Tag: ecology

Scientists call for a global alliance to place biodiversity at the heart of the UN Pact for the Future

A new white paper delivers a clear message: protecting biodiversity is not just an environmental issue. It is essential for food security, public health, climate stability, and the global economy.

A new white paper: “From Knowledge to Solutions: Science, Technology and Innovation in Support of the UN SDGs”, published in the open-science scholarly journal Research Ideas and Outcomes (RIO), brings together leading voices from Europe’s biodiversity and data science communities to deliver a clear message: protecting biodiversity is not just an environmental issue. It is essential for food security, public health, climate stability, and the global economy.

The authors make a call for a decisive shift: from fragmented initiatives to a holistic, global approach to biodiversity research and policy, already demonstrated during a workshop at the 79th United Nations General Assembly and the Science Summit (UNGA79). A key part of this transformation concerns the role of research infrastructures in connecting science, technology, and policy: from vast biodiversity collections and genomic observatories, to ecosystem “digital twins” powered by supercomputers.

Behind the paper are a network of legal entities based in Europe and holding global interests, which includes biodiversity, ecology, and engineering communities, coordinated by the LifeWatch European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC).

With their combined expertise and through European initiatives, such as Research Infrastructures, e-Infrastructures, the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), the Digital Twin projects and academic publishers, these communities provide a basis for collaboration in strategically contributing to the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (K-M GBF) targets.

Biodiversity needs to be placed at the centre of the upcoming 2026 UN Summit of the Future and become a core pillar of the agenda after the 2030 deadline for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).

The UN Pact for the Future should include biodiversity as a core pillar: “not only of environmental sustainability, but of equity, security, and intergenerational justice”.
urges the team.

To do this, the authors propose the establishment of a global alliance that will strategically integrate biodiversity conservation into the core priorities of the UN Summit of the Future and the post-SDG agenda.

This alliance is meant to join the voices of researchers, policymakers, indigenous knowledge holders, civil society, and industry to ensure that biodiversity underpins peace, prosperity, and justice as a universal enabler.

The white paper also demonstrates how the research infrastructures collectively contribute to the seven Strategic Considerations of the K-M GBF, outlined here in brief and further detailed in the full publication:

Contribution and rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities: Ensuring fair recognition and sharing of benefits with indigenous peoples and local communities, thus integrating their knowledge into biodiversity science.
Collective efforts towards the targets of the K-M GBF: Coordinating biodiversity monitoring, databases, and digital infrastructures to track progress towards global conservation targets.
Fulfilment of the three principal objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and its protocols: Studying or supporting the study of all aspects of biodiversity; and providing public and streamlined access to biodiversity information.
Implementation through science, technology, and innovation: Developing and offering technologically advanced and novel solutions for research, data sharing and management to various users; and promoting open science by publishing research findings and increasingly sharing more facets of the research process.
Ecosystem approach: Developing and implementing technologies that enable a cross-domain, multidisciplinary approach to studying biodiversity and ecosystems; and using holistic, cross-disciplinary methods to understand and predict biodiversity and environmental dynamics.
Cooperation synergies: Collaborating with organisations responsible for implementing the CBD, policy agents, international research projects; and participating in international forums and social, scientific and technical initiatives.
Biodiversity and health linkages: Demonstrating how healthy ecosystems support human health, food security, and resilience to pandemics by supporting interdisciplinary research through bringing together knowledge and data and uncovering links and interactions between humans and the environment.

“With the UN’s ‘Pact for the Future’ currently being shaped, we see a unique opportunity to anchor biodiversity as a unifying thread across global goals that will transform how societies respond to the intertwined crises of climate change, nature loss, and pollution,” say the authors.

The white paper is the latest contribution to the LifeWatch ERIC Strategic Working Plan Outcomes open-science collection meant to provide a one-stop access point to the most important deliverables by the European biodiversity and ecosystem research infrastructure, which is currently undergoing a significant upgrade as a response to the needs of its target communities and stakeholders.

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Original source:

Arvanitidis C, Barov B, Gonzalez Ferreiro M, Zuquim G, Kirrane D, Huertas Olivares C, Drago F, Pade N, Basset A, Deneudt K, Koureas D, Manola N, Mietchen D, Casino A, Penev L, Ioannidis Y (2025) From Knowledge to Solutions: Science, Technology and Innovation in Support of the UN SDGs. Research Ideas and Outcomes 11: e168765. https://doi.org/10.3897/rio.11.e168765

This publication is part of a collection:

LifeWatch ERIC Strategic Working Plan Outcomes Edited by Christos Arvanitidis, Cristina Huertas, Alberto Basset, Peter van Tienderen, Cristina Di Muri, Vasilis Gerovasileiou, Ana Mellado

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About the contributing organisations:

LifeWatch ERIC

Europe’s biodiversity and ecosystem research infrastructure. LifeWatch ERIC provides access to biodiversity and ecosystem data, services and other research products: its virtual workbenches and digital twins for biodiversity science enable researchers worldwide to analyse biodiversity patterns, processes, and changes in ecosystems, and derive evidence-based knowledge for science and policy.

CSC – IT Center for Science

CSC hosts one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers (LUMI), pioneering biodiversity digital twins and climate models. CSC provides critical support for data-intensive projects that link computing, AI, and environmental science.

EGI Federation

A federation of hundreds of data centres providing global-scale computing, AI, and data services. EGI enables large-scale analysis of biodiversity and environmental data from sensors and satellites, supporting international collaboration.

VLIZ – Flanders Marine Institute

A hub for marine research, coordinating Europe’s Digital Twin of the Ocean and global biodiversity data systems, such as WoRMS (World Register of Marine Species). VLIZ drives blue innovation and ocean data integration.

The European Marine Biological Resource Centre (EMBRC-ERIC)

Europe’s infrastructure for marine biology, offering access to organisms, labs, and genomic observatories. EMBRC connects over 70 institutes across 10 countries, supporting research “from genes to ecosystems.”

The Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo)

The largest initiative to digitise and unify Europe’s natural science collections into a single, FAIR-data-based infrastructure. DiSSCo makes museum collections globally accessible, boosting taxonomic, ecological, and environmental research.

OpenAIRE

A European e-Infrastructure dedicated to building a globally connected, interoperable, and sustainable open research ecosystem, with Open Science at its core. By offering a suite of services covering the entire research lifecycle, guidelines, and practices that support the adoption of Open Access and FAIR data principles across its network of National Open Access Desks in 34 countries, OpenAIRE supports local researchers, funders, and policymakers in aligning with European and global open science policies.

Pensoft

Founded in 1992 “by scientists, for scientists”, the academic open-access publishing company is well known worldwide for its novel cutting-edge publishing tools, workflows and methods for text and data publishing of journals, books and conference materials. Through its Research and Technical Development department, the company is involved in various research and technology projects. Pensoft coordinated the EU project BiCIKL (2021-2024), which established a new community of Research Infrastructures and users of FAIR and interlinked biodiversity data.

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)

The world’s largest computing society, established to foster ethical and responsible innovation. ACM brings global expertise in computing and AI to biodiversity research and policy.

Athena Research Centre

A leading ICT and AI research institute advancing digital infrastructures and open science platforms. Athena connects computing innovation with biodiversity, humanities, and societal challenges.

In June, Pensoft joined the 2025 largest meeting for conservation experts

We attended the International Congress for Conservation Biology to present the REST-COAST and SELINA Horizon-funded projects, as well as our scholarly journals and books portfolio.

Over 1,200 people from more than 90 countries, including conservation and social science researchers, students, practitioners, government and NGO professionals, policy specialists and leaders from indigenous groups attended the 32^nd International Congress for Conservation Biology (ICCB 2025), hosted by the SCB Oceania Region from 15^th to 19^th June 2025 in Brisbane/Meanjin, Australia.

*The Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre (BCEC) welcomed over 1,200 participants for the 32^nd International Congress for Conservation Biology (ICCB 2025) hosted by the SCB Oceania Region.*
*Photo credit: BCEC.*

A special focus seen across the talks and overall rhetoric of the event was on indigenous peoples, culture and knowledge, and how they can be recognised and further engaged in the study and protection of the environment in a sustainable and culturally appropriate manner. Other topics popular during the week included biocultural diversity and wildlife trade and traffic.

Throughout the week, the delegates enjoyed three sets of plenary talks, and got to choose from upwards of ten parallel sessions taking place three times each day. Multiple workshops and business meetings would also take place every day around lunch time. Then, each day of the congress would conclude with a poster session at the Exhibition hall. Additionally, multiple social events scheduled throughout the week – such as a nature documentary movie night, a science comedy night, and a closing reception, held amongst the exhibits of the Queensland Museum Kurilpa – would take care of the attendees’ entertainment after long days of talks and presentations.

Our team at Pensoft was proud to join this amazing event as one of the 14 exhibitors at ICCB 2025. At our stand, Pensoft’s Head of Journal development and PR: Iva Boyadzhieva would invite delegates to elaborate on their scientific interests and latest research endeavours, as well as wants and needs concerning the publication, communication and outreach of their work.

*Pensoft’s Head of Journal development and PR: Iva Boyadzhieva at the ICCB2025*
*(Brisbane, Australia).*

Then, visitors would leave the Pensoft stand with helpful advice concerning scholarly publishing and multiple recommended titles from the Pensoft open-access journal portfolio fitting the scope of their research. If you have met us at any event in the past couple of years, you would also know that it is next to impossible for a visitor of ours to leave without at least one of our signature stickers featuring captioned scientific illustrations of species studied in papers from across our journals.

At every event in the past two years, Pensoft has been handing out stickers featuring detailed scientific illustrations of species studied in papers published in Pensoft’s scholarly portfolio. This is our ‘thank you’ to the authors who have trusted our journals with their work.

Many would also become intrigued to know more about the latest activities and results of the two European Union-funded projects that enjoyed prominent visibility at the Pensoft stand, namely: SELINA (an acronym for Science for Evidence-based and Sustainable Decisions about Natural Capital) and REST-COAST (Large scale RESToration of COASTal ecosystems through rivers to sea connectivity). At both projects, our team takes pride in leading work packages dedicated to the communication and dissemination of the projects’ outputs.

Having started in 2022 and set to run until 2027, SELINA comprises 50 partner organisations coordinated by the Leibniz University Hannover. This transdisciplinary project provides smart, cost-effective, and nature-based solutions to historic societal challenges, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and food security. A main objective is to identify biodiversity, ecosystem condition, and ecosystem service factors that can be successfully integrated into decision-making processes in both the public and private sectors.

Most recently, the consortium launched SELINA’s Communities of Practice initiative to promote collaborative learning and knowledge integration across Europe. This digital platform provides a forum for scientists, policymakers, practitioners, and business representatives to exchange knowledge and further engage with its real-life application. On the Communities of Practice webpage, visitors may explore how SELINA is driving change across Europe.

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Meanwhile, the mission of the EU Horizon’s Green Deal-funded REST-COAST is to address today’s challenges to coastal ecosystems caused by a long history of environmental degradation of rivers and coasts. Bringing together 38 European institutions, led by the Catalonia University of Technology UPC-BarcelonaTech (Spain), the project is set to demonstrate to key stakeholders and decision-makers that large-scale restoration of river deltas, estuaries and coastal lagoons is necessary to sustain the delivery of vital ecosystem services.

*A prominent output by the REST-COAST project is a policy brief addressing the EU Nature Restoration Regulation, and serving to provide scientifically-informed policy recommendations and targets.*

At the Pensoft stand, ICCB2025 participants had the opportunity to browse through nine fact sheets produced within the project. Each provides a neat snapshot of the story of one of the pilot sites selected by REST-COAST as representatives of particularly vulnerable hotspots for the main EU regional seas (Baltic, Black, North Atlantic and the Mediterranean). On display was also a recent policy brief addressing the EU Nature Restoration Regulation. It serves to provide a concise summary of the issues and challenges at hand, in addition to scientifically-backed policy recommendations and targets.

Both the pilot site factsheets and the policy briefs produced by the consortium are made public in the Media Center on the project website. Further project outputs, including research articles, data papers and project reports, are permanently available from the REST-COAST’s open-science project collection in the Research Ideas and Outcomes (RIO) journal.

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On the final day, the ICCB 2025 did not disappoint either. The day started with a touching plenary talk by Amy Van Nice of the Wildlife Alliance, where she shared a lot of her own experience as a wildlife rescuer, but also as a human with her own personal battles along the way. Throughout her talk she remained fully transparent about the current situation in wildlife trafficking, which remains, sadly, a crisis yet to be tackled.

The day continued with a full programme of parallel sessions before everyone gathered for the closing session and the closing ceremony, where delegates could look back at the last year in conservation, and learn about what is to come. The closing ceremony also announced and celebrated the SCB 2025 Global Service Awards and the ICCB awards.

Following the ICCB tradition, the organisers also waited until the end of the event to announce the location of the next international congress. It will take place in 2027 some 12,000 km (7,500 miles) away from Brisbane: in Mexico, where it will be jointly hosted by the North American (SCBNA) and the Latin America and Caribbean (SCB-LACA) regions of the Society for Conservation Biology.

Tackling extinction risks in the EU with invasive species management

A new study identifies where and how targeted action can have the highest conservation impact.

Experts from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) have analysed how targeted management of invasive alien species (IAS) can reduce extinction risks for threatened species across the European Union (EU), in line with the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030.

Published in the open-access journal NeoBiota, and funded by the European Commission, a new study identifies where and how targeted action against IAS can have the highest conservation impact.

Researchers applied the IUCN Species Threat Abatement and Restoration (STAR) metric to measure opportunities for species threat abatement caused by IAS. They estimated that fully removing threats from IAS could reduce extinction risk for EU species by up to 16%.

Methodological outline for the different steps of the STAR-t analyses on Invasive Alien Species threats.

The Macaronesian Islands, namely the Canary Islands (Spain), Madeira (Portugal), and the Azores (Portugal), present the largest opportunities for reducing species extinction risk. The research calculates this at an over 40% reduction in extinction risk if IAS were eliminated, illustrating how IAS pose a significantly higher threat to islands compared to mainland ecosystems. Islands are particularly vulnerable due to their unique biodiversity, high levels of endemism, and often fragile ecosystems.

“Given the alarming impact that invasive alien species have on native biodiversity and the economy, it is essential to identify where action can have the greatest effect. In this context, our work presents the first regional application of the Species Threat Abatement and Restoration (STAR) metric, a science-based method that links conservation actions to the reduction of species extinction risk. By applying STAR with data from the EU Red List of threatened species, we highlight opportunities for addressing invasive alien species across national and subnational levels in the EU.
Randall Jiménez Q., Senior Conservation Scientist, IUCN (first author of the research).

For specific IAS, the greatest opportunities to reduce regional species extinction risk by mitigating threats from IAS come from managing feral goats (12.4%), mouflons (8.1%), rabbits (5.3%) and rats (4.6%).

Contribution of IAS threat abatement to extinction risk reduction. Relative contribution (in percentage) to the species extinction risk reduction that could be met by acting to abate IAS threats in each of the EU Member States or Outermost Regions.

Invasive alien species are a major threat to global biodiversity and the total cost of biological invasions across all European Union member states has been estimated at 129.9 billion US dollars between 1960 and 2020. In Europe, measures for IAS management are mainly established through the European Union Biodiversity Strategy 2030, which aims to halve the number of IUCN Red List of Threatened Species at risk from IAS by 2030.

“Mitigating the impacts of invasive alien species offers some of the greatest potential gains for conserving native biodiversity, while also delivering benefits for ecosystem services and local economies.

“This analysis provides decision-makers with guidance on where efforts can achieve the most significant results, supporting progress toward the EU Biodiversity Strategy target of reducing impacts on threatened species from invasive alien species by 50%.”
Boris Erg, IUCN European Regional Director.

Across the EU, 3,759 species (excluding marine animals) have been assessed as Near Threatened or Threatened with extinction, of which 579 (15%) are documented to be threatened by IAS (IUCN 2024).

A 2023 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) found that IAS have been a significant driver in 60% of documented plant and animal extinctions. The report, informed by experts from the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG), identified 3,500 invasive species that are severely harming biodiversity and human livelihood. These are increasing rapidly, with a forecast increase of 36% by 2050 – posing threats to the realisation of the Global Biodiversity Framework.

Original source:

Jiménez RR, Smith KG, Brooks TM, Scalera R, Mair L, Nunes AL, Costello KE, Macfarlane NBW (2025) Guiding action on invasive alien species towards meeting the EU’s Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. NeoBiota 99: 109–129. https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.99.148323

Follow NeoBiota on Bluesky and Facebook.

Elephant instead of wild boar? What could have been in Europe

Even under today’s climatic conditions, the long-extinct straight-tusked elephant could still live in Europe.

Elephants are among the largest land mammals on Earth and are often referred to as “ecosystem engineers” because they sustainably alter their surroundings through grazing, trampling, and digging. Europe, too, had an elephant: the straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) lived on our continent for around 700,000 years. The species survived multiple ice ages before becoming extinct during the last one due to additional hunting pressure from humans. Throughout its existence, the straight-tusked elephant helped shape Europe’s landscape, maintaining open spaces and light woodlands. Many native plant species are still adapted to these conditions today.

A photo of a towering elephant statue standing on grassy terrain under a blue sky with fluffy clouds, its trunk raised and tusks visible. — A sculpture of Palaeoloxodon antiquus next to the paleontological museum of Ambrona (Soria, Spain). Photo credit: PePeEfe under a CC BY-SA 3.0 license.

“The German name Waldelefant (forest elephant) originates from the assumption that this species primarily lived in the wooded regions of Europe. However, fossil evidence shows that P. antiquus often inhabited open or semi-open habitats with mosaic-like vegetation, similar to modern elephants,” explains Prof. Dr. Manuel Steinbauer, Chair of Sport Ecology at the University of Bayreuth.

What for?

Our perception of nature is shaped by what we experience in our surroundings. Ecosystems without direct human influence are often perceived as “natural.” However, when considering insights gained from fossils, it becomes clear that today’s ecosystems— even without direct human intervention—differ significantly from those in which the species of our landscapes evolved thousands of years ago. Studies like the one carried out by the Bayreuth research team highlight the importance of studying past ecosystems for conservation. Understanding how climate and environmental changes have historically affected large mammals can provide valuable insights for modern conservation strategies.

To reconstruct the way of life of P. antiquus and, in particular, its actual habitat—known as the realised niche—the research team examined scientific literature and palaeontological databases for fossil finds of P. antiquus that could be assigned to specific Marine Isotope Stages. Marine Isotope Stages are periods in the earth’s history that reflect climate history, representing warm and cold stages. The Bayreuth research team assigned fossil finds from across Europe to either a warm or cold stage and used climate models from these periods to reconstruct the realised niche of the straight-tusked elephant. A comparison with modern climate data suggests that straight-tusked elephants would still be able to live in Europe today. The climate in Western and Central Europe would be particularly suitable, except for mountainous regions such as the Alps and the Caucasus.

Map of Europe showing occurrence probability with black points indicating data locations, overlaid on a gradient green background. — Current potential distribution of the straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) in Europe. The colouring represents the probability of occurrence, with grey indicating “very unlikely” and dark green “very likely”. The black dots mark the fossil finds on which the prediction is based.

“In the past, megafauna like the straight-tusked elephant and their regulatory mechanisms—such as grazing—were omnipresent. Many European species, particularly plants that thrive in open habitats, likely established in their diversity in Europe because they benefited from these ecological influences. Traditional conservation strategies in Europe primarily aim to protect biodiversity by shielding habitats from human activities. However, this strategy alone is unlikely to restore the lost ecological functions of megafauna,” says Franka Gaiser, a doctoral student in the Sport Ecology research team and lead author of the study.

Modern conservation projects actively reintroduce large herbivores to Europe. However, this comes with challenges, as the ecological processes that have shaped modern ecosystems are not yet fully understood. Additionally, today’s large herbivores cannot entirely replace the role of extinct megafauna, as both the animals themselves and the landscape structures, as well as species interactions, have changed significantly.

Original publication:

Gaiser F, Müller C, Phan P, Mathes G, Steinbauer MJ (2025) Europe’s lost landscape sculptors: Today’s potential range of the extinct elephant Palaeoloxodon antiquus. Frontiers of Biogeography 18: e135081. https://doi.org/10.21425/fob.18.135081

Research stations across Europe presented in a photo exhibition in Sofia

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.

Find updates and more details on the conference website.

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.

The event will take place on 23-27 June 2025 in Tampere, Finland. Abstracts submitted to the conference will be made permanently available in the eLTER Science Conference abstracts collection in the journal-like ARPHA Conference Abstract platform.

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).

Guest blog post: Global change, individual behaviour, and trout population persistence

New experiments reinforce that behavioural plasticity can be key for coping with environmental changes

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.

A photo of a brown trout swimming over a bed of smooth pebbles in clear water. — 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, we ran two virtual experiments using the inSTREAM individual-based model to represent a trout population in northern Spain.

A photo of a river flowing between rocky banks, surrounded by greenery and towering mountains under a clear sky. — 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.

A photo of three people wearing waders engaged in field research in a river. — 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

Recently launched Individual-based Ecology journal publishes its first articles

IBE offers a transformative framework for addressing global challenges such as the loss of biodiversity and potential loss of ecosystem services.

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 53^rd annual conference (Freising, Germany).

Pensoft launches new journal: Individual-based Ecology

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.

Illustration showing mouse behavior variation, predation effects, and colonization success based on boldness and size in new habitats. — 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.”

Illustration showing the impact of individual variation on biodiversity across genes, populations, communities, and ecosystems under global change. — 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.

Guest blog post: Global change, individual behaviour, and trout population persistence

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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You can keep up with updates from the journal on Bluesky, X and Facebook.

A toxic pufferfish (that could bite off your fingers) has been found in Croatian waters

The silver-cheeked toadfish has spread aggressively in the Mediterranean since entering through the Suez Canal.

On May 13, 2024 researchers discovered a highly invasive silver-cheeked toadfish (Lagocephalus sceleratus) in the Bay of Medulin, just off the coast of Croatia. The 52 cm, 1.3 kg male represents the northernmost record of the species in the Mediterranean, raising serious concerns about potential impacts on marine biodiversity, fisheries, and coastal tourism.

Pufferfish specimen on a metal plate. — Specimen of *Lagocephalus* *sceleratus* (♂) from Medulin Bay, Croatia.

Originating from the Indo-Pacific, Lagocephalus sceleratus is a ‘Lessepsian migrant’ (meaning it migrated through the artificially created Suez Canal) and has spread aggressively through the Mediterranean since its first sighting in 2003. This latest discovery is the fourth confirmed record of the species in the Adriatic and the first from its northernmost waters.

Map of Medulin Bay, Croatia. — The area in the northern Adriatic Sea where *Lagocephalus* *sceleratus* was caught, Medulin Bay, southern Istria, Croatia.

Recent evidence from the southern and eastern Mediterranean shows that bites from the powerful beak-like jaws of the species can result in severe injuries such as partial amputations of fingers. Its flesh and organs also contain a potent neurotoxin, tetrodotoxin, which can be lethal if consumed.

In Mediterranean coastal regions, Lagocephalus sceleratus has become an increasingly significant portion of small-scale fishing catches, often causing damage to fishing gear with its bite. Stomach analysis of the captured individual revealed a diet consisting of bivalves, gastropods, and sea urchins, suggesting potential disruptions to the Adriatic’s ecological balance.

Map showing the Adriatic Sea with five circles marking sightings of the species since 2012. — Adriatic records of *Lagocephalus* *sceleratus*.

“The presence of Lagocephalus sceleratus in the northern Adriatic is a clear warning sign of the species’ expanding range and potential ecological and economic consequences. Proactive monitoring and management strategies are important to mitigating its impact on local marine biodiversity, fisheries, and public safety.”
Dr Neven Iveša, co-author of the study.

Experts recommend increased monitoring, regulatory measures, and public awareness campaigns to address threats posed by the species. Targeted removal efforts, public education on handling and reporting sightings, and further research can also play a part in mitigating threats.

Researchers from the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Juraj Dobrila University of Pula and the Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries in Split published the discovery in the open-access journal Acta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria.

Original source

Iveša N, Buršić M, Dulčić J (2025) Northernmost Mediterranean record of the silver-cheeked toadfish, Lagocephalus sceleratus (Actinopterygii, Tetraodontiformes, Tetraodontidae). Acta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria 55: 77-81. https://doi.org/10.3897/aiep.55.146945

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Fungal Fairy Rings: the science behind the magic

Researchers explore the history, ecology, and impacts of these intriguing fungal formations.

A new review article published in the OA journal IMA Fungus sheds light on the phenomenon of fungal fairy rings, mysterious circular patterns of altered vegetation found in grasslands and forests.

In the review, researchers Maurizio Zotti, Giuliano Bonanomi, and Stefano Mazzoleni from the University of Naples Federico II explore the history, ecology, and impacts of these intriguing fungal formations.

Fungal fairy rings (FFRs), they explain, occur when certain fungi grow radially outward through the soil from a central point, breaking down organic matter and affecting plant growth in distinctive circular patterns. While folklore once attributed these rings to magic, scientists now understand them as a natural process driven by underground fungal activity.

Cross-section of a fungal fairy ring (FFR) transect providing a visual representation of the mycelial mat distribution in the soil, with arrows representing growth direction.

In their paper, the researchers synthesise centuries of research on FFRs, from early observations in the 1800s to modern studies using cutting-edge genomic techniques. “The study of FFRs provides a valuable opportunity to delve deeper into the complex field of soil and fungal ecology, bridging multiple scientific disciplines such as mycology, microbiology, chemistry and botany,” they write.

Describing how different types of FFRs form and expand over time, the authors note that some persist for hundreds of years, reaching massive sizes: “In French grasslands, large FFRs of I. geotropa, with a diameter of 800 m, were estimated to be around 700 years old.”

Fungal fairy rings on grasslands. — FFRs of *Agaricus* *crocodilinus* in Monte Pratello subalpine grassland, Rivisondoli, Abruzzo, Italian Apennines. (Photo by Franco Carnevale).

The effects of FFRs vary substantially. Indeed, the study explores the various ways FFRs impact soil properties and plant communities as they spread. In some cases, the fungal activity leads to lush green rings of stimulated plant growth. In others, it causes bands of dead or stunted vegetation.

FFRs don’t just affect plants; they also influence soil microbes. The review describes how “the development of FFR mycelial mats is associated with a general simplification of the bacterial community” in some cases, while other studies have found increased microbial diversity within fairy rings.

Fungal fairy ring examples. — FFR examples (left) and a comparison of soil densely occupied by mycelial mat vs. unaffected soil (right).

The researcher team emphasises that there is still much to learn about the ecological roles and formation mechanisms of FFRs. Several promising areas should be explored in future research, including investigating the volatile compounds produced by fairy ring fungi and using advanced sequencing methods to unravel how FFRs regulate species coexistence in soil and plant communities.

Concluding the study the authors assert that, while improved knowledge of FFRs may have removed some of their mystical aura, “such removal of thin magic halo has certainly not reduced the wonder for the beauty of nature in its ever surprisingly dynamic pattern and intertwined complex systems.”

Read the full research paper here.

Original source

Zotti M, Bonanomi G, Mazzoleni S (2025) Fungal fairy rings: history, ecology, dynamics and engineering functions. IMA Fungus 16: e138320. https://doi.org/10.3897/imafungus.16.138320

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Values and dependence of society on pollinators: Pensoft joins the EU project VALOR

VALOR is to prompt better understanding of our relationship with pollinators. Pensoft will lead activities related to co-developing tools for expanding engagement and interaction, and support communication, dissemination, and exploitation activities.

Animal pollinators have become a flagship for biodiversity conservation, largely due to their globally recognised role in supporting broader biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and human well-being.

Despite this recognition and the widely acknowledged benefits of pollination, many of the pressures on pollinators persist. As a result, there is growing evidence of localised yet significant deficits in pollination services, affecting both crop pollination and other communities.

Coordinated by Dr Tom Breeze (University of Reading) and funded by Horizon Europe, VALOR is a multi-actor project that will develop a comprehensive, systems-based approach to gaining a deeper understanding of the cascading impacts of pollinator shifts from flower to fork and beyond.

The project will examine the effects of pollinator shifts on ecosystems, farm businesses, and local communities through primary research and modelling.

*VALOR’s coordinator Dr Tom Breeze (UREAD) gave an introductory presentation during the project’s kick-off meeting in February (Reading, United Kingdom).*

The project aims to empower actors to develop a deeper comprehension of relationships with pollinators and will produce a range of co-developed tools for landowners, businesses, and policymakers.

These tools will facilitate a better understanding of pollination-related risks and enable users to conduct their own studies by replicating the project’s methods and applying its models. To ensure comprehensive data collection without compromising scale, VALOR will adopt a systems-based approach, employing a series of in-depth case studies in focal regions to assess the importance of pollinators.

VALOR launched in January 2025 and will be running until the end of 2028.

To achieve its goals the VALOR project has six objectives:

Co-develop a better understanding of stakeholder knowledge needs around pollinators.
Better understand the dependence of society and the economy on pollinators.
Measure and model the cascading impacts of plant-pollinator networks on ecosystems and human well-being.
Explore the consequences of pollinator loss through value chains.
Forecast the resilience of pollinator networks and human benefits under future conditions.
Co-develop tools to engage and empower actors about pollinator conservation.

Pensoft’s role

Building on its experience in communication, dissemination, and exploitation of results, Pensoft will focus on maximising the project’s impact and long-term legacy. This involves a broad scope of activities, including the development of the project’s visual identity and online presence, as well as the translation of research findings into policy recommendations.

As a leader of the work on co-developed tools for expanded engagement and interaction, Pensoft will support the development of a spatially explicit tool to allow users to explore the fine-scale changes in pollinator abundance and diversity, as well as pollination services resulting from a change in landscape management.

Moreover, Pensoft will assist the VALOR project in contributing to the Safeguard Knowledge Exchange Hub (Safe-Hub).

Pensoft will also facilitate collaboration opportunities with other projects, leveraging its expertise in numerous EU-funded projects. These efforts will be directed towards VALOR’s sister project: BUTTERFLY (101181930).

International consortium

The VALOR consortium comprises partners from thirteen European institutions, along with three associated partners, including China and Australia.

The consortium spans a wide and diverse range of scientific disciplines, from pollinator ecology, sociology, and economics to stakeholder engagement and communications.

University Of Reading (UREAD)
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)
Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (ALU-FR)
Jagiellonian University (UJ)
The Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
Wageningen University (WU)
Lund University (ULUND)
University of La Laguna (ULL)
University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU)
The University of Helsinki (UH)
Pensoft Publishers (PENSOFT)
World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC)
European Landowners’ Organization (ELO)
University of New England (UNE)
China West Normal University (CWNU)
Beijing Forestry University (BJFU)

The VALOR project website is coming soon!

In the meantime, follow the project’s progress via its social media channels on BlueSky and LinkedIn.