Two weeks ago, we had our MonitAnt workshop with all project partners in the beautiful Bavarian Forest National Park. We even managed a short field trip, where everyone enjoyed being surrounded by wood ants and their myrmecophiles (see picture). 😉

Productive days in České Budějovice with @jiri-tuma.bsky.social and @eliaguariento.bsky.social, focusing on all aspects of camera traps for the MonitAnt project. We even squeezed in a wonderful trip to Šumava National Park. @monitant.bsky.social

Want to work on biodiversity in the Alps? ⛰️ We are offering several internship positions for the upcoming spring and summer in collaboration with the Biodiversity Monitoring South Tyrol 🕷️🦋🦇🐜🌼🦗🪱 biodiversity.eurac.edu/interns-want...

(1) So happy to share our recent work on Finish wood ants 🐜🧬🥳 "Evidence for climate-mediated range expansion of hybrid wood ants" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... @helsinki.fi & @uvapress.bsky.social This integrative project was funded by the Research Council Finland & #MSCA of the European Comission

Dragon and Damselflies communities are not limited by isolation: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... Great work by Felix Puff! 📷 of yesterday in the study region with an alpine lake and the Dolomites in the background @euracalpenv.bsky.social

Exciting MonitAnt meeting at the Natural History Museum, Brussels. Great discussions on fieldwork and ant ID, plus a rare glimpse of the museum after hours! 🐜🦖

Nature research paper: One mother for two species via obligate cross-species cloning in ants go.nature.com/45PYV6d

New paper out on community ecology of parasitoids and their hosts 🪲🐝🪰🕷️ Great work led by Lisa Obwegs @euracalpenv.bsky.social @uniinnsbruck.bsky.social @andreashilpold.bsky.social

📢 Wild #bees thrive in biodiverse mountain farms! 🐝🐝 Zanini et al. found that #multidiversity boosts pollination, buffering #climate impacts. 🌤️🌱🐝 Find out more here: 🔎 doi.org/10.1016/j.ag... @mdainese.bsky.social, @mattande.bsky.social, @eliaguariento.bsky.social & more

New paper out 👇 Artificial ponds do not support the natural functional and taxonomic composition of alpine dragon- and damselfly communities www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @euracalpenv.bsky.social @pro-pink.bsky.social @univie.ac.at

An specially scenic wood ant nest location. Discovered while sampling their myrmecophile community 🕷️🪲 along elevation 🏔️ @monitant.bsky.social @euracalpenv.bsky.social

Mountaineers come in many shapes, quite some inhabit also alpine soils 🪱🦠🐜🕷️🪲🏔️ Check out the brand new review about what we know and don't know about them 👇

Today is #worldbeeday 🐝 Read here about the work we do on #wildbees: www.eurac.edu/en/magazine/... @euracalpenv.bsky.social

We installed camera traps to investigate the use of red wood ant nest mounds by 🐦‍⬛🦡🦌🐿️ Many thanks to Alberto Masoni!! @monitant.bsky.social @euracalpenv.bsky.social

New butterfly sampling season started today 🦋

It took some failed surveys before we finally spotted what we think is the caterpillar of the 🦋 endemic to dry alpine valleys: Kretania trappi @euracalpenv.bsky.social @europebutterfly.bsky.social

📢1 PhD position (3 yrs) @UniTrento on acoustic environments in mountains 🎶🏔️In collaboration with @EuracResearch & @UCL IEDE (London) – part of the “Soundscape for All” project, funded by HEAD-Genuit-Stiftung. Stay tuned & reach out if interested! #PhDposition #Soundscape #Bioacoustics #Mountains

What a team 💪 We are going continental with wood 🐜 research 🧐

Happy to see that a small article Elia Nalini (from @euracalpenv.bsky.social ) and I wrote for the myrmecological news blog is now finally published! 🐜 We present our @monitant.bsky.social project and also our Citizen Science approach. 🔎 blog.myrmecologicalnews.org/2025/04/09/m...

It's published! The largest research work I've ever undertaken: Lords of the flies: dipteran migrants are diverse, abundant & ecologically important Published in Biological Reviews: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... Thanks so much to co-authors @koralwotton.bsky.social & Myles Menz 1/x

Have a look at this beautiful outreach project using the #wildbees collected by PhD Student Lisa Obwegs 🐝 beehold.eurac.edu/en If you want to know more 👉 www.eurac.edu/en/magazine/...

Spring is coming to the Alps 🐜 @monitant.bsky.social

Our researchers @msteinwandter.bsky.social, @chiarapaniccia.bsky.social & @eliaguariento.bsky.social have found three specimens of the Eurasian pygmy shrew in South Tyrol at over 3,000 meters a.s.l.. This #discovery marks a European #record! 🏆 📰: eurac.edu/de/press/eur... Foto: Giacomo Gaudenzi

NEW EUROPEAN RECORD 🎉 We found Pygmy Shrews (Sorex minutus) in the high #alpine (3,300 m a.s.l. !) in #SouthTyrol #Italy, 780 metres higher than known before 🐁 Short note in #Hystrix (w/ @chiarapaniccia.bsky.social @eliaguariento.bsky.social of @euracalpenv.bsky.social) 📄 doi.org/10.4404/hyst...

Interested in doing a PhD on #insect #migration or #conservation at @monashuniversity.bsky.social i in #Melbourne, #Australia? If so, please feel free to email me. For international students, the application deadline is late March. shawanchowdhury.com/join-us/

Today Alberto visited our lab! Lots of wood 🐜 research planed 💪 @monitant.bsky.social

Tracking pieces of the local Biodiversity Crisis (South Tyrol): 1. Drastic loss of traditional extensive meadow orchards 🍎 👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41... 2. Intensive apple orchards host a fraction of biodiversity 🌳 👇 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

So happy to see my 2n thesis chapter published in Diversity and Distributions 🥳🥳 How does local climate influence ecological communities? Answer: #Thermophilisation caused by #colonisation and local #extinction of mountain butterflies 🦋 #ClimateChange #Refugia Small thread below⬇️

#FreeTagliamento - let one of Europe's last big natural river flow freely. Sign here and get all the info at https://www.freetagliamento.org/it_IT/home-eng/ #Petition #SignHere #NatureProtection #RiverProtection #Biodiversity

📣 Great News: Strumigenys baudueri has been finally reported for South Tyrol! 🔎Find out more below ⬇️ and in this great article from our researchers @EliaNalini & @eliaguariento.bsky.social: www.eurac.edu/en/magazine/...

Orchard meadows in South Tyrol have decreased by over 95% since the 1950s due to agricultural intensification, urbanization, and reforestation. 🌳🍎🍐 Urgent conservation measures are essential to preserve these ecosystems. 🌱 🔎Read more about the topic here: doi.org/10.1038/s415...

🥁 Ecologist working in mountains: We still have spots in the Mountain Ecology Starter Pack for Scientists working on various aspects of Mountain Ecology ⛰️ 🏞️🌄 👇. Let me know if you would like to be included. 🌎 🧪 🌐 go.bsky.app/V5Ydank

MonitAnt (👉@monitant.bsky.social ) is the first project I joined: a fantastic team doing great research on one of the most interesting 🐜 out there! Now, we also use @inaturalist.bsky.social to collect valuable data, check it out 👇 www.inaturalist.org/projects/woo...

Low elevation dry #grasslands are highly #threatened habitats in the #Alps. This site was preserved (cleared from encroachment, not burned!) due to a local tradition of ritual fires reinvented from prehistoric traditions...I'm wondering if this could be an alternative conservation practice?

First post here! One month ago in #alpine autumn colours with the last active orthoptera

Here’s the playlist for the 42 ecological and conservation concept videos. Perfect for falling asleep at night. Enjoy! youtube.com/playlist?lis...

🚨We are hiring !! The Institute for Alpine Environment at Eurac Research is looking for a motivated Postdoc researcher in agroecology, spatial modelling and stakeholder engagement to work on two European projects, RESPOnD & TRANSFOrm.🍇🍎🍐🐝🐤 eurac.onboard.org/jobs/54WWrx4...

We need much more data on invertebrates living in high mountain soils! Great talk by @msteinwandter.bsky.social about the extended #Gloria protocol to include invertebrates in their monitoring. #EuBiReCo in Bozen/Bolzano.