Andrew Barnes

Herbivory Modifies the Role of Spatial Processes in a Grassland Plant Metacommunity We empirically examined how mammalian herbivory interacts with habitat size and connectivity to affect plant diversity in a natural grassland metacommunity. We found that herbivory increased plant di...

New study out in Ecology Letters 🌱🐑!

Using long-term Åland monitoring data, we found that herbivory increases plant diversity across scales and flips the diversity–area relationship: a positive relationship is found in grazed sites while a negative one in ungrazed sites.

🔗 doi.org/10.1111/ele....

Meta-analysis-derived estimates of stressor–response associations for riverine organism groups - Nature Ecology & Evolution This global meta-analysis of freshwater stressor–response relationships reveals that the biodiversity loss of five riverine organism groups reflects elevated salinity, oxygen depletion and fine sedime...

This global meta-analysis of freshwater stressor–response relationships reveals that the biodiversity loss of five riverine organism groups reflects elevated salinity, oxygen depletion and fine sediment accumulation 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Earthworm invasion reduces above-belowground biodiversity and ecosystem multifunctionality Global change alters abiotic and biotic conditions across the globe with unprecedented consequences for the functional integrity of affected ecosystems. However, most studies addressing global-change ...

Check out our brand-new preprint on how #earthworm 🪱 #invasion alters forest #multidiversity and #multifunctionality. Very rewarding collaboration with Olga Ferlian @eisenhauerlab.bsky.social @idiv-research.bsky.social.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
@globalchangeeco.bsky.social @uni-wuerzburg.de

🦋 How will #insects respond to #climatechange? A global review of 351 studies shows no consistent pattern. Some species expand, others shrink, partly due to varied #methodologies. Standardised approaches are crucial to predict future insect ranges. 🌐

🔗 doi.org/10.1111/ddi....

The global biomass of mammals since 1850 - Nature Communications Here, the authors estimate mammalian biomass from the 1850’s to today, tracking an increase of over five-fold in human and domesticated mammal biomass and a two-fold decrease in wild mammal biomass. R...

Check this out: the global biomass of mammals since 1850
just out in @natcomms.nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🌐

Just published: Selective predation by nematodes drives energy fluxes and ecosystem multifunctionality in soil food webs
doi.org/10.1016/j.so...

Anthropocene Canceled? 🚯 @ecosocialism1.bsky.social
monthlyreview.org/articles/has...
>>> Of course NOT <<<
The evidence speaks for itself.
No geologists, epochs or hype required.
theconversation.com/the-anthropo... 🌍⚒️🌐🧪

Global warming reduces the carrying capacity of the tallest angiosperm species (Eucalyptus regnans) - Nature Communications Climate change threatens mountain ash (Eucalyptus regnans) forests, which are among Earth’s most carbon-dense ecosystems. This study finds that a projected 3∘ C warming by 2080 could reduce tree density and carbon storage in these forests by 24%

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Harms of introduced large herbivores outweigh benefits to native biodiversity - Nature Communications Using impact assessment frameworks, this study shows that the introduction of large mammalian herbivores outside their native range has predominantly caused negative impacts on native biodiversity globally. The authors advise caution regarding their further intentional introduction for conservation purposes.

Trophic rewilding depends on the assumption that replacing lost megafauna with alternative species can generate similar benefits. This new review by Bescond-Michel et al. challenges that belief. 🌏🌐🧪

@derekhennen.bsky.social can you please add me? Thanks!

Haha OK fine, yes I am actually pretty damn excited to see this list 🤭

A screenshot of a webpage making a call for papers announcement for a special issue of the New Zealand Journal of Zoology, focussed on soil and litter invertebrates. The page has a banner image photograph of a globular springtail facing towards the camera, with its head down, feeding on fungi on a decaying log.

Are you researching the conservation, ecology or taxonomy of soil & litter invertebrates?

Submit your paper to this Special Issue of NZ Journal of Zoology, edited by me, @carlosbarreto.bsky.social & @barnesecodiv.bsky.social!

More info: www.royalsociety.org.nz/news/nzjz-so...

#SoilBiodiversity 🧪

See also the excellent @theconversation.com article by University of Melbourne colleagues, Raphael Trouve, Craig Nitschke & Patrick Baker—decades of data provide evidence of reduced forest carrying capacity as trees are subject to a range of stressors from a warming climate

Quantifying functionally equivalent species and ecological network dissimilarity with optimal transport distances Quantifying the structure and dynamics of species interactions in ecological communities is fundamental to studying ecology and evolution. While there are numerous approaches to analysing ecologic...

Quantifying similarity among ecological network is getting feasible to understand assembly processes from communities to species interactions. Upcoming publication using this for African mammal food webs is under revision now. Stay tuned!

#Ecology #EcologicalNetwork #Macroecology #Biogeography

Both of those things are allready worth the trip! 😆

Would love to visit! Unfortunately we're on a tight schedule with family visits, but will try to work this in next time we're back 😊

Leonore Hafermann getting inspiration for her PhD experiments from the DroughtNet site at Bad Lauchstädt

Nico Eisenhauer talking us on a tour I'd the EcoTron facility at Bad Lauchstädt

Standing under the canopy of the MyDiv experimental forest

It was a short visit, but wonderful to catch up with @eisenhauerlab.bsky.social again and to see some inspirational experimental sites at Bad Lauchstädt!

TECHNICAL ADVANCE
If You're Rare, Should I Care? How Imperfect Detection Changes Relationships Between Biodiversity and Global Change Drivers

🔗 buff.ly/FvZGYmA

In our new perspective in PNAS we call for a move away from conservation focused on saving individual species to focusing on ecological processes, which underpin ecosystem resilience and the capacity to adapt to environmental change. Led by @josephtobias.bsky.social 🌍🌐🧪

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Sources of uncertainty in DNA metabarcoding of whole communities: Implications for its use in biomonitoring 🌎🧪🌐 besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

🌀Turnover vs. Loss — local biodiversity isn't declining as expected. 🔄 Some species disappear, others appear — so does overall richness change? 🧐 In this #InsideBiodiversity episode, @jon-chase03.bsky.social explains why reality is challenging assumptions. 🔗https://insidebiodiversity.podigee.io/

Scientist’s guide to developing explanatory statistical models using causal analysis principles Recent discussions of model selection and multimodel inference highlight a general challenge for researchers: how to convey the explanatory content of a hypothesized model or set of competing models ...

Scientist’s guide to developing explanatory statistical models using causal analysis principles 🌎🌐🧪 esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

I wouldn't get up at 5am to watch my talk 😆 They do also get recorded and can be found on YouTube. I think you get the link when you register

Interested in #ecological #theory & live on this side of the world (Asia-Pacific)? Tune in to the @pop-bio.bsky.social seminar series! I'm speaking next on #biodiversity change, #food-web energetics and #ecosystem function. Register here: forms.gle/7vEiUQKJqeUL... 🌐🌏🍁🧪 @newzealandecology.bsky.social

This is HUGE!
40% yield drop expected for Europe.
And we are still discussing if a single DNA base change has to be considered as a GMO. And that just because the organic sector is complaining?
Decadence? madness? or both?

Heard of "Darwin's paradox"? It refers to Charles Darwin's observation that coral reefs are wildly productive despite occurring in nutrient-poor tropical oceans. Reefs are, so the story goes, oases in marine deserts 🏝️...

Turns out that 2/3 of these assertions are very wrong...

🌐
🦑🧪

🧵⬇️

Vote for NZ's Fungus of the Year 2025 - Manaaki Whenua Interactives

Like Bird of the Year? LOVE Bug of the Year? Vote for NZ's Fungus of the Year 2025! interactives.landcareresearch.co.nz/foty/

‘Not a free-for-all’: Indigenous communities want limits on how their data are shared Push for “data sovereignty” could reshape how scientists share information

Indigenous researchers and communities are reshaping how Western science thinks about data ownership. #AANHPIHeritageMonth scim.ag/4m5VBJZ

Sounds like you are keen to organise your own special issue on questionable geographic labels? Not sure this would be the appropriate journal target though...

I suppose the editors are thinking more "biogeographic" global South ;-)