Natasha de Vere

@ndevere.bsky.social , @natalieahlstrand.bsky.social , @tokehoye.bsky.social

Illustration of a Greenlandic landscape, showing in the foreground Rhododendron lapponicum on a cliff, with sea ice and icebergs in the background. Illustration by Alberto S. Ballesteros (@asbillustration.bsky.social)

🌸Plant diversity dynamics over space and time in a warming Arctic 🌸

Our new study @nature.com analysed plant diversity change in >2000 tundra plots over 4 decades. We found that plants changed unevenly, mostly driven by warming and biotic interactions.

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

🧵 (1/7) 🌐🧪🌱🌍

I cannot wait to attend & present at #ICCB2025! My talk is titled ‘Creating a Workflow to Harmonise Digitised Herbarium Data: A Case Study on Greenland’s Flora Enhances our Understanding of Arctic Plant Diversity’ - Biodiversity Inventories session - Monday, June 16, 10:35, Meeting Room M4. See you!

Herbarium specimens reveal drivers of Arctic shrub growth @newphyt.bsky.social

Shrub specimens can be used to recreate annual growth chronologies and help understand plant responses to global change.

With @annebeejay.bsky.social, ZA Panchen, JDM Speed

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

A Metadata Checklist and Data Formatting Guidelines to Make eDNA FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) Environmental DNA (eDNA) has emerged as a transformative tool for biodiversity monitoring and species detection, yet inconsistent metadata practices hinder data interoperability and reuse. To address...

🚨 Out now in #EnvironmentalDNA led by #MiwaTakahashi: Results of a huge, global effort to facilitate the publication of raw and processed #eDNA data & ensure that dataset we are currently generating, adhere to the #FAIR principles & won't be lost. @gbif.org, #ENA,
doi.org/10.1002/edn3...

🐛🦋An evidence-based approach for selecting and testing suitable plants to use in annual seed mixes to attract insect pollinators 👇 (seed mixes for bees and hoverflies were considered in the study) 🐝🪰

Thank you to @grrlscientist.bsky.social for covering our new paper in @plantspeopleplanet.bsky.social

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Happy #Pride month! This #FungiFriday we are going on a fungal foray through the pride flag. There have been many iterations since its original conception in 1978, including the Intersex-Inclusive flag by Valentino Vecchietti – which we have recreated in fungal fashion for the LGBTQ myco-maniacs

With such short days, the Antarctic sunrises and sunsets start to merge into one... yesterday's was spectacular....

Another week or so, and the sun will not rise at all.

🧪🥼❄️🌊

New Article: "The late rise of sky-island vegetation in the European Alps" rdcu.be/epLJg

A phylogenetic analysis of the flora of the Alps reveals that the flora is young and colonist rich. Its assembly was primarily driven by the Pleistocene climatic cycles.

A vibrant red-orange tubular flower with numerous narrow, elongated petals radiating outward in a spiky, firework-like pattern. The flower has a deep corolla tube and is surrounded by large, bright green tropical-looking leaves. This is Odontonema tubaeforme, showing the type of deep, tubular flower morphology that would attract pollinators like hummingbirds.

📝 The hidden complexity of pollinator networks in gardens 🧵
doi.org/10.1007/s112...

What might appear to be one network of plants and pollinators may in fact be many.

#Botany #PlantScience 🧪 #Gardening #InBrief

Concern over pollinator decline has increased interest in ‘pollinator-friendly’ plants. Annual seed mixes are often grown in parks & gardens, but the choice of plants included is generally based on anecdote. Here we build an evidence-base for plants that are good for pollinators and people.

Woohoo! Publication Day! It’s finally hitting the streets, just like the plants it features. From walls to pavements, fallow waste ground, the grassy bits and street trees, it’s a celebration of urban botany and I really hope you enjoy it! www.bloomsbury.com/uk/urban-pla...

Excited to share our latest article that bridges species coexistence, biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships and plant-soil feedbacks! 🎉🎉🎉

A Multithreat Meta‐Analytic Database for Understanding Insect Biodiversity Change Aim Widespread declines in insect biodiversity have been attributed to a diverse set of anthropogenic drivers, but the relative importance of these drivers remains unclear. A key reason for this unc...

New GLiTRS paper led by @joemillard.bsky.social 🚨📝

"Our database provides a framework for the first global meta-analytic overview of the response of insects to a range of major anthropogenic drivers"

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Evolutionarily Distinct Species and Their Partners Have Fewer Links in Ecological Networks Aim Ecological networks describe the complex set of interconnections among species and their environment, and network structure can inform the stability, resilience, and functioning of ecosystems. I...

Evolutionarily Distinct Species and Their Partners Have Fewer Links in Ecological Networks onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

“Non-core bacteria occur frequently in high abundance in wild bumble bee gut microbiomes. One species of bacteria, Serratia, reduces bee lifespan & reproduction. The core microbiome, bee age, & pollen diet can protect against Serratia infection.” 🐝 buff.ly/Pu2s4zH

April issue: Review led by @amandalindahl.bsky.social and @indianadiez.bsky.social on the utility of palaeogenomics for exploring past biodiversity trends and exosystem responses to a changing world. 🧪🌎
Web link: go.nature.com/4io2V0K
Readcube: rdcu.be/eh0v5

Illustration of blue-green infrastructure to enhance urban biodiversity.

April issue: Review led by Ingo Kowarik that summarises the benefits of urban biodiversity for people and nature, and explores how sustainable, biodiverse urban areas can be developed. 🧪🌎
Web link: go.nature.com/4l4wcQs
Readcube: rdcu.be/eh0wE

Extreme events induced by climate change alter nectar offer to pollinators in cross pollination-dependent crops - Scientific Reports Scientific Reports - Extreme events induced by climate change alter nectar offer to pollinators in cross pollination-dependent crops

🌧️🌵 Climate extremes are reshaping the world of pollinators!

A new study reveals that a decrease or excessive increase in water availability can negatively affect the reproductive potential of plant species & pollinators collecting their nectar. 🌍🧪

Learn more: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Global impoverishment of natural vegetation revealed by dark diversity - Nature A comparison of alpha diversity (number of plant species) and dark diversity (species that are currently absent from a site despite being ecologically suitable) demonstrates the negative effects of re...

Excited to announce our new paper, “Global impoverishment of natural vegetation revealed by dark diversity,” out today in Nature – and it’s open access! Huge global collaboration led by Meelis Pärtel 🌐@macroecologyut.bsky.social

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

Causes and consequences of insect decline in tropical forests Nature Reviews Biodiversity, Published online: 04 April 2025; doi:10.1038/s44358-025-00038-9Insect biodiversity in tropical forests is poorly understood but is probably facing declines, with serious consequences for ecosystem functions and services. This Review describes the major threats to insect biodiversity, which include the effects of a burgeoning human population and of climate change. The authors further highlight the urgent need for greater efforts to measure and monitor insect biodiversity in the tropics and discuss emerging approaches to facilitate such studies.

New online! Causes and consequences of insect decline in tropical forests

New strategy launched to protect Tanzanian biodiversity hotspot Conservationists have launched a 20-year-long project to protect what is arguably Tanzania’s most biologically rich landscape: the Udzungwa Mountains. The strategy places notable emphasis on communiti...

I am so impressed with this strategy for the Udzungwa Mountains, Tanzania - bringing together the needs of local communities, wildlife and the environment to protect this unique landscape ⛰️🌐

Screenshot from the cover page of the paper

A map of the world showing fly migration study locations and estimated routes

A close up photo of Eristalinus taeniops the stripey eyed hoverfly on a yellow flower in Cyprus

A close up photo of the locust blowfly Stomorhina lunata on a rock. My favourite fly

It's published!
The largest research work I've ever undertaken:

Lords of the flies: dipteran migrants are diverse, abundant & ecologically important

Published in Biological Reviews: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Thanks so much to co-authors @koralwotton.bsky.social & Myles Menz
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Carbon monitoring team lead Kyle Arndt took part in the Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Science Initiative Workshop, and delivered an invited talk at the NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory seminar series. #ASSW2025

Group photo for the Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Science Initiative (CAVSI) part of the Arctic Science Summit Week 2025

Three fabulous days in the workshop for the Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Science Initiative (CAVSI) a great start to #ASSW2025

PhD fellowships at the Department of Plant & Environmental Sciences.

Some great PhD opportunities here working on the One Crop Health project - including harnessing eDNA approaches for surveillance & management of agro-biodiversity with me & Prof Paul Neve 🌐

The #biosphere is changing: Check our global mapping of ecological novelty in wild #ecosystems (due to #climatechange, #defaunation & floristic disruption) - just out in @natureecoevo.bsky.social ♨️🐘🌿🌐 Big thx to @mattkerr.bsky.social for the huge effort! #novelecosystems #invasivespecies #megafauna

In this novel perspective, authors evaluate emerging practices to improve the biodiversity of pollinators in urban contexts 🐝

Such as...
👉nutritional sources from native and ornamental flora 🌼🌸
👉stimulating nesting 📊🧪
👉engaging society 💭 🌏

🔗 buff.ly/1v6wG5x

Still time to apply - deadline March 21st. Come join us as we make our Museomics Facility - permanent lab manager position in beautiful Copenhagen 🧬