Sabina Burrascano

🌾 𝐄𝐆𝐂 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔: 𝐒𝐨𝐟𝐢𝐚, 𝐁𝐮𝐥𝐠𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐚

Join us 𝐉𝐮𝐥𝐲 𝟏𝟗-𝟐𝟑 for the 21st Eurasian Grassland Conference! 🌿

📅 𝐊𝐞𝐲 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬:
• Mar 31: Early-bird Registration
• May 10: Abstract Submission

🎓 Keynotes from global experts in grassland ecology.

𝐃𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐬 & 𝐑𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧:
🔗 edgg.org/egc2026

#EGC2026 #Grasslands

In Central Europe, forest management shapes post-disturbance recovery mostly through what’s left behind (disturbance legacies 🪵🌱) than impacting forest growth rates 📈

+ Set-aside forests regrow canopy height as fast as managed forests

New paper out in ForEcolMngt 🌳 doi.org/10.1016/j.fo...

European forest carbon and biodiversity policies have a limited win-win potential - Nature Communications Forests are essential for both climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation, yet how to balance these goals in managed forests remains unclear. Here, using a Europe-wide dataset, the author...

Can we jointly pursue climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation in European forests?

Only promoting deadwood rather than living carbon stocks!

Not much support for win-win afforestation policies.

Read our brand new article led by #LorenzoBalducci:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

You won't want to miss this! Keep your calendars free and hopefully see you in Switzerland in October 🌳🍁🌐🧪

Global functional shifts in trees driven by alien naturalization and native extinction - Nature Plants This study finds that native tree extinctions and alien naturalizations are pushing forests towards fast-growing, resource-demanding species. This global shift could affect carbon storage and ecosyste...

Fast-growing trees are set to dominate the #forests of the #future — but at a cost🌳
Our Nature Plants (@natplants.nature.com) study shows a global shift toward "sprinter" tree species, while slow-growing, functionally critical #trees face elevated #extinction risk. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

HIRING! We are looking for a new PhD student to work on insects in deadwood, effects of microclimate and land use. This is part of the Biodiversity Exploratories @bexplo.bsky.social and will use a new experiment using rain-out shelters in different regions of Germany. EU driver´s licence required.

Hiring! We are looking for a field assistant for the coming 7 months to support a large field campaign across Europe for the #Trees4Adapt project on climate change impacts on biodiversity in forests.
Drivers license required. Apply online til 3/2!
jobs.ugent.be/job-invite/2...
@fbwugent.bsky.social

A great way to start the 2026!

Look forward to work at this project with so many high profile institutions and collaborative colleagues.

Ecological Forecasting, Master of Science (M.Sc.) Ob Bachelor-, Master-, Lehramt- oder Jura-Studium: An der Uni Bayreuth findest du sicher den passenden Studiengang.

"Ecological Forecasting" - the new Master of Science study program at the University of Bayreuth www.uni-bayreuth.de/en/master/ec...

🌿Join the 68th IAVS Annual Symposium.🌿
⌛️ Early bird registrations are now open.
Don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to connect with fellow vegetation scientists!
Take advantage of the early bird rates. Location: Gijón, Spain.
Apply here—https://2026gijon.iavs-meetings.org/.

Come work with us! #PhD position on #ecosystem and #biodiversity effects of large #herbivores on the Eurasian steppes now announced: www.euraxess.de/jobs/395512

Nice combination of fieldwork and meta-analysis, co-supervised by @jonastrepel.bsky.social and ejlundgren.github.io

Response of Global Forest Management to Changes in Wood Demand

🔗 buff.ly/pEelyLR

Herbivory Modifies the Role of Spatial Processes in a Grassland Plant Metacommunity We empirically examined how mammalian herbivory interacts with habitat size and connectivity to affect plant diversity in a natural grassland metacommunity. We found that herbivory increased plant di...

New study out in Ecology Letters 🌱🐑!

Using long-term Åland monitoring data, we found that herbivory increases plant diversity across scales and flips the diversity–area relationship: a positive relationship is found in grazed sites while a negative one in ungrazed sites.

🔗 doi.org/10.1111/ele....

The legacy of pine plantations on fire severity 🔥🧪

Provides quantitative evidence that pine plantations can exacerbate fire severity under contemporary climate conditions and that, once burned, these areas seldom recover 🌲🌏

🔗 doi.org/10.1111/1365...

von Büren et al. propose a novel, low-cost, and effective method to monitor above- and belowground microclimate in mountain environments year-round that withstands large animals and snow pressure and is suitable for remote areas.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
#monitoring

Job offer: PhD in Dendroecology (f/m/d) You will be part of a project aiming to empirically disentangle atmospheric vs. soil drought impacts on intra- and inter-annual wood formation, and mechanistically model drought constraints on intra- and inter-annual tree growth dynamics (https://www.wsl.ch/en/projects/sad-tree) based on a unique monitoring network of 44 forest sites in Switzerland spanning 10 years of soil moisture and atmospheric climate data. In this context, you will contribute to the establishment and analysis of intra- and inter-annual time series of tree growth based on dendrometer, tree rings, and quantitative wood anatomy (QWA). You will be responsible for establishing improved empirical relationships of tree growth-environment interactions based on the long-term integrative Soil-Plant-Atmosphere-Continuum dataset (tree & stand traits, physical environment), analyzing: intra-annual water- and growth-related stem radius changes from dendrometer measurements, early-season wood anatomy related to water transport and rehydration, and long-term drought effects on growth using tree-ring widths. You have a Master's degree in forest ecology, environmental sciences, or equivalent. You should have excellent analytical and statistical skills in time-series analysis, preferably in dendrosciences and/or tree physiology. Ideally, you are proficient in programming and handling of large datasets, and have experience with tree-ring methods. You are able to efficiently expand and acquire knowledge in topics relevant to the project. You have a proficient command of written and spoken English, are able to work in a structured, efficient and independent manner, and have a high level of team spirit and have good communication skills.

🌳💧📊 #PhDAlert! MSc in #ForestEcology or #EnvironmentalSciences? Excellent analytical and statistical skills in time-series analysis and experience with #treering methods🪵? We offer a #PhD position in #Dendroecology: apply.refline.ch/273855/1795/... #dendrosciences #ecology #ScienceJobs

New #BIEN collaboration paper out in @pnas.org🍃
We show, using data for ~250,000 #plant species, that broader climatic niches consistently predict larger geographic ranges and higher dominance - a key insight for #biodiversity under #climatechange🌍🌱👉https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2517585122

📢 Thinking about presenting at #IAVS2026?
Abstract submissions are opening on 1 Dec 2025
Submit one 250-word abstract (talk or poster) via the online portal.
Prepare your #vegetation science & #ecology research—more info on website - gijon2026.iavs-meetings.org/abstracts/#c...
#Vegetation #symposium

In our new article led by Gabriele Midolo, published in Ecology Letters, we show that plant species richness in European plant communities generally decreased between the 1960s and 1980s. However, since the 1990s, this trend seems to have stopped or even reversed.
dx.doi.org/10.1111/ele....

Dense and continuous pine plantations fuel severe wildfires and hinder recovery 🔥

Reducing tree density can lower impacts, guiding more resilient afforestation and fire management strategies in Mediterranean ecosystems 🌲

🔗 doi.org/10.1111/1365...

Invitation to contribute to a Special Feature on “Scaling laws in (vegetation) ecology” in the Journal of Vegetation Science - vegsciblog.org Posted by Jürgen Dengler (Chair of the Guest Editors) Outline: Scaling laws are ubiquitous in ecology. Ignoring them can lead

Invitation to contribute to a Special Feature on “Scaling laws in (vegetation) ecology” in the Journal of Vegetation Science vegsciblog.org/2025/10/30/s... @iavs5.bsky.social

Great to see the results of our massive biodiversity assessment at Berchtesgaden Natl. Park pour in! Cool insights on patterns & drivers of multidiversity!

#1 Macro- and microclimate interactively shape species diversity of multiple taxa in mountain landscapes by L. Geres. doi.org/10.1002/ecog...

Microclimate vulnerability under coupled effects of changing climate and forest structure Understanding how forest structure affects microclimate is crucial amidst global warming, especially in biodiversity hotspots such as the North Americ…

🥁New paper on microclimate vulnerability under changing climate 🌦️ & forest structure 🌳. Forest structure can buffer or amplify climate warming! Congrats to Joanna Lumbsden-Pinto @sunyesf.bsky.social, @brookhavenlab.bsky.social, @sunyofficial.bsky.social. 🌐🌍

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Shifts in vegetation activity of terrestrial ecosystems attributable to climate trends - Nature Geoscience An analysis fusing satellite data with a process-based model of plant growth attributes changes in vegetation activity across terrestrial ecosystems to climatic changes.

Attribution of vegetation change to climate change: here we compared vegetation time series to simulations from a process model forced with observed and counterfactual (detrended) climate data. Trends in climate necessary for the model to emulate vegetation trends www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/3

We are searching for a Forest Ecophysiologist (tenure track Assistant or Associate Professor) to join the Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences, University of British Columbia Faculty of Forestry. Please share! Details are here: ubc.wd10.myworkdayjobs.com/ubcfacultyjobs

Thanks to you for participating so actively and for your insightful work!!!

Sustainable forest planning: Assessing biodiversity effects of Triad zoning based on empirical data and virtual landscapes | PNAS The Triad framework seeks to balance the economic and ecological functions in forested landscapes by combining intensively, extensively, and unmana...

Just out in PNAS!

We used multi-taxon data to model virtual forest landscapes.

Forest withdrawn from timber harvesting are needed in a much higher share than they currently are in Europe, and extensive forests contribute less than expected to multi-taxon diversity.

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Linking grazing regimes to flower traits we found that extensive grazing enhances flower traits crucial for insect pollinators. 🐄🐑🌸🏵🐝🦋

An even local grazing pressure drives taxonomic and functional diversity and enhances the support to insect pollinators.

Article here: 👇👇👇

doi.org/10.1016/j.ag...

From picking wild asparaguses to studying vegetation responses to fire regimes - vegsciblog.org The post provided by Sabina Burrascano This post refers to the article “Transiently richer but profoundly changed: fire regime triggers

Fire regimes in sub-Mediterranean areas negatively affect deciduous shrub and tree species while favouring Mediterranean herbs & low shrubs, blurring the differences between Mediterranean and sub-Mediterranean areas. See post by Sabina Burrascano: vegsciblog.org/2025/07/25/f... @iavs5.bsky.social

🔥Fire frequency and severity impacts the sub-Mediterranean pseudomaquis, favouring strictly Mediterranean species.

Read our article here

dx.doi.org/10.1111/jvs....