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Doctor Tadeo Saez Sandino

Biography

Dr Tadeo Saez Sandino is a Research Fellow in the Institute. His research aims to advance our understanding of biodiversity and the functioning of natural, agricultural, and urban ecosystems within the context of global change.

Dr Tadeo Saez Sandino joined HIE in 2024 as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow working with Distinguished Professor Brajesh Singh. He obtained his PhD from the Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Spain in 2023, where he created the first global atlas of key factors controlling soil carbon in the context of climate change. His current research focuses on a multidisciplinary approach encompassing the study of environmental microbiomes, soil biodiversity, and ecosystem services across contrasting terrestrial biomes.

Areas of research/teaching expertise

Soil and plant microbiome, soil biodiversity, ecosystem services, soil carbon, mapping approaches

Awards and recognition

  • Vice- Chancellor's Excellence Awards, Excellence as an Early Career Researcher - Nominee, Western Sydney University, 2024.
  • Selected as one of the top young researchers in the 'Sevilla también es Ciencia Joven 2023" (Spain)
  • The 'Ezequiel Martínez' award from the Federation of Ateneos of Andalusia (Spain) (2022).
  • Diploma for the Undergraduate Thesis in Environmental Sciences in the 3rd Edition of the Award from the 'Colegio Profesional de Licenciados y Graduados en Ciencias Ambientales de Andalucía (COAMBA, Spain).

Fellowship

  • Predoctoral Fellowship, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Spain (2019-2023)
  • Postdoctoral Fellowship, Western Sidney University, Australia (2024-)

Current Project Grants

An integrated disease management program for the Australian Potato Industry
Co-Researchers: Brajesh Singh, Catriona Macdonald, Juntao Wang, Eleonora Egidi, Chao Xiong
Partner/funding body: Hort Innovation
Period: 2024-2029

Selected publications

Delgado-Baquerizo M, Singh BK, Liu Y-R, Saez-Sandino T, Coleine C, Munoz-Rojas M, Bastida F, Trivedi P, (2025) 'Integrating ecological and evolutionary frameworks for SynCom success', New Phytologist, vol.246, no.5, pp 192-1933

Saez-Sandino T, Gallardo A, Durán J, Wardle DA, Hayes PE, Hart SC, García-Velázquez L, Pérez CA, Siebe C, Berhe AA, Delgado-Baquerizo M, (2025) 'Substrate Origin Controls Phosphorus Availability in Globally Distributed Long-Term Chronosequences', Ecosystems, vol.28, no. Art no.7

Yan Z-Z, Hu H-W, Xiong C, Peleg AY, Chen Q-L, Saez-Sandino T, Maestre F, Delgado-Baquerizo M, Singh BK, (2025) 'Environmental microbiome, human fungal pathogens, and antimicrobial resistance', Trends in Microbiology, vol.33, no.1, pp 112-129

Zeng X-M, Berdugo M, Saez-Sandino T, Tao D, Ren T, Zhou G, Liu Y-R, Terrer C, Reich PB, Delgado-Baquerizo M, (2025) 'Temperature thresholds induce abrupt shifts in biodiversity and ecosystem services in montane ecosystems worldwide', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 122(16), art. no. e2413981122

Zhou G, Eisenhauer N, Du Z, Lucas-Borja ME, Zhai K, Berdugo M, Duan H, Wu H, Liu S, Revillini D, Sáez-Sandino T, Chai H, Zhou X, Delgado-Baquerizo M, (2025) 'Fire-driven disruptions of global soil biochemical relationships', Nature communications, 16(1), p. 1190

Martins CSC, Delgado-Baquerizo M, Jayaramaiah RH, Tao D, Wang J-T, Sáez-Sandino T, Liu H, Maestre FT, Reich PB, Singh BK, (2024) 'Aboveground and belowground biodiversity have complementary effects on ecosystem functions across global grasslands', PLoS Biology, vol.22, no.8, art no.e3002736

Saez-Sandino T, Delgado-Baquerizo M, (2024) 'Soil carbon worldwide is reduced by an increasing number of global change stressors', Nature Climate Change, vol.14, no.7, pp 683-684

Sáez-Sandino T, Maestre FT, Berdugo M, Gallardo A, Plaza C, García-Palacios P, Guirado E, Zhou G, Mueller CW, Tedersoo L, Crowther TW, Delgado-Baquerizo M, (2024) 'Increasing numbers of global change stressors reduce soil carbon worldwide', Nature Climate Change, vol.14, no.7, pp 740-745

Sáez-Sandino, T., García-Palacios, P., Maestre, T., Plaza, C., Guirado, E., Singh, B., Wang, J., Cano-Díaz, C., Eisenhauer, N., Gallardo, A., Delgado-Baquerizo, M (2023). The soil microbiome governs the response of microbial respiration to warming across the globe. Nature Climate Change https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01868-1

Sáez-Sandino, T., Delgado-Baquerizo, M., Egidi, E., Singh, B. New microbial tools to boost restoration and soil organic matters (2023). Microbial Biotechnology. https://doi.org/10.1111/1751-7915.14325

Sáez-Sandino, T., Gallardo, A., Eldridge, D., Asefaw, A., Doetterl, S., Delgado-Baquerizo, M (2023). Plant footprint decreases the diversity of molecules in topsoil organic matter after millions of years of ecosystem development. Global Ecology and Biogeography  https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/geb.13770

Delgado-Baquerizo, M., García-Palacios, P., Bradford, M. A., Eldridge,D. J., Berdugo, M., Sáez-Sandino, T., Liu, Y. R., Alfaro, F., Abades, S.,Bamigboye, A. R., Bastida, F., Blanco-Pastor, J. L., Duran, J., Gaitan, J.J., Illán, J. G., Grebenc, T., Makhalanyane, T. P., Jaiswal, D. K.,Nahberger, T. U., … Plaza, C. (2023). Biogenic factors explain soil carbon in paired urban and natural ecosystems worldwide. Nature Climate Change. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01646-z

Eldridge, D. J., Guirado, E., Reich, P. B., Ochoa-Hueso, R., Berdugo, M., Sáez-Sandino, T., Blanco-Pastor, J. L., Tedersoo, L., Plaza, C., Ding, J.,Sun, W., Mamet, S., Cui, H., He, J. Z., Hu, H. W., Sokoya, B., Abades, S.,Alfaro, F., Bamigboye, A. R., … Delgado-Baquerizo, M. (2023). The global contribution of soil mosses to ecosystem services. Nature Geoscience. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-023-01170-x

Zhang, J., Feng, Y., Maestre, F. T., Berdugo, M., Wang, J., Coleine, C., Sáez-Sandino, T., García-Velázquez, L., Singh, B. K., & Delgado-Baquerizo, M. (2023). Water availability creates global thresholds inmultidimensional soil biodiversity and functions. Nature Ecology & Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02071-3

García-Palacios, P., Bradford, M., Benavente-Ferraces, I.,de Celis, M., Delgado-Baquerizo, M., García-Gil, J.C.,Gaitán, J., Goñi, A., Mueller, C.W., Panettieri, M., Rey, A., Sáez-Sandino, T., Schuur, E., Sokol, N., Tedersoo, L.,Plaza, C. The particulate organic fraction dominates soil carbon in the mineral layer of cold regions. Nature Geoscience. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-023-01354-5

Eldridge, D., Cui, H., Ding, J., Berdugo, M., Sáez-Sandino,T., Duran, J., Gaitan, J., Blanco-Pastor, J., Rodríguez, A.,Plaza, C., Alfaro, F., Teixido, A., Sebastian Abades, S., Bamigboye, A.,Peñaloza-Bojacá, G., Grebenc, T.,Nahberger, T., Illán, J., Yu-Rong, L., Makhalanyane, T.,Rey, A., Siebe, C., Sun, W., Trivedi, P., Verma, J., Wang,L., Wang, J., Yang, T., Zaady, E., Zhou, X., Zhou, Xin-Quan., Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo. Urban greens paces and nearby natural areas support similar levels of soil ecosystem services across a global range. Nature Urban Sustainability.
https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24873135.v1