Jens-Christian Svenning

On the ecological impact of prehistoric hunter-gatherers in Europe: Early Holocene (Mesolithic) and Last Interglacial (Neanderthal) foragers compared Recent studies have highlighted evidence of human impact on landscapes dating back to the Late Pleistocene–long before the advent of agriculture. Quantifying the extent of vegetation transformations b...

Importantly, the work also indicates even stronger environmental engineering (intended and unintended) by pre-agricultural hunter-gatherer people (Homo sapiens) in Europe🔥🏹Link to the scientific paper: journals.plos.org/plosone/arti... #mesolithic

The Neanderthal Garden: Landscape Engineering and the End of the "Pristine Wilderness" Myth By Seth Chagi World of Paleoanthropology

Nice feature on our recent work on neandertals (led by @nikulinaav.bsky.social) and their effects on their environment👣 deephistory.substack.com/p/the-neande... #neandertal #neanderthal #archaeology #anthropology #wilderness

Heat with no end: climate model sets out an unbearable future for parts of Africa By the end of this century, parts of Africa could face heatwaves for 250-300 days a year, which will make it difficult for people to survive.

New study: Deforestation will exacerbate heatwaves under #climate change

"A hot spell that would have been tolerable under forest cover becomes a prolonged, hazardous heatwave."

theconversation.com/heat-with-no...

Big thx to @wbwu.bsky.social for the initiative :)

From our Chinese New Year celebration at @econovoau.bsky.social today (a little early)

Conservation genomics and assisted introgression is saving the American chestnut from extermination by invasive non-native pathogens. #consgen

Digging diversity: Constructed dune lakes support high plant richness but differ compositionally from natural systems Constructed dune lakes and slacks are increasingly used to restore wetland biodiversity in stabilized European dune landscapes, yet their ecological e…

🌍🌱 Constructed #wetlands as novel ecosystems. New paper led by #Sustainscapes PhD student Michael Straarup shows constructed #dune lakes host high plant diversity yet remain compositionally distinct —highlighting #restoration in the Anthropocene www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #novelecosystems

On the ecological impact of prehistoric hunter-gatherers in Europe: Early Holocene (Mesolithic) and Last Interglacial (Neanderthal) foragers compared Recent studies have highlighted evidence of human impact on landscapes dating back to the Late Pleistocene–long before the advent of agriculture. Quantifying the extent of vegetation transformations b...

Neanderthals & Mesolithic foragers reshaped Europe’s ecology long before agriculture… 🌍 doi.org/10.1371/jour...

NEW PAPER: Lepidagathis konkanensis sp. nov. (Acanthaceae: Barlerieae) from Lateritic Plateaus of Konkan Region of Western Ghats based on morphological and molecular evidence by Patil et al. The new species is geographically isolated and threatened by fires, tourism and forestry.
vist.ly/4rfzn

Also good 🐍🐍

Happy Chinese New Year to all my good Chinese colleagues and friends 🎉🐎 I just realized that I'm a Metal Dog (庚戌) in the Chinese zodiac — born in July 1970. Pretty cool name imo - and I'm quite happy with the connotations (see image below) - hope it fits! 🙂🐕⚙️

Echoes of the Past: Long‐Term Climate Stability Shapes Functional and Phylogenetic Diversity in Euro‐Mediterranean Forests Aim Understanding the relative influence of past and present environmental and anthropogenic drivers on biodiversity is crucial for predicting future biodiversity trends. We assessed how past climat...

New #INTEGRADIV paper shows #paleoclimate stability is major driver of functional & phylogenetic diversity in animals & plants across Mediterranean #forests🌿❄️ Important implications for impacts of #climatechange ♨️Thx to @cmlmagneville.bsky.social for leading!
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The making of novel ecosystems: A process‐based framework for measurement, analysis and application Ecological novelty is emerging rapidly due to global change drivers such as climate shifts, species introductions, defaunation, and land-use transformation. These changes challenge how we assess, ...

Our new paper presents a framework for analysing the processes that generate novel ecosystems, discussing different conceptual and practical approaches across ecological disciplines. You can read it, open access, in @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social

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

The making of novel ecosystems: A process‐based framework for measurement, analysis and application Ecological novelty is emerging rapidly due to global change drivers such as climate shifts, species introductions, defaunation, and land-use transformation. These changes challenge how we assess, ...

🌍In a new @econovoau.bsky.social paper in Methods in Ecology & Evolution, led by @mattkerr.bsky.social, we present a process-based framework linking compositional, functional, abiotic & social dimensions of novel ecosystem trajectories♨️🌿 besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

New #OpenAccess research in our journal "Ecological Applications" examines the impacts of grazers on plants in a Danish rewilding experiment 👇

Goats can play a role in multi-pronged restoration of buckthorn-invaded woodlands Goats are increasingly being used in efforts to manage invasive common buckthorn in Midwestern woodlands. New research demonstrates when and how they are best used.

Goats can play a role in multi-pronged restoration of buckthorn-invaded woodlands phys.org/news/2026-02...

Revealing names and faces of the victims of Iran's protest crackdown BBC News Persian uncovers the identities of the thousands of people killed during the recent crackdown on protests in Iran.

Revealing names and faces of the victims of Iran's protest crackdown www.bbc.com/news/article... #middleeast

Machine guns to machetes: Weapons that massacred thousands in Iran BBC News Persian Forensic has been able to confirm the security forces' deployment of a wide array of lethal and non-lethal weaponry.

"This is the largest mass killing in contemporary Iranian history and one of the largest in the world," Payam Akhavan, an Iranian Canadian former UN prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, in The Hague, told BBC News Persian www.bbc.com/news/article... #iran

A wisent-sized bison from Spain just 4000 years ago - with a metal arrowhead in its ribs...https://www.noticiasdenavarra.com/sociedad/2026/02/09/navarra-anuncia-hallazgo-esqueleto-bisonte-10677299.html #bison #wisent #megafauna

Looking to find out the differences between Cherry Plum, Blackthorn and Hawthorn?
Check out this helpful #WildFlowerID resource from top botanist Kevin Widdowson:
bsbi.org/learn/resour...

Space‐use by feral cattle and horses shapes vegetation structure in a trophic rewilding area Feral cattle (Bos taurus) and horses (Equus ferus caballus) are commonly introduced to European rewilding areas to halt vegetation succession and to conserve light-demanding species. Yet, we still do....

We studied a long-term trophic #rewilding project where #horses 🐎 & #cattle🐂 live year-round under near-wild conditions. Their space use shapes #vegetation structure🌿& modulates #drought sensitivity, w/ clear differences bt horses & cattle 🐎🐂🌿♨️➡️ esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Visualization of the Lessepsian invasion as a human-induced partial reversal to the west (right panel) of the formerly eastward shift in species ranges and diversity hotspots that occurred in ostracod descendants of Tethys taxa (left panel). Symbols indicate climate cooling/warming, tectonic continent–continent collision and evolutionary diversification.

Interesting case of recent human-modulated geodispersal which was enabled by the building and functioning of the Suez Canal. Interesting to think about this case as an analogue of ancient tectonic restructuring of seaways 👇
t.co/k6Qdu82nti
🧪 ⚒️ #Paleobio #Geology #Macroecology #Biogeography

Forsker: Vi skal tænke i flere træarter, når vi planter skov Det er afgørende, at vi er omhyggelige i valget af træarter, i den grønne arealomlægning. Men et enøjet fokus på hurtigtvoksende træarter har en slagside, vurderer dagens debattør.

En kommentar om "konservative" vs. "sprinter"-træer fra min side, i Naturmonitor: Vi skal tænke i flere træarter, når vi planter skov naturmonitor.dk/nyheder/deba... 🌳🌿
#træer #skovrejsning #dkgreen

New interactive global maps of 31 plant traits were prepared by Daniel Lusk, based on plant distribution data from GBIF and sPlot, plant trait data from TRY, and various satellite-based products.
Map viewer: global-traits.projects.earthengine.app/view/global-...
Article: doi.org/10.1038/s414...

India Says Its Grasslands Are 'Wastelands.' Medieval Folklore Suggests Otherwise

e360.yale.edu/digest/india...

‘Nothing is sacred to them’: the race to save rare plants as Russian troops advance With some of Ukraine’s most valuable biodiversity sites and science facilities under occupation, experts at Sofiyivka Park in Uman are struggling to preserve the country’s natural history

'He adds that... one of the world’s oldest steppe reserves, Askania-Nova, [is...] in that zone and [has] fallen under occupation. “This territory will be inaccessible to us for many decades, or maybe even centuries” because it has been heavily mined, he says.'

🧪🌱
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Fla. Temperatures Dropped to Dangerous Numbers for Reptiles, But the State's Invasive Pythons Are Hanging On While temperatures are dropping in Florida, invasive pythons have been adapting despite other reptiles dropping, according to new reports

🐍❄️ Can Florida’s #cold snaps stop #Burmese #pythons?

#Research published in NeoBiota, recently featured in @people.com by Gabrielle Rockson, suggest that these #invasivespecies are undergoing evolutionary change and show behavioral plasticity that helps them survive the cold #weather. 👇

Fast-growing trees are taking over the forests of the future and putting biodiversity and climate resilience under pressure Climate change, deforestation, and habitat loss are promoting increasingly uniform forests, where fast-growing tree species displace native trees. This reduces biodiversity, makes trees less resilient...

Our press release: Fast-growing #trees are taking over the #forests of the #future and putting biodiversity and climate resilience under pressure bio.au.dk/en/about-bio...

Global functional shifts in trees driven by alien naturalization and native extinction - Nature Plants This study finds that native tree extinctions and alien naturalizations are pushing forests towards fast-growing, resource-demanding species. This global shift could affect carbon storage and ecosyste...

Fast-growing trees are set to dominate the #forests of the #future — but at a cost🌳
Our Nature Plants (@natplants.nature.com) study shows a global shift toward "sprinter" tree species, while slow-growing, functionally critical #trees face elevated #extinction risk. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Likewise!