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Conservation Biology Göttingen @consbiogoe.bsky.social · Sep 3

We had a great time at #gfoe2025 organized by @christianhof.bsky.social and many others. Good feedback on our analyses of historical bird trends across Germany, a project with @dda-avifauna.bsky.social.

Christian Hof @christianhof.bsky.social · Sep 1

#gfoe2025 has started, whohoo! Just enjoyed 2 great talks by @kampjohannes.bsky.social & @felixneff.bsky.social, highlighting the importance of considering longer time periods than just the last 2 decades to understand #biodiversity trends

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Conservation Biology Göttingen @consbiogoe.bsky.social · Aug 29

Das Konfliktfeld Wiederbewaldung - Wilddichte besteht natürlich weiter, aber wir sagen ja nicht, dass alle und sämtliche Störungsflächen hohe Wilddichten beherbergen sollen.

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Conservation Biology Göttingen @consbiogoe.bsky.social · Aug 29

....die Leute sind aber oft begeistert, wenn man ihnen klar macht, wie wichtig Nachtfalterarten doch für die Bestäubung ihrer Blumen sind, oder zweigt wie sich beim nächtlichen Lichtfang Fledermäuse einfinden, die gerade die "schädlichen" Noctuiden wegfangen.

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Conservation Biology Göttingen @consbiogoe.bsky.social · Aug 29

...und die Multifunktionalität von Wäldern ist allgemein akzeptiert (incl. Biodiversitätserhalt). Da hat sich in den vergangenen Jahren/Jahrzehnten doch viel getan.

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Conservation Biology Göttingen @consbiogoe.bsky.social · Aug 29

Wir haben im Forstamt Lauterberg (Hendrik Rumpf ist Mitautor) ausgesprochen aufgeschlossene Kooperationspartner, die biologische Vielfalt verstehen und erhalten wollen. Auch auf Leitungsebene der Landesforsten werden wir bei solchen Studien stark unterstützt...

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Conservation Biology Göttingen @consbiogoe.bsky.social · Aug 28

Funded largely by @umweltstiftung.bsky.social‬, supported by Harz National Park and Niedersächsische Landesforsten.

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Conservation Biology Göttingen @consbiogoe.bsky.social · Aug 28

We conclude that management should aim at diverse management strategies creating vegetation heterogeneity, that is, combining unlogged and salvage-logged sites. Ungulate management should allow access to disturbed areas for browsing and grazing.

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Conservation Biology Göttingen @consbiogoe.bsky.social · Aug 28

Disturbance type, such as windthrow or bark beetle, and post-disturbance management, e.g. salvage logging, both had an effect on community composition.

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Conservation Biology Göttingen @consbiogoe.bsky.social · Aug 28

Higher wild ungulate densities (Red Deer, Roe Deer and Wild Boar) enforced the positive effect of disturbance, especially 12–15 years after disturbance.

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Conservation Biology Göttingen @consbiogoe.bsky.social · Aug 28

Major results: Canopy opening due to tree die-back boosts taxonomic and functional diversity. Consistently more species in young successional stages compared to mature Spruce.

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Conservation Biology Göttingen @consbiogoe.bsky.social · Aug 28

Across 40 sites, over 2 years and 3-4 sampling rounds per year, we caught 52 000 (!) macro-moth specimens of ca. 400 species.

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Conservation Biology Göttingen @consbiogoe.bsky.social · Aug 28

Perhaps for the first time in such a large study, we used live trapping throughout (+some DNA barcoding). The data were entered into an open #citizenscience database and validated by experts: observation.org/users/335304...

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Conservation Biology Göttingen @consbiogoe.bsky.social · Aug 28

Moths are a superdiverse group and have important ecosystem functions. In a large field study in the Harz mountains, we looked into moth responses to the current massive die-back of #Spruce, in a quasi-experimental design.

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Conservation Biology Göttingen @consbiogoe.bsky.social · Aug 28

New paper: 3rd chapter of Anne Graser's PhD thesis now published: How #forest disturbance, post-disturbance management and wild #ungulates affect #moth communities: besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
@jappliedecology.bsky.social

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Conservation Biology Göttingen @consbiogoe.bsky.social · Aug 26

We used the common bird monitoring data of @dda-avifauna.bsky.social. See here for a press release (in German): www.dda-web.de/aktuelles/me...

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Conservation Biology Göttingen @consbiogoe.bsky.social · Aug 26

Main conclusion: Today, students aged 8 to 21 years are on average 12.2% less familiar with declining bird species than students in 2005. Likely because exposure to some declining species (e.g. the cuckoo on the image) has decreased, but perhaps additionally due to less general exposure to nature.

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Conservation Biology Göttingen @consbiogoe.bsky.social · Aug 26

Does the decline of many #bird species also trigger a decline in species identification skills in young people? Are we already witnessing the #extinction of experience? Our new study, led by Talia Härtel, and based on a large questionnaire resurvey, suggests so:
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

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Reposted by Conservation Biology Göttingen

Biogeography Berlin @biogeoberlin.bsky.social · Jul 12

#NewPaper led by Brett R. Hankerson,
@tkuemmerle.bsky.social @kampjohannes.bsky.social @danielmu11er.bsky.social and Florian Schierhorn out now in Regional Environmental Change
@iamo.bsky.social

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

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Conservation Biology Göttingen @consbiogoe.bsky.social · Jul 11

With Northwest German Forest Research Institute (NW-FVA)
and Forest Nature Conservation Group @uni-goettingen.de

Conservation Biology Göttingen @consbiogoe.bsky.social · Jul 11

#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...

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Conservation Biology Göttingen @consbiogoe.bsky.social · Jul 11

See also this recent review on the same topic: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10....

Collapse and recovery of livestock systems shape fire regimes on the Eurasian steppe: a review of ecosystem and biodiversity implications | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Shifts in fire regimes can trigger rapid changes in ecosystem functioning and biodiversity. We synthesize evidence for patterns, causes and consequences of recent change in fire regimes across the Eurasian steppes, a neglected global fire hotspot. ...

royalsocietypublishing.org

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Conservation Biology Göttingen @consbiogoe.bsky.social · Jul 7

with @biogeoberlin.bsky.social n.bsky.social @iamo.bsky.social

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Conservation Biology Göttingen @consbiogoe.bsky.social · Jul 7

Changes in #grazing patterns explain post-Soviet fire trends on the Eurasian #steppe better than #climate.
More empirical evidence that the build up of biomass due to the collapse of livestock systems made Kazakhstan a global #fire hotspot:
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

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Reposted by Conservation Biology Göttingen

Cornelius Senf @corneliussenf.bsky.social · Jul 3

Were recent waves of large-scale forest dieback predictable? We say yes! A simple approach to describe temporal disturbance dynamics based on Taylor's Law. Now out in Nature Communications: rdcu.be/euG1A Thanks @tommaso-jucker.bsky.social and @rupertseidl.bsky.social for this great project!

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Conservation Biology Göttingen @consbiogoe.bsky.social · Jun 18

Kommenden Samstag: Einblick in die Welt von Spinnern, Spannern und anderen Nachtfaltern - im Alten Botanischen Garten in Göttingen. All welcome!
⬇️

#ScienceNight #NightOfScience #NachtdesWissens

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