Markus Wagner

YouTube video by Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery Ill fares the land? Holding large landowners to account for nature destruction - and restoration

Thanks for a fabulous talk on Friday @guyshrubsole.bsky.social. If anyone missed it, you can catch Guy's talk: Ill fares the land? Holding large landowners to account for nature destruction & restoration, on our YouTube now.

@ecioxford.bsky.social @oxfordgeography.bsky.social

We can now add "deterrent to military invasion" to the list of ecosystem services enhanced by rewilding & wetland restoration.

One thing I've learnt about conflict investigation in this age of open source evidence is you always see the same lies, just dressed in different uniforms. "It can't be my side that blew up the mosque/hospital/school it's a false flag/errant munition from the other side" with scant evidence produced

Landwirtschaftlicher Wert von Solarparks - Sonne Sammeln

Es ärgert mich immer:
Oben Solarpaneele und fossile Rasenmäher 😐

Der Bundesverband Neue Energiewirtschaft hat erforscht, wie sich die Flächen unter Solaranlagen besser nutzen lassen u der Biodiversität dienen.

Seid dabei! Mittwoch in Berlin / online 👉

sonne-sammeln.de/landwirtscha...

Fig. 1. Illustration of the experimental design with two hypothetical meadows stemming from the two different mowing regimes (WYRR and BYRR). Invertebrate sampling occurred in 2021 and only in the uncut refuge areas.

Fig. 2. Depiction of the different methods used to sample the vegetation and arthropods in an uncut refuge.

🌼 New #BAAE article: How often should meadow refuges rotate? 🌿

Rotating uncut grass after each cut boosts arthropod abundance, benefiting spiders & bees, but some taxa prefer yearly shifts. Smart rotation can maximize meadow biodiversity.

DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.ba...
@gfoesoc.bsky.social

We want to uncover wrongdoing. We can with your support. Bellingcat is a not-for-profit. Consider donating so we can continue to create impact in 2026. www.bellingcat.com/donate

In the foreground a mass of wildflowers are growing through long grass. In the background are some houses and small trees. The sky is mostly cloudy.

An account of our Wildflower Enhancement Project at Rock Edge in Oxford including a list of plants introduced can be found here: www.friendsoflyevalley.org.uk/rockedge/pdf...
@bsbibotany.bsky.social @judywebb.bsky.social

I took a day off earlier this week to go and see the Giant orchids near Oxford.
A few more years / centuries before they're considered naturalised, I guess!
Great to see them, whatever their origin.
#WildflowerHour
@ukorchids.bsky.social
@wildflowerhour.bsky.social
@bsbibotany.bsky.social

‘Dark, like our future’: Iranians describe scenes of catastrophe after Tehran’s oil depots bombed Residents report terror of smoke-filled city, from potentially toxic rain, air and water to food scarcity and difficulty of escape * Middle East crisis – live updates * Iran threatens to attack oil facilties across Gulf after Israeli strikes Thick black smoke was still rising in the sky, soot covered the streets and cars, balconies filled with black gunk, and the toxic air had filled the lungs as Tehran woke up after a night of airstrikes on the city’s oil depots on Sunday. In messages and voice notes sent to the Guardian, people described the situation in their homes and on the streets, some calling it “apocalyptic”. With the sun blotted out, disoriented people in Iran’s capital had to turn on their lights to see through the gloom. Continue reading...

‘Dark, like our future’: Iranians describe scenes of catastrophe after Tehran’s oil depots bombed

Country diary: A riverside walk reveals the city’s history written in plants | Susie White Lower Ouseburn, Newcastle upon Tyne: Under boardwalks, in concrete, on window ledges, seeds borne by water and carried on feet survive

In today's @theguardian.com country diary, Susie White checks out Newcastle's urban plants with James Common, whose new book - Urban Flora of Newcastle and North Tyneside - is out today! commonbynature.com/urban-flora-...

@bsbibotany.bsky.social #countrydiary #naturewriting

🌱 #IAVS2026 Symposium Workshop
Joint Species Models with the HMSC Package
📅 21 June 2026 | ⏰ 10:00–13:00, 14:00–16:00
👥 Limited to 15 participants
2026gijon.iavs-meetings.org/program/
#IAVS2026 #Workshops #EcologyMethods #VegetationEcology

‘The cover-up is brazen’: one journalist’s tenacious, traumatic fight to expose Ghislaine Maxwell Lucia Osborne-Crowley has endured threats and sexual harassment to report on Jeffrey Epstein’s chief enabler. Maxwell’s conviction was only the start of the quest for justice, she says

‘The cover-up is brazen’: one journalist’s tenacious, traumatic fight to expose Ghislaine Maxwell

Israeli settlers and soldiers kill three Palestinians in West Bank village Deadly attack near Ramallah is third in territory in a week as Israeli violence surges with global attention on Iran war * Middle East crisis – live updates Israeli settlers and soldiers killed three Palestinians in their village near Ramallah on Saturday night, the third deadly attack in a week of surging Israeli violence across the occupied West Bank. Israeli settlers have shot dead five civilians during invasions of Palestinian olive groves, villages and grazing land, in the brief period since Israel and the US launched a new war on Iran at the end of February. A sixth person died on Saturday after inhaling military-grade tear gasused by the Israeli army. Continue reading...

Israeli settlers and soldiers kill three Palestinians in West Bank village

🌿 Postdoc opportunity in plant evolutionary ecology/genetics!

My lab in the Dept. of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan is recruiting a postdoctoral researcher to start Fall 2026.

We study plant adaptation, using weeds as model systems.

#Postdoc #EcoEvo

Pls RT!

The Ayatollah of The West Now that Trump has anointed himself the new Supreme Leader of Iran, a few thoughts on where his crusade to bring peace to the Middle East via death and destruction from the sky may be heading

Now that Trump has anointed himself the new Supreme Leader of Iran, my (not very optimistic) thoughts on where his crusade to bring peace and stability to the Middle East via “death and destruction from the sky” may be heading…

This is what ecocide looks like.

This is something you'd see from Russian media

Iran's FM condemns US attack on Qeshm's freshwater desalination plant, warns of grave consequences US President Donald Trump announced that Iran promised not to attack its neighbours anymore

Multiple news outlets are reporting a US attack on an Iranian #desalination plant.
If verified, this violates international law protecting #water systems during wars, and it sets a dangerous precedent, given intense dependence of Gulf countries on desalination.
timesofoman.com/article/1691...

Not sure if war crimes against the environment are a 'thing' in legal terms, but in moral terms, this is one.

I deeply resent this cartoon. It is unimaginably offensive to suggest that Donald Trump engages in his heinous behavior after asking himself "What Would Betty Bowers Do?"

Art by Noriyoshi Ohrai for the Japanese editions of Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons (RIP)

This is no different from Putin saying MH17 was shot down by Ukraine or Assad saying rebels gassed themselves.

A century of care: Wildlife Trusts mark 100th birthday with woodland project First of the trusts, formed with 12 people in a Norfolk pub in 1926, buys swath of farmland to restore to nature

A century of care: Wildlife Trusts mark 100th birthday with woodland project

We are growing our team! 🌿 Join our Wildlife Trust consultancy as an Assistant Ecologist or Seasonal Ecologist and help deliver exceptional projects where every pound of profit goes straight back into protecting and restoring wildlife. Apply now: www.bbowt.org.uk/jobs

Relentless sun and ruthless populists: how the climate crisis will change the next 20 years Former diplomat Arthur Snell says a heating planet is accelerating conflict and migration – and fostering a new age of empire. Democracies are dangerously unprepared, he warns

In the ahem now longlost days before the war, I interviewed @snellarthur.bsky.social about his new book on how the climate crisis is upending geopolitics (yes we did talk about the future of Gulf petrostates, which was looking fairly unstable even before this) www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

At least 13 hospitals and health facilities hit during attacks on Iran, WHO says Global health body investigating reports that four medics are among the 1,230 people killed in Iran since start of war

The US and Israel have bombed at least 13 hospitals and health facilities in Iran and one in Lebanon.

The effect of different grazing managements on butterfly abundance, diversity and composition at a calcareous upland site Research from an upland calcareous site in the Yorkshire Dales finds light cattle grazing supports 4.9× as many butterflies and 1.7× as many butterfly species as light sheep grazing, while ungrazed a...

Here is the full paper
#conservationevidence
@richardfoxbc.bsky.social @djhbutterflies.bsky.social @martinswarren.bsky.social @ukbutterflies.bsky.social @savebutterflies.bsky.social @chrisvanswaay.bsky.social @pietervantieghem.bsky.social

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Grassland plant diversity and ecosystem condition assessment in the hen harrier programme, Ireland, a results-based agri-environment scheme High Nature Value farmland (HNVf) supports biodiverse, semi-natural habitats through extensive farming but is increasingly threatened in Ireland by land intensification and abandonment. Results-bas...

This looks interesting:

Grassland plant diversity and ecosystem condition assessment in the hen harrier programme, Ireland, a results-based agri-environment scheme | McMorrow et al.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...

it is a beautiful genus, but having to look up details for species after species of Sorbus, all of which appear to occur in just a handful of GB hectads, is getting a bit tiresome on a Friday afternoon.

Bloody Whitebeam, Sorbus vexans

Perhaps this should be the genus common name and not just the common name for this particular species.