China’s Guizhou Province has long been known for its remarkable biodiversity, but a recent study in Zoosystematics and Evolutionhas shed light on some of its creepier, lesser-known inhabitants: pirate spiders.
What is a pirate spider?
The name ‘pirate spiders’ refers to species belonging to the family Mimetidae. Also known (misleadingly) as cannibal spiders, they earned their name because of their araneophagic (spider-eating) nature.
Araneophagic behaviours.
Araneophagic behaviours.
Araneophagic behaviours.
These eight-legged predators don’t spin webs to catch prey; instead, they infiltrate the webs of other spiders and mimic the vibrations of prey or potential mates, then ambush the unsuspecting hosts when they come to investigate.
A recent research paper by Zhang et al. offers the most comprehensive survey to date of the pirate spider genus Mimetus in Central Guizhou, including two new species, bringing the provincial total to eight and giving Guizhou the highest Mimetus diversity in China.
Mimetussinicus.
China’s new species
Mimetus guiyang
Mimetusguiyang.
Discovered in Guiyang City, this species is known only from females collected via pitfall traps. Its most distinctive feature is the presence of large bubble-shaped ossified hair bases on the abdomen, a rarity among known Mimetus species. Its genital morphology and body patterns make it easily distinguishable from close relatives.
Mimetus lanmeiae
Mimetuslanmeiae.
Also found in Guiyang, this species was observed perched on a spider web, likely in the act of mimicry. Its unique palpal structures and small body size (~2.14 mm) distinguish it from other known Mimetus species. The name of the species honours the mother of the specimen collector. Hopefully this was meant as a compliment.
Other findings
New records: The researchers recorded two previously known species (M. caudatus and M. sinicus) for the first time in Guizhou, expanding their known range.
Rediscovery and redescription:M. caudatus, previously known only from male specimens, now has its female described in detail.
Molecular insights: DNA barcoding (COI gene sequencing) was used to support species identification and match males and females – a critical step for accurate taxonomy, especially given the subtle differences between males and females in Mimetus.
Original source
Zhang J, Zhang H, Liu J, Yu H, Xu X (2025) A survey of mimetid spiders (Araneae, Mimetidae) from Central Guizhou Province, China. Zoosystematics and Evolution 101(2): 711-734. https://doi.org/10.3897/zse.101.146895
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The exhibition was organised by Pensoft as part of the communication and dissemination activities for the EC Horizon project eLTER (European Long-Term Ecosystem Research)
In the past months, a unique photo exhibition showcasing European long-term ecosystem research sites was presented in the Bulgarian capital: Sofia.
This visually striking exhibition was not only a celebration of science and nature, but also an illustrative example of Pensoft’s integrated approach to communication, dissemination, and community engagement under the EU-funded eLTER project.
Coordinated by Pensoft’s Communications team, the initiative demonstrates how a carefully curated campaign can be transformed into a multi-layered outreach success. From conceptualization to realization, the team worked closely with the eLTER Coordination and Head Office to create what is now known as the eLTER Grand Campaign—a journey across Europe to visually document the human and ecological stories behind the research stations.
The eLTER photo exhibition was displayed at the ‘Lover’s bridge’ in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Over the course of three months, photographer Evgeni Dimitrov and his team traveled across 23 European countries, visiting some of the continent’s most advanced long-term ecosystem research sites. Using both drone and handheld cameras, the team captured nearly 3,000 photographs and 50 videos, bringing an artistic lens to the world of environmental science. The visual materials created during the Grand Campaign will be integrated into the eLTER database, becoming a valuable resource for researchers and stakeholders across Europe. These assets will support ongoing efforts in data visualisation, educational outreach, and long-term documentation of ecosystem changes.
“During the trip, it was fascinating to observe the work of scientists—each team reflecting the specific national context, yet united by a shared goal: to collect increasingly detailed data that can help us create a better environment.
I aimed to portray the research stations not only from a technical perspective—showing the equipment and how it’s used—but also within the broader environment: the nature around them, the living beings they interact with, and the people behind the machines who bring meaning to otherwise dry data.
explained photographer Evgeni Dimitrov.
Prof. Dr. Lyubomir Penev (Pensoft’s CEO and founder) and photographer Evgeni Dimitrov at the photo exhibition.
Seizing the momentum of the exhibition’s launch in Sofia, the Pensoft team also engaged with local media to broaden public awareness of the eLTER project. For example, the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency published a feature story, titled “Photo Exhibition Presents Research Stations across Europe in Sofia” in both Bulgarian and English, which highlights the exhibition, as well as the mission and goals of eLTER, with a special focus on the work of LTER-Bulgaria. Other local media also covered the news and promoting eLTER.
This strategic blend of visual storytelling, media engagement, and public outreach exemplifies Pensoft’s holistic approach to science communication.
From centrally managing a campaign, coordinating international logistics, and delivering high-quality media assets, to generating public interest and securing media coverage, this initiative shows how communication can become a vital extension of research impact.
To stay up to date with the activities and overall progress of the eLTER project, subscribe to the eLTER Newsletter, and follow eLTER on BlueSky,X, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
This June, the eLTER project will be holding its very first science conference with the aim to bring together scientists across disciplines who are striving to adopt a holistic approach to the understanding of the complex interactions between living organisms, humans, and their physical environment in the critical zone.
Pensoft is a project partner and a work package leader in the eLTER projects. eLTER receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under GA No 871126 (eLTER PPP) and GA No 871128 (eLTER PLUS), and the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under GA No 101131751 (eLTER EnRich).
Over forty years ago, Menno Schilthuizen, while still a high school student, conducted a study on carrion beetles at the Lichtenbeek estate near Arnhem. Using small traps baited with meat and other attractants, he recorded over a thousand beetles in the spring of 1982, meticulously documenting the species and their numbers.
Field notes from 1982.
Four decades on, Schilthuizen (now a professor of evolution and biodiversity at Leiden University) and his team collaborated with high school students from the Thomas a Kempis College in Arnhem to replicate the study with precision: at the same location, using the same methods, on the same dates. The goal was to examine how the carrion beetle population has changed over the years. Their findings have been published in the Biodiversity Data Journal; the article can be viewed online here.
Fieldwork.
Key findings: shifts in biodiversity
The high school students analysed the beetles that they collected. Their research revealed that some carrion beetle species have disappeared, while other, new species have appeared. However, the overall number of species and population densities have remained largely the same.
Sorting and mounting specimens.
One striking discovery was that common species have become even more abundant, while rare species have become even rarer. This widening gap in species commonness suggests a decline in biodiversity, which could signal the potential local extinction of the rarer species.
A citizen science initiative
The research was initiated by the Taxon Foundation, a nonprofit set up and headed by Schilthuizen, in collaboration with biology teacher Leonie Wezendonk of the Thomas a Kempis College. Taxon foundation specializes in biodiversity research conducted by school children, local residents, and other community scientists. The project was made possible through funding from the Netherlands Cultuurfonds and the Suzanne Hovinga Foundation.
Research article:
Schilthuizen M, van der Sterren T, Kersten I, Groenhof M, van der Meulen H, Wezendonk L (2025) Resampling a carrion beetle fauna after 40 years (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Silphinae, and Leiodidae, Cholevinae). Biodiversity Data Journal 13: e151206. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.13.e151206
The initiative aims to make it easier to access and use biodiversity data associated with published research, aligning with principles of Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) data.
The data portals offer seamless integration of published articles and associated data elements with GBIF-mediated records. Now, researchers, educators, and conservation practitioners can discover and use the extensive species occurrence and other data associated with the papers published in each journal.
A video displaying an interactive map with occurrence data on the BDJ portal.
The collaboration between Pensoft and GBIF was recently piloted with the Biodiversity Data Journal (BDJ). Today, the BDJ hosted portal provides seamless access and exploration for nearly 300,000 occurrences of biological organisms from all over the world that have been extracted from the journal’s all-time publications. In addition, the portal provides direct access to more than 800 datasets published alongside papers in BDJ, as well as to almost 1,000 citations of the journal articles associated with those publications.
“The release of the BDJ portal and subsequent ones planned for other Pensoft journals should inspire other publishers to follow suit in advancing a more interconnected, open and accessible ecosystem for biodiversity research,” said Dr. Vince Smith, Editor-in-Chief of BDJ and head of digital, data and informatics at the Natural History Museum, London.
— GBIF @biodiversity.social/@gbif (@GBIF) March 10, 2025
“The programme will provide a scalable solution for more than thirty of the journals we publish thanks to our partnership with Plazi, and will foster greater connectivity between scientific research and the evidence that supports it,” said Prof. Lyubomir Penev, founder and chief executive officer of Pensoft.
On the new portals, users can search data, refining their queries based on various criteria such as taxonomic classification, and conservation status. They also have access to statistical information about the hosted data.
Together, the hosted portals provide data on almost 325,000 occurrence records, as well as over 1,000 datasets published across the journals.
Imagine walking into a museum and realising that every specimen—a rare deep-sea snail, a giant fossil bone, a pressed plant, the DNA bank, endless drawers of perfectly pinned insects, even the notebooks and dusty photographs in the archive—is part of a vast, interconnected web of knowledge. Now, imagine if all of these specimens—across every museum in the world—were seamlessly linked, their data unified and accessible to scientists, historians, educators, and conservationists everywhere. This vision is at the heart of collectomics—a groundbreaking new term introduced in a recent paper published in Natural History Collections and Museomics.
Top: for more than 200 years, relevant object information was most often recorded in the form of hand-written labels and inventories. Bottom: Natural history museums directly intersect with social sciences, although the connections often go unrecognised. Top left: Jan-Peter Kasper/Universität Jena, Top right: Sigrid Hof / Senckenberg Research Institute and Museum Frankfurt, Bottom left: image of Dr Fritz Haas (seated) and unnamed companions (men and women), in the act of collecting a new species Unio valentinus, Bottom right: natural history objects also appear in the context of art objects, photo: Emőke Dénes.
What is Collectomics, and Why Does It Matter?
At its core, the collectomics concept represents a holistic modern view of museum collections. This is not only about digitising collections, or about preserving species; rather this new approach shifts the perspective to treating collections as a single global dataset. Museums represent a dynamic and growing resource that can help answer some of the most pressing challenges in science and conservation. With the integration of digital tools, standardized data practices, and a commitment to open accessibility, collectomics offers a way to transform fragmented collections into a powerful, collective resource that also integrates the cultural and historical aspects of museum collections.
Collectomics envisions museums as interconnected nodes in a worldwide network, rather than isolated repositories of knowledge, and holds this ambition as the primary goal of collections digitisation. This framework allows researchers to trace the movement of species, monitor environmental changes over time, and predict future ecological shifts with greater accuracy. More importantly, it connects beyond the realm of natural sciences to other disciplines. Natural history specimens are objects that were collected by people—including often-uncredited local knowledge holders.
The accessory information about the life and work of those human facets informs our use of museum objects. For example, if we can identify the handwriting on an original collection label, the lifetime of that person can constrain the collecting date even if it was not written down, and this adds to the biological knowledge about the specimen. Conversely, the types of objects and observations recorded by a person inform the understanding of the historical context.
For an increasingly diverse range of scientists, museum data contribute to work without actually depending on physically examining the original objects. They can analyse high-resolution images, genetic data, and historical records without leaving their own labs. Collectomics puts the original objects as the centre of gravity, acknowledging that preserved specimens underpin the scientific replicability of this rapidly growing suite of applications.
Natural history collections are iconic in biodiversity research and yet much of their potential impact remains untapped. Photograph by Sven Tränkner, Senckenberg Museum Frankfurt, Germany.
Looking Ahead: How Collectomics Can Shape the Future
Beyond envisioned technical advancements, collectomics is fundamentally about people. It is about the researchers who dedicate their lives to studying biodiversity, the curators who meticulously preserve specimens, and the students who might one day make groundbreaking discoveries using these collections.
A database is more than just a digital version of a collection—it is structured, searchable, and interconnected, allowing for new patterns and insights to emerge. Physical collections, like a library, must follow a particular a priori organisation. Books on a shelf might be arranged by subject, author, the colour of the dustjacket, or just the order they were unpacked. Zoological and botanical collections are typically arranged taxonomically, while geological collections are organised stratigraphically. And just like running your eyes across a bookshelf, physically browsing a collection often turns up serendipitous inspiration and discovery. Once specimens and their associated data are digitised, different kinds of unexpected relationships and trends can be uncovered. In a collection organised based on systematics, it is almost impossible to answer simple geographical questions like “How many specimens do you have from Malaysia?” because the relevant material is scattered across countless diverse taxonomic groups. The power of digitisation is enabling cross-cutting queries, on geography, time, and the activities of human contributors. This does not replace the need for well organised, well maintained physical collections, but instead unlocks the full potential.
Digital records are only a small fraction of global museum records. The black line represents a linear increase of the number of collection objects in time from the late 1700s. The dashed lines show three model projections for digitisation: in the best-case model prediction, museums might achieve complete digitisation at the earliest around the year 2071, but if there is no acceleration (red line) the global digitisation gap will continue to increase.
The importance of collections digitisation has long been recognised. However, this has progressed in a patchwork of small projects, often funded for specific research interests. As collections are continuously growing, the rate of growth may be outpacing even modern digitsation efforts. Collectomics offers an outlook that depends on, and also motivates, a total-collections approach. The power of collectomics emerges only when it is applied to everything, everywhere, in interconnecting museum collections including natural history and beyond.
By making collections more accessible, collectomics also contributes to democratising and diversifying science. Historically, access to rare specimens was limited to those with the resources to travel or with institutional connections. But with a collectomics approach, a high school student in a small town can study the same butterfly as a leading entomologist at a major university. A researcher in the Global South can contribute just as meaningfully to biodiversity studies as someone in the Global North. By embracing this new framework, museums are not only preserving history—we are unlocking its full potential.
Original source
Sigwart JD, Schleuning M, Brandt A, Pfenninger M, Saeedi H, Borsch T, Häffner E, Lücking R, Güntsch A, Trischler H, Töpfer T, Wesche K, Consortium C (2025) Collectomics – towards a new framework to integrate museum collections to address global challenges. Natural History Collections and Museomics 2: 1-20. https://doi.org/10.3897/nhcm.2.148855
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A thin atmosphere, freezing temperatures, and a barrage of radiation: the surface of Mars is hardly a prime holiday destination. But can any life survive there?
Known for their extreme tolerance to harsh environments such as Earth’s deserts and polar regions, lichens have long been considered a leading candidate for Martian survival. And, for the first time, researchers have demonstrated that certain species can survive Mars-like conditions, including exposure to ionising radiation, while maintaining a metabolically active state.
Published in the open-access journal IMA Fungus, a new study highlights the potential for lichens to survive and function on the Martian surface, challenging previous assumptions that the planet is uninhabitable.
Experiment arrangement of vacuum chamber with the additional facility, including metal grate with lichens, cooling table, temperature, pressure and humidity sensors, X-ray lamp with the controller, CO2 valve with cylinder, controllers of vacuum chamber, pressure, cooling table, and computer.
But what exactly are lichens? It’s a little complicated. In fact, lichens are not a single organism, but rather a symbiotic association between a fungus and algae and/or cyanobacteria.
In this study, the fungal partner in lichen symbiosis remained metabolically active when exposed to Mars-like atmospheric conditions in darkness, including X-ray radiation levels expected on Mars over one year of strong solar activity.
Cetrariaaculeata.
The research focuses on two lichen species (yes, there are lichen species despite them being a symbiosis), Diploschistes muscorum and Cetraria aculeata, selected for their differing traits. The lichens were exposed to Mars-like conditions for five hours in a simulation of the planet’s atmospheric composition, pressure, temperature fluctuations, and X-ray radiation.
The findings suggest that lichens, particularly D. muscorum, could potentially survive on Mars despite the high doses of X-ray radiation associated with solar flares and energetic particles reaching the planet’s surface. These results challenge the assumption that ionising radiation is an insurmountable barrier to life on Mars and set the stage for further research on the potential for extraterrestrial microbial and symbiotic survival.
“Our study is the first to demonstrate that the metabolism of the fungal partner in lichen symbiosis remained active while being in an environment resembling the surface of Mars. We found that Diploschistes muscorum was able to carry out metabolic processes and activate defense mechanisms effectively.
“These findings expand our understanding of biological processes under simulated Martian conditions and reveal how hydrated organisms respond to ionizing radiation – one of the most critical challenges for survival and habitability on Mars. Ultimately, this research deepens our knowledge of lichen adaptation and their potential for colonizing extraterrestrial environments.”
Lead author of the paper, Kaja Skubała.
Further long-term studies investigating the impact of chronic radiation exposure on lichens have been recommended, as well as experiments assessing their survival in real Martian environments.
Skubała K, Chowaniec K, Kowaliński M, Mrozek T, Bąkała J, Latkowska E, Myśliwa-Kurdziel B (2025) Ionizing radiation resilience: how metabolically active lichens endure exposure to the simulated Mars atmosphere. IMA Fungus 16: e145477. https://doi.org/10.3897/imafungus.16.145477
Species belonging to the genus Thismia are some of the strangest and most magical-looking in the plant kingdom, which has earned them the nickname ‘fairy lanterns.’
No exception to the rule, a newly discovered Thismia species from eastern Peninsular Malaysia looks like something that belongs in a fantasy world.
Take a look below.
Thismia aliasii.
Standing just 11 cm tall, Thismia aliasii is an easy-to-miss and Critically Endangered new species described in the open-access journal PhytoKeys.
The genus Thismia consists of plants that are mycoheterotrophic, meaning they do not photosynthesise and instead rely entirely on fungi for their nutrition. The unusual flowers seen on Thismia species facilitate specialised pollination mechanisms involving small insects such as fungus gnats.
Thismia aliasii was first documented by co-author Mohamad Alias Shakri in 2019 during a field expedition in Terengganu’s Chemerong Forest Eco Park, not far from a hiking path.
Terengganu’s Chemerong Forest Eco Park, habitat of the new species.
“The discovery of Thismia aliasii is very interesting as it was found in a mountainous region known for its natural beauty. The discovery was made on the edge of a popular mountaineering trail, but, remarkably, the species was first recognised by Alias.
“It was not easy to obtain specimens for further study as its habitat is on the mountain and COVID time delayed search efforts. Fortunately, targeted field work to find this plant was successful with the support of NAGAO.”
Siti-Munirah Mat Yunoh, co-author of the paper.
Siti-Munirah Mat Yunoh with Thismia aliasii.From left to right Angan and Alias and Zubir with Thismia aliasii.
Thismia aliasii is provisionally classified as Critically Endangered (CR) under the IUCN Red List criteria, with only five individuals observed across multiple surveys. The primary threats to its survival stem from habitat degradation due to increasing hiking activities in the region.
This discovery adds to Terengganu’s reputation as a hotspot for Thismia diversity, being home to 13 species of the genus, including six endemics.
Siti-Munirah MY, Mohamad Alias S (2025) Thismia aliasii (Thismiaceae), a new species from Terengganu, Peninsular Malaysia. PhytoKeys 254: 175-188. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.254.136085
Guest blog post by Daniel Ayllón and Steve Railsback
Early in the morning, Daniel Ayllón and his research mates at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid drive towards the mountains near Madrid. They’re out to survey streams where the endangered Southern Iberian spined-loach and Northern Iberian spined-loach used to coexist. We say “used to,” because once again they fail to find the Northern Iberian spined-loach, probably locally extinct. Such extinctions are not unusual, as freshwater fishes are one of the most threatened groups of animals in the world. There are still many brown trout there, though; the water is still cold enough for them.
Salmonids (trout, salmon and char) are especially challenged by climate change because they need cold, oxygenated and clean water. Trout populations at low altitudes or low latitudes are thus particularly at risk; many in the Iberian Peninsula have been declining for decades as rivers warm and dry. Climate models project a bleak future: such Mediterranean populations will face hotter and drier streams, with more frequent and longer droughts and heat waves, and increasing competition from warm-water fish.
Brown trout (Salmo trutta). Photo by J. R. Pérez (AEMS-Ríos con Vida archive)
Despite these changes, local extinctions of trout are still rare, because salmonids are among the most adaptable and resilient of freshwater fishes. They are changing their physiology and phenology, growth and reproduction patterns, and life-history strategies to adjust to the new environmental conditions, via evolutionary, plastic and behavioural mechanisms. While evolutionary ecologists typically focus on genetic adaptation to forces such as climate change, behavioural plasticity could be even more important, because it is fast, reversible and often predictable.
In fact, thermoregulatory movements seem a ubiquitous behavioural mechanism in salmonids: individuals move up and down river networks to find less-stressful temperatures and better growth potential. Behavioural plasticity in circadian activity and habitat selection (deciding when and where to feed) also help trout resist short-term environmental changes. However, we don’t know how important changes in circadian activity─or behaviours in general─are to long-term population persistence in the face of climate change. So to shed light on this question, in a recent work published in Individual-based Ecology, weran two virtual experiments using the inSTREAM individual-based model to represent a trout population in northern Spain.
The Roncal study site on the River Eska (northern Spain). Photo by Benigno Elvira
Steve Railsback and his colleagues at Cal Poly Humboldt University and the US Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Research Station in Arcata, California, have been developing, testing, and applying inSTREAM for 25 years. The central idea of individual-based models (IBMs) and of individual-based ecology in general is that a biological system can be described through its individual agents, their environment, and the interactions among agents and between agents and environment. The agents of a system (for example, all fish in a population) are modelled as unique and autonomous individuals with their own properties.
The controlled experiment of Harvey and White to quantify how trout trade off feeding vs. predation risk. The experimenters trained wild trout to feed at this dispenser, and then moved it to increasingly risky habitat. The feeding rate needed to keep the trout from leaving increases with the risk it perceives. IBMs like inSTREAM use knowledge about individual behaviour from experiments like this to predict complex population responses. Video by Jason L. White.
Agents also have behaviours: they make decisions, following simple rules or algorithms, independently of other individuals, and seek objectives such as surviving to reproduce in the future. These behaviours are adaptive: agents’ decisions depend on their state and the state of their environment. In this way, population-level results actually emerge from the behaviour of the individuals. In inSTREAM, model trout decide whether to feed vs. hide from predators at different times of day, assumed a trade-off between the need to feed and the predation risk it poses. Temperature has a strong effect on this trade-off because a fish’s metabolic rates, and thus the amount of food it needs, increase sharply with temperature.
Three members of the research team at the UCM conducting habitat surveys at the Roncal study site. In IBMs like inSTREAM, modelled populations and their environment are characterised by field data collected in surveys like this. Photo by Benigno Elvira.
What did we learn with our IBM? First, our simulations show what behavioural ecologists know from experiments: that during warm summers trout can meet their metabolic requirements only by feeding at multiple times of day and segregating temporally, so that fish of different size can feed at the same spot but at different times of day. Feeding during daytime is more profitable but riskier, while doing it at night is safer but less efficient, and feeding during twilight provides near-daytime growth and somewhat-reduced risk.
We then analysed how model trout change their circadian foraging behaviour under increasing climate change. As we expected, trout showed great behavioural plasticity: trout of all ages responded to warmer and drier conditions by increasing daytime feeding and overall foraging activity, although there were differences across age classes in the distribution of daily activity. Our second experiment used a great advantage of IBMs as a virtual laboratory: we can run experiments that are impossible in reality. We tested the importance of behavioural plasticity by simply turning the behaviour off. In our simulations, virtual populations of trout capable of flexible circadian feeding were more resistant to climate change─had higher biomass and a more balanced age structure─than were populations of trout that feed only during daytime.
These experiments reinforce that behavioural plasticity can be key for coping with environmental changes, so we shouldn’t minimise its relevance when predicting the persistence of salmonid populations in warming and drying rivers. This conclusion no doubt also applies to other taxa that have powerful adaptive behaviours.
This study epitomises individual-based ecology, the subject of Pensoft’s new journal: we use what we know from empirical research on individual physiology and behaviour, in an individual-based model, to study complex population responses of direct relevance to our changing world.
Research article:
Ayllón D, Railsback SF, Harvey BC, Nicola GG, Elvira B, Almodóvar A (2025) Behavioural plasticity in circadian foraging patterns increases resistance of brown trout populations to environmental change. Individual-based Ecology 1: e139560. https://doi.org/10.3897/ibe.1.e139560
Individual-based Ecology (IBE), a new open-access peer-reviewed journal by scholarly publisher and technology provider Pensoft, has now published its first articles, offering a fresh perspective on how the behaviour of individual organisms and ecological systems dynamics are linked.
The journal was launched in September 2024 with an official announcement made during the German Ecological Society’s 53rd annual conference (Freising, Germany).
To fill a known gap in knowledge, the journal focuses on individual-based perspectives in ecology, complementing other ecological disciplines. Current approaches cannot fully capture the mechanisms underlying ecological responses to change in drivers, the journal’s editors believe, as they rarely focus on the individual organisms who directly respond to change.
Four editors-in-chief lead IBE: Prof. Dr. Volker Grimm and Prof. Dr. Karin Frank of Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Prof. Dr. Mark E. Hauber of The City University /(CUNY) of New York, and Prof. Dr. Florian Jeltsch of the University of Potsdam. “This team represents an international and collaborative group who agree on the conceptual and empirical need for this new journal”- says Dr Mark E. Hauber, from the Graduate Center of CUNY, and a former guest professor in ecology at the University of Potsdam.
The journal is published under a diamond open-access model, which makes it free of charge for both readers and authors. It publishes a wide range of articles, including empirical, experimental, and modeling studies, as well as reviews, perspectives, and methodological papers.
By blending basic and applied research, IBE offers a transformative framework for addressing global challenges such as the loss of biodiversity and potential loss of ecosystem services.
“We propose a paradigm shift in ecological science, moving from simplifying frameworks that use species, population or community averages to an integrative approach that recognizes individual organisms as fundamental agents of ecological change,” advocates write in a forum paper just published in IBE’s first issue.
Examples of individual variation and its consequences: a individual variation describes the variation in traits, including behaviour, between or within individuals resulting from various processes such as microevolution and biotic filtering. It also explicitly includes variation induced by experience, health status or microbes and microbial communities associated with the host; b simplified example showing how successful colonisation or invasion depends on inter-individual variation in morphological or behavioural traits (González-Suárez et al. 2015; Dammhahn et al. 2020; Premier et al. 2020).
“By unravelling and predicting the dynamics of biodiversity in the Anthropocene through a comprehensive study of individual organisms, their variability and their interactions, individual-based global change ecology will provide a critical foundation for a better understanding if and how we can manage individual variation and behaviour for conservation and sustainability, taking into account individual-to-ecosystem pathways and feedbacks.”
Hierarchical organisation from genes to ecosystems. Individuals are the elementary particles of ecological systems, meaning that variation and interactions between individuals can scale up to emergent properties at the population, community and ecosystem levels. The different ecological levels are highly interconnected through both bottom-up and top-down processes. Elucidating these feedback loops through an individual-based lens is a prerequisite for understanding ecosystem resilience and response to global change.
“By taking into account the variation, behaviours, and interactions of individual organisms, individual-based ecology links the responses of organisms to the responses of ecosystems: if we understand enough about individuals, we can predict complex system dynamics, even under novel conditions,” the editors and colleagues write in a “manifesto” for individual-based ecology that they published in the new journal. “We intend the journal to show how the individual-based perspective, in empirical, theoretical, and computational studies, benefits all branches of ecology.”
IBE’s first published research articles provide excellent examples of the individual-based perspective of the journal. Church et al. explore, using an established model of brown trout, how the uptake of microplastics by fish with different personalities affects population size. Ayllón et al. use the same model to explore to what extent behavioural plasticity allows this species to cope with environmental change, in particular increasing temperatures. Railsback and Harvey argue that in many models the representation of mortality risk is too simple. They present a new method, “survival increase functions”, which is more realistic but still straightforward to calibrate.
The journal is supported by the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ, Germany) and the City University of New York (CUNY, USA).
The journal utilises Pensoft’s innovative ARPHA platform, which offers a seamless end-to-end publishing experience, encompassing all stages between manuscript submission and article publication, indexation, dissemination and permanent archiving. As a journal of Pensoft, IBE joins a number of open-access scholarly outlets in ecology by the publisher.
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A team from the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change (LIB) has discovered groundbreaking ways for rapidly digitizing collection data. Data of insect specimen labels can now be easily read with just a smartphone – and all wirelessly and using only free, already available apps!
Screenshots from a mobile phone showing the steps of scanning of real-time data collection, and examples of labels: A step 1: marking of the text to be captured via touch screen of the mobile phone (example – printed labels scanned on pin) B step 2: select from menu bar (at the right side under three dots) “Copy to computer” (example – printed labels scanned separately). C Capture of multidirectional printed labels scanned separately from the specimen in “Google Lens” D Capture of multiple distorted, printed labels scanned on the pinned specimen in “Google Lens” E Initial capture of a printed label scanned separately from the specimen in “Google Keep” F Extracted data resulting from E.
Why is this important?
Around 1.1 billion objects in the largest natural history museums worldwide remain undigitized and manual extraction of specimen label information for taxonomic revisions, another source for biodiversity data mobilization, is very time consuming. By digitizing these data, we can preserve valuable knowledge about our biodiversity, especially in times of climate change and human biodiversity crisis when many species are going extinct before they are even discovered.
This innovation will accelerate and advance global research and the preservation of our biological knowledge. And the best part? It’s not expensive and accessible to everyone – from professionals to amateur scientists!
Research article:
Ahrens D, Haas A, Pacheco TL, Grobe P (2025) Extracting specimen label data rapidly with a smartphone—a great help for simple digitization in taxonomy and collection management. ZooKeys 1233: 15-30. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1233.140726
