Andrew Hacket-Pain

Text: LTE Site of the Week- Lady Park Wood, Wales/ England. Photo of a forest with little sunlight reaching the floor. Text: Running since 1944. Andrew Hacket-Pain, Liverpool University, John Healey, Bangor University. Icons for woodland and grazing.

#LadyParkWood which borders #England & #Wales is the #LTESiteOfTheWeek.

@andrewhacket-pain.bsky.social from @liverpooluni.bsky.social, & John Healey from @bangoruniversity.bsky.social are looking at #woodland development bit.ly/LadyParkWood 🌏

Another recent paper in #BirdStudy showed autumn densities of Pheasant & Red-Legged Partridge in southern England can be an astonishing 2,500 birds per km2 on land near releases. After winter, there were still up to 700 birds/km2. That's huge numbers.
Paper: doi.org/10.1080/0006...
#ornithology

PhD Research Fellow in global change ecology (285493) | University of Bergen Job title: PhD Research Fellow in global change ecology (285493), Employer: University of Bergen, Deadline: Wednesday, October 1, 2025

Come work with us!

Fully funded #PhD position in global change ecology - working in a cross-disciplinary cohort of 8 PhD students studying mountains in transition. 🧪🌐🏔️ @btwnthefjords-uib.bsky.social @cesam-uib.bsky.social

www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

#job at The Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre, SLU: Associate Senior Lecturer in conservation ecology, to improve the understanding of impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services resulting from alternative forest management strategies.

Closing 15 September 2025

www.slu.se/en/about-slu...

🚨 Postdoc opening 🚨
Join us at Forest Biology Center (Poznań, Poland) to study forest ecology under climate change.

2-year contract (extendable), start Jan 2026 (flexible). Apply by Sept 30, 2025.

🔗 forestbiologycenter.amu.edu.pl/our-team/joi...

Lady Park Wood Handover — ECOLOGICAL CONTINUITY TRUST - Andrew Hacket-Pain (Liverpool University) writes about the handover of the Lady Park Wood long-term experiment.

We have a new #blog:

@andrewhacket-pain.bsky.social wrote a blog on the handover of Lady Park Wood (Wales/ England) from George Peterken to a new academic team at @bangoruniversity.bsky.social & @liverpooluni.bsky.social.

Read it here: bit.ly/4eoChUS

#Woodland #LongTermExperiment #LTE 🌎

In the Netherlands this week, and a big crop of acorns on the way here too

Why the summer solstice is a ‘celestial starting gun’ for trees Research shows longest day is a cue for beeches to launch their growth strategies

Happy #solstice! Today, beech trees start to decide whether to produce bumper seed crops next year, or to skip reproduction next year. It is a marker for growth and phenology processes. @micbog.bsky.social talked to The Guardian about how it works:
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Leg 2/8 of slow travel from NW England to Poznan, Poland. 36 hours with time to read papers and enjoy the views. And a stopover in Köln, with a visit to the Cathedral. All on time so far...

Graph of woodland cover in England since 1,000 AD

By 3,000 BC everywhere in England that trees could grow was covered, sometimes called the ‘wildwood’

As Nature intended

The introduction of agriculture about 3,000 BC started the steady reduction until 1900 AD it was 5%

Currently the figure has increased to 10%

1 of 3

And AGAIN! 3xpostdocs + Project Officer 17 months) in @renewbiodiversity.bsky.social ExCASES team, doing applied research on biodiversity renewal. Based at @researchnt.bsky.social working with fab @sarahcrowley.bsky.social. #envsocialscience #scipol #sustainability #sts #conservation folk do apply!

With @micbog.bsky.social @foestjessie.bsky.social and many other great colleagues across Europe

Tomorrow is the #SummerSolstice, which is a special day for beech trees too! We are installing experiments to test how the #solstice helps synchronise masting. Colleagues up ladders in trees across Europe doing this! Science explained in @uk.theconversation.com: theconversation.com/could-trees-...

My perspective “Tree methane exchange in a changing world” is now out in @natrevearthenviron.nature.com rdcu.be/erF4j

1 more week until application reviews start for this postdoc position. Please share!

Multiple threats to woodlands require tailored solutions UK woodlands are increasingly under threat from changes in land management, climate, diseases and deer populations – and vegetation is responding differently, requiring tailored action to protect biod...

UK woodlands are facing growing threats from climate change, deer grazing, disease and land management changes 🌳🦌🍃.

New UKCEH-led research shows that #woodland ecosystems respond in complex ways—and not always predictably—to these combined pressures.
www.ceh.ac.uk/news-and-med...

1/ 🧪

Addressing critiques refines global estimates of reforestation potential for climate change mitigation - Nature Communications Reforestation is a key climate change mitigation strategy, but global maps of its potential are widely criticized. This study shows that addressing those critiques substantially refines estimates of t...

Realistic models of the potential for global reforestation suggest that it could absorb roughly 5% of human CO2 emissions. This is still worthwhile but nowhere near a solution on its own. New paper just published 🧪🌏🌐

A really wonderful start to my day, thanks to two final-year @livunigeog.bsky.social students. Such kind words are really appreciated. Plus an excellent addition to my office plant collection!

Amazing paper, w/ stunning 1st figure + journal cover, on historical legacies of land management on temperate woodland biodiversity 🪲🦅🦔🍀 #historical #ecology at its best 🤩😍

➡️ #ancient #woodlands 🌳🌳🌳🌳 in 🌾🌾🌾🌾 matter for #biodiversity & the provision of #ecosystem #services

shorturl.at/Ssir1

Think globally, act locally: Temperate rainforest – how do we best research and conserve a globally distributed habitat? What's on at the University of Plymouth: Think globally, act locally: Temperate Rainforest, how do we best research and conserve a globally distributed...

Interested in Temperate Rainforests Globally 🌧️🌳- come to this webinar www.plymouth.ac.uk/whats-on/thi...

And for colleagues for whom that move is not one they choose to make, the complex mess that can be left behind. Really tough for everyone affected.

No advert out yet, but I will recruiting a 2yr postdoc, start date autumn 2025, at @livunigeog.bsky.social soon. Lowland and upland peatlands, GHGs, DOM and water chemistry. Plenty of fieldwork. Feel free to drop me a DM or email if you might be interested, and please spread the word.

Research shows rivers release ancient carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, uncovering a greater role for plants and soil in the carbon cycle A new study has revealed for the first time that ancient carbon, stored in landscapes for thousands of years or more, can find its way back to the atmosphere as CO₂ released from the surfaces of river...

A new study from @joshfdean.bsky.social & @gemmacoxon.bsky.social has revealed for the first time that ancient carbon, stored in landscapes for thousands of years or more, can find its way back to the atmosphere as CO₂ released from the surfaces of rivers. Read more -> bristol.ac.uk/cabot/news/2...

📢 @wslresearch.bsky.social is hiring a Postdoc in dendroecology & ecophysiology! Study how trees respond to #climatechange in the Alps, Pyrenees & Carpathians. Field + lab work, based near Zurich. Start Sept 2025. Read more here & apply: https://loom.ly/b1NMXRU

With What Mouths Could These Trees Talk? Spruce trees, a solar eclipse, quantum entanglement, and the loneliness of capitalism

You may have seen the study going around about trees talking to each other before a solar eclipse. Well I’m here to pour some cold, weird water on to that idea.

🌎🧪

open.substack.com/pub/benlockw...

Forest demography naturally varies over time, and long gaps in recruitment can be part of the rhythm of a wood. So, there is still time, but without a reduction in browsing it is hard to see how this wood can ever recruit its next generation.

There are some small trees, but essentially zero saplings. The survey maps from earlier decades show a huge number of small diameter saplings - all disapeared from the plots now. There are 2025-germinated seedlings (lime & elm mainly), but nothing can establish under the browsing pressure

The amazing research record from this wood – now into its 9th decade – means we have a rare opportunity to see what happens when we leave our woodlands to develop via natural processes, without intervention (from humans…). What would you expect to see?

This is the amazing #LadyParkWood. Could this be one of the “wildest” wood in the UK? Governed only by natural dynamics for >100 years. But where is the regeneration? Absent even in gaps. Ground flora too. Deer the main culprit, but grey squirrel too. #rewilding?