Liz Koziol
@lizkoziol.bsky.social
6.4K followers 610 following 98 posts
🦠 Mycorrhizal ecologist @ University of Kansas 🍄 Curator @invam.bsky.social 🌎 @mycobloom.bsky.social https://elizabethkoziol.wixsite.com/lizkoziol Prairies, AMF, microbial inoculants, restoration, conservation, sustainable ag, metabolites, NbS
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I was so happy to participate with the whole invam.bsky.social team to be interviewed for this podcast, which covers the history of mycorrhizae, the INVAM fungal collection, and recent global research on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal inoculants.
New episode of Up From Dust!

Soil health is all the rage. It's also big $$$. But what if the products you're buying aren't worth the dough?

Come learn about a kind of microbe everyone wants in their soil -- and the billion-dollar industry that sells it. www.kcur.org/2025-04-01/t...
Saw this little cutie on my way into the Kansas Biological Survey this morning.

iNat suggests it's Basiothia medea, the small verdant hawk moth caterpillar.
Monarch caterpillars feed on milkweeds and Colias on legumes like Chamaecrista and Senna in the summer. Late-flowering forbs help support their migrations as butterflies. Feeling so inspired by how AMF inoculation boosts forb and insect diversity in these plots across the season.
I love visiting my AMF inoculation experiments across every season. AMF diversity supports forbs, and floral diversity across seasons keeps wildlife thriving year-round. These New England asters still blooming in October host orange sulphurs, monarch butterflies, and some busy bees!
Monarch butterfly and a bumblebee on New England aster plant Two bee species gathering flower on an aster stalk Orange Sulphur and bee on New England aster. Colias species are dependent on legumes as catapillers, and we have a ton of senna in these plots.
Excited to share our paper on grassland establishment 7 yrs after native #AMF inoculation—showing AMF result in higher diversity + prairie spread into old fields—was selected Editor’s Choice by @femsjournals.bsky.social.🦠🌎
I’ll discuss next week at #SER2025 Denver ! academic.oup.com/femsle/artic...
🍄 Fungi to the rescue! Native AMF inoculation helps prairie restoration 🌱 by boosting native plant diversity and kicking weeds to the curb (even 7 years later). A long-term win for restoration ecology. 📄https://buff.ly/Uyl6f78 #FEMSMicrobiolLett #Mycorrhiza #Microbiology
Almost all of our trials are started at restoration initiation. There was one trial where native plants were overseeded into brome monoculture w/o removal. We applied native AMF to native seedling roots — those seedlings established better and showed measurable seed-establishment effects nearby.
Yes, it's moved from theory to practice. We take a few tablespoons of remnant soil, grow the AM fungi and other key microbes like Rhizobia in the lab, and have applied them in ~50 restoration experiments across the prairie range...with success. Now we’re figuring out how to make this work at scale.
Exactly. Forestry has been using mycorrhizal inoculants as standard practice for decades. Time for managed grasslands to catch up.

And the lesson already learned from forestry? Native is key—non-native inoculants can wreck ecosystems.
We pull AM fungi from nearby remnants sites, so they’re local/native.

As for convincing—the data speak: inoculated sites see better late successional seed recruitment and fewer weeds. We’ve shown this in field trials across the tallgrass range—IN to KS, TX to Canada.
I was honored to be an invited speaker at this year’s Grassland Restoration Network meeting! 🌾 I shared our work on using native inoculants to boost diversity in seed-based restorations—and learned so much from the community of practitioners & researchers. #RestorationEcology #Grasslands
Fields tours of restoration projects at Shawnee mission Park Plant geeks dorking out over a rare Eryngium native plant The group saw lots of legumes during plot tours of this prairie remnant in NE Kansas
Reposted by Liz Koziol
Thrilled to see the INVAM fungal collection—and our dedicated curators—featured in the Fall issue of @sierramagazine.bsky.social Preserving the world’s largest library of mycorrhizal fungi to power ecosystem restoration, science, and sustainable ag. 🦠🌱🌍

🔗 digital.sierramagazine.org/publication/...
Sierra Magazine Fall 2025: The Library of Spores
Behind the effort to grow mycorrhizal fungi for ecosystem restoration Photos by Arin Yoon Share This Article NESTLED AMID KANSAS’S rolling hills and …
digital.sierramagazine.org
Reposted by Liz Koziol
Call for symposia at @ICOM2026 is open until 15 October.
The 13 conference of @mycorrhiza_ims #Mycorrhiza will take place in Cairns, Australia, 12-17 July 2026!
@southmycorrhiza @karst_justine @fmartin1954 @1pantunes #soil #fungi

icom2026.org/symposia/
Reposted by Liz Koziol
We're seeking a new Senior Editor! ⏰

Are you...
👉intrigued by the interface between ecology & biological resource management?
👉a clear communicator who enjoys working as part of a team?
👉committed to maintaining high editorial standards?

More info 👇
bit.ly/4lPzaIx
Senior Editor for Journal of Applied Ecology - British Ecological Society
Join the editorial board on Journal of Applied Ecology! Apply by 07 Sep 2025.
bit.ly
This rare long-term evidence that restoring remnant belowground biodiversity can restore aboveground biodiversity. Moreover, fewer non-native plants means less management. 🌏
We added NATIVE arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) to a grassland restoration and tracked outcomes. Seven years later we asked: do the benefits still last"?

We found AMF additions resulted in:
🌻Higher floristic quality
🌿Sustained plant diversity
🌾Strong weed suppression
Restorations can struggle long-term: weeds persist, grasses can dominate, and native diversity can stall or fade. Many native grassland species are highly dependent on soil microbes. Yet, soil microbes are rarely considered in large-scale restoration projects.
First-year prairie restoration: we’re moving AM fungi from intact remnants to a disturbed site.

Foxtail may be the dominant weed now, but I know from experience it’ll be nearly gone next year—no management needed. And honestly? I think it’s very pretty. 🌾🦠🧪🌎🍄
Prairie restoration experiment showing nearly 90% dominance by the non-native foxtail grasses.
Reposted by Liz Koziol
Job alert! Please share.
We're looking for an urban ecologist (PhD) to join the research team at the Holden Arboretum.
Develop an active research program while supporting stakeholders. 🌳
I'll be at #ESA2025 and happy to chat.
#AltAc #HoldenScience #UrbanEcology

holdenfg.org/career-and-i...
Career & Internships » HF&G
Holden Forests & Gardens is not just a great place to visit, it’s a wonderful place to work. Discover the opportunities now available for potential
holdenfg.org
We are hiring a full time lab technician to assist with several long-term richness/biodiversity/microbe/drought/restoration manupulation experiments at the KU field station. Applications due this week! Please share.

Job Posting - Research Technician share.google/GsSTtiW4rIm5...
Reposted by Liz Koziol
Prairie Blazing Star to the horizon on an old growth prairie on the edge of the KC metro. What a strong flowering response from a dormant season fire after 3 years of haying!
When your dedicated DM has a 3D printer and zero chill, high-end minis magically appear.

Meet:
💎Rock (the rock barbarian)
🐝 A drow beekeeper/ crossbow sniper
🍄 Myc the spore druid
🕵️‍♂️ Mildew (two gnome rogues in a trench coat)
🐺 A nasty Wild Shape wolf
#DnD #minis #3dprinting
Five DnD miniatures lined up on a players map.
Myles stands next to an absolutely giant compass plant (Silphium lacinatum). Myles is 6'3 for reference!

This plot is part of a grassland restoration experiment in its 8th year and it included a native AM fungal addition.

#nativeplants
🌎🧪🦠🍄🌱🌾
Grad student Myles who is 6'3, standing next to an absolutely giant 10 foot tall compass plant (Silphium lacinatum)
Reposted by Liz Koziol
Excellent job opportunity at @unihohenheim.bsky.social: build your own team in Experimental Plant Biodiversity Research (within @plantecology.bsky.social, group of Frank Schurr). Great environment (also b/c of new @greenrobust.de and #TERRA @dfg.de clusters of excellence), and great people!