There is currently a lot of debate about #grazing vs. #mowing for #biodiversity - often polarized, with grazing seen as the holy grail and mowing as detrimental. I have long felt that it's not so much about one or the other, but about intensity and system. Well, here is another example:

Update on a new project on revitalizing coppice in Germany, from the Plieninger Lab ⬇️ I'm really looking forward to results from this one.

#Bird #surveys: Do we need to rewrite our methodological standards? #PassiveAcousticMonitoring suggests that expert-based recommendations might lead to under-recording, due to diurnal and seasonal mismatches. New paper led by David Singer; with 25,000 h audio data: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

#Fieldwork update from our PyroDiv project (uni-goettingen.de/en/690609.html): A Kazakh-German field team is now collecting data on the Great Steppe to reveal the impact of fire legacies and grazing on biodiversity. Great collab between @acbk.bsky.social @consbiogoe.bsky.social and @uni-muenster.de.

Long, exciting feature in @science.org today on land #abandonment, #rewilding and biodiversity by @dancharles.bsky.social, covering our abandonment research across Europe and Kazakhstan. Based on interviews with Gergana and Johannes + site visit in Bulgaria. Free to read: bsky.app/profile/scie...

Working from home before the start of the usual madness next week - window with a view!

First chapter of Anne Graser's PhD thesis now published⬇️ Stay tuned for another one on disturbance and birds using national bird monitoring data, and a third analysis on #moths, disturbance heterogeneity and deer again from the Harz mountains.

Looking forward to visiting 🦣🌿🌐 #macroecology #paleoecology #rewilding #restoration

Interested in #Sandgrouse, #Bustards or Sociable Lapwings? Join us for the international conference on Palearctic steppe birds in Spain! Abstract submission closes on 1st November. We will also deliver a keynote on post-Soviet land-use change and steppe birds in Kazakhstan.

Do our #ProtectedAreas work? New #openaccess paper on the effectiveness of the EU Special Protection Area (SPA) network for target species in Germany, led by Femke Pflüger: sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Joint project with www.dda-web.de and www.bfn.de

Interested in #butterflies, #moths, #ecosystem functioning and global change? Tired of one-year contracts? Join our lab for a Post-Doc position of up to 6 years in a large interdisciplinary project: euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/278452

Hot of the press: Germany's first comprehensive biodiversity assessment. We have contributed text and expertise on birds (with dda-web.de) and forest conservation.

Don't miss the next Blumenbach lecture in Göttingen! We are delighted that Jens-Christian Svenning agreed to speak about trophic #rewilding and will provide insights from and for #macroecology, #paleoecology and #conservation. 20 November, 5:15 p.m.

Our lab is growing - anyone interested in joining us for an exciting project on biodiversity and citizen science?

New(ish) paper from Tejas' PhD out in Glob Change Biol: Changes in grazing systems have made the steppes of Kazakhstan a global fire hotspot - and that has strong effects on bird abundance and distribution: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... Great collab again with @biogeoberlin.bsky.social

Call for papers! Conservation of Palaearctic steppes and semi-natural grasslands: challenges and solutions Special issue in Biological Conservation: www.sciencedirect.com/journal/biol... Coordinated by Orsolya Valkó, Jürgen Dengler, @leonardoancillo and me