Outputs (4)

Earth observation reveals reduced winter wheat growth and the importance of plant available water during drought (2025)
Journal Article
Sjulgård, H., Graf, L. V., Colombi, T., Hirte, J., Keller, T., & Aasen, H. (2025). Earth observation reveals reduced winter wheat growth and the importance of plant available water during drought. Biogeosciences, 22(5), 1341-1354. https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1341-2025

Drought poses increasing challenges to global food production. Knowledge about the influence of drought on crop development and the role of soil properties for crop drought severity is important in drought risk analysis and for mitigating drought imp... Read More about Earth observation reveals reduced winter wheat growth and the importance of plant available water during drought.

Root Circumnutation Reduces Mechanical Resistance to Soil Penetration (2024)
Journal Article
Leuther, F., Iseskog, D., Keller, T., Larsbo, M., Pandey, B. K., & Colombi, T. (2025). Root Circumnutation Reduces Mechanical Resistance to Soil Penetration. Plant, Cell and Environment, 48(2), 1608-1620. https://doi.org/10.1111/pce.15219

Root circumnutation, the helical movement of growing root tips, is a widely observed behaviour of plants. However, our mechanistic understanding of the impacts of root circumnutation on root growth and soil exploration is limited. Here, we deployed a... Read More about Root Circumnutation Reduces Mechanical Resistance to Soil Penetration.

Beyond growth: The significance of non-growth anabolism for microbial carbon-use efficiency in the light of soil carbon stabilisation (2024)
Journal Article
Bölscher, T., Vogel, C., Olagoke, F. K., Meurer, K. H., Herrmann, A. M., Colombi, T., Brunn, M., & Domeignoz-Horta, L. A. (2024). Beyond growth: The significance of non-growth anabolism for microbial carbon-use efficiency in the light of soil carbon stabilisation. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 193, Article 109400. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2024.109400

Microbial carbon-use efficiency (CUE) in soils captures carbon (C) partitioning between anabolic biosynthesis of microbial metabolites and catabolic C emissions (i.e. respiratory C waste). The use of C for biosynthesis provides a potential for the ac... Read More about Beyond growth: The significance of non-growth anabolism for microbial carbon-use efficiency in the light of soil carbon stabilisation.

Root plasticity vs. elasticity – When are responses acclimative? (2024)
Journal Article
Colombi, T., Pandey, B. K., Chawade, A., Bennett, M. J., Mooney, S., & Keller, T. (2024). Root plasticity vs. elasticity – When are responses acclimative?. Trends in Plant Science, 29(8), 856-864. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tplants.2024.01.003

Spatiotemporal soil heterogeneity and the resulting edaphic stress cycles can be decisive for crop growth. However, our understanding of the acclimative value of root responses to heterogeneous soil conditions remains limited. We outline a framework... Read More about Root plasticity vs. elasticity – When are responses acclimative?.