Hans Henrik Bruun

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...

Were it not for the all too frequent school shootings, one could easily get the impression there are no schools in the US

Kudos to Yuan-zhen Liu and Philip F. Thomsen, who led the work. Thanks to all collaborators, Jesper Bechsgaard, Lynn Dicks, Toke Thomas Høye, Trine Bilde and Sean Birk Bek Craig

The rarest species, Andrena marginata, showed severe decline in the most recent 50-100 y
The other rare species, Bombus veteranus, had gone through steep decline more than 1000 y ago and a more stable trend since then
One of the common spp, B. pascuorum, showed pop size changes on a 50 ky time scale

🐝 We used pooled whole-genome sequencing data to reconstruct demographic history for two rare and two common wild bee species
📉 The two rare species showed lower historical population sizes than the two common species
📊 The approach was validated using simulated data
doi.org/10.1111/mec....

Could it be because some human activities mimicked lost megafauna impacts from the evolutionary (Pleistocene) landscapes in which species arose and developed? The Holocene has in many ways presented aberrant ecosystem properties

A great ecologist and scientist. His southern hemisphere perspective on “European” ecology was very stimulating and thought-provoking.

doi.org/10.21203/rs....

Huge thanks to Ditte, @srosbakh.bsky.social & all collaborators

Next step: Comparison with recent data to identify winners, lossers and drivers of change 🌳🍂🥀

@dittemch.bsky.social has led the digitization of the historical dot maps of plant species distribution in Denmark. After a lot of harmonization and validations, the data (10 x 10 km grid) are now out with a preprint describing the procudure.
#biodiversity_change #legacy_data

@skjoldsoendergaard.bsky.social something for you?

Så er udkast til habitatkonsekvensvurderingen af Tangeværket ude!
Tak til @Altingetdk
Jeg håber du læser med, @jeppebruus.bsky.social
#vildgudenå

legacy.altinget.dk/misc/udkast-...

Is academic research becoming too competitive? Nature examines the data Applications for European research grants increased in 2025. Scientists say they’re feeling the competition.

link to Nature paper
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Funding competition sabotages science - Impact of Social Sciences Research funding competitions seem fair but are often flawed. Gerald Schweiger, Adrian G. Barnett and Stijn Conix argue lotteries may support better science.

"The decline in success rates is absolutely not satisfactory, because it sometimes borders on a lottery”
Nature 17 October 2025
Well, an honest lottery would IMHO be far better. For the reasons outlined here:
blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsoci...

Hommage to Sofia Corradi, who conceived the idea of academic degrees without borders - the Erasmus Program

Pretty mindblowing!

Indeed the asexual generation of the gall wasp Neuroterus quercusbaccarum on common oak. If you pop some galls off, you may find larvae of the inquiline gall midge Parallelodiplosis galliperda bladmineerders.nl/parasites/an...

Bumble #bee #pollination of #linden already 24.6 milllion years ago - cool new empirical illustration of the deep roots of the ecologies of modern-day species www.sci.news/paleontology...
(photo 1: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bombus_hypnorum_-_Tilia_cordata_-_Keila.jpg)

Thanks in particular to Michele Di Musciano, Riccardo Testolin and Ale Chiarucci for stearing the boat safely ashore

The results only tell us that site selection was (a lot) better than random, not if the management of N2000 sites secured long-term persistence of biodiversity. Alas, lots of evidence suggest the opposite.
#N2K #spatialconservationplanning

Representativeness of the Natura 2000 network for preserving plant biodiversity in the European Union The Natura 2000 (N2K) network of protected areas is one of the main tools for area-based conservation in the European Union (EU), yet its role in preserving plant biodiversity requires better underst...

New paper alert! The EU Natura 2000 network encompasses populations of most vascular plant species in the region, but with a lot of spatial variation in representativity. The results provide guidance for for better coverage after the planned network expansion.
doi.org/10.1111/cobi...

Front cover of the European Butterfly Red List, showing Polyommatus humedasae. The report can be downloaded at https://www.bc-europe.eu/webpage.php?name=red-list-butterflies-2025

The new European Butterfly Red List is published today, with worrying findings. Over 1/4 (28%) of Europe’s 442 species are threatened with extinction or are close to being so. The situation is far worse for our 148 endemic species, 40% are now threatened or nearly so www.bc-europe.eu/webpage.php?...

Random street corner in Leuven BE
#stopgenocide

📢 Vacancy: I am urgently recruiting a PhD candidate to join a project on selection processes in pedunculate oak.
📅 Start date: no later than December 1st.

Well, I believe it’ll be more applicable than the binary concept in less studied taxa and regions, as it is less evidence demanding when it comes to questions like “how did the species arrive in the focal area” etc.

Thank you, Camilla Colding-Jørgensen for leading this important work, and to @jcsvenning.bsky.social and @r-ejrnaes.bsky.social for the collaboration, which was funded by the 15 June Foundation

Using the flora of Denmark, we show that a large proportion of species are treated as 'native' by one source and as 'non'native' by others, i.e. are of uncertain status. Using a graduated definition, most of these species end up in the 'near-native' category

Native and near-native species share most of their Pleistocene history. Are near-natives may well be our new natives under global climate change.

A graduated nativeness definition for overcoming dilemmas and difficulties of vascular plant species Nativeness is a concept central to biodiversity conservation and invasion biology, but there are several problems related to a classic binary nativeness definition. Dilemmas arise from the dynamic na...

Nativeness cannot be binary, if is to make sense and be practically applicable at the scale of countries.
We propose a graduated definition, in which species native to neighbouring territories are considered "near-native"
doi.org/10.1002/oik....