Charles Cunningham

A figure showing how different invertebrate species show impacts in relation to woodland covr. Overall the connectivity effect is small, but all groups show it.

Great to see @charles-cunningham.bsky.social's paper out on the impacts of woodland connectivity on the presence of woodland species in the UK. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... Although ecologists talk about connectivity being important to maintain, the evidence that this is true is weak. 1/

Interactions between climate warming and management actions determining bird community change in protected areas Biodiversity is increasingly negatively affected by climate warming, making this issue a major conservation concern. Many bird species respond to warm…

Our new work on the impact of #conservation and management actions on bird populations within European protected areas is out. 🦆🦅
One finding being that management actions targeting habitats might help species more adjusting to impacts of climate change.
doi.org/10.1016/j.bi...

Soil property maps for Europe at 100 m resolution will inform forest management and policies - HoliSoils Forest soils provide important ecosystem services, such as biodiversity support, nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration, water regulation and erosion control.

Soil property maps for Europe at 100 m resolution released by ISRIC - World Soil Information in the framework of the EU HoliSoils project to inform forest management and policies.
holisoils.eu/soil-propert...
🧪🌍👇🌲🌳
#soilscience #soilhealth #soilmapping #forestsoil

Using participatory scenario planning to explore the synergies and trade‐offs from upland treescape expansion Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Our #interdisciplinary paper investigating the synergies and trade-offs of upland treescape expansion is now out in @peopleandnature.bsky.social which is part of the STAND @uktreescapes.bsky.social project led by the @rspb.bsky.social

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

Species turnover does not rescue biodiversity in fragmented landscapes - Nature An analysis of habitat fragmentation using a dataset of more than 4,000 species worldwide shows that fragmentation reduces biodiversity at all scales, and that increases in β diversity do not compensa...

“Fragmented landscapes consistently have both lower α diversity and lower γ diversity [but higher β diversity]

Our findings refute claims that habitat fragmentation can increase biodiversity at landscape scales”
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I looked some more at these biodiversity credits. It seems the best option for a biodiversity project is to mow the vegetation until it is a pefect lawn. With NDVI then homogeneous, the credit you earn tend to infinity. People are buying/selling these credits, right now. 🌿🌏

Research Associate at University of Kent An opportunity for an academic position as a Research Associate is available, as advertised on jobs.ac.uk. Apply now and explore other academic job openings.

Come and work with me! Fab #postdoc role at University of Kent on the @greenme-project.bsky.social , collaborating with Mike Hardman, Penny Cook and myself at University of Salford, and 6 other countries!

Green care, GIS, data, surveys!

Deadline 24th Feb

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DLV078/r...

Explore before you restore: Incorporating complex systems thinking in ecosystem restoration By illustrating how key Complex Systems Science (CSS) concepts linked to non-linear threshold behaviour can impact restoration outcomes through influencing recovery trajectories, our framework Explor...

There is an idea that we can simply step away from degraded ecosystems & they will recover

But truly biodiverse, resilient ecosystems are complex

So, in degraded landscapes, we will often need to intervene to guide systems towards complexity
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

A garden warbler in a willow tree. This is peak little brown job. He's pale brown, with a slightly darkey grey brown back (that we can't really see as he's facing us and we're looking up at him). Cute though.

I ended last year explaining how Robins taught us about #birds ability to see direction of magnetic fields, so I'll start this one with a story about bird's 2nd magnetic sense that allows them to navigate using a map of the local strength of magnetic fields. Garden Warblers illustrate this well.🌿🌏🧪🧵

CR2025_21: Developing metrics of change for pollinating insects in the UK at University of Reading on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - CR2025_21: Developing metrics of change for pollinating insects in the UK at University of Reading, listed on FindAPhD.com

Looking for a #PhDposition? Passionate about #pollinators and #citizenscience? Come do a PhD at @ukceh.bsky.social on developing indicators for pollinating insects using data from UK PoMS. The project includes a placement at JNCC. To apply tinyurl.com/3ve5szrh
@drnickisaac.bsky.social

Conservation priorities for development: survey of UK public’s views on brownfield sites and biodiversity - People, Place and Policy People, Place and Policy is an online journal providing a forum for academic debate around issues of urban policy, social and economic regeneration, housing and the labour market. Articles deal with t...

Out today: my final paper from my postdoc at the @universityofhull.bsky.social, in which we explored the UK public's views on brownfield sites and biodiversity! So very excited to finally be publishing this paper - a labour of love.

*Please note: this is not BTO work.*

doi.org/10.3351/ppp....

Details of my talk: a systematic conservation planning approach to expanding England SSSI network 5.45 today (ouch) location 3A

Excited to be at the British Ecological Society annual meeting for next few days. Hoping to catch up on loads of people! Today is action for me, then catch up later. Come meet @cascade-hei.bsky.social at lunch, then hear me talk about systematic conservation plan for the UK later! #BES2024

Great talk by @drnickisaac.bsky.social from UKCEH at #bes2024 about the development of the species abundance indicator for Defra. Honest perspective on the positive ambition and challenge of doing this week. @britishecolsoc.bsky.social

Yes I would definitely recommend Defra R&D Fellowships for ECRs interested in policy! I'm at #bes2024 too so if anyone wants to chat please do get in touch

Great to see @charles-cunningham.bsky.social's work highlighted on the stage at DEFRA's #bes2024 event. I know he is enjoying his fellowship with defra, so would absolutely recomend that scheme. Actual measurement of impacts of pesticides on freshwater inverts is remarkably big knowledge gap.

🚨Fully-Funded UK PhD Opportunity!🚨

I’m hiring a #PhD exploring the complexities of #biodiversity change across space and time 🌐. Join @cmbeale.bsky.social and me at #York and for this exciting opportunity!

Please share and/or message me if interested. More info and how to apply: shorturl.at/Zu7ED

ACCE+ DLA programme: Habitat networks designed for all - ensuring climate-resilience for a wide diversity of species at University of Liverpool on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - ACCE+ DLA programme: Habitat networks designed for all - ensuring climate-resilience for a wide diversity of species at University of Liverpool, listed on FindAPhD.com

🚨NEW exciting PhD opportunity... 🚨

designing effective habitat networks for species conservation #biodiversity #conservation #restoration

A fab supervisory team from University of Liverpool, Natural England, Butterfly Conservation and @ukceh.bsky.social

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

In 2022, the UK government promised to protect 30% of land by 2030. The promise is 30%, the reality is 3%

There’s just 6 years left to protect 30% of land and sea for nature

But findings out today in Wildlife and and Countryside Link's progress report reveal the amount of protected land in England has fallen to just 2.93% while protected seas are at 9.92%

📗🔗https://buff.ly/4eoqMvW

🌍🧪

How applied ecology can support and enhance both biodiversity and food production.
Also, check out the abstract in four languages!

Projected future climatic forcing on the global distribution of vegetation types | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Most emissions scenarios suggest temperature and precipitation regimes will change dramatically across the globe over the next 500 years. These changes will have large impacts on the biosphere, with s...

Our new paper on the future of ecosystems is out today! We used climate and biome models to infer how anthropogenic CO2 emissions might shape the global distribution of different vegetation types over the next 500 years 🌎🌲🌴🌵
doi.org/10.1098/rstb...

Figure from the paper with a set of maps for two exemplar species, kori bustard and Von der Decken's hornbill. Each species gets four maps, two for each time period (1980-1999 & 2000-2020) and one of the raw data, the other of the modelled estimates. Kori Bustard has contracted, Von der Decken's hornbill has both expanded and shifted westwards. Below is a figure showing how most savannah birds have expanded their range overall, but that most have also shown some range contracts in some areas.

A kori bustard displays on the floo of the Ngorongoro crater. He's white inside and brown outside and doing his best to get that inner white to hide the outer brown.

Joris Wiethase's 2nd PhD paper is out 2day onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... exploring traits of savannah #birds in Tanzania associated with range changes. Confirming our earlier work, we see big individual changes, but fail to find obvious patterns explaining variation between species. 🌏 🧪1/n

🚨New paper! Is homogenization really that more common than differentiation? - not really, our latest work shows that one pattern can be as common as the other.

Another great work and collaboration led by this amazing team👇

🚨Still time to apply for one of these exciting opportunities! 8 fully funded PhD studentships!

▶️Deadline extended to 31st Jan!!!

Come and join us - projects across a range of departments - one wild card project up for grabs too! Apply here👇

Disproportionate declines of formerly abundant species underlie insect loss - Nature An analysis of more than 500 sites distributed worldwide finds that declines in the abundance of terrestrial insects are attributable mainly to decreases in species that were formerly abundant, r...

🚨Another important piece of the puzzle! - Roel and collegues expand on there 2020 analysis 🕷🐜🦋🐛🦗 to show us that being abundance doesn't necessary mean you are doing fine... 👇
www.nature.com/articles/s41...