Estimating flower diversity in grasslands to indicate bee abundance: an UAV photogrammetric approach
09 January 2024
In recent decades, agricultural landscapes have witnessed declining plant and insect biodiversity, leading to diminished benefits for crops and humans. This decline, attributed to changes in land use, intensive agriculture, climate change, and habitat loss, affects insect niches and jeopardises insect pollinators' part in sustaining wild plant species,...
08 January 2024
This SHOWCASE-supported study aims to explore the intricacy between farming and biodiversity. It centres on examining how carabid beetles and spiders respond to the threats posed by chemical use in modern agriculture and the resulting homogenised landscapes on farmland. Up until now, there has been vast research in understanding crop pollinators' responses...
22 December 2023
In a new SHOWCASE paper published in Check List the journal of biodiversity data, 44 previously unrecorded arthropods were found in Estonia, thus shedding light on the species-rich habitats of the coastal areas in Estonia.
SHOWCASE contributed at large to the new knowledge of Estonian biodiversity in the coastal grasslands – an important habitat...
19 December 2023
A SHOWCASE-conducted paper, written by project partners at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, the University of Reading, and the Dutch Butterfly Conservation, and published in Ambio: A Journal of Environment and Society emphasises the connection between monitoring and farmland biodiversity. In particular, the paper examines citizen...
30 November 2023
A new SHOWCASE-supported paper seeks to fill in the knowledge gap on the behavioural determinants shaping European farmers' decisions to implement biodiversity-friendly farming practices. With agricultural intensification and landscape homogenisation identified as major drivers of biodiversity loss in European agricultural landscapes, understanding...
13 July 2023
Biodiversity monitoring based on field data across the entire Earth poses a significant challenge, which has been alleviated with the advent of remote sensing technology, offering new possibilities for Earth observation. Diving deeper into these possibilities, a 2022 paper supported by SHOWCASE reviewed the potential of the spectral species concept...
02 June 2023
In a study conducted in Western France, researchers made significant strides in understanding the delicate balance between weed management, crop production, and biodiversity conservation. Weeds are recognised as a major pest in agriculture and as such, have been intensively managed to reduce their competition for resources with crop plants. However,...
11 May 2023
Biodiversity and ecosystem functions provide crucial ecosystem services for human well-being, but changes in human activities have accelerated biodiversity loss. To address this decline, efficient methods and tools are needed to monitor biodiversity across spatial scales from the leaf level to the canopy, ecosystem, and global scales.
In that spirit,...
05 May 2023
Almost 50% of the global original forest cover has been lost in the last 8000 years mainly due to human activities. This decline, along with ecosystem fragmentation and reduction in habitat connectivity, are considered the major drivers of global biodiversity loss. Monitoring the biological diversity of forest ecosystems is crucial to prevent any further...
21 April 2023
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of 17 goals and 169 targets that were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a global effort to eradicate poverty, preserve the planet, and achieve peace and prosperity for all by 2030. They apply to all countries and are designed to be integrated, with progress on one goal supporting progress on...
10 April 2023
With the rapid pace of anthropogenic environmental change, as well as global challenges such as climate change, and widespread biodiversity loss, there is a need to further develop our understanding of insects to maximise the benefits and minimise the harm associated with them. Entomology is essential for comprehending terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems...
04 April 2023
The presence and variety of plants and insects, such as bees, are essential marks of biodiversity, ecosystem well-being, and agricultural production. Bee populations however are declining worldwide due to, among others, habitat loss, climate change, and agricultural intensification. Although the reasons behind this decline are well studied, determining...