🌱 Our blog post discussing our recently published paper in @journalofecology.bsky.social is out! #Drought #SubordinateSpecies
@albertocanarini.bsky.social
Here is also the full paper in open access: shorturl.at/Gsilo
Meme: I used to think the top global environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse, and climate change. I thought that with 30 years of good science we could address these problems. But I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy, and to deal with these we need a spiritual and cultural transformation, and we scientists don't know how to do that. Gus Speth Shared Planet: Religion and Nature, BBC Radio 4 (1 October 2013)
This looks like a great opportunity w/ @bsbibotany.bsky.social @bsbiireland.bsky.social, for someone based in the Republic of Ireland:
BSBI Project Manager (part time) for the Targeted Aquatic Plant Project & the Irish Grassland Project
Info: bsbi.org/about/people...
Closing date: 25 May 2026.
My latest column: Ireland’s data centre policy will drive significantly greater fossil fuel use, contradicting multiple statutory and policy targets which require rapid reductions instead.
www.irishtimes.com/environment/...
A screenshot of the title and abstract page of an article in Soil Organisms journal, entitled 'Advocating for the lobe and protection of soil animals through photography: the work of Frank Ashwood and Andy Murray'.
A photograph of a round, hard-bodied mite walking among a cluster of lollipop-shaped slime mold fruiting bodies.
Want to start doing soil animal macrophotography? Or fancy a rare glimpse into mine and @mesofauna.bsky.social's minds?
An article has just dropped in @soilorganismsj.bsky.social, showcasing mine and Andy's love for documenting soil biodiversity! 🧪🪱
Open Access: soil-organisms.org/SO/article/v...
📢 We're recruiting a contract technologist for the soil and environmental microbiology programme @teagasc.bsky.social Johnstown Castle, Wexford, Ireland. Join our team 🤗 #SoilMicrobiome
topjobs-teagasc.thehirelab.com/LiveJobs/Job...
High‑resolution global maps revealing the expansion risk of thousands of non-native plant species under today’s conditions and future climate and land‑use scenarios have been produced for the first time. 🗺️
@natecoevo.nature.com @univie.ac.at @smartenwinter.bsky.social
www.idiv.de/global-model...
This looks interesting:
Grassland plant diversity and ecosystem condition assessment in the hen harrier programme, Ireland, a results-based agri-environment scheme | McMorrow et al.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Congrats Frank! 🥳
So, any other news yesterday?
Anything important?
"Scientists no Longer Find Twitter Professionally Useful, and have Switched to Bluesky. Changes to Twitter have made the social media platform no longer professionally useful or pleasant, and that many scientists have abandoned it in favor of Bluesky." academic.oup.com/icb/article-...
📖 Published!
Warming, elevated CO2 and drought in combination accelerates plant phenological shifts in managed montane grassland🌱 🌿
🔎 Find out more buff.ly/VgghbUv
📢 Join our team: Are you interested in the synthesis of ecological data?
We are offering a postdoctoral researcher position on the effects of collaborative agri-environment measures on multiple taxa and ecosystem services.
See #job advert
www.uni-goettingen.de/en/vacancy+f...
Interested in a cross-analysis of how Romanian and French farmers are adapting to climate change? Watch Agroecology-TRANSECT webinar to find out more: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu4m...
🌱 Necula et al 2024 👉 link.springer.com/article/10.1...
🐮 Allart et al 2024 👉 doi.org/10.1017/S174...
#agroecology
📢Special bonus, check out the *amazing* interactive visualisation by @rishvish07 where you can manipulate i) relative importance of the functions, and ii) relative proportions of the species and functional groups, and see effects on the functions, and trangressive overyielding
A wide range of higher-diversity, lower-nitrogen (150N) mixtures typically had higher multifunctionality than a low-diversity, higher-nitrogen (300N) grass monoculture. (Fig. 1).
Drought reduced multifunctionality, but not as much as changes in diversity. For productive forage grassland plots with lower diversity, increasing diversity enhanced multifunctionality -> drought adaptation option.
Rainfed control, top panel; drought treatment, bottom.
Plant diversity in mixtures increased mean levels of multifunctionality (MF, x-axis) *and* reduced variation in MF (y-axis), leading to higher multifunctional stability (which is highest in the lower right quadrant in the figure)
nature.com/articles/s4159…
Multifunctionality across a range of mixture diversity exceeded that of the best monoculture, under both rainfed and drought conditions (transgressive overperformance). (See Fig. 4)
No single community was best across each of the six individual functions; there was no ‘super-species’ that was best at everything. Thus, there are trade-offs among communities when comparing across single functions. (drought only shown here)
🚨 Plant diversity in 6-species #multispecies mixtures generally increased multifunctionality (MF) (measured as 6 ecosystem functions related to agronomy). We also looked at effect of drought on MF.
short🧵
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
It’s more complex to choose best mixture(s) for multiple responses (yield, forage quality, weed suppression, nutrient use etc.). If same species’ mixtures are the best at everything, then it’s easy (but this is unusual!). If not, one needs to manage the trade-offs.
3: choose (or breed) species that are able to persist in mixtures at reasonable proportions (or have adaptive strategies to achieve this). No matter how high-performing and synergistically interactive a species is, it will not contribute much with a relative abundance of 2%.
'more species is better' is not necessarily correct to maximise a response. Species' identity, richness and relative abundance ALL affect the response. Even at richness = 6 in our example (see scatterplot), these diversity aspects completely determine which community is best.
2: choose species' with traits that maximise synergistic interactions. Positive mixing effects will push the mixture responses higher up the x-axis. When interactions are ++ positive, at least some mixtures can out-perform the best monoculture (or other reference point).
1: choose the best-performing agronomic species (for the response of interest) based on their performance in monoculture = higher starting point on the x-axis. This ensures high performance with fewer species.
ICYMI
2024 publication
How can we ‘best’ design multi-species grassland mixtures?
How can we better predict the effect of diversity on mixture performance?
Demonstration of principles and practical examples from Mini Review in J of Ecology
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
