Biogeography Berlin

Using 14,000 years of data, the study shows Europe’s large mammals declined mainly due to rising human density and land use, not climate. Today’s conditions and conservation may support recovery in Europe, though impacts may shift elsewhere.

doi.org/10.1111/ddi....

Marco Davoli is a postdoc researcher & biogeographer, currently based at La Sapienza University of Rome.
Primary research interest: how paleoecological insights can guide restoration ecology in novel ecosystems, human–carnivore conflicts and the conservation of traditional cultural landscapes.

Recent Sociocultural Changes Reverse the Long‐Term Trend of Declining Habitat Availability for Large Wild Mammals in Europe Aim People have strongly influenced the biosphere for millennia, but how their increasing activities have shaped wildlife distribution is incompletely understood. We examined how the distribution of...

Proud to share that the paper "Recent sociocultural changes reverse the long-term trend of declining habitat availability for large wild mammals in Europe" by M. Davoli, @tkuemmerle.bsky.social and colleagues was awarded the Diversity and Distribution Early Career Researcher Best Paper Award!

Collectively, our results highlight that Indian megafauna can coexist with people across a wide range of social-ecological conditions provided that sufficient refuge habitats remain.
#hu #paper #biogeography

Similarly, while woody cover supported all species, human-related factors were stronger predictors for #leopards, #slothbears, #dholes, and #gaurs. Importantly, historical woodland loss continues to shape current distributions, with past decline linked to a higher presence of all species studied.

Megafauna in #tropicaldrywoodlands face mounting pressures from #habitatloss and human activity, yet many persist. We found that their survival is strongly linked to #refugehabitats, with protected areas and contiguous woodland cover acting as key factors in shared, human-dominated landscapes.

Megafauna persistence is shaped by habitat refuges, human presence, and land use histories.

New paper by @tamannakalam.bsky.social along with Marie Pratzer, Kulbhushansingh R. Suryawanshi, Xiang Liu, and @tkuemmerle.bsky.social

ecologyandsociety.org/vol30/iss4/art30/
#newpaper #landuse #megafauna

Megafauna in #tropicaldrywoodlands face mounting pressures from #habitatloss and human activity, yet many persist. We found that their survival is strongly linked to #refugehabitats, with protected areas and contiguous woodland cover acting as key factors in shared, human-dominated landscapes.

We are not only talented scientists but also gifted footballers! At our lab retreat we had some great matches...

#labretreat #football #science #team

Last Monday @tamannakalam.bsky.social successfully defended her amazing PHD Thesis on "Tropical dry woodland dynamics in India and their implications for megafauna persistence". Congratulations!!!

#defense #phd #drywoodland #hu #biogeography #megafauna

A glimpse of fall from the Romanian Carpathians, where Gabri Retez is studying how European bison contribute to seed dispersal. The study is funded by National Geographic Society.

#fieldwork #romania #bison #biogeography #research #study #NationalGeographicSociety #Europe #huberlin #carpathians

View of Earth from Space. The overlay text reads: Science & Technology for Transformative Change. For technology to be truly transformative, it must also incorporate equity and human rights considerations, ensuring that innovations and their benefits are shared fairly. Source: IPBES Transformative Change Assessment. The IPBES logo appear in white in the top right corner.

On this 🌍 World Science Day for Peace and Development, let’s remember that science is instrumental to #TransformativeChange.

Science is capable of redirecting development towards regenerative practices aligned with nature-positive goals. 🏡🧪

📚 https://www.ipbes.net/transformative-change-assessment

Celebrating the achievement of one of the longest-serving members of the lab: starting as a BSc student collaborator.

#celebration #huberlin

Congrats to Hendrik Bluhm on an excellent defense & passing with flying colors for his PhD on understanding potential recovery pathways of large herbivores in human-dominated landscapes.
#phd #defense #biogeography #largeherbivors #recovery

On our Lab Retreat we had quite a tight schedule...
Day one was all about workshops, presentations, discussions and talks!
On the second day we hiked through the beautiful, autumnally Harz - spearing some energy for the third day: walking through coniferous forests in the fog...
#labretreat #team

Plain language summary: What happens to large carnivores when human societies experience shocks? By Ranjini Murali, Altynai Adabaeva, Sixto Angulo, Rosario Arispe, Matthias Baumann, Arash Ghoddousi, Amirhossein Khaleghi Hamidi, Martin Jansen, Leili Khalatbari, Igor Khorozyan, Oswaldo Maillard,…

Check out @ranjmurali.bsky.social's new paper "Understanding multiple pathways of the impacts ofsocio-economic shocks on large carnivores" in plain language!
relationalthinkingblog.com/2025/09/18/p...

Some #behindthescenes from our lab retreat to start the week ;)
When a biogeography team is on the road, a biogeography team is taking photos...aaand we spare no effort
#labretreat #photos #harz
@tkuemmerle.bsky.social

The team spent three amazing days in the beautiful, autumnal #Harz during this year’s #labretreat.
Workshops, hikes, talks, discussions, cooking sessions, board games, quizzes, laughter, progress and a whole lot of photos -> be ready for some behind-the-scenes-posts and photo dumps!
#teambuilding

by Hugo Cabral

The study underscores the urgency for conservation planning and action in the world’s tropical dry forests, many of which are changing rapidly.

from the paper

How #agriculture-driven deforestation impacted snake distribution and, thereby, snake communities.
Agricultural expansion in the South American #Chaco is reshaping snake communities. The study reveals a strong trend toward biotic homogenization.

by Hugo Cabral

Deforestation in the South American Chaco is reshaping snake communities. As forests disappear, unique species vanish and generalists take over, driving a clear homogenization of snake diversity across the region.
#conservation #biogeography #homogenization

Reminder to take a look at the new paper by Hugo Cabral and colleagues: Diversity Loss and Homogenization in Snake Communities in a Deforestation Hotspot -> out now in Diversity and Distributions.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

#newpaper #snakes #chaco #deforestation #diversityloss

Happy to share that Melina Faingerch is visiting the Lab again!!!
Looking forward to your stay ;)
#visitor #scientist

Out of the paper of Ranjini Murali

1: economic sanctions in Iran and their effects on the Asiatic cheetah;
2: global commodity price crashes and how they influenced jaguar populations in Bolivia, and finally
3: the collapse of the Soviet Union and its consequences for snow leopards in Kyrgyzstan.

doi.org/10.1002/pan3...

Photo by Alfredo Romero Muñoz

Here we describe how shocks affect carnivore populations, using a social-ecological approach, and three case studies:

#casestudy #shocks #carnivores

Photo by Arash Ghoddousi

Sometimes socioeconomic conditions change suddenly, such as during wars, financial crises or when a pandemic breaks out. Such shocks can affect large carnivores, although this has been rarely studied.

#socioeconomicsystems

New Paper by @ranjmurali.bsky.social and colleagues:
"Understanding multiple pathways of the impacts of socio-economic shocks on large carnivores" out now in People and Nature
-> besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

#newpaper #socio-economic #shocks #carnivores

Lygophis anomatus - the snake species that lost most habitat in our study (Photo Diego Carús)

Deforestation leads to an erosion of snake diversity in the #GranChaco. Paper led by Hugo Cabral just out in @consbiog.bsky.social 👉 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... #Chaco #herptiles @biogeoberlin.bsky.social @erc.europa.eu #TropicalDryForests

@camillabrunet.bsky.social is a conservation-behavior #scientist interested in wildlife management, #conservation, movement and spatial #ecology. She will start her #phd studies, where she will investigate how changes in agricultural land use can influence the behavior of large mammals.
#newmember

Great to have Meredith visit us today! Working with her and Ricardo Torres on the paleoecology of the fantastic #macrauchenia, according to Darwin the `strangest animal ever discovered`!