Coming soon: 'Wild Roses of Great Britain and Ireland'. This latest title, no.26 in the series of #BSBIHandbooks for tricky plant groups, has just gone to the printers! Available for #BSBImembers to pre-order now at the discount price of £16 (vs RRP £25). Sample pages here: bsbi.org/bsbi-handboo...

I am advertising a postdoctoral position in my new lab at Duke, to start as early as August 2026. If you are interested in how plant communities respond to climate change, please consider applying! academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30614

Spain's PM says he will send warship to protect Gaza aid flotilla Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Wednesday he will join Italy in sending a military warship to protect an international flotilla seeking to deliver aid to Gaza after it was attacked by drones off Greece.

Very excited to share that I'm writing a new book, THE GHOSTS OF CHALK COUNTRY - about the loss of England's chalk downland: a tale of flowers, fascism & freedom. To be published by @wmcollinsbooks.bsky.social in April 2027: www.thebookseller.com/rights/willi... Website: ghostsofchalkcountry.org

It will one day be considered a great tragedy that at a crucial point in time geopolitically, the world's then leading superpower had elected a giant man-baby as its leader.

The main platform for collecting charitable donations in support of Ukraine, including for its defence, is @u24.gov.ua u24.gov.ua

Kimmel: "The President of the United States made it very clear he wants to see me and the hundreds of people who work here fired from our jobs. Our leader celebrates Americans losing their livelihoods because he cannot take a joke."

This reminds me of about 25 yrs ago when my then partner and I went by car to a @britishecologicalsociety.org annual meeting, mistakenly w/ printed directions for the hamlet York (Lancs) instead of the city of York. At some point we noticed we were getting rather close to the Irish Sea...

Plant that mimics odour of half-eaten ants to attract pollinators discovered

“At the start of the war in #Gaza, I visited a school in Rafah, hosting thousands of displaced people. I am still haunted by the eyes of a little girl pleading for a piece of bread and a sip of water.” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini’s remarks: www.unrwa.org/newsroom/off...

I must admit when I first saw St George flags appear halfway up lamp posts a few weeks ago, I thought this looked really sad as they all seemed to fly at half-mast, and had perhaps been raised after some sporting defeat I was not aware of. Now I know the actual reason I find it even more sad.

Excited to contribute to the webinar “Tools and Concepts for Grassland Conservation Policies” (FRIES Seminar Series, 30 Sept). I’ll present insights from our review on collective agri-environmental schemes. 👉 Details & Zoom: greenet.boku.ac.at/results/tool...

FREE fungus events!🍄 Want to know more about fungi & learn how to ID waxcaps before joining the #WaxcapWatch campaign? Good news! 🙌We’re running 10 training events across the UK & an online webinar! Spaces are limited so book tickets quickly👉 https://loom.ly/GfnOyjk#WaxcapWatch #WaxcapWatch #Fungi

Lower competition in grasslands and higher facilitation in forests as potential drivers of the higher species richness of calcareous than siliceous communities vist.ly/47uwg

🧪 Are you doing a PhD at a UK university and looking for a 3-month placement that makes a real impact? ✔ Open to PIPS and other externally funded placements ✔ Build new skills, expand your network, support world-class biodiversity work ✔ Apply: ow.ly/65wF50WLXa8 🗓️ Deadline: 31 October 2025 🌾

An interestig read: ‘Food forests are everything’: creating edible landscapes helps nature thrive in Afro-descendant lands www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Boreal plants are moving into the #Arctic and reshaping #tundra landscapes 🌱❄️ A 🟢NEW STUDY🟢 led by @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social and @creaf.cat reveals shrubs and grasses from boreal forests are expanding north. So what? 👇

Reform's further political ascent must be fiercely resisted, as it destroys people's lives. Those not directly affected by this plan but opposing it can no longer afford to remain silent, if they want to protect the free and open society we still live in.

This research by Prangel et al., on the topic of alvar grassland restoration, looks very interesting: Grassland Restoration Drives Strong Multitrophic Biodiversity Recovery, but Climate Extremes Jeopardize Drought-Sensitive Species onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... @globalchangebio.bsky.social

Starmer finally said it: ‘We recognise Palestine.’ But Gaza desperately needs action – where is that? | Nesrine Malik

Looking for openly available: - before-after data in space - with a restoration measure inbetween (e.g. dam/invasive spec. removal, urban green space creation...) - min. 10 sites (quadrats / random places along a stream / ponds...) - species data, env. data of some sort, GPS coordinates

Reminder that if you want to apply to become Manager of our @daera-ni.gov.uk -funded Botanical Skills Northern Ireland Project, you need to get that application in by midnight!

No particular reason

Luckily, Sinclair has a helpful database of all their stations, so you can see if they're operating in your area and respond accordingly. sbgi.net/tv-stations/

Your regular reminder that a NATO country shot down a Russian jet after it violated NATO airspace for *17 seconds*. What results? Russia didn’t start WW3 Russia didn’t carry on violating Turkish airspace. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Ru...

BBC News, "The BBC World Service has compiled material on over 160 cases where children have been shot in Gaza and found that in 95 cases the child was shot in the head or the chest" "In most these cases, the victim was under 12 years old"

Civilians made up 15 of every 16 people killed by Israel in Gaza since March, data suggests | Gaza | The Guardian www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

We are recruiting! We are currently accepting applications for our 4-Year PhD Studentship (start date October 2026) in the application of Artificial Intelligence to sustainable agri-food (deadline 1st October). www.sustain-cdt.ai/advertised-p...

Here is my best guidance, rendered beautifully by the great John Lithgow. I first published these lessons nearly nine years ago, in late 2016. They open the twenty chapters of "On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century." snyder.substack.com/p/twenty-les...

I’m a British MP, a doctor and Jewish. This is what happened when I tried to enter Israel | Peter Prinsley

‘Just add water’: how to bring back ancient plants in a Norfolk ghost pond www.theguardian.com/environment/... #generationrestoration

Proud to share our paper: Drought intensity shapes soil legacy effects on grassland plant and soil microbial communities and their responses to future drought, out now in @globalchangebio.bsky.social doi.org/10.1111/gcb.... (1/n)

We are very excited to make the first announcement of SeedCon 2026. Please mark your calendars and look out for further updates on seedcon.org #SeedCon2026 #SeedMicrobiome #MicrobialInheritance #PlantMicrobiome #Conference

We are looking for a postdoc for to use historical plant distribution data to investigate effects of urbanisation on plant species. Do you have a PhD in plant ecology, strong data handling and analysis skills, and a curious mindset? Respond by 26 September: nioo.knaw.nl/en/vacancies...

We're leading a review of long-term UK terrestrial & freshwater monitoring for NERC. This will help identify priorities for an adaptable & flexible UK environmental monitoring network for the future Take part via our survey before 9am Mon 29 Sep: app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/ceh-online... 🧵🧪1/

L’agroécologie : une alliée pour la nature, le climat et l’agriculture en Europe Une méta-analyse de 170 études, dans 21 pays, montre que les systèmes agroécologiques favorisent la biodiversité & le stockage du C dans les sols 👉 www.inrae.fr/actualites/l... @agroscope.bsky.social @urep.bsky.social

At this point this appears somewhat symbolic but it is nonetheless a (very insufficient, since serious sanctions against Israel are needed) step in the right direction. Fingers crossed that the UK government are now going forward with this.

General pattern in regime change: the comedy gets better and then it gets banned.

Warum wir heute noch Disney Plus kündigen sollten

While you still can, if you’re asking “who’s Sinclair?” John Oliver has you covered:

From 1939: www.nytimes.com/1939/02/04/a...

Gleichschaltung en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleichs...

"I don't care that he's dead." "He's not a hero." "He's a scumbag." "He shouldn't be celebrated." No, no. I'm not saying that about Charlie Kirk. Charlie Kirk said that about George Floyd. Just in case anyone's interested in what he thought was fair to say about someone who was killed on camera.

Trump’s retreat from Nato was priced in. But his humiliation of Qatar and India spells total chaos | Nesrine Malik

#Publication: Our Showcase project paper, led by Susanna Hempel, a PhD student at the University of Zürich, has been published in Basic and Applied Ecology: "The impact of abandonment and intensification on the biodiversity of agriculturally marginal grasslands – a systematic review".

Excellent piece on how Trump's utter fecklessness is accelerating the descent into global anarchy - and what Europe, the UK, and others urgently need to do about it. A must read. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...