Author: Journal of Applied Ecology

Boreal forest soils are home to diverse fungal communities that break down dead material from plants and fungi. Two key groups drive this process: ectomycorrhizal fungi, which partner with tree roots and receive carbon from trees in exchange for nutrients, and saprotrophic fungi, which break down dead material to acquire both carbon and nutrients. When […]

Whenever you walk through a shade-grown coffee farm in the Colombian Andes, it is easy to feel optimistic about biodiversity. Tall trees form a canopy above the coffee shrubs, birds call from every direction, and the system looks far more “natural” than a monoculture field. For years, this kind of agroforestry has been promoted as […]

We found that community-managed forests can support wildlife just as well as nearby protection forests, especially when forests remain well connected across the landscape. This has important implications for how community forestry is included in future conservation strategies. Across the world, governments are increasingly giving local communities the rights to manage forests. Indonesia is rapidly […]

Kami menemukan bahwa hutan yang dikelola oleh masyarakat lokal dapat mendukung kehidupan satwa liar seperti halnya kawasan hutan lindung di sekitarnya, terutama ketika hutan-hutan tersebut tetap terhubung dengan baik di seluruh bentang alam. Temuan ini memiliki implikasi penting tentang bagaimana perhutanan sosial dapat dimasukkan ke dalam strategi konservasi di masa mendatang. Di seluruh dunia, para […]

Mountain gorillas are often celebrated as a conservation success story. Their numbers have increased thanks to long-term protection from conservation organisations, park authorities and local communities. However, the remaining two populations live in small, environmentally constrained habitats and recent veterinary records have documented cases of severe gastritis associated with strongylid nematodes in Virunga Massif. This […]

Um den Rückgang der Artenvielfalt von Flora und Fauna umzukehren, müssen artenreiche Grünland-Ökosysteme dringend wiederhergestellt werden. Die Identifizierung erfolgreicher Strategien zur Renaturierung ist daher von großer Bedeutung, insbesondere im Hinblick auf die Umsetzung der EU-Renaturierungsverordnung auf nationaler Ebene. Tagfalter und Widderchen als sensitive Indikatoren ermöglichen dabei eine ganzheitliche Betrachtung des Renaturierungserfolgs, welche den Landschaftskontext berücksichtigen. […]

The decline of the African penguin The African penguin (Spheniscus demersus) population has plummeted by nearly 80% in the past three decades, in part due to competition with the local purse-seine fishery which targets the penguins’ key prey of sardines and anchovies. To understand the role of fisheries in the penguin decline, a fishery closure […]

Wildfires are becoming larger, more frequent and more severe in many parts of the world. In Mediterranean-type regions, extreme wildfires that once seemed exceptional now return every year. According to Copernicus data, over 670,000 hectares burned Spain and Portugal in 2025, mostly during August. Nearly 400,000 hectares burned in Spain alone, the largest area since […]

This blog post is also available in Spanish here. Invasive species are one of the greatest threats to biodiversity, food security, and ecosystem health. When non-native plants spread into new environments, they can outcompete native species, disrupt habitats, and cause long-lasting damage to the natural habitats and the services that ecosystems provide to humans. Most […]

Afforestation is widely used to restore degraded land and improve soil health, but not all planting approaches deliver the same ecological benefits. Soils perform many important functions, including supplying nutrients to plants, supporting microbial activity, decomposing organic matter and maintaining nutrient cycling. However, how different afforestation strategies influence these functions together remains poorly understood. In […]