Fig. 1. Illustration of the experimental design with two hypothetical meadows stemming from the two different mowing regimes (WYRR and BYRR). Invertebrate sampling occurred in 2021 and only in the uncut refuge areas.

Fig. 2. Depiction of the different methods used to sample the vegetation and arthropods in an uncut refuge.

🌼 New #BAAE article: How often should meadow refuges rotate? 🌿

Rotating uncut grass after each cut boosts arthropod abundance, benefiting spiders & bees, but some taxa prefer yearly shifts. Smart rotation can maximize meadow biodiversity.

DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.ba...
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Fig. 1. (A) Land cover and land use (LCLU) map of Belgium displaying the location of surveyed fields and reference weather stations from the WOW-BE platform (KMI, 2023) for three consecutive growing seasons (2021–2023). (B) Visualization of the spatial scales used for the calculation of landscape metrics. (C) Weather station assignment

Fig. 2. Cumulative abundance (CAb) and week of first observation (WFO) of (A) alate and (B) apterous M. persicae in sugar beet over three consecutive growing seasons. Each point represents an individual field observation, with color indicating the sowing week for the corresponding field.

🪲 New #BAAE article: What drives green peach aphid outbreaks in European sugar beet?

Warmer winters & early sowing boost Myzus persicae arrival and abundance, while landscape effects are scale-dependent. 🌡️

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2025.11.005
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Fig. 1. a) Map of managed and abandoned study sites within Estonia. b) Cross-section of a trap nest block with chewed leaf material and pollen provisions. c) Nest block mounted on a juniper tree at one of the study sites.

Fig. 2. Pie charts illustrating the percent of total relative abundance of sequences across all samples represented by a) each plant family and b) each Asteraceae genus. Those with percentages ≥ 0.5 % of total relative abundance among all samples are shown individually, while all others are grouped into the “Other” category.

🐝 New #BAAE article: Landscape context shapes pollen use of the specialist bee Osmia leaiana in Estonian alvar grasslands 🇪🇪

Semi-natural grasslands & Cichorioideae drive pollen composition, while cropland & forest reduce brood production. 🌿

DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.ba...
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Fig. 1. Conceptual view of the expected influence of the new littoral zones with recoupled habitats on primary producers, macroinvertebrate primary consumers and higher trophic levels in Lake Markermeer, The Netherlands. Primary production in the original lake in the pelagic zone (left food web) is mainly driven by pelagic phytoplankton. In the new littoral zones (right food web), additional contributions of benthic (macrophytes and periphyton) and terrestrial (shore plants) primary producers are expected, forming a broader base of consumers and higher trophic levels in a more complex food web. Food web based on Jin (2021).

Fig. 2. (a) Lake Markermeer in the Netherlands with the sampling locations of isotope and community data indicated. The rectangle shows the location of the Marker Wadden in Lake Markermeer further detailed in panel b. (b) The Marker Wadden archipelago with the isotope and community data sampling locations. Turquoise shading indicates water depths shallower than 1.5 m. (c) Light availability in the form of Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR) at different water depths in lake Markermeer. The approximate shore / littoral and sheltered limnetic areas are indicated with turquoise and pink shading, respectively, which illustrates that PAR at the sediment surface in the 4 m deep open water is very low.

🌊 New #BAAE article: Shoreline restoration boosts food web recovery in Markermeer

Creating shallow littoral habitats increased benthic production and carbon fluxes to pelagic zones, enhancing macroinvertebrate diversity in this restored lake. 🐟

DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.ba...
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Fig. 1. Abundance of a) diurnal and b) nocturnal ground beetles for the size classes <4 mm; 4–8 mm; 8–12 mm and >12 mm in extensively (EM, n = 112) and intensively managed (IM, n = 115) grasslands. Mean +-se.

Fig. 2. Rank abundance curves of extensively managed (EM) grasslands and intensively managed (IM) grasslands. Species names of the indicator species are shown.

🐞 New #BAAE article: Extensive grassland management boosts ground beetle diversity

Fields host more 4–12 mm diurnal beetles, the ideal prey for breeding farmland birds, supporting biodiversity-friendly farming. 🐦

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2025.11.006
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Fig. 1. Overview over the day and night light settings of the five treatment groups. All groups had the same settings during the day, starting with approximately 80 lx at 7 am and an increase every 15 min until 8 am (steps: 80.10 ± 3.40 lx, 161.35 ± 7.21 lx, 239.90 ± 11.50 lx, 316.65 ± 13.32 lx), followed by a daylight phase (392.41 ± 19.61 lx) and a step-wise decrease from 10 – 11 pm following the same levels as from 7 – 8 am in reversed order. During the night, the illuminance was < 0.01 lx in the dark group (D), while the other groups experienced artificial light a night of different durations (P = part-night, C = continuous) and intensities (L = low, H = high), with the following illuminances: LP 5.20 ± 0.29 lx (at 11 pm – 2 am and 5 – 7 am), HP 49.00 ± 2.53 lx (11 pm – 2 am, 5 – 7 am), LC 5.20 ± 0.29 lx during the whole night, HC 49.00 ± 2.53 lx, whole night. Illuminance values are means ± SD taken from n = 17–20 measurements at the height of the Petri dishes containing the insects.

🪲 New #BAAE article: Artificial light at night reshapes beetle development & chemistry 💡

High, continuous ALAN delays development and alters chemical profiles, while part-night or low light reduces impacts. 🌌

DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.ba...
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Fig. 1. The relationship between mean shoot length per grass species to species richness of the endophytic insects found in these shoots. A The number of herbivore species, B the sum of herbivore and parasitoid species. The five points indicating no species at all indicate that no one insect species has been reared from the five annual grass species studied, despite intensive shoot sampling (see Table 1). The inquilines of P. australis are included (see Table 2, see also Fig. S2A and S2B for regressions without inquilines). Regression lines were fitted to the species richness found in the ten perennial grass species.

Fig. 2. Images illustrating the insect community of the shoot-inhabiting gall midge Giraudiella inclusa on Common Reed Phragmites australis. A Phragmites australis reedbelt with the ricegrain-like galls of Giraudiella inclusa inside internodes. B The gall midge Giraudiella inclusa: Oviposition, C Early Giraudiella gall development, D late Giraudiella gall development, E the Giraudiella parasitoid Torymus arundinis ovipositing, F the gregarious Giraudiella parasitoid Aprostocetus calamarius, G T. arundinis eggs on a dead 2nd instar host larva, H the conspicuously hairy, solitary T. arundinis larva, I midge skin filled with pupae of the gregarious Platygaster szelenii, J the solitary parasitoid Platygaster cf. quadrifarius (Tscharntke et al. 1991).

🌾🐛 New #BAAE article: Hidden insect food webs thrive inside perennial grass shoots 🌿

Longer shoots host richer herbivore–parasitoid communities. Unmown refuges are key to protecting these overlooked specialists. 🕷️

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2026.01.004
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The slope of the red line shows the shift in the onset of flowering as a function of temperature over the spatial gradient and the slope of the blue line shows the shift over the temporal gradient in Vienna. The gray area represents the 95 % confidence interval for both linear regressions, overlapping across the entire possible range. The linear regressions run nearly parallel to each other, illustrating the similarity between both methods. The dots combine mean temperature (x-axis) and flowering time (y-axis) within a year. The boxes represent the temperature ranges of the respective gardens and years.

🌸 New #BAAE article: Flowering shifts response to temperature.

Early-flowering species advance ~7 days per 1°C increase & space-for-time substitutions work well for general patterns but species-specific caution is needed.

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2025.10.007
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Effect of tillage regime and distance from field margin on (a) overall ground beetle activity density and (b) Pterostichus melas activity density, with 95 % confidence intervals.

Effect of tillage regime on the number of ground beetle species by trap, with 95 % confidence intervals. Different letters indicate statistically significant differences according to post-hoc pairwise comparisons with Tukey adjustment.

🌾🐞 New #BAAE article: Conservation tillage boosts ground beetle abundance & richness.

But drought and seed-predator dynamics complicate weed control—highlighting smarter strategies for climate-ready farming. 🌱🌦️

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2025.11.001
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A framework of human-driven disturbance hypothesis illustrating the predicted relationships between species richness and island area and between species richness and available habitat area across different island groups in the context of human disturbances. (A) The distribution and diversity of species on small islands; (B) The relationship between species richness and island area on islands; (C) The distribution and diversity of species on large islands; (D) The relationship between species richness and available habitat area on islands.

Map of the 50 study islands in the Zhoushan Archipelago, China. The selected islands are labeled in green and ranked according to the decreasing areas from Island 1 to Island 50.

🌏🦌 New #BAAE article:

Mammal richness on small islands is driven more by people than area. Highlighting the need to protect low-disturbance islands and safeguard larger ones. 🌿

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2025.10.003
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🌳🪱 New #BAAE article: Urbanization reshapes soil biodiversity in green spaces 🏙️

Soil compaction & pore loss reduce nematode diversity, showing that physical soil changes matter as much as chemical ones for healthy urban ecosystems.

DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.ba...
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Schematic of data collection methods applied on the research plots to assess faunal abundance and diversity, with numbers referencing the corresponding section in the Methods text: camera traps (2.2.1); pitfall traps, flight interception traps and trap nests (2.2.2), bird point counts (2.2.3) and bat loggers (2.2.4). Adapted from ConFoBi schematic in Storch et al., 2020.

Effect plots for the effects of roe deer on a subset of taxa showing significant responses. Gray areas display the 95 % confidence intervals. “Ab” indicates abundance, “Div” Shannon diversity. Roe deer abundance on the x-axis is the relative abundance index, i.e., average detections per trapnight.

🌲🦌 New #BAAE article: Roe deer show non-linear impacts on forest biodiversity in German Black Forest 🌿

Many taxa thrive at low–intermediate densities, supporting the intermediate-disturbance hypothesis and challenging the “deer threat” narrative.

DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.ba...
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🌼🐞 New #BAAE article: Coccinellid diversity drives pest control in Brazilian organic farms 🌿

Flowers & non-crop plants boost ladybird abundance, and high species complementarity enhances aphid predation. 🐛🌺

DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.ba...
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Abbreviations CMWCommunity Weighted MeansEPEcological parametersFWEw w w. freshwaterecology. info database

🌊🐟 New #BAAE article: Introducing fwtraits, an R package unlocking freshwater ecological parameters from FWE!

Easily access traits for fishes, inverts, plants & algae to power reproducible biodiversity analyses and identify critical habitats. 🌿📊

DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.ba...
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Overview of the study location and system. The inset in panel a) shows the location of the study area (red rectangle) in Jimma zone in southwestern Ethiopia. The 58 sites (coffee beans) are plotted on the map of the study area. The gray and green background colours represent open and forested areas, respectively. The photos in the bottom right show characteristic damage by the two major coffee fungal diseases: b) the characteristic brown or blue–black discoloured bands that are seen on the exposed wood of a coffee wilt disease infected stem when the bark is scraped off, as caused by Gibberella xylarioides, and (c) the typical black threadlike rhizomorphs in the cracked stem caused by Armillaria root rot (Armillaria mellea) (photos credits: Beyene Zewdie).

The effect of local climate, habitat, spatial and management variables on the incidence of coffee wilt disease (caused by Gibberella xylarioides) on Arabica coffee in southwestern Ethiopia in the rainy season of 2019. Shown are the relationships between canopy cover and (a) annual mean soil temperature, (b) annual soil temperature variability and (c) soil moisture, as well as the relationships between coffee wilt disease incidence with (d) annual mean soil temperature, (e) soil moisture, (f) coffee density and (g) shade tree species composition. The black circles represent the proportion of infected coffee shrubs with coffee wilt disease at the site-level, and the blue trend line represents the model-predicted relationship. Shaded areas represent the 95 % confidence interval. Only significant relationships are shown.

☕ New #BAAE article: Climate and moisture shape stem & root diseases in Ethiopian coffee

Coffee wilt rises with heat & wet soils, while Armillaria root rot falls with temperature but grows with moisture, key insights for climate-smart management.

DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.ba...
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Overview of the study system. Panel A shows a regional map with the locations of the 23 study sites marked in red, with an inset of the national map in the top-left with the study area in southwestern Ethiopia marked with a red square. The photos below the regional map illustrate B) herbivory (coffee leaf skeletonizer; Leucoplema dohertyi; photo by Ayco Tack) and examples of the local C) bird (common bulbul Pycnonotus barbatus; photo by Kristoffer Hylander) and D) bat community (Egyptian tomb bat Taphozous perforatus, photo by Jens Rydell).

The relationship between coffee yield and a) bird species richness, b) bat species richness, c) bird community composition (axis 1 of an NMDS ordination) and d) bat community composition (axis 1 of an NMDS ordination) across 23 sites in southwestern Ethiopia. Shown are regression slopes with 95% confidence intervals from a GAM model. Solid lines represent a significant relationship (P < 0.05) and dashed lines represent a non-significant relationship (P > 0.05). For statistical details, see Table S5. Bird and bat illustrations by Hannah Burger.

🌳☕ New #BAAE article: Shade-tree diversity shapes bird & bat communities in Ethiopian coffee agroforests 🌿

Richness stays stable across farms, but forest birds decline with higher yields—key insights for sustainable coffee! 🐦

DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.ba...
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🌸🐝 New #BAAE article: Floral richness shapes plant–pollinator networks in urban agroecosystems 🌆

Higher floral richness boosts pollinator diversity but alters network structure, reshaping urban ecosystem services. 🌼

DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.ba...
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Fig. 1. Overview on study design and hypothesis. A) Across three regions of Germany, land-use reduction experiments were established. Depicted for the Schwäbische Alb region, black squares show location of experiments, light green indicates grasslands, and dark green forests (with white being agriculture and settlements). B) Per region, land use at 15 grasslands each (total n = 45) was experimentally reduced within a matrix that also comprised the control plot. C, D) We expected that the experimental reduction of land use increases the abundance (and also diversity) of arthropods and that the increase is larger in less-intensively used grasslands. Maps are from OpenStreetMap (OpenStreetMap Contributors 2022) and arthropod silhouettes from phylopic.org (available under a CC0 1.0 license).

Fig. 3. Treatment effects of experimental land-use reduction on arthropod abundance A) decreased in both sampling years when reduction plots were in a more frequently mown matrix. In turn, treatment effects became larger B) when the matrix had been fertilized more. One year after establishment of the experiment, C) treatment effects on abundance increased with mowing height of the reduced land-use plot; after three years, D) treatment effects were larger if reduced land-use and control plot had not been mown at the same day. Points are partial residuals of log-response ratios between treatment and control plots. Regression lines (95 % CI as shaded polygons) indicate the predictions of averaged linear mixed-effects models. Dashed horizontal lines mark null. Mowing and fertilization are averaged over the respective three years before sampling. The x-axis in B) is on a square-root scale.

🌾 New in #BAAE:

Reduction of land use increases invertebrate abundance in grasslands.

Cutting mowing intensity boosted invertebrate numbers by up to 99% over 3 years, showing how land-use reduction supports insects & ecosystem functions. 🌿

DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.ba...
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Schematic display of an herbarium specimen and its use as an Extended Specimen.

🌿📖 New #BAAE article: Collectomics in plant biodiversity research

By merging herbaria, #Museomics & data science, researchers trace biodiversity change through time — shaping future conservation strategies. 🌎

📖 DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2025.07.002
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Geographical distribution of observations from studies included in the final analysis. Circle size is scaled for visualization purposes to improve visibility of overlapping data points, and does not encode any quantitive information. The center of each circle corresponds to the coordinates of the reseach area of the included studies.

Probabilities of observing an increase or no change in biodiversity upon conservation of extensively managed grasslands, and of observing an increase in biodiversity after restoration of previously abandoned or intensively used agriculturally marginal grasslands. Numbers indicate sample sizes. Raw data are overlaid as jittered points to show the distribution of observed outcomes that informed the model.

🌿🪶 New Review in #BAAE: Abandonment & intensification impact biodiversity in marginal grasslands.

Across 174 European studies, both pathways reduced diversity — while restoration & extensive management help recover ecological value. 🌾

DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.ba...
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Explanatory and response variables tested in the special issue studies.

Inter-row vegetation established by sowing of a regional seed mixture in eastern Germany containing 38 wild plant species in the 3rd year of development.

🍇🌿 Special Issue in #BAAE:

Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services in European Vineyards
From pollinators to pest control, eight new studies show how #NatureBasedSolutions can make European viticulture more sustainable and climate-resilient. 🌍

DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.ba...
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🕷️💧 New Review in #BAAE on #FoodWebEcology & #RiparianManagement

Middendorf et al. synthesize global evidence on aquatic prey contributions to riparian arthropod predator diets. Web-building spiders top the list, but free hunters & beetles benefit too

📖 doi.org/10.1016/j.ag...
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📢 We are hiring!
Are you passionate about #ecology & creative #sciencecommunication? Join us as Social Media Officer for the #GfÖ & our journal #BAAE

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🌍🌲 New Review in #BAAE: Ecological assessment for resilient forests under #GlobalChange

Huth et al. synthesized 35 scientific statements on 7 core topics, highlighting key findings and gaps to guide #ForestManagement & #ClimateAdaptation in Europe

📖 doi.org/10.1016/j.ba...
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📢 We are hiring!
Are you passionate about #ecology & creative #sciencecommunication? Join us as Social Media Officer for the #GfÖ & our journal #BAAE

🌿 Check our call below
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Join us & make ecology visible!
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#EcologyJobs #SciComm

📢 We are hiring!
Are you passionate about #ecology & creative #sciencecommunication? Join us as Social Media Officer for the #GfÖ & our journal #BAAE

🌿 Check our call below
📅 Apply by 1 July 2025

Join us & make ecology visible!
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#EcologyJobs #SciComm