News

Vineeth's work is published in Environmental Science & Technology.

New paper: what does tetrahedral iron do in clay minerals?

— Iron-rich clay minerals act as rechargeable batteries in soils and sediments. In his new study in Environmental Science & Technology, Vineeth asks how iron in a less studied part of the clay structure affects how readily these minerals take up and release electrons.

Fabrice's work is published in Agriculture.

New paper: which eggplant farming practices pay off?

— How African eggplant is grown in central Côte d'Ivoire varies widely from farm to farm. In his new study in Agriculture, Fabrice surveyed 272 farmers to find out which practices are the most profitable.

Gino's work is published in Soil Advances.

New paper: how much does field mapping improve SOC predictions?

— Freely available maps can only tell you so much about where mountain soil carbon hides. Gino's new study in Soil Advances tests what field mapping adds on top.

Bence's work is published in Geoderma.

New paper: what drives soil carbon in subalpine landscapes?

— Why does soil organic carbon vary so much across a mountain landscape? In his new study published in Geoderma, Bence finds answers to this question.

From left to right: Damien, Michelangelo, and Clémence during harvest day. © 2026 M. Vuono

SOIL welcomes summer interns

— SOIL is welcoming four interns this summer: Alice, Clémence, Corentin and Isabelle. Damien is back with the lab as a technician.

Goldschmidt Logo

SOIL at Goldschmidt 2026

— Meret co-convened a session and gave an invited talk at this year's Goldschmidt conference in Montréal.

Microbial carbon metabolism is linked to organic matter chemistry across soil systems

New paper in Communications Earth & Environment

— In our new paper in Communications Earth & Environment, we asked how the chemical composition of extractable organic matter shapes soil microbial carbon metabolism across soil systems.

New preprint in ChemRxiv © 2026 ChemRxiv.

New preprint on the redox properties of iron in clay minerals

— In our new preprint on ChemRxiv, we investigated how the presence of iron in the tetrahedral sheet of smectite clay minerals affects their redox properties.

Front page of our new publication. © 2026 PNAS

New PNAS paper on manganese oxide reactivity

— In our new paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, we developed a thermodynamic framework to predict how fast manganese oxides dissolve under environmentally relevant conditions.

New article in ESPI. © ESPI

New paper on microbial carbon cycling in alpine soils

— In our new paper published as part of the Emerging Investigator Series in Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts, we used shotgun metagenomics to investigate how microbial communities and their functional potential vary with soil redox conditions across alpine riparian landscapes.

Bence, Xinru, Vineeth, and Filippo presented at EGU (top left to bottom right). © 2026 EPFL

SOIL at EGU 2026

— Four SOILies presented their research at the EGU General Assembly 2026 in Vienna.

Michelangelo (left) and Dylan in the field. © 2026 Clara Guadalupe Herrera

Welcome, Michelangelo!

— Michelangelo Vuono started his PhD journey at SOIL on May 1st. Welcome, Michelangelo!

Bence in the field. © 2026 Fabiano D'Amato

Meet the SOIL Lab

— We are delighted to share this short film introducing the people, research, and places behind the Soil Biogeochemistry Laboratory.

Bence (left) and Damien working in Ar du Tsan. © 2025 Fabiano D'Amato

New preprint explores soil carbon in subalpine grasslands

— Why does soil organic carbon build up in some places but not in others, even within the same grassland? In a new preprint, Bence Dienes and colleagues take a closer look at this question in subalpine environments, where soils can change dramatically over short distances.

Welcoming Elisa to ALPOLE: From left to right: Orly, Meret, Xinru, Elisa, Dylan, Bence, Filippo, Géraldine, Clara, and Vineeth. © 2026 V. Pothanamkandathil

Welcome, Elisa!

— Elisa just joined SOIL as a doctoral student. Welcome!

Left to right: Dylan, Filippo, Bence, Orly, Vineeth, Clara, Xinru, and Meret celebrating Orly's birthday © 2026 M. Aeppli

Welcome back, Clara and Xinru!

— We are excited to have Dr. Xinru Liu and Clara Guadalupe Herrera as our two latest SOILies. Welcome back!

Soils from the Chile grassland gradient. © 2024 D. Wasner

New preprint links microbial metabolism to organic matter chemistry

— In his new preprint, Daniel investigated if bulk soil microbial growth and respiration is linked to the chemical composition of extractable organic matter along a geoclimatic gradient of temperate grasslands.

Aggregates of clay particles © Fabien Baron

New project on clay minerals

— Jeffrey Catalano and Meret Aeppli have received a seed grant to launch a new collaboration using iron-containing clay minerals to recover lithium from water while locking away harmful contaminants.

From left to right: Filippo, Vineeth, Orly, Arnaut, Clara, Kristina, Dylan, Bence, and Meret © 2025 EPFL

New SOIL members for fall semester

— Clara, Arnaut, and Manon are joining SOIL for their theses this semester. Dylan joined us for his civil service and Gino is back at SOIL. Welcome!

View on Ar du Tsan, one of the field sites of the study. © 2024 B. Dienes

New preprint on carbon cycling in alpine soils

— How do microbes and organic matter shape carbon cycling in alpine soils? A new preprint from our group combines metagenomics and pyrolysis GC-MS to find out.