Dear InterPore friends,

The summer in The Netherlands is very warm these weeks. I am fortunate to spend a little bit of time close to the beach (and on it, of course!). It does give a sense of tranquility. Meanwhile, InterPore is also coming forward with two refreshing news items: Our new website is launched and we have become member of the ISC.

Meanwhile, I am contemplating about my presentation for InterPore2020. Pre-recording a presentation offers a lot of interesting opportunities in terms of ways of conveying a scientific message: Clear, concise and fun. Of course, on the beach, I am mainly concerned with the fun part.

All the best,
Matthijs de Winter
Editor-in-Chief
InterPore News

New InterPore Website

The new InterPore website has been launched! A lot of work has been done behind the curtains over the last few months. Not only the lay-out has changed, but the entire infrastructure in de background. Despite all the efforts, a glitch on the website remains possible, which you can report to the webmaster.

InterPore is very pleased with the new modern look and is grateful to all involved for their efforts.

International Science Council Membership

InterPore has officially become an Affiliated Member of the International Science Council (ISC). The ISC is a non-governmental organization with a unique global membership that brings together 40 international scientific Unions and Associations and over 140 national and regional scientific organizations including Academies and Research Councils. It is the only international non-governmental organization bringing together the natural and social sciences and the largest global science organization of its type.

With the ISC Membership, InterPore hopes to advance our mission of providing a forum where investigators and technicians from disparate fields, working with porous media, can come together and display their commonality of problems, investigatory techniques and solution strategies. By becoming part of the ISC community, we hope to find opportunities to strengthen international awareness of and support for the porous media community.

We are happy to invite you to our next Porous Media Tea Time Talks (#PorousMediaTTT) session at 11 August 2020 at 10.30 pm CEST/local time on our YouTube Channel

The goal of the Porous Media TTT is to act as a complimentary platform to the already very successful Geoscience and Geoenergy webinars with the focus placed on young professionals.

We are very much looking forward to seeing you online!

Kamalijt Singh (HW), Marcel Moura (PoreLab, UiO), Tom Bultreys (UGhent), Mohammad Nooraiepour (UiO), Maja Ruecker (ICL)

Quantitative imaging of sodium concentrations in soil-root systems using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

Adi Perelman, Naftali Lazarovich, Jan Vanderborght, Andreas Pohlmeier

Salt accumulation in soils is a major problem in arid environments. It can lead to surface crusting, but salt can also accumulate around roots in deeper soil regions, preventing plants from uptake of water and nutrients. Such processes run on a small scale, and consequently, their investigation requires high-resolution 3D imaging techniques. Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which is sensitive to both H2O and NaCl, we were able to show that evaporation leaded to an accumulation in the top soil in heterogeneous patterns. Examination of tomato plants showed that they accumulated salt around their roots, controlled by the transpiration rate. This opens a route for further quantitative, non-invasive investigations in 3D of salt enrichment processes in bare soil and soil-plant systems.

Plant and Soil https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-020-04628-8 Corresponding Author: Andreas Pohlmeier

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The highlight should be short (max 100 words) and contain an illustration. Please note that we offer this opportunity exclusively to InterPore members. If you would like to become a member, please have a look here.