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Reposted by Philip Amies

Swiss Ornithological Institute @vogelwarte.bsky.social · 54m

Two new studies from our colleague @steffopp.bsky.social show areas of conservation importance across the Atlantic Ocean for highly mobile seabirds doi.org/10.1111/con4.70075 and the demographic importance of immatures in Black-browed Albatross doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2026.112102

Charlesjsharp, CC-BY-SA-4.0, WikimediaCommons

JJ Harrison, CC-BY-SA-3.0, WikimediaCommons

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Reposted by Philip Amies

Min Zhao @minzhao-aves.bsky.social · 23h

Our recent study found that the barn owls of the Americas originated in the Caribbean. Barn owls from the Old World first reached the Caribbean, then spread to the Galápagos and across the American continent. Caribbean was also home to at least six known extinct Tyto species doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 1h

Sorry this has happened, hope you find something soon.

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Reposted by Philip Amies

Dr Sjúrður Hammer @sjurdur.bsky.social · 13h

Hello bluesky, not sure anyone will see this or care, but I have been laid off from the Faroese Environment Agency. This sucks for a few obvious reasons, but I am still full of research and conservation ideas. I will begin work as a consultant soon, and please feel free to get in touch if you want

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 12h

Human colonisation out of Africa especially on oceanic islands did drive extinction alongside commercial exploitation in later periods. Even low intensity land use change, introductions and hunting had significant impact in some places. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

Undiscovered bird extinctions obscure the true magnitude of human-driven extinction waves - Nature Communications

The true number of human-driven bird extinctions is likely larger than we think. Here, the authors combine recorded extinctions with estimates from the fossil record to suggest that ~1400 bird species...

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 13h

Low intensity management was orientated to human survival and profit, not biodiversity, that was an unintended outcome, most management systems such as haymaking have negatives as well as positives, all woodland being coppice much reduces woodland structure and age.

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 13h

aspects of nature conservation, such as the role of predators, leaving dead wood, restraints on production even the low intensity kind. We do need future old growth, wetlands, patches not managed or on long rotations of disturbance.

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 13h

While many conservationists would now value low intensity grazing or coppicing they find it easier to relate to similar middle class volunteers as the rural working class (much reduced in numbers) are not to their taste. Also to be fair some may not much understand the value of the nonproductive

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 13h

Largely a construct of colonisation, forced removal of indigenous people, a history conservation has not come to terms with. In Britain it was a class based attitude, the last remaining low intensity poor people managing land were seen negatively by many upper middle-class naturalists.

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 13h

2/ disturbance, dogs chasing wildlife, wildlife crimes, litter, some may be trivial and cosmetic, disturbance may longterm be significant, arson can have a big impact. Understandable reactions, but conservation has another history, more negative, a myth of pristine wilderness.

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 13h

How people feel about human impact perhaps immediately is a response to 1/ the major landscape impacts of industrial farming, wetland drainage, plantation forestry, extraction and pollution, urbanisation.

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 13h

Hence the +/- abandonment might be great for large mammals, which can have pluses for other species, but given megafauna extinction a loss of human low intensity activity may be negative for other species, so not a simple issue.

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 13h

That is my view, fragmentation has a serious impact, but a mosaic has value, interesting question of scale, but a landscape may have large even relatively monoculture vegetation patches (a reedbed, some woodland types).

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 14h

Of course some people consider it settled that megafauna extinction is due to humans. I'm unsure, good papers argue for a substantial climate factor in their extinction, the correlation between human colonisation and megafauna extinction is varied globally. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Megafauna diversity and functional declines in Europe from the Last Interglacial to the present

Aim Reconstructing megafauna diversity in the past before anthropogenic impacts is crucial for developing targeted restoration strategies. We estimated the diversity and functional decline of Europe...

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 14h

Humans tend to react badly to that which results in persecution of varying degrees of intensity depending on technology and human numbers/effort.

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 14h

However one nuances this the core point stands, humans are not intrinsically negative, human activity has +/- impacts for different species, land conversion to intensively managed crops is generally negative for many species, but some benefit, especially species which eat those crops.

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 14h

with agriculture, maybe like the sparrows from the Levant, other species have replaced the disturbance of an elephant for human activity, or in some cases some subspecies reflect native species and some subspecies moved with human agriculture.

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 14h

negative impacts on species of a particular biome (allied to this is the additional species from disturbance not being native). Not being native is an interesting question in an altered landscape such as Europe, species associated with arable cultivation and humans, such as House Sparrow have moved

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 14h

species count while damaging the ecosystem by fragmentation. Hence debates as to the impact of fragmentation, some point to increased species presence as an indicator that it does not matter, others challenge this seeing fragmentation as a process leading to long-term ecosystem degradation with

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 14h

Beyond this some profound questions exist as regards 'naturalness', disturbance by megafauna, storms, fire generate patchiness which likely increases species numbers, but is a greater number of species in a given area intrinsically better? Humans could fragment a 'natural' ecosystem and increase the

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 14h

production, which had an overall negative biodiversity impact, but before herbicides and pesticides and mechanisation only a few places had the intensity of management we see in modernity.

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 14h

early substantive change. Well other examples exist often involving climate change since the last Ice Age, just as blanket peat growth in Britain had a climate driver. Humans are not inherently bad for biodiversity, but in some places humans long ago turned all land into intensive crop

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 14h

With vast wetland drainage, river management, most woodland fairly intensively managed humans have had centuries of negative impact, but low intensity human activity has had millenia of positive impact in places, perhaps Britain with most woodland cleared by the Bronze Age is an extreme example of

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 14h

Europe has very little old growth forest, Britain none, Scandinavia is fast losing remnants, even 'wilder' forests in the Carpathians are being felled. Old growth woodland was interspersed with open habitats in the last interglacial (perhaps edaphic conditions involved) www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

pnas.org

High herbivore density associated with vegetation diversity in interglacial ecosystems | PNAS

The impact of large herbivores on ecosystems before modern human activities is an open question in ecology and conservation. For Europe, the contro...

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 14h

Hazel is one woody species which was more abundant in the last interglacial, it is abundant in coppice woodland as a human crop. besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 14h

landscape. Why would low intensity (extensive) human activity of grazing, coppicing, general vegetation management result in an overall biodiversity decline (given some species populations recover). Probably because human activity in Europe replicates the lost megafauna activity.

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 14h

Long term the development of old growth forest (if this happens) will support a range of other species (probably with a decrease between young growth and older growth woodland). Lowlands often are increasingly intensively used, road fragmentation serious, wetlands drained, so hardly a connected

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 14h

True (at least for some species), currently in Europe some uplands have been abandoned, with reduced human activity some species perhaps especially predators populations recover, early successional woodland supports (temporarily) other species, but loss of open grazed habitats results in declines.

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Reposted by Philip Amies

Markus Eichhorn @markuseichhorn.bsky.social · 17h

Why do plants that don't belong in trees sometimes end up growing in trees? New paper on the biogeography of accidental epiphytes by Hoensbroech et al. in @biogeography.bsky.social biogeography.pensoft.net/article/2073... 🌲🌳🧪🌐🌍

Figure 1. Examples of accidental epiphytes recorded during this study. A–C. Coppiced willows (Salix spp.) hosting cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris (L.) Hoffm.) (A), stinging nettle (Urtica dioica L.) (B) and common comfrey (Symphytum officinale L.) on pollard heads or in knotholes (C); D. Navelwort (Umbilicus rupestris (Salisb.) Dandy) growing in needle litter accumulated on a large branch; E, F. Polypody ferns (Polypodium spp.) growing in moss mats; G Canary Island palm (Phoenix canariensis H. Wildpret) with accidental epiphytes growing in cut frond bases, mainly sow-thistle (Sonchus spp.). All photographs were taken by the first author.

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 17h

Yes, I wince in anticipated pain when thinking about rough tracks, even with better suspension than leaf springs. Years of driving off-road and manual labour/lifting makes even a car park speed bump with a modern car something I take care with, spine does not cope with jolting.

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Reposted by Philip Amies

Traqua.be 💧🧪🔦 @traqua.eurosky.social · 20h

The system was set up within an ahupuaʻa, a stretch of land running from the mountaintop to the reef. The forests, streams, fields and fisheries alongside were managed as one watershed. The importance of water management is reflected in the word for law, 'kanawai', literally meaning 'water rule'.

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 19h

State of me now I doubt I could climb into the cab!

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 19h

In a lottery win scenario with trips out into desert I'd rather like to see what a Toyota Land Cruiser or G-wagon are like, but my ideal would be a Unimog conversion. No idea what they are like to drive, but always liked the look of them.

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 20h

My older brother had a Jeep type, perhaps a Dodge WC-56, and I think a smaller Willy, great fun when I was a child, but a roof is good.

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 20h

wrong. Was reparable, but Nissan never needed repairing, in reality both similar offroad, given a good tyre choice, pickup so much nicer on road with a heater which worked and doors which did not leak (I replaced door tops and seals, still leaked).

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 20h

Had one for 11 years, despite myself I sometimes think I'd like one again, then sense kicks in, had a Nissan pickup for 20 years after landrover which was superior in nearly every way, the only missing element, hand starting, and I never want to feel the juddering sensation again of getting that

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Reposted by Philip Amies

Dr Orly Razgour @orlyrazgour.bsky.social · 19/10/2026

Can artificial lighting be wildlife friendly? Our new paper out today in Biological Conservation shows that amber lighting negatively impacts emerging bats, challenging the idea that long wavelength light is ‘wildlife-friendly’ #bats #ALAN 🦇💡🌐🌍🧪 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Infographic showing the results of lighting experiments on emergence time and emergence intervals in lesser horseshoe bats

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 21h

I've visited this cave and seen this, wonderful.

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 21/10/2026

"Spitze Stei in Kandersteg. The mountain rests on a layer of marl – a soft, clay-rich rock – which loses its stability as soon as water penetrates it. The meltwater seeps in, the rock loses its support and slides down the valley."

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 21/10/2026

The linked article (in English) is worth a read, permafrost in the Alps is not a glue, it is a sealant, with anthropogenic climate change water can act on mountain rocks sealed for millenia.

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 20/10/2026

Entomopathogenic fungi, Facultative Pathogens / Facultative Saprophytes vs. Obligate Pathogens. www.scielo.br/j/aib/a/7RCC...

scielo.br

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 20/10/2026

Some fungi can either form a symbiotic lichen form or a independent form. Obligate or plasticity, fascinating fungal evolutionary paths. www.mykoweb.com/articles/Lic...

mykoweb.com

MykoWeb: Article

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 20/10/2026

"This suggests that the lack of 'missing ascomycete core genes' is essential for biotrophs such as powdery mildews, but not for hemibiotrophs." www.mycosphere.org/pdf/Mycosphe...

mycosphere.org

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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 19/10/2026

Some plant lineages, however, evolved the ability to obtain carbon from fungi, a nutritional mode known as mycoheterotrophy. Full mycoheterotrophs are non-photosynthetic throughout their entire life cycle and solely depend on fungal carbon. besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Mycorrhizal symbioses and the evolution of trophic modes in plants

The mycorrhizal symbiosis represents a mutualism in which root-associated fungi facilitate plants with the acquisition of essential nutrients from the soil, and in return, plants generally transfer p...

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