Northern Brown Argus butterfly on a thistle and headline 50 years of butterfly monitoring data reveal specialist species disappearing across UK

Pearl-bordered fritillary butterfly on bluebells

Extraordinary dataset of 44 million+ records of UK #butterflies collected by 782,000 volunteers in the past 50 years shows many species are in long-term decline eg Pearl-bordered Fritillary.

@ukbms.bsky.social is run by @savebutterflies.bsky.social, UKCEH, @btobirds.bsky.social, and JNCC.

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Map of Korea with illustrations of wildlife found in the Korean Demilitarised Zone

Major environmental challenges are often tied to conflict. Yet ecological research rarely reflects voices from conflict-affected areas.

A new @peopleandnature.bsky.social study explores how to address this, focusing on Korea’s Demilitarised Zone.

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

Robin Boyd: Using causal diagrams and superpopulation models to correct geographic biases in biodiversity monitoring data Throughout March, we are featuring articles shortlisted for the 2025 Robert May Prize. The Robert May Prize is awarded by the British Ecological Society each year for the best paper in Methods in E…

🏅 Shortlisted for the 2025 Robert May prize! 🏅

In his blog post, @robboyd.bsky.social talks about his paper 'Using causal diagrams and superpopulation models to correct geographic biases in biodiversity monitoring data' 🌍 🧪 Read the blog and find the full article 👇

buff.ly/a7UROJJ

An infographic titled “Fungal Tree of Life” depicting a diverse array of fungi with accompanying names and illustrations

Fungi are among the most important and beautiful soil organisms.

🍄 Explore the fungal tree of life, with an emphasis on the macroscopic diversity of fungi.

📷 Laszlo G. Nagy

Soil-biodegradable mulch film: Distinguishing between persistent microplastics and fragments released from certified soil-biodegradable products Soil-biodegradable mulch films offer a sustainable alternative to conventional plastics in agriculture, especially where recollection or recycling are…

A criticism often levelled at #biodegradable plastics is that their degradation produces persistent #microplastics. In this new publication, we used a mixture of experimental and modelling studies to show fragmentation into microplastics is a transient phase.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Hand-drawn botanical illustration of red-capped mushrooms labeled Amanitopsis pulchella, with additional dried mushroom specimens and handwritten notes on a beige paper background.

Ever seen fungal illustrations? 🍄 Our Fungarium Sequencing Project Team is thrilled to show some of the original illustrations that were created when the species were first described as new to science. In some cases, this is the only visual reference material of the original fungus that we have! 🧵👇

We highly recommend this upcoming talk at @linneansociety.bsky.social for compelling, evidence-based perspectives on the decline of woodland birds from Dr Richard Broughton 🌳⬇️

Visions for a positive lakes future in the Lake District National Park UKCEH is part of an EU funded project bringing together multiple perspectives while aiming to improve the health of lake ecosystems. Dr Heather Moorhouse tells us more...

What are stakeholders' visions for positive lake futures in the English Lake District?

A new blog post from #UKCEH_AquaEco: www.ceh.ac.uk/news-and-med... 🧪🌊🐟🚣‍♀️

#freshwater #lake @ukceh.bsky.social

Scientist sampling for invertebrates on the shore of Loch Leven using a kick-net.

Are you involved in freshwater biodiversity or water quality monitoring and research in the UK?

We're inviting individuals and organisations to complete a survey to help us understand community needs and priorities around monitoring & research.

app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/ceh-online...

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A new study from @ukceh.bsky.social using UKBMS data explores the impact of Agri-Environmental Schemes on butterfly abundance, species richness and diversity in England. Some positive relationships uncovered 👍
Learn more here - buff.ly/a0AKpBf
buff.ly/yjNJdeE

Combining professional survey data and data gathered from citizen scientists, new research highlights the positive impact of agri-environment schemes on butterfly communities at a landscape scale🦋

@ukceh.bsky.social| @btobirds.bsky.social| @naturalengland.bsky.social| @jappliedecology.bsky.social

Forest Topsoil Organic Carbon Declines Under Ash Dieback Despite the rapid expansion of tree diseases across the world, there is still limited knowledge on how diseases such as ash dieback will impact carbon cycling, especially belowground. We use data fro...

While most woodlands had stable soil carbon, plots with ash dieback decreased in carbon - with potentially big implications for woodland carbon sequestration!

The paper is available #openaccess at doi.org/10.1111/gcb.... and further information on the survey here: www.ceh.ac.uk/our-science/...

Our paper on the impacts of ash dieback on soil carbon is finally out! 🎉
#soilscience #ashdieback #woodlands

In this, we looked at the changes in soil organic carbon content of ~100 woodlands across GB over the past fifty years.

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NEW: Ash dieback and other tree diseases are resulting in significantly more greenhouse gas emissions than previously thought because a large amount of carbon is escaping from woodland soils, a study has found.

🎞️ Hear from lead author @fionaseaton.bsky.social

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Some reflections on the first few days of #INC5.2 negotations in Geneva, towards a #GlobalPlasticsTreaty.

Are the negotiations going well? Frankly, not really, though there are reasons for hope 👇

@ukceh.bsky.social
#PlasticsTreaty #PlasticTreaty #GlobalPlasticTreaty

Land Cover Map 2024 is available now!

The latest in the series of @ukceh.bsky.social Land Cover Maps in raster and vector formats across spatial resolutions! This adds another year to our well established time series!

Land Cover Map 2024 is available through @eidcdata.bsky.social

UKCEH Countryside Survey provides the first evidence of recovering national soil organic carbon in British croplands, after decades of decline - British Society of Soil Science A new study from the UKCEH Countryside Survey on soil carbon has been published in the European Journal of Soil Science. The study provides the first evidence of recovering national soil organic carbo...

🧪 A UKCEH Countryside Survey study provides the first evidence of recovering national soil organic carbon in British croplands, after decades of decline.

See a blog post by the British Society of Soil Science: tinyurl.com/y86w5nme

Full paper: bsssjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Our new paper looking at the impacts of ash dieback and deer grazing upon woodland vegetation is now out!

We found that ash dieback and deer grazing interacted in their impacts upon flora diversity and tree regeneration - and that key species such as bramble mediated a lot of these effects

"This is probably the most sophisticated soil health modelling framework to date…" says Tomislav Hengl, Director of @opengeohub.bsky.social.

Read about our Soil Health Data Cube and why it's set to revolutionise how we manage soil in Europe: ai4soilhealth.eu/new-map-of-s... #SoilHealth

Fiona Seaton: A diversity of diversities: Do complex environmental effects underpin associations between below- and above-ground taxa? 2024 HARPER PRIZE SHORTLIST: For the next two weeks, we are featuring the articles shortlisted for the 2024 Harper Prize. The Harper Prize is an annual award for the best early …

My blog talking about our Harper Prize shortlisted paper is up! I chat about what we found when looking at how the biodiversity of different groups interrelate, and how I ended up in ecology in the first place! 🌿🍄🦠🐦🐝

@ukceh.bsky.social @journalofecology.bsky.social
jecologyblog.com/2025/03/31/f...

It's absolutely amazing to see our paper shortlisted for this year's @journalofecology.bsky.social Harper prize!

#ecology #biodiversity #soilscience @ukceh.bsky.social