From 9–12 October, the seminar “Weaving the Northern Web: Integrating Soils, Plants, Insects, and Ecosystem Dynamics” took place on Saaremaa. The event brought together researchers and students from universities in Sweden, Finland, and Estonia to discuss the intricate connections that shape ecosystems — from the biodiversity networks hidden in the soil to the plants and insects above.

The seminar included contributions from the Soil Ecology (Maarja Öpik), Plant–Microbe–Insect (Ayco Tack), and Spatial Food Web Ecology (Tomas Roslin) research groups, who shared their findings and future plans in the fields of food web ecology, insect and plant ecology, and ecosystem functioning.

Presentations covered a wide range of topics, including soil biota, ecological niches, land-use legacy effects, insect and fungal communities, bat bioacoustics, and primary succession, as well as DNA- and eDNA-based diversity measurements and metabarcoding.

The seminar highlighted how soil communities, roots, microbes, plants, insects, and animals collectively shape ecosystem resilience and biodiversity. Set against the autumn landscape of Saaremaa, Weaving the Northern Web became a vibrant scientific meeting place, providing fertile ground both for scholarly exchange and for strengthening collaborative networks.