March 7th, 2026
Dark Eyed Junco. Photo by Destiny Henderson-Hudgins
Coral Reef Emergency | IPBES Expert Panel | The 'Homogenocene' | and more
Quick Look
News
Regional knowledge sharing for replicating biodiversity Solutions | IUCN
Against the clock: Coral reefs demand a renaissance in discovery | oceanographic
Welcome to the ‘Homogenocene’: how humans are making the world’s wildlife dangerously samey | The Conversation
The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) names latest Multidisciplinary Expert Panel | IPBES
Research
Researchers find that plant diversity estimates in the Mediterranean differ between biodiversity databases
A new article argues that technological developments in agriculture must be accompanied by ecological targets like biodiversity
Avian scientists find that the areas of greatest bird abundance decline corresponds to areas with high-intensity agriculture
Extreme climatic events are eroding the genetic diversity, altering the community composition, and reducing the ecosystem function of rivers globally
Ecological patterns during the “Black Death era” (1300–1400 ce) reveal surprising patterns between human activity and biodiversity
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news
IUCN | Regional knowledge sharing for replicating biodiversity Solutions
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) engaged participants from 23 countries over the last year in an effort to promote “global knowledge exchange” for the Global Biodiversity Framework. The initiative followed a four-step approach: Scoping, Exchanging, Activating, and Success, which the overall goal of identifying what countries need to conserve their biodiversity and helping them achieve it. The process highlighted the importance of in-person, peer-to-peer learning among policymakers, communities, researchers, and practitioners.
oceanographic | Against the clock: Coral reefs demand a renaissance in discovery
“Ahead of the World Ocean Summit, Oliver Steeds, director of Ocean Census warns that without rapid emissions cuts, restoration, biobanking, and accelerated discovery through Ocean Census, we risk losing irreplaceable coral reef biodiversity underpinning climate resilience, medicine, and human survival.”
The Conversation | Welcome to the ‘Homogenocene’: how humans are making the world’s wildlife dangerously samey
Unique and distinct species are disappearing from the planet, going extinct while being replaced by fewer, more generalist species. Scientists refer to this phenomenon as the “Homogenocene”, due to the increasing homogeneity across the planet as a result of human disturbance. The pattern has been observed in birds, mammals, freshwater fish, mollusc, and marine life. Potential solutions include things that preserve local biodiversity, such as changing agricultural practices to use less land and implementing more sustainable biodiversity, but these require a more committed effort to protecting and conserving existing nature.
IPBES | The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) names latest Multidisciplinary Expert Panel
IPBES Executive Secretary, Dr. Luthando Dziba, said “Having previously served on, and co-Chaired the MEP myself, I know very well how important a role the Panel plays in ensuring the highest scientific rigour and credibility across the IPBES work programme, and I am particularly excited to collaborate with the new MEP to continue this vital work to 2029.” The panel includes 25 members, 5 each from African, Asia-Pacific, Eastern European, Latin American and Caribbean, and Western Europe states
Research
Ecography | Plant diversity estimates of Mediterranean islands differ among biodiversity databases
Abstract:
Large-scale biodiversity databases encompass three main types of data for plants, namely single species point occurrences, cooccurrences in vegetation plots, and checklists for specific areas. Evidence shows that such data types exhibit specific biases, reporting different species assemblages at local scales. We used the Mediterranean Basin, a global biodiversity hotspot with more than 2200 islands larger than 0.01 km2 , to compare island vascular plant diversity patterns emerging from occurrence data (Global Biodiversity Information Facility; GBIF), vegetation plots (European Vegetation Archive; EVA), and species checklists (Global Inventory of Flora and Traits; GIFT). We aggregated plant data at the island level and compared geographic coverage, inventory completeness, and taxonomic coverage among these data sources. The combined databases accounted for 8702 species distributed on 790 islands (35.6% of the target islands). Data availability increased from small (26.8%) over medium (75.7%) to large islands (100.0%). Spatial coverage of databases on a 30 × 30 km grid was high for GBIF (52.8%) and EVA (45.4%), and low for GIFT (21.7%). GIFT provided higher native and alien species richness values for most of the islands, whereas GBIF and EVA consistently missed a considerable fraction of the expected species richness. Taking GIFT as reference, GBIF, and to a lesser extent EVA, showed a positive bias towards perennial species and an underrepresentation of annuals. Despite their lower taxonomic coverage, GBIF and EVA data can complement our knowledge on Mediterranean islands’ plant diversity, providing data for islands lacking plant inventories. Moreover, GBIF and EVA’s large datasets can be used for investigating other levels of ecological organisation and modelling single species (GBIF) or population (EVA) trends over space and time. Finally, our results advocate for a coordinated effort to fill the knowledge gaps through data collection and digitisation, possibly integrating data collected by experts by means of citizen science initiatives.
npj Sustainable Agriculture | Future agricultural policies need to integrate biodiversity targets into smart farming
Abstract:
Smart farming (SF), the use of advanced technologies such as sensors, the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), data analytics, and automation, holds great promise for increasing agricultural sustainability as it enables a reduction of inputs while maintaining yield. A general assumption is that biodiversity will benefit from reduced synthetic inputs. We argue that biodiversity benefits will not come automatically, especially within agricultural fields. Rather, technological developments need to embrace ecological targets during future innovations. Done right, with a new framework that integrates ecological and agronomic objectives in decision-making algorithms, SF could restore biodiversity in agricultural landscapes of the Global North, and preserve it in the Global South, while closing the yield gap. However, making agriculture more biodiversity-friendly through SF requires a more interdisciplinary research by scientists, targeted research funding schemes, incentives for the application of these technologies, and supporting strong national and international policies that drive widespread and equitable adoption.
Science | Acceleration hotspots of North American birds’ decline are associated with agriculture
Abstract:
Human activities, including dramatic changes to land cover and land use, are known to negatively influence populations of many species. As human populations and technologies have expanded, so has the rate of our influence on ecosystems. Leroy _et al_. investigated whether this “Great Acceleration” has led to increasing abundance changes in birds, one of the most highly studied taxonomic groups. Using data from the North American Breeding Bird Survey, the authors found that about half of the 261 species analyzed showed significant declines from 1987 to 2021, and a quarter showed accelerating declines. Hotspots of accelerating abundance decline were located in regions with high-intensity agriculture (high cropland area, fertilizer use, or pesticide use)
Nature Reviews Biodiversity | Extreme events and river biodiversity under climate change
Abstract:
Extreme climatic events (ECEs) including floods, droughts and heatwaves are increasing in severity and frequency, fundamentally reshaping riverine ecosystems. In this Review, we synthesize global evidence of the impacts of ECEs on riverine biodiversity, revealing widespread and often compounding threats. ECEs affect biodiversity in diverse ways across scales; they can erode genetic diversity, alter community composition, reduce ecosystem function and disrupt population and community synchrony across the wider river meta-network. ECEs can also amplify the impact of, and be amplified by, other global stressors, and ECEs that occur in tandem or sequentially (compound events) have potentially strong but poorly understood biodiversity impacts. Several promising statistical and mechanistic modelling frameworks now enable prediction of the impacts of ECEs under non-stationary conditions. To adequately prepare for increasing and compounding ECEs, management strategies must shift from local, reactive interventions to catchment-scale, resilience-focused approaches. Top future research priorities include high-frequency and coordinated long-term monitoring, understanding legacies and biophysical feedbacks from extremes and deconstructing the impacts of compounding events. Our synthesis provides a roadmap for advancing science and practice to confront the ecological challenges posed by an increasingly extreme future.
Ecology Letters | Black Death Land Abandonment Drove European Diversity Losses
Abstract:
The current prevailing perception is that human impacts on the biological realm have been overwhelmingly negative. Here, we test this narrative by considering the consequences for aspects of floristic diversity of the ‘Black Death era’ (1300–1400 ce), where one third of Europe’s population died within half a decade. Based on evidence from 109 pollen records spanning the Common Era, we find increasing floristic diversity from 0 to ~1300 ce as human populations increased, followed by rapid and substantial diversity reductions during the famine- and disease-driven human mortality events of the ‘Black Death era’. As human populations recovered following the mortality shock, diversity also recovered. Strikingly, it was landscapes characterized by cereal cultivation that generated both the overall Common Era increases and the Black Death era declines in diversity. The highest diversity levels were achieved in human-generated, mosaic landscapes, highlighting the integral role of human action in biodiverse European landscapes.
Radical Ecology
The Institute of Social Ecology | Paulo Freire and the Landless Workers’ Movement
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Guan in a tree. Photo by Destiny Henderson-Hudgins
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