Scientists from Yibin University and collaborating institutions have formally described Indotyphlops gyirongensis, the Gyirong blind snake, a discovery that adds a new member to one of the least understood branches of the snake family tree.
High on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, often called the “Roof of the World,” a new species of snake waits beneath the stones…
Scientists from Yibin University and collaborating institutions have formally described Indotyphlops gyirongensis, the Gyirong blind snake, a discovery that adds a new member to one of the least understood branches of the snake family tree.
General (top) and ventral (below) views of the holotype of Indotyphlops gyirongensis sp. nov. in life (by Peng Guo).
Blind snakes are small, burrowing reptiles that spend nearly their entire lives underground. Their secretive habits and similar appearances make them notoriously difficult to study.
The family Typhlopidae contains roughly 280 species, yet its relationships remain poorly resolved, and new species continue to surface wherever researchers look carefully. Until now, no blind snake had ever been recorded in the Xizang Autonomous Region, which makes this find a first for the area.
The single specimen, an adult female, was collected in August 2025 at an elevation of 2,262 metres, close to the border between China and Nepal. She was resting beneath a stone at the edge of an evergreen broad-leaved forest, where deep humus and a thick layer of fallen leaves create ideal conditions for a creature that lives by burrowing. Among her neighbours were a Himalayan pit viper and a Himalayan toad!
Microhabitat of the type specimen of Indotyphlops gyirongensis sp. nov. in Gyirong, Xizang, China (by Peng Guo).
The snake itself is slender and elegant. At 265 millimetres, it is large by the standards of its genus, yet it measures just 3.5 millimetres across at midbody. Its lossy scales are light brown, each one darker on its rear half, which gives the body a delicate and finely patterned sheen. The underside is cream and so thin-skinned that it is partly transparent to the internal organs.
Most distinctive is its pale cream head cap, which lacks pigment as far back as the eye. The eye itself is only a dark spot, with no visible pupil or iris, fitting for an animal that navigates by touch and chemical cues rather than sight. Its tail ends in a small nubbin rather than a sharp spine.
Some of the most telling differences are hidden in the arrangement of the scales along the lip. Blind snakes are classified partly by how their upper lip scales overlap the shields above them. In nearly all of the snake’s relatives, the third scale overlaps the one beside the eye, a pattern known as T-III.
The Gyirong blind snake shows a rarer arrangement, called T-V, in which both the second and third lip scales overlap the shields above. Few documented members of its genus share this feature, which provides a clean and reliable way to separate it from most of its kin.
Anatomy alone did not settle the matter. The team sequenced two mitochondrial genes and placed the snake within a broad evolutionary tree. It nested firmly within Indotyphlops, as the sister lineage to I. albiceps, but its genetic divergence was substantial. For one gene, it differed from its closest relatives with available data by more than 24 per cent, and for another by more than 18 per cent, margins far beyond what is typically seen within a single species.
The name honours the place of discovery. Gyirongensis refers to Gyirong Town in Gyirong County, where the holotype was found, and it is formed as a noun in apposition. The authors propose the English common name “Gyirong blind snake” and the Chinese name 吉隆盲蛇 (Jílóng Mángshé).
Map showing the locality of the new species in Gyirong, Xizang, China.
Because the type locality sits so close to the Nepalese border, the researchers consider it highly likely that the species also lives on the other side, thus pending further fieldwork.
Original source:
Lyu B, Tan S, Zhao Z, Wallach V, Liu Q, Guo P (2026) A new species of blind snake, Indotyphlops (Serpentes, Typhlopidae), from the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, China. ZooKeys 1292: 261-273. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1292.197322
For more articles on zoology, visit the ZooKeys website and follow the journal on BlueSky and Facebook.
Last week marked another annual meeting of the Biodiversity Information Standards network, otherwise known as TDWG, with the Norwegian capital Oslo hosting the event between 20 and 25 September.
Last week marked another annual meeting of the Biodiversity Information Standards network, otherwise known as TDWG, with the Norwegian capital Oslo hosting the event between 20 and 25 September.
TDWG is the international, non-profit organisation formerly known as the Taxonomic Databases Working Group, which develops and maintains the standards, such as Darwin Core, that allow biodiversity data to be shared, integrated and understood across institutions worldwide.
The six-day programme was a meeting point for over 300 stakeholders from research, practitioner and corporate circles, with proceedings centred around one central topic – “Research and Robot- Ready Biodiversity Data Standards”. In that sense, the themes of accessibility, responsibility, innovation and collaboration were foremost on the minds of participants as they contemplated how information on the biosphere should be extracted, consolidated and shared in the years to come.
As a long-standing partner of TDWG, Pensoft Publishers served as both a sponsor and an exhibitor for the event. In the latter capacity, the company contributed with a joint booth for three of the EU-funded projects it is leading the outreach efforts for:
BMD – an initiative working towards a Biodiversity Explorer for high-throughput biodiversity monitoring tools, biodiversity data and biodiversity analyses for better conservation across Europe
TETTRIX – a new arrival building a next-generation taxonomic system connecting knowledge, expertise and innovation for all across the Old Continent
ANERIS – a pan-European effort to mobilise a network of operational marine biology via a new technological infrastructure
The Pensoft team at the joint booth of the BMD, TETTRIX and ANERIS projects.
A number of other projects from Pensoft’s communication portfolio also found a place in the display, including BEAGLE, OneSTOP, B-Cubed, MAMBO, OBSGESSION and BioAgora. Furthermore, 14 of the company’s journals were in the spotlight, including Biodiversity Information Science and Standards (BISS), the official journal of the TDWG community (where all of the conference’s abstracts are set to be published).
Crucially, the event also saw the official launch of ORPHO, Pensoft’s new collaborative workspace for scientific writing. Founder and CEO Prof. Lyubomir Penev and CTO Teodor Georgiev conducted live demos of the tool, showcasing how manuscripts crafted within it with full version control for authors become discoverable, interoperable and FAIR-compliant.
In the context of TDWG2026’s agenda, they also presented ORPHO’s integrated semantic annotation and communication instruments as part of the workshop “How Literature Services can Support & Benefit from Biodiversity Publication and Data Standards?” on 24 September. The workspace was received with anticipation and enthusiasm by attendees, with many expressing a desire to test it out for themselves.
They were also treated with a tease of Pensoft’s next large-scale endeavour, as Senior Communications Officer Peter Bozakov pulled the curtain behind the forthcoming communication platform for research projects Scientiana.
Pensoft’s CTO Teodor Georgiev introduces the collaborative scientific workspace ORPHO.
As for other notable contributions to the wider conference agenda by researchers affiliated with Pensoft’s publishing or project activities:
The session “Operationalising Biodiversity Digital Twins within Data Space Ecosystems”, which was co-led by BMD coordinator and long-time author and reviewer across several Pensoft journals, including Biodiversity Data Journal and Research Ideas and Outcomes, Niels Raes, and showcased a number of innovative outputs from the project. As such, it was an important occasion to assess the initiative’s progress towards unifying Europe’s Data Space within a single Biodiversity Explorer.
Niels Raes presenting “Mainstreaming high-throughput biodiversity monitoring using AI” at TDWG 2026.
The symposium “Publishing and Communications Promoting Biodiversity, Natural History Collections, People, Data and Data Standards”, for which Deborah Paul (co-Editor-in-Chief of the National History Collections and Museomics (NHCM) journal) had the role of co-organiser. Within it, the TETTRIX project’s vision for the automated tracking of taxonomic research activities was laid out by consortium member David Fichtmüller. Moreover, Shelley James (co-Editor-in-Chief for NHCM) delivered an insightful talk on the creative promotion of biodiversity data and standards for success and recognition.
Co-Editors-in-Chief of NHCM, Shelley James and Deborah Paul, presenting “Hit or miss? Creative promotion of biodiversity data and standards for success and recognition” at TDWG 2026.
Notably, the Biodiversity Information Science and Standards (BISS) journal is the home for TDWG conference abstracts. TDWG 2026 presenters can currently submit their abstracts there and publish them in an extended abstract or mini-paper format completely free of charge. The journal also hosts abstracts from conferences held over the past decade. You can browse the TDWG 2026 collection here.
Last but not least, the company’s sponsorship supported two awards at TDWG2026 (with a free publication in a Pensoft journal as an accompanying prize):
Best Student Oral Presentation – awarded to Yeshan Qui for “Reporting structure and sampling-bias correction in citizen-science bird data across Asian cities”
Best Student Poster – awarded to Claudia Campanini for “Improving marine fieldwork documentation and metadata with Adaptable Standardised Methods Reporting (ASMR)”
Claudia Campanini receiving the Pensoft Best Student Poster Award at TDWG 2026.
Overall, TDWG2026 proved itself a crucial forum for mapping out the future of biodiversity monitoring and the management of the myriad data streams that emerge from it. Pensoft is proud to be an important actor in this process, contributing with innovative tools and solutions at the heart of the interface between research and practice. As summarised by Prof. Penev:
“Given its status as a large-scale conference centred around the future of biodiversity sciences in the age of AI, TDWG2026 was a crucial venue for unveiling Pensoft’s forward-looking vision for academic publishing and science communication. The “pearl” of these pursuits is undoubtedly the ORPHO workspace, a tool that is well-placed to introduce a new standard when it comes to collaborative AI-FAIR research in Europe and beyond.”
Lissomus arawak measures under a centimetre long and is easily recognised by its shining and almost hairless black body, alongside its pale-yellow antennae segments.
A new species of click beetle with a glossy and highly domed black body has been described from cloud forest sites in the mountains of the Dominican Republic, and named in honour of the Arawak peoples who lived on the island before European colonisation.
Lissomus arawak measures under a centimetre long and is easily recognised by its shining and almost hairless black body, alongside its pale-yellow antennae segments. It is only the third species of the genus Lissomus known from Hispaniola, and the third recorded anywhere in the Greater Antilles.
Lissomus arawak, dorsal habitus. Image by J. Pirkl, 2025, used with permission.
Lissomus arawak, ventral habitus. Image by J. Pirkl, 2025, used with permission.
Lissomus arawak, lateral habitus. Image by J. Pirkl, 2025, used with permission.
The study, published in the open-access journal Alpine Entomology, was carried out by Paul J. Johnson of South Dakota State University and Jiri Hodecek of the Swiss Human Institute of Forensic Taphonomy, as part of an ongoing survey of Dominican insect life. Specimens were found at three sites in montane broadleaf and cloud forest between roughly 600 and 700 metres, near the Sierra de Bahoruco and in the Cordillera Septentrional.
Rather than resembling the two other Lissomus species already known from Hispaniola, the new beetle turned out to be structurally closer to species from Central and northern South America.
“The morphological differences suggest that the Lissomus species of Hispaniola may not all descend from a single colonisation event.
One possible explanation is therefore that ancestors of these beetles reached the Greater Antilles on at least two separate occasions. This remains a testable hypothesis rather than a demonstrated evolutionary history.”
The Research Team
The species is known from just five specimens, collected individually between 1985 and 2024, all of them female.
“With such a small sample, chance and the opportunistic nature of the collecting are probably the simplest explanations. This does not seriously weaken our confidence that L. arawak is distinct. All five females share a consistent and unique combination of morphological characters.”
The Research Team
Type locality of Lissomusarawak in Pedernales province (el. 700 m).
The name is a deliberate tribute to the island’s first inhabitants:
“We chose the name arawak to recognise the Indigenous history and continuing cultural heritage of the Antilles. We wanted the name of this distinctive endemic species to connect the biological history of the island with its human history.”
The discovery forms part of a wider effort, they added, “to document the island’s still incompletely known insect diversity,” with at least 15 further click beetle species thought to await description in the Dominican Republic alone.
The discovery forms part of EntomoDR, a long-term field and taxonomy project documenting the still incompletely known insect diversity of the Dominican Republic through repeated expeditions and collaboration with an international network of taxonomic specialists. More information about the project and its discoveries is available at https://entomodr.com
Original source:
Johnson PJ, Hodecek J (2026) Lissomus arawak sp. nov. (Coleoptera, Elateridae), a new species from the Dominican Republic. Alpine Entomology 10: 155-161. https://doi.org/10.3897/alpento.10.193434
Themed “Integrating the Diversity of Ecology”, the event welcomed over 1,000 researchers in the field from across career stages, who had the opportunity to enjoy conference talks across 36 thematic sessions, as many as six keynote talks, two poster sessions, several open society meetings and quite a few social events, including excursions and a conference dinner.
Conference delegates enjoying the musical clock installation mounted on an elevated balcony on the glass façade of the ODEON building, where the Nordic Oikos-GfÖ 2026 conference took place between 14 and 17 September 2026.
Beyond publishing solutions, a key focus was given to OBSGESSION: a Horizon Europe-funded project where Pensoft is actively involved. To better understand and predict changes in terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems, the OBSGESSION consortium integrates multi-source Earth Observation data (such as high-resolution satellite imagery and drone monitoring) with ground-based in-situ research, including advanced environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling. By coupling these data streams with cutting-edge detection-attribution modelling and machine learning algorithms, the project generates scalable Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs). These ecological approaches and analytical frameworks are actively tested and validated through six biodiversity pilots across diverse European ecosystems. In the open-science Research Ideas and Outcomes journal, you can find a collection of project outputs, including research papers, project reports and deliverables, and guideline papers published across journals and platforms.
As a leader of the “Dissemination, Multi-stakeholder outreach and synergies” work package at OBSGESSION, Pensoft is tasked with stakeholder engagement and community building, ultimately contributing to the high impact of the resulting outputs, methodologies, and policy recommendations that aim to strengthen public understanding of biodiversity change.
At the Pensoft-OBSGESSION-branded booth, conference participants would stop by to chat with Pensoft’s Head of Journal development and PR: Iva Boyadzhieva and Senior Communications Officer: Desislava Raykova.
As a leader of the “Dissemination, Multi-stakeholder outreach and synergies” work package at OBSGESSION, Pensoft is tasked with stakeholder engagement and community building, ultimately contributing to the high impact of the resulting outputs, methodologies and policy recommendations that aim to strengthen public understanding of biodiversity change.
One of the six keynote talks was presented by Prof. Dr. Isabell Hensen (Martin Luther University Halle, Germany), who received the GfÖ Honorary Medal 2026 for her leading, forward-looking contributions to ecological research and the scientific community. Her work examines how genetic variation, environmental conditions, disturbance, and plant-animal interactions shape plant populations, with particular emphasis on rare species, biological invasions, and the regeneration of degraded forests.
In her talk, titled “One spark is enough: regeneration ecology of Andean forests under global change”, she reported on post-fire regeneration processes in tropical Andean forests, based on long-term field experiments and observational studies.
Hensen focused on the well-studied endemic plant genus Polylepis, which forms the world’s highest-elevation forests and illustrates how fire has shaped ecosystem dynamics over millennia. Her talk also mentioned a 2022 monograph of the genus, published in the Pensoft journal PhytoKeys by Tatiana Erika Boza Espinoza (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú) and Michael Kessler (University of Zurich), which brought together results from 35 years of field and herbarium experience.
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On Wednesday, Pensoft’s Iva Boyadzhieva delivered a presentation titled “Scholarly Communication: Lessons from the Publisher’s Kitchen”. She highlighted the vital role publishers play in helping researchers communicate their insights not only to peers, but also to decision-makers and the public. Emphasizing the publisher’s responsibility to support authors with robust infrastructure and dedicated human expertise, she outlined how Pensoft works to FAIRify scholarly publishing and future-proof scientific knowledge in an era of rapid AI development and expanding research output.
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Pensoft’s team was delighted to meet up with dedicated readers, authors, reviewers, and editors from across Pensoft’s portfolio, as well as introduce Pensoft journals to attendees discovering them for the first time.
Visitors were also particularly intrigued by several newly launched Pensoft journals. Developed in close collaboration with passionate researchers, these fresh outlets directly address key gaps in academic publishing.
One of the newly launched journals in the spotlight was Agricultural and Ecological Modelling (AEM), which provides a unique scholarly outlet thanks to its modern approach to publishing by increasing transparency, giving credit to research objects across the entire modelling research lifecycle. This is achieved through publishing specialised article types, such as: Formal Model, Model Testing and Calibration, Model Implementation and Documentation, Data Papers and Software Descriptions. These new publishing formats are designed to keep pace with advances in Modelling research and to make it FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) by enabling scholarly credit for diverse research outputs, often created by different groups of authors. For the time being, AEM remains a Diamond Open Access journal, meaning that it will not charge authors for open-access publication.
Other recently founded journals addressing emerging and fast-developing disciplines within the ecological field that took the spotlight were:
Individual-Based Ecology: launched to support understanding and predicting ecological systems’ response to rapidly changing and novel conditions by linking individual responses to responses at higher levels of organisation.
Advances in Pollinator Research: a multidisciplinary journal publishing research on pollination ecology, pollinator-plant interactions, pollinator health and drivers of pollinator declines, crop and wild flower pollination, pollinator conservation practices, molecular ecology of pollinators, pollinator and pollination monitoring, decision support for policy and socio-economics.
Journal of Regeneration: a multidisciplinary journal for the dissemination of research results on regeneration and tissue repair across phyla. These mechanisms can be framed within an evolutionary framework and integrate a variety of cellular processes involving stem cells, dedifferentiating or even transdifferentiating cells.
All of these journals operate with no article fees for either authors, nor readers.
To receive updates on new publications and relevant news, sign up for Email Alerts on any journal’s homepage. Creating a Pensoft account also allows users to easily customise their notification preferences, follow additional journals, or filter updates by research topic. You can also follow journals on social media, including BlueSky, Facebook and Linkedin.
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Supporting European Policy Through Priority Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs)
Delegates at the event showed strong interest in OBSGESSION’s first policy brief:“Prioritising Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) to support European Union (EU) policy needs based on the EU’s Biodiversity Strategy for 2030.” To tackle a critical challenge in environmental monitoring, OBSGESSION focuses on prioritising key EBVs to directly support the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 – a roadmap designed to put Europe’s biodiversity on a path to recovery through 102 specific actions and sub-actions.
To align these policy needs with actionable data, the OBSGESSION team conducted an assessment to identify priority EBV candidates. By categorising EBV-applicable actions and indicators across different ecosystem realms and implementation stages, the project pinpointed the most essential variables needed to strengthen monitoring, reporting, and policy execution. The document is based on a deliverable by the project (D1.1 Policy Landscape and Needs Assessment).
This policy brief is part of a broader, ongoing effort within OBSGESSION to bridge the gap between biodiversity data and policy execution. To dive deeper into the science behind this topic, the project has hosted a dedicated seminar series exploring key aspects of the framework:
Bringing Methodologies to Life Across European Ecosystems
Beyond theoretical frameworks, OBSGESSION grounds its research in six biodiversity validation pilots across Europe. The case studies represent European biodiversity and ecosystem conservation challenges at scales varying from local to regional.Full details on each ecosystem pilot are now available in a collection of newly published pilot factsheets, which made their debut at the conference, where people could take a look at their digital versions.
Reading those materials gives an insight into the practical testing environment to demonstrate how Earth observation, field research, and ecological modelling come together to deliver actionable biodiversity insights. You can also check outOBSGESSION’s biodiversity pilots on the project’s website.
The OBSGESSION in a Nutshell video presents a concise overview of the project’s overarching mission and components.
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To relive the conference by exploring the detailed programme alongside the full abstracts, visit the conference website.
Pensoft Publishers is pleased to announce the publication of the first issue of the Journal of Scientific and Technological Innovations (STI), an international journal for cutting-edge research across the scientific and technological spectrum.
The journal notably adopts Pensoft’s ARPHA platform, an innovative end-to-end full-featured publishing solution that streamlines the entire publication workflow – from initial manuscript submission to indexing, distribution, hosting and archiving through one coordinated platform. To date, ARPHA provides “a home” to about 100 open-access journals across scientific fields.
The Journal of Scientific and Technological Innovations is an international, multidisciplinary academic journal supervised by Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry and Trade (HUIT). The journal publishes original, peer-reviewed research contributions.
Its editorial purview encompasses a broad range of scientific and technological domains:
Food Science – biotechnology, traceability, safety and quality assurance, chemistry and toxicology, packaging, nanotechnology, sensory evaluation, sustainability, health and nutrition, and product innovation
Environmental Science – catalysis and energy conversion, carbon capture and utilisation, hydrogen and biomass technologies, agricultural and environmental biotechnology, bioremediation and wastewater treatment, sustainable chemistry, and computational approaches
Chemical Engineering – green and sustainable chemistry, computational methods, analytical and synthetic chemistry, pharmaceutical chemistry, catalytic technologies, and process development
Materials Science – nanomaterials, biomaterials, ceramics and composites, electronic and optical materials, polymers, surface coatings, eco-materials, and semiconductors
Editorial board
The journal is led by an international team of scholars:
The first issue of STI presents six contributions spanning food science, materials science, and applied food technology:
A cost-benefit analysis of small-holder floating-house fish farming in Chau Doc City, Vietnamese Mekong Delta
A study of 35 Mekong Delta fish farmers reveals significant disparities in farm profitability across different river reaches, with operations facing demographic vulnerabilities and heavy reliance on unpaid labour.
Read more: Farzana H, Tran DD, Nguyen TD, Park E (2026) A cost-benefit analysis of small-holder floating-house fish farming in Chau Doc City, Vietnamese Mekong Delta. Journal of Scientific and Technological Innovations 1: e209236. https://doi.org/10.3897/sti.e209236
Ultrasound-assisted pullulanase modification increases resistant starch content and alters the structure–function properties of water caltrop starch
A combined ultrasound and enzymatic treatment increased resistant starch content in water caltrop starch from 21.72% to 28.15%, whilst enhancing its water and oil absorption capacities. The approach offers potential for developing resistant starch-enriched functional food ingredients.
Read more: Phan VM, Ngo TMP, Do TTN, Luyen TTH, Duong TT, Tran NM, Tran CH (2026) Ultrasound-assisted pullulanase modification increases resistant starch content and alters the structure–function properties of water caltrop starch. Journal of Scientific and Technological Innovations 1: e209539. https://doi.org/10.3897/sti.e209539
Effects of Melatonin/β-cyclodextrin Treatment on Physicochemical and Bioactive Attributes of Cherry Tomatoes during Storage
Melatonin complexed with β-cyclodextrin reduced cherry tomato weight loss by up to 56% during refrigerated storage and proved more effective than free melatonin in preserving colour, acidity, and polyphenol content. The complex formation provides a viable strategy for extending shelf-life in harvested produce.
Read more: Tran THC, Dong TT, Nguyen PH,Le NH,Kuo C-H (2026) Effects of Melatonin/β-cyclodextrin Treatment on Physicochemical and Bioactive Attributes of Cherry Tomatoes during Storage. Journal of Scientific and Technological Innovations 1: e212043. https://doi.org/10.3897/sti.e212043
Design, Functionalities, and Emerging Applications of Ti3C2Tx MXene-Based Composites: A Review
This review synthesises current knowledge on titanium carbide-based MXenes, two-dimensional materials with exceptional conductivity and mechanical properties. MXene-based composites demonstrate applications in gas sensing, photocatalytic carbon dioxide reduction, and energy storage devices.
Read more: Ta QTH, Pham NN, Tran QN, Lu TMT, Noh JS (2026) Design, Functionalities, and Emerging Applications of Ti3C2Tx MXene-Based Composites: A Review. Journal of Scientific and Technological Innovations 1: e205045. https://doi.org/10.3897/sti.е205045
Chemical Composition, Bioactivities, and Cosmetic Applications of Coconut Oil and Its Derivatives
Recent evidence demonstrates that coconut oil, when appropriately applied, offers dermatological benefits, with antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties. The research clarifies interactions between coconut oil and skin microflora and explains previous inconsistencies in published findings.
Read more: Dat NM, Phong DT, Long HB, Dat NT, Thy LTM (2026) Chemical Composition, Bioactivities, and Cosmetic Applications of Coconut Oil and Its Derivatives. Journal of Scientific and Technological Innovations 1: e205088. https://doi.org/10.3897/sti.e205088
Retention of bilberry anthocyanins in wood hemicelluloses coated microcapsules under the impact of humidity and packaging conditions
Storage at 8% relative humidity limited bilberry anthocyanin degradation to 17-22% over 24 weeks, with wood hemicelluloses providing comparable protection to conventional gum Arabic. The findings establish moisture control as important for developing shelf-stable natural functional powders with sustainable coating materials.
A platform for scientific advancement
The diversity of contributions in this first issue reflects STI’s multidisciplinary scope. Researchers interested in submitting manuscripts are invited to consult the journal’s guidelines and submission portal.
The inaugural conference took place in Sofia, Bulgaria, bringing together researchers, conservationists and practitioners to address gaps in small mammal research and monitoring.
The inaugural European Small Mammal Conservation Conference (SMCC 2026) took place in Sofia, Bulgaria, from 21 to 25 September 2026, bringing together researchers, conservationists and practitioners from across Europe and beyond to address gaps in small mammal research and monitoring.
This year’s conference was held jointly with the 33rd Hamster Working Group and the VIII European Ground Squirrel Meeting, making hamsters and sousliks the primary focus, alongside broader topics including renewable energy development, agricultural impacts, reintroductions, predator–prey interactions and innovative methodologies in small mammal research.
We were delighted to participate in SMCC 2026 with an exhibition booth, showcasing the breadth of publishing services we offer to the biodiversity and conservation community. It was a pleasure to present our portfolio of journals dedicated to advancing research across ecology, biodiversity and conservation.
Pensoft’s booth at SMCC 2026.
We were particularly proud to present the following journals:
Individual-based Ecology – exploring the physiological and behavioural mechanisms that shape ecological processes
Biodiversity Data Journal – an open-access venue for publishing primary biodiversity data and datasets
Pensoft’s journal portfolio exhibited at SMCC 2026.
Meeting delegates from across the small mammal research community was tremendously rewarding, and we thoroughly enjoyed discussing how our journals can support and amplify their work.
Beyond our academic offerings, we were particularly excited to showcase beautiful art prints illustrated by our in-house scientific illustrator, Denitsa Peneva. The collection featured stunning depictions of otters, olinguitos and hamsters.
Pensoft’s art prints at SMCC 2026.
Conference Highlights
The scientific programme was exceptional, and we were privileged to attend many outstanding presentations that demonstrated the importance of innovative monitoring approaches and conservation action.
Lessons from Citizen Science for Small Mammal Conservation Monitoring in Great Britain
We were delighted to attend a talk by Matt Larsen-Daw, Chief Executive of the Mammal Society (UK), which presented a portfolio of citizen science programmes designed to address distribution knowledge and population monitoring across Great Britain. The programmes, united by the Mammal Mapper smartphone app, included the National Harvest Mouse Survey, the Searching for Shrews initiative, and the University Mammal Challenge.
The presentation highlighted the value of standardised effort data, the differing trade-offs between structured and opportunistic recording, and the potential for these approaches to be applied across European contexts.
Matt Larsen-Daw presenting “Lessons from citizen science for small mammal conservation monitoring in Great Britain” at SMCC 2026.
Strong Decline of Hamster Populations in Bulgaria
We were equally impressed by Nedko Nedyalkov’s presentation documenting the significant decline in distribution and abundance of both the common hamster (Cricetus cricetus) and the Romanian hamster (Mesocricetus newtoni) across Bulgaria. The research revealed that population reductions, detected through owl pellet analysis and trapping methods, likely began in the 1950s with agricultural intensification and continue today.
Given that both species are strictly protected under the EU Habitats Directive yet lack active conservation projects, the presentation substantiated the urgent need for targeted conservation measures. We are also pleased to note that Nedko serves as a subject editor for two of our open-access journals, ZooKeys and the Biodiversity Data Journal.
Nedko Nedyalkov presenting “Strong decline of the distribution and abundance of Cricetus cricetus and Mesocricetus newtoni (Mammalia: Cricetinae) in Bulgaria” at SMCC 2026.
Reintroduced Saker Falcons and Their Dependence on European Ground Squirrels
Yana Andonova’s presentation on the diet of Bulgaria’s reintroduced saker falcon population provided compelling evidence of the breeding birds’ overwhelming dependence on the European ground squirrel (Spermophilus citellus) as a primary food source.
Through food-remain analysis, visual observations and camera-trap monitoring, the research documented that ground squirrels comprised over 80 per cent of identified prey items, with small rodents accounting for 89 per cent overall! It is also worth mentioning that Andonova is an author in our open-access Biodiversity Data Journal.
Yana Andonova presenting “Reintroduced Saker Falcons (Falco cherrug Gray, 1834) are dependent on European ground squirrels during the breeding period in Bulgaria” at SMCC 2026.
Looking Forward
Attending SMCC 2026 was a genuine pleasure and particularly meaningful given that the conference took place in Sofia, the city in which our company is based. Connecting with researchers and conservationists working at the forefront of small mammal conservation, and sharing our commitment to advancing biodiversity research through open-access publishing, reinforced our dedication to supporting this important field.
We look very much forward to engaging with this community again at future events!
Pensoft Publishers took part in the 14th International Conference on Biological Invasions (NeoBiota 2026) in Brussels, Belgium, between 7-11 September 2026.
Pensoft Publishers took part in the 14th International Conference on Biological Invasions (NeoBiota 2026) in Brussels, Belgium, between 7-11 September 2026. The well-established biennial series brought together researchers, practitioners, policymakers and stakeholders from around the world to share cutting-edge scientific research on biological invasions.
Over five days, the conference covered the full arc of the field, from how alien species arrive and spread to what they do to ecosystems and to people. The conference sessions also tackled how risks are assessed and prioritised, and what management, policy and public engagement can realistically achieve.
Pensoft’s Presence
During the days of the conference, we showcased our journals’ portfolio and project materials from OneSTOP and other projects, which were of interest to the participants.
Pensoft’s stand at the 14th International Conference on Biological Invasions.
More specifically, Pensoft was represented with a booth showcasing the relevant journals such as:
NeoBiota– publishes all disciplines interested in biological invasions, specifically on the ecology, evolution and biogeography of non-indigenous aquatic and terrestrial animals, plants, fungi and micro-organisms
Nature Conservation – publishes all disciplines interested in basic and applied conservation ecology and nature conservation in general at various spatial, temporal and evolutionary scales
Biodiversity Data Journal – publishes biodiversity science containing taxonomic, floristic/faunistic, morphological, genomic, phylogenetic, ecological or environmental data on any taxon of any geological age from any part of the world
One Ecosystem – provides a forum for studies in the field of ecology and sustainability
PhytoKeys– publishes in systematic Botany containing taxonomic/floristic data on any taxon of any geological age from any part of the world
MycoKeys – publishes on the monophyletic kingdom Fungi containing taxonomic or ecological data on any taxon of any geological age from any part of the world
ZooKeys– launched to support free exchange of ideas, data and information in all branches of Zoology
Research Ideas and Outcomes – publishes all outputs of the research cycle, including: project proposals, data, methods, workflows, software, project reports and research articles
Pensoft at the 14th International Conference on Biological Invasions.
During the days of the conference, we met many project partners and journal editors. Indeed, Pensoft’s presence at the conference was significant, with a Pensoft NeoBiota editorial meeting held and the Pensoft Award for the Best Talk given by Ana Novoa to Rajat Rastagi at the closing ceremony of the conference.
The Highlights
Pensoft Editorial Meeting
On Tuesday evening, NeoBiota convened its editorial board to review the journal’s progress. The meeting highlighted significant developments, including increases in article submissions and continued improvement in the journal’s impact and reputation within the field.
NeoBiota Editorial Meeting, 2026.
Visiting Meise Botanic Garden
On Wednesday, meanwhile, we visited Meise Botanic Garden, the home of OneSTOP’s coordinators and the Plant Ecology and Evolution journal. The trip allowed us to meet some editors from the journal and talk to them about their plans and publications. In addition, the project OneSTOP was showcased, and the walk in the garden allowed participants to test OneSTOP’s web app for the identification of invasive species.
Meise Botanic Garden, 2026.
Notable Presentations
While the conference included numerous notable presentations, Joana Vicente’s keynote Prioritisation in the Age of Invasion Science: From Risk Ranking to Adaptive Governance, is especially worth mentioning. Joana represented BIOPOLIS-CIBIO, one of OneSTOP’s partners, and showcased OneSTOP’s work in prioritisation. The key takeaway was as follows:
“Prioritisation should not be a one-off ranking of species but an ongoing, adaptive process built into how invasions are governed”.
Joana Vicente presenting at NeoBiota 2026.
Another important session was one on Friday morning, where Quentin Groom (coordinator of OneSTOP and author, reviewer and subject Editor in Biodiversity Data Journal, NeoBiota, One Ecosystem) presented the importance of developing an early-alert system for invasive alien species in the session – From prototype to infrastructure: building a cross-realm European alert system for invasive alien species.
Quentin Groom presenting at NeoBiota 2026.
During the session, he showcased how such a system would help the management of IAS and highlighted the work that has already been done for its developmentby OneSTOP and its sister project GuardIAS.
The Takeaway
NeoBiota 2026 has closed, but the work of limiting the spread and impact of invasive alien species does not pause between conferences. We met many project partners and editors from journals, and talked about the next steps in the science of biological invasions.
Digital biodiversity data has come a long way. Twenty-five years ago, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) launched with 21 founding countries and a simple but ambitious goal: make the world’s biodiversity data freely and openly available to anyone, anywhere.
Today, GBIF’s network includes 70 participating countries, along with data providers across more than 120 countries, offering open access to over 3.8 billion biodiversity data records. This milestone is explored in a new overview article published in the Biodiversity Data Journal, which traces GBIF’s trajectory over the past quarter-century and the challenges that remain as it looks ahead.
GBIF Executive Secretary Dr. Joe Miller remarked:
As GBIF celebrates its 25th anniversary, I’m very proud to serve as Executive Secretary of the organisation and to have contributed to this milestone publication. Detailing the history of GBIF both as an infrastructure and a global network, the article pays tribute to all the people involved in the network throughout a quarter century—be they staff, participants, nodes, volunteers, data publishers or data users. It represents the past, present and future of GBIF. I believe the paper will help strengthen our network and its capacity to respond to biodiversity data needs both now and in the future.
GBIF was established in 2001, following a proposal from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Megascience Forum which concluded that “an international mechanism is needed to make biodiversity data and information accessible worldwide”.
The call came in response to a problem facing the international community after the 1992 Rio Earth Summit: the world’s biodiversity knowledge was scattered across a small number of institutions, concentrated in wealthy countries, with no shared way to bring it together in support of the newly signed Convention on Biological Diversity.
Now, a quarter-century later, GBIF has become the foundational infrastructure for biodiversity science and policy worldwide.
A Growing Global Network
Annual biodiversity data made available through the Global Biodiversity Information Facility as of July 2026. Credit to GBIF.
GBIF’s work is carried out through a distributed network of 47 voting country participants and 42 organisational participants, each represented by a national or thematic “node” that mobilises data, builds local capacity, and connects biodiversity communities to GBIF’s infrastructure. More than 2,700 institutions, including museums, universities, government agencies, citizen science platforms, and a growing number of private-sector organisations, have published data through the network, with new publishers joining at a rate of more than two every three days, totalling nearly 3500 organisations involved.
Infographic summary of key numerical metrics of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility as of August 2026. See dynamic metrics at GBIF.org and at https://www.gbif.org/analytics/global.
GBIF-mediated data now underpin an average of eight new peer-reviewed research papers per day, and have contributed to more than 15,000 publications to date, spanning fields from climate change and food security to public health and invasive species management. An independent 2023 assessment estimated that GBIF generates roughly €12 in societal benefit for every €1 invested, with researcher time savings alone valued at €35 million annually.
Over 25 years, GBIF has continually expanded to accommodate new sources of biodiversity data – from digitised natural history specimens and citizen science observations to DNA-based records and, most recently, structured survey and monitoring data designed to support large-scale biodiversity tracking. In 2026, GBIF adopted the Catalogue of Life as its taxonomic backbone, the result of a multi-year collaboration to build shared infrastructure for reconciling species names across datasets.
Persistent Gaps Remain
A timeline of key events in the history of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Credit to Miller et al., 2026.
Despite this growth, GBIF recognises that several significant challenges remain. The global loss of biodiversity continues to be described as a crisis in major international assessments, even as the data infrastructure has improved. And the data itself continues to reflect long-standing imbalances – regions with high biodiversity, particularly in the Global South, remain underrepresented, while well-studied, charismatic groups such as birds are overrepresented compared to less visible taxa; furthermore, many marine species and hard-to-identify cryptic habitats and organisms remain inadequately documented.
Closing these gaps was part of the original motivation for creating GBIF a quarter-century ago, and it remains valid today. GBIF’s own assessment is that the network cannot resolve these asymmetries alone, doing so will depend on broader shifts in global scientific funding, data culture, and capacity, alongside GBIF’s continued efforts to expand its Participant network and to diversify the types of data it can mobilise.
An additional, ongoing challenge is data heterogeneity and data quality, because GBIF indexes data, rather than directly vetting every record, it relies on its network of data publishers to maintain quality at source, and on users to report issues – a distributed model that keeps the network scalable but is not without friction.
Looking Ahead
Capacity development across the Global Biodiversity Information Facility community. Credit to Miller et al., 2026.
Guided by its 2023–2027 Strategic Framework, GBIF is prioritising continued growth of its Participant network, expanded support for survey and monitoring data, and deeper integration of DNA-derived biodiversity records – all aimed at closing longstanding geographic and taxonomic gaps in digital biodiversity data worldwide.
Original source:
Miller J, Mandeville C, Schigel D, Gamboa Martinez J, Nielsen AM, Sheldon S, Hahn A, Raymond M, Bundgaard-Jensen S, Bagard Laursen M, Copas K, Blissett M, Høfft M, Méndez Hernández F, Noesgaard D, Rodrigues A, Russell L, Stjernegaard Jeppesen T, Elkjær Ørum-Kristensen A, Grosjean M, Waller J, Podolskiy M, Goodson H, Novakovikj S, Frøslev T, Ingenloff K, Sørensen Nilsson A, Svenningsen C, van der Meijden D, Suen A, Hakan Uzun A, Vaskova M, Nielsen C, Marentes Herrera E, Schaldemose Reibke N, Robertson T (2026) The Global Biodiversity Information Facility at 25. Biodiversity Data Journal 14: e208528. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.14.e208528
Researchers have described a new species of brilliantly coloured fish from a network of forest streams in the Brazilian Amazon, and have already recommended it for listing as Endangered because of the pressures facing its only known home.
Researchers have described a new species of brilliantly coloured fish from a network of forest streams in the Brazilian Amazon, and have already recommended it for listing as Endangered because of the pressures facing its only known home.
The fish, named Laimosemion laranja, is a killifish measuring less than three centimeters in standard length. Males are strikingly patterned, with rows of orange spots along the front half of the body and bold, chevron-shaped orange bars towards the tail, set against a pale grey flank.
Laimosemion laranja new species, INPA–ICT 062601, Paratype, female, 20.1 mm SL: Brazil, Amapá, Laranjal do Jari, Rio Cajari, Amazonas Basin. Photo: Yuri Abrantes.
Laimosemion laranja new species, INPA–ICT 062600, Holotype, male, 26.8 mm SL: Brazil, Amapá, Laranjal do Jari, Rio Cajari, Amazonas Basin. Photo: Yuri Abrantes.
“We are developing a research project aimed at investigating the evolution of life-history strategies in freshwater fishes of the family Rivulidae across different biomes in Brazil.
During our sampling in small rivers locally known as ‘igarapés’ in the Rio Cajari region, in Amapá State, we found this fish with a very striking coloration, which immediately caught our attention.”
Yuri Abrantes of the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte
The research team with Laimosemion laranja. Photo credit: Yuri Abrantes.
Waldir Miron Berbel-Filho with Laimosemion laranja. Photo credit: Yuri Abrantes.
Confirming that the fish was new to science required close comparison of its body proportions, scale counts and skeletal features against its closest relatives, together with an analysis of its mitochondrial DNA.
“It was an unexpected moment. Initially, what most caught our attention was the impressive coloration of the males and females, which was unlike anything we had previously encountered in the study area. This sparked our admiration and a great deal of curiosity.”
Once the genetic analysis confirmed the fish’s distinct identity, he said:
“It was something special, as we saw an opportunity to contribute to increasing our knowledge of Amazonian biodiversity and to draw attention to the conservation of areas that are still poorly explored but highly threatened.”
The species’ name, laranja, is Portuguese for both the colour orange and the fruit, a fitting nod to the males’ vivid markings. It also honours Laranjal do Jari, the Amapá municipality where the fish was found.
“We wanted to choose a name that would highlight a characteristic of the fish while also fostering a sense of connection with the people of the region where it was discovered.”
Yuri Abrantes
Habitat of Laimosemion laranja. Photo credit: Yuri Abrantes.
Laimosemion laranja belongs to a group of Amazonian killifish, some of which have evolved an unusual survival strategy: their embryos can pause development entirely, lying dormant in damp mud until seasonal pools refill with rain.
“Laimosemion represents one of the five independent origins of the annual life cycle within the family Rivulidae.
Laimosemion laranja is particularly interesting because it expands our knowledge of the diversity and evolution of this group in the region.”
Yuri Abrantes
The new species is currently known from just three small forest pools near Laranjal do Jari, all showing signs of disturbance from deforestation, mining and urban expansion; one site lies close to water discolored by mining sediment, while another, within the city itself, is affected by plastic pollution.
Laimosemionlaranja in its habitat. Video credit: Yuri Abrantes.
With its entire known range covering an estimated 25 square kilometers, the researchers argue that Laimosemion laranja meets the criteria for an Endangered listing under IUCN guidelines, and have recommended extending the boundaries of the neighboring Rio Cajari Extractive Reserve to help protect it.
Abrantes YG, Lima SMQ, Nielsen DTB, de Lira FO, da Silva MJ, Berbel-Filho WM (2026) A new killifish of the genus Laimosemion (Cyprinodontiformes, Rivulidae) from Rio Cajari in the Brazilian Amazon. Zoosystematics and Evolution 102(4): 1079-1088. https://doi.org/10.3897/zse.102.187659
The beta release of an innovative collaborative stand-alone authoring tool transforms manuscript preparation with semantic enrichment and real-time collaboration capabilities.
Scholarly publisher and technology provider Pensoft Publishers announces the beta launch of ORPHO, a revolutionary online platform designed to streamline collaborative scientific writing and produce AI-ready, future-proof scholarly literature.
ORPHO presents a significant advancement in scholarly publishing technology, combining intuitive writing features with sophisticated semantic enrichment capabilities. The new platform builds upon Pensoft’s fifteen years of experience as a developer of semantic publishing infrastructure.
Key Features
Within a shared online workspace, researchers can start with built-in customisable templates, create their own or import an existing file. They can then team up with collaborators in real time using track changes, role-based user rights, inline comments, and document-level chat. More significantly, ORPHO automatically structures scientific content according to international publishing standards, making research outputs findable, discoverable, interoperable and reusable (FAIR) once published.
Unlike its predecessor, the ARPHA Writing Tool, ORPHO is available as a standalone real-time collaborative workspace decoupled from journals hosted on Pensoft’s ARPHA Publishing Platform. Once a manuscript is ready, authors receive AI-FAIR machine-readable content that can be formatted to meet multiple journal requirements at the click of a button.
The platform’s adaptability to domain-specific workflows is currently being piloted in biodiversity science. ORPHO integrates seamlessly with leading biodiversity data aggregators, including the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) and PlutoF, via import and export facilities for structured data, making ORPHO particularly valuable for researchers handling taxonomic, ecological and biodiversity data.
ORPHO: A new intelligent workspace for scientific writing.
Why ORPHO?
The name draws inspiration from multiple sources which reflect the tool’s philosophy and heritage. Named after Orphium: a unique plant genus endemic to South Africa whose sole species (Orphium frutescens) is known as the sea rose, ORPHO reflects the platform’s distinctive nature, heritage, and core philosophy.
It also evokes Orpheus, the legendary musician of ancient Thrace whose home region, the Rhodopi Mountains, lies in present-day Bulgaria, where ORPHO’s developer, Pensoft, is headquartered. The name thus honours the tool’s origins whilst embodying the exceptional creative performance it enables.
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Prof. Dr. Lyubomir Penev, founder and CEO of Pensoft, comments:
“We are well aware that researchers today face an overwhelming list of formatting requirements and technical demands in an AI-driven landscape. It is true that rapid technological advancement presents both immense opportunities and mounting complexities for researchers.
We built ORPHO to remove that friction by offering an intuitive, collaborative workspace that lets scientists focus on their research. As a scientific publisher, our mission is to make scholarly publishing a seamless, rewarding experience fit for the modern age.”
The beta release invites researchers, institutions and publishing platforms to trial ORPHO and provide feedback. Access is available at orpho.net.
