Can't wait to discuss my favorite topics (baselines, natural vegetation, grazing and nature restoration) with top ecological minds @jcsvenning.bsky.social, @hhbruun.bsky.social and Jacob Heilmann-Clausen at this years Nature Meeting in Denmark! #naturmødet #shiftingbaselines #urørtskov

Spending time with rewilded herbivores is humbling. Every week reveals new items on the menu. New leaves of invasive Rosa rugosa are eaten, despite thorns and seemingly being out of reach #rewilding #invasive #herbivory

These hyper-diverse communities often occur on sites with long continuity (Bronze age) of low-intensity, human disturbance. We know low-intensity agriculture can simulate aspects of natural disturbance through grazing, haymaking, pannage, coppicing and pollarding.
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Preparation for what will undoubtedly be the highlight of my PhD. Jakub Těšitel and Jan Roleček from Brno University giving a preview of the mindblowing ecosystems of the White Carpathians which hold world records for small-scale plant species richness.
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Fences are misunderstood!
Electric fence around the property enables peaceful coexistence between us and the neighbors: large grazing mammals roaming freely year-round. Temporary plastic wire allows them to graze the garden.
Fences are an opportunity for wilder ecosystems, when done right #rewilding

Why should you let cattle roam your garden in late winter? To limit grasses and benefit flowering forbs!

Read our paper just out in @jappliedecology.bsky.social with Camilla Fløjgaard, @r-ejrnaes.bsky.social and @jcsvenning.bsky.social

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Wild pollinators in introduced spring ephemeral always makes me wonder about interglacial range-filling. Would Cyclamen have made it to Scandinavia in a human-free Holocene? Does it matter if c-album really likes it - and I like them both?

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We need greater focus on which processes are and which aren't restored in agricultural rewilding.

But we can't study what isn't there.

We need a new OVP in Europe, this time with Elephants and wolves!

Danish National Parks are paper parks - nothing but words on a page or an advertisement in the supermarket. As you can tell from the add, we proudly reserve our NP’s for intensive agriculture… #dkpol

May your favorite ecosystem have its natural processes restored and strictly protected! Merry Christmas!

A shame when political ideas of “pristine wilderness” come in the way of possibly restoring ecosystem processes. Not saying hippos necessarily restore the Magdalena ecosystem, but likewise we have no proof that they destroy it.

More research over longer time could give answers

Semi-aquatic mammals serve as important ecosystem engineers globally, regulating nutrient flows and plant competition doi.org/10.1111/brv....

Obviously, the diversity of extinct semi-aquatic SA mammals did the same

OR, could the cocaine hippos have restored lost functions of now-extinct South American megafauna?

We lost an entire order of South American ungulates (Notoungulata) to human hunting in the Late Pleistocene, some of which were likely semi-aquatic.

And what about the multiple aquatic giant sloths?

Reminds me of Rhys Lemoine's great piece on magpies. Intelligent birds that favor grazed vegetation and disturbance dependent foraging, i.e. associated with megafauna.

Exciting to see if magpies return to the wild as trophic rewilding reintroduces large mammals to European landscapes!

Bjergrørhvenen gemmer sig i hvidtjørnen i Østtyskland

Strandnellike i æblerose-vugge hos jeres naboer😏

@r-ejrnaes.bsky.social Forskellen mellem fuglekigger- og botanikerhaven…🫣