitors will uncover this “hidden wealth” by exploring the secret partnerships between trees and fungi— (mycorrhizal pictures) i.e. pictures or microscope. “Draw me your fungus, and I’ll show you mine!” What pathogens look like on roots if we can find any, fungi are forest doctors and destroyers. Also, carbon-storing in roots could be the narrative.
STUDENT POSTER COMPETITION
Please send us your poster related to forestry, ecology, pathogens, or similar topics, published between May 2024 and May 2025, by June 15, 2025. A group of experts and scientists from the EXCELLENTIA project will evaluate the posters, and the participant with the highest rating will receive admission to the EXCELLENTIA summer school, scheduled to take place in September 2025 at the Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, MENDELU.
Upload your poster to the MS Teams files under your name. https://1url.cz/W1uw9 Results will be announced on June 30, 2025.
SUMMER SCHOOL: THE HIDDEN HALF OF ECOSYSTEMS (22 - 26 SEPTEMBER 2025)
This course will enable students to understand the function of root systems and their mycorrhizal symbionts and identify the anatomical, morphological, and physiological parameters of roots and their distribution in space and time that underlie resource uptake. Students will learn about root and mycorrhizal classification (both morphotypes and DNA), morphological analysis, and their functional biodiversity. Practical sessions will include sampling and identifying mycorrhizal morphotypes, studying interactions of mycorrhizal fungi with roots, and exploring the effects of ontogeny, competitors etc. on root system plasticity and mycorrhiza diversity/identity.
Venue: Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, Mendel University in Brno and University Forest Enteprise Masaryk Forest in Křtiny (CZ)
WHICH TREE SPECIES FIX THE MOST CARBON?
To answer this important question, an international consortium of scientists coordinated by INRAE and Bordeaux Sciences Agro studied the growth of 223 tree species planted in 160 experimental forests in different parts of the world. They found that conservative species, which are the most efficient at conserving their resources (nutrients, water, energy), generally grow faster in forests.
We are happy that Era-Chair Douglas Godbold is a member of this international consortium and a co-author of the paper published in Nature, which provides valuable insights for forest managers.
WRIGHT, I. J. et al. (2004): The world-wide leaf economics spectrum. Nature, 428, s. 821–827, doi: 10.1038/nature02403
Congratulations to all the authors!
NAGOYA PROTOCOL on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convetioon on Biological Diversity (4 February 2025)
An online seminar delivered by: Eliška Rolfová, Ministry of Environment of the Czech Republic
Time and venue: 09:30 AM, Webex application
Please register to the e-mail: alena.samonilova@mendelu.cz
CAN VIRUSES HELP US O CURE FOREST DISEASES (17 December 2024)
A public lecture delivered by: Associate Professor Leticia Botella Sánchez, member of the Forest Ecosystem Research Group
Time and venue: 1:00 PM, room B106
You can also join the lecture online via Microsoft Teams
Professor Danuše Nerudová – The role of the European Parliament in Shaping EU policies, 30 October 2024, 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM, room B106
The European Parliament is essential in shaping EU policies, representing citizens‘ interests and collaborating with other EU institutions to draft, amend, and approve legislation.
Professor Danuše Nerudová, Member of the European Parliament, examines how the Parliament impacts areas such as economic policy and environmental standards through its legislative, oversight, and budgetary roles.
SUMMER SCHOOL: THE HIDDEN HALF OF ECOSYSTEMS (7. - 11. OCTOBER 2024)
This course will enable students to understand the function of root systems and their mycorrhizal symbionts and identify the anatomical, morphological, and physiological parameters of roots and their distribution in space and time that underlie resource uptake. Students will learn about root and mycorrhizal classification (both morphotypes and DNA), morphological analysis, and their functional biodiversity. Practical sessions will include sampling and identifying mycorrhizal morphotypes, studying interactions of mycorrhizal fungi with roots, and exploring the effects of ontogeny, competitors etc. on root system plasticity and mycorrhiza diversity/identity.
Venue: Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, Mendel University in Brno and University Forest Enteprise Masaryk Forest in Křtiny (CZ)
RESEARCHERS´ NIGHT (27 SEPTEMBER 2024)
Researchers’ Night, an event that, for one evening, brings life to hundreds of science buildings that no ordinary mortal can enter.
EXCELLENTIA participated with the programme: Transformation in forests
Forests are always moving, you just cannot see it. The tree species in a forest change over time, and with them their fungal partners. Sometime foresters change trees in forests very fast, this is called transformation. What happens to those poor fungi!
Come and take a look, see what happens to our friends the fungus if the trees change.
STUDENT POSTER COMPETITION (DEADLINE 14 JUNE 2024)
The EXCELLENTIA project is announcing a STUDENT POSTER COMPETITION.
Send us your poster published from May 2023 to May 2024 at any conference (foreign, domestic, faculty, including SilvaNet, etc.) on forestry-related topics by 14 June 2024.
The leading scientists from the EXCELLENTIA project will evaluate the posters and announce the results on 28 June 2024.
The three best posters will be awarded with scholarships: 1000, 2000 and 3000 CZK.
Upload the posters to the MS Teams group using a folder with your name and email.
The MS group will be checked regularly, and the poster´s acceptance into the competition will be confirmed by e-mail.
SCIENCE CAFÉ WITH BORIS REWALD (14.05.2024 at 19:00)
The first EXCELLENTIA SCIENCE CAFÉ was held on 14 May 2024 at 7 pm at the Green Club in Brno.
The topic "Nature-based solutions: Air pollution mitigation and thermal comfort provided by (urban) tree and forests" was presented and discussed by Boris Rewald.
For details of the topic watch the video and invitation below.
TOP 10 PAPERS ON MYCORRHIZAL RESEARCH 2023
International Mycorrhiza Society @mycorrhiza_ims selected the Top 10 papers on mycorrhizal research 2023. @Excellentia_HE is represented by @Douglas Godbold @Boris Rewald as senior authors of Mayer et al., New Phytologist https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.18930 on the effects of #ectomycorrhizal #fungi on forest soil decomposition processes as modulated by fertility. Congratulations to all authors!
PUBLIC LECTURE (11.10. 2023)
The lecture was held in the meeting room of the FFWT Dean's Office with the participation of academic staff, researchers and students of the FFWT.
Douglas Godbold and Boris Rewald presented the EXCELLENTIA project and their current research activities and results, which will be further developed by the project's research programme. - see the presentation and recording. The discussion with participants followed.
RESEARCHERS´ NIGHT (06.10. 2023)
Researchers’ Night, an event that, for one evening, brings life to hundreds of science buildings that no ordinary mortal can enter.
EXCELLENTIA participated with the programme: Mysteries of the underground
Ever thought about what plant roots look like? Most plants have roots combined with a fungal partner, a mycorrhiza. You know mycorrhizas, you have probably eaten them! They come in different colours and shapes, but are very small, you need a microscope. Come along and take a look at one of the great mysteries of the underground.
Visitors, across all generations, were introduced to the amazing world of mycorrhizal fungi entertainingly.
Picture: Fine art of the youngest visitors
The winning project logo design has been selected!
The winning logo is designed by Eva Vlasova, a student in the Bachelor's degree programme in Furniture Design and Production.
Our sincere congratulations to the winner!
Details on Call to create a project logo you can find HERE.
KICK-OFF MEETING (02.05. 2023)
The kick-off meeting, which took place online in Teams, was opened by Libor Jankovský, Dean of the Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology and project coordinator. EXCELLENTIA's missions were further presented by Pavlína Pancová Šimková, Vice-Dean for Integration into ERA. This was followed by a presentation on EU project management delivered by Lia Keune (REA). Douglas Godbold, ERA Chair, introduced a role of ERA Chair and EXCELLENTIA scientific objectives. Finally, the individual WPs were presented. See the video
