Bringing back birds to Mediterranean heathlands one cut and one burn at a time – The Applied Ecologist

For centuries, the heathlands of Tuscany in north-central Italy were used to graze livestock and to harvest heather for making brooms (the old witch-style ones) and other wares. These traditional land-use practices maintained perfect habitat for birds like the woodlark and tawny pipit – specialists of open and shrubby habitats. But here, and throughout Europe, […]

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What happens belowground when invasive species are controlled? – The Applied Ecologist

A better understanding of what happens belowground when restoring coastal vegetation may be useful to better plan restoration. However, little is known about what happens belowground when invasive species are controlled in restoration settings. My students and I used a protected area of sandy coastal vegetation in an island in Southern Brazil as a model […]

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Diverse city lives of Asiatic dayflowers in a Japanese megacity |

Taichi Nakata, Kyushu University in Japan, discusses their article: Adaptive trait divergence of annual plants in response to urban habitat diversity in a megacity As we walk through cities, we often notice flowers blooming in the gaps in pavement, along roadsides, or in parks. Despite the drastic alterations of their natural habitats by human activity, […]

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Commission updates Union Registry rules for Effort Sharing and land-use accounting

The European Commission has amended the Union Registry Regulation (Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/1122), which ensures the  accurate and transparent accounting of Member States’ transactions under the Effort Sharing Regulation (ESR) and the Land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) Regulation. The updated rules align the Union Registry with the revised Effort Sharing and LULUCF […]

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Contrasting the roles of fertile island strength and ecosystem fertility at a global scale |

Victoria Giachetti and Martín Aguiar, University of Buenos Aires in Argentina, discuss their article: Stronger fertile island patterns enhance plant facilitation in drylands, regardless of overall ecosystem fertility Facilitation and fertile island formation: Two key structuring processes in dryland ecosystems At the core of dryland ecosystem functioning, there are two tightly linked processes: fertile island […]

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Six winners of the 2024 Innovation Fund hydrogen auction sign grant agreements, advancing renewable hydrogen rollout in the EU

Six projects selected in the 2024 Innovation Fund Auction for renewable hydrogen production (IF24 Auction) have signed their grant agreements, receiving a total of €270.6 million, sourced from EU Emissions Trading System revenues. Two of these projects were awarded under the dedicated maritime topic, receiving more than €35 million to supply renewable hydrogen to maritime […]

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The dangers of ignoring environmental heterogeneity |

Annie Schiffer, Utah State University, discusses her article: The importance of accounting for spatial heterogeneity in studies of plant competition and coexistence Our paper explores how ignoring spatial environmental heterogeneity produces biases in competition and coexistence models. The original motivation for this study was to explain why interspecific competition was underestimated in observational studies of […]

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EU needs to invest €70 billion per year in climate adaptation up to 2050

The EU, its Member States and the private sector should invest about €70 billion per year until 2050 in climate adaptation, to reduce exposure to increasing climate hazards and improve resilience, according to a new study commissioned by the Directorate-General for Climate Action (DG CLIMA) and funded under Horizon Europe. Assessment of EU and Member […]

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Cows, chemistry, and the hidden architecture of grassland stability |

Baoshuang Hu and Wei Sun, Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology of the Ministry of Education, Jilin Songnen Grassland Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Northeast Normal University, discuss their article: Beyond species richness: grazing and fertilization shape temperate grassland stability through distinct stabilizing effects Imagine a vast, windswept grassland. To the casual observer, it might […]

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EU–Norway Green Alliance: partners review progress and next steps

DG CLIMA Director for International Affairs and Climate Finance Diana Acconcia, and Norwegian Ambassador to the EU Anders H. Eide at the EU-Norway Green Alliance Implementation Meeting Norway House in Brussels On 22 January 2026, the European Union and Norway held the annual implementation meeting of the EU–Norway Green Alliance, bringing together representatives of the […]

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