The study also forecasts that as many as 28 further species could eventually be confirmed in the country.
An eight-year international research effort has produced the most comprehensive review of Honduras’ mammals since 1998, verifying 227 native species across 146 genera and 42 families, along with three introduced rodent species. The study, published in the open-access journal ZooKeys, also forecasts that as many as 28 further species could eventually be confirmed in the country, bringing the potential total to 258.
Manatee, photographed by Daniel Gonzalez-Socoloske.
The research was led by Manfredo A. Turcios-Casco of the Asociación para la Sostenibilidad e Investigación Científica en Honduras (ASICH) and the Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz in Brazil, together with 14 co-authors from institutions across Honduras, the United States, Brazil, Guatemala and Costa Rica, including Panthera Honduras, the Smithsonian Institution and the Wildlife Conservation Society. The resulting work spans nearly 200 pages of species accounts, distribution data and conservation summaries.
The project began when Turcios-Casco was a master’s student researching the conservation status of Honduran xenarthrans:
“At that time, I realised something surprising: despite Honduras being one of the most biodiverse countries in Central America, its mammal fauna had not been comprehensively reviewed since 1998.
What began with a team of four researchers grew into a collaboration spanning museum curators, taxonomists, field biologists and conservation practitioners across multiple countries.”
Compiling the review meant verifying more than 300,000 records drawn from museum collections, scientific publications, technical reports and previously unpublished field observations dating back to the 1960s.
Mormoops megalophylla. Image credit: Manfredo A. Turcios-Casco.
“The greatest challenge was undoubtedly the verification process. Every record (and there were more than 300,000) had to be evaluated critically,” Turcios-Casco said, noting that shifting taxonomy meant the team was still updating species accounts just days before the manuscript’s final submission.
Among the review’s more unexpected findings was how little is known about some of Honduras’ most familiar mammals. “For some mammals, including squirrels, raccoons, and several small rodents, there were no modern distribution maps available,” Turcios-Casco noted. Even regionally widespread species, such as opossums and skunks, remain poorly documented within the country.
Nyctomys sumichrasti. Image credit: Manfredo A. Turcios-Casco.
Spilogale angustifrons. Image credit: Manfredo A. Turcios-Casco.
Caluromys derbianus. Image credit: Manfredo A. Turcios-Casco.
Alongside the species accounts, the review provides conservation summaries intended to guide research priorities and policy decisions:
“Because conservation begins with knowledge. One of the biggest challenges in biodiversity conservation is that we often want to protect species before we fully understand them.”
Turcios-Casco
Camera traps photos by Panthera-Honduras – White lipped peccaries.
Giant anteater.
Tapirs.
Puma.
The work also draws on cultural knowledge, incorporating common names used by Indigenous peoples and local communities alongside the scientific record.
“Rather than simply compiling species records, we tried to tell the story of Honduras’ mammals.”
Turcios-Casco
Looking ahead, the authors hope the review will serve as a foundation for the next generation of Honduran biologists.
“In that sense, the review is both a summary of what we know and a reminder of how much there is left to learn about the natural heritage of Honduras.
Turcios-Casco
Cover image:
Howler monkey, photographed by Daniel Gonzalez-Socoloske.
Original source:
Turcios-Casco MA, Castañeda F, Wilson DE, Miller B, Gonzalez-Socoloske D, Ramos EA, King TW, LaVal RK, Ordóñez-Garza N, Ordoñez D, Graciolli G, Thornton D, Martínez M, Estrada-Andino NM, Ávila-Palma HD (2026) Taxonomy, natural history, and conservation of the mammals of Honduras. ZooKeys 1288: 1–193. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1288.129555
The 10th Symposium of the International Association for Lichenology took place in Trieste, where Pensoft showcased its plant science and mycology journal portfolio.
Held once every four years, the symposium is an important event for the global lichenology community, and this edition proved more popular than ever, drawing over 350 participants from around the world – more than double the number originally expected.
Lichenology is a wonderfully niche field, but IAL10 showed just how far-reaching and collaborative the community is. Delegates travelled from every corner of the globe to discuss taxonomy, lichen-associated microorganisms, biodiversity and conservation, ecophysiology, environmental biomonitoring, and cultural heritage preservation.
Pensoft’s stand at IAL10
Maria Kolesnikova, our Head of Marketing, Sales and Events, at the Pensoft stand at IAL10.
We were pleased to have our own stand at the symposium, where we showcased our journals in plant science and mycology, including:
MycoKeys: publishes papers on the monophyletic kingdom Fungi containing taxonomic or ecological data on any taxon of any geological age from any part of the world with no limit to manuscript size;
IMA Fungus: considers contributions from all areas of mycology expected to be of interest to the wider mycological community, from basic research to applications
PhytoKeys: publishes papers in systematic Botany containing taxonomic/floristic data on any taxon of any geological age from any part of the world
Italian Botanist: publishes original research covering all fields of Botany in its wider sense, including Mycology, ranging from molecular to ecosystem studies
Biodiversity Data Journal: publishes papers in biodiversity science containing taxonomic, floristic/faunistic, morphological, genomic, phylogenetic, ecological or environmental data on any taxon of any geological age from any part of the world
Vegetation Classification and Survey: publishes original papers that develop new vegetation typologies as well as applied studies that use such typologies, for example, in vegetation mapping, ecosystem modelling, nature conservation, land use management or monitoring
Pensoft’s journals in plant science and mycology.
It was a great opportunity to speak directly with researchers and students about publishing their work, and to reconnect with authors and editors already part of our community.
Garima Singh – Subject Editor and Author in MycoKeys.
Muhammad Usman, Author in MycoKeys.
Edyta Mazur – Author in Mycokeys.
Pier Luigi Nimis – Subject Editor and Reviewer in MycoKeys.
Talks that caught our attention
Among the many excellent presentations at IAL10, two in particular stood out to us:
Juri Nascimbene presenting his talk at IAL10 – Historical lichen collections as a time capsule.
Juri Nascimbene at Pensoft’s stand.
Juri Nascimbene, a subject editor and author at MycoKeys and an author for Italian Botanist, Vegetation Classification and Survey, and Biodiversity Data Journal, presented on the historical lichen collections held at the University of Bologna’s herbarium (BOLO). His talk explored how these collections, some dating back to the work of Ulisse Aldrovandi in the sixteenth century, allow researchers to track species distributions across centuries.
Using material such as Antonio Bertoloni’s Hortus Siccus Florae Italicae, which contains 850 georeferenced lichen specimens, Nascimbene’s team has been able to trace the long-term presence of species such as Lobaria pulmonaria in the chestnut groves of the Northern Apennines, and the disappearance of cold-adapted species such as Alectoria ochroleuca from high-altitude sites.
It was a fascinating look at how historical herbaria can inform our understanding of global change today!
Martin Grube presenting his talk at IAL10 – Lichens in motion.
We also attended a talk by Martin Grube, a reviewer and author at MycoKeys, who challenged the common perception of lichens as slow-growing organisms. His presentation examined the hygroscopic movements lichens undergo as they take up and lose water, and the mechanical stresses this creates within their thalli.
Grube introduced tools for measuring these mechanical properties and discussed what they might reveal about the evolution and function of lichen structures, thus offering a compelling primer on comparative thallus mechanics.
A new special issue in MycoKeys
While at IAL10, we were pleased to announce a new special issue in MycoKeys: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference of the International Association for Lichenology (IAL10), edited by Mauro Tretiach, Fabio Candotto Carniel, and Lucia Muggia. The special issue will bring together original research articles and short communications covering the full breadth of lichen symbiosis research. We look forward to seeing the community’s latest work published there.
Announcement of a special issue in MycoKeys at IAL10.
Celebrating the award winners
Congratulations to all of this year’s IAL10 award winners:
Group photograph of the award winners at IAL10.
Best Posters
Honorata Wacławek, “Phylogenetic insights into freshwater Gyalidea (Gomphillaceae, Graphidales) from the high Andes of Bolivia”
Ariel Sebastián Udaeta Sanchez, “First axenic cultures of saxicolous lichens from Tucumán (NW Argentina): growth timelines and representation of under-studied neotropical lineages”
Best Flash Talks
Ciaran Kelly, “Comparative genomic analyses of antimicrobial proteins encoded by lichen-forming fungi”
Anna Pasinato, “The metabolic divide: fungal genomes reveal an unequal distribution of biosynthetic gene clusters”
Best Oral Presentations
Victoria K., “Hidden cohabitants: metagenomic insights into global occurrence patterns of black fungi associated with lichens”
Diego Garfias Gallegos, “Central metabolism and development are rewired in lichenized cyanobacteria”
Until next time
IAL10 was a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with the lichenology community, and we were delighted to meet so many authors from our journals in person. Thank you to everyone who stopped by our stand, attended a talk with us, or simply shared a conversation about lichens.
We look forward to continuing our collaboration with the Italian Lichenological Society and seeing you all again at the next symposium.
Between 26-31 July, Pensoft Publishers joined more than 2,600 ecologists, researchers, and conservation professionals in Salt Lake City for the 111th Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America (ESA2026).
Pensoft Publishers joined more than 2,600 ecologists, researchers, and conservation professionals in Salt Lake City for the 111th Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America (ESA2026) between 26-31 July.
This year’s conference theme, “Ecology in an Era of Uncertainty,” could not have felt more timely. Uncertainty is nothing new to ecological research – it’s built into measurements, mechanisms, and predictions.
But new sources of uncertainty are now reshaping the field: the rise of artificial intelligence, post-pandemic shifts in career development, and growing instability in research funding. Throughout the week, the ESA community came together not only to share cutting-edge ecological research, but also to think collectively about how to navigate these emerging challenges – trading multidisciplinary, creative solutions to keep the field resilient in the face of what’s next.
The Opening Session
The Grand Ballroom was packed for the opening session, where Conference Chairs Daniel Stover and Andrea Swei welcomed attendees. Despite a challenging year for funding and travel, the 111th annual meeting of ESA 2026 hosted 2,600 registered attendees 330 sessions and 884 posters,
The opening address was delivered by Diane Pitaki, Chief Scientist and Vice President for Science at the National Wildlife Federation, who spoke about ecology standing at a crossroads amid the biodiversity crisis and shifting political headwinds, urging the community to actively “defend conservation science.”
Among the meeting’s standout moments was the plenary from Tanya Berger-Wolf, Professor of Computer Science and Ecology at Ohio State University and a leading figure in AI for ecology and biodiversity.
Notably, Berger-Wolf will be a keynote speaker at TDWG 2026 in Oslo (20-25 September) – where Pensoft Publisherswill once again be exhibiting, so stay tuned for future updates.
Situated right at the entrance of the exhibition hall, Pensoft’s booth revelled in attention from attendees throughout the week.
Pensoft’s team at ESA 2026 in Salt Palace Convention Center.
Pensoft’s busy stand at the 111th Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America.
Pensoft’s busy stand at the 111th Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America.
The beautiful Denitsa Peneva’s illustrations at ESA 2026.
A particular highlight was our trio of diamond open-access journals – free to publish in and free to read – that drew considerable interest from attendees:
Individual-Based Ecology promotes a distinctive individual-based perspective on ecology, aiming to bridge individual behaviour and broader ecological patterns.
Advances in Pollinator Research is designed as an innovative platform for the full spectrum of pollinator science, from pollination ecology and pollinator-plant interactions to molecular ecology, conservation, and more.
Agricultural and Environmental Modelling (AEM), meanwhile, offers an innovative approach to publishing, dedicated to advancing both the science and practice of modelling across agriculture, food systems, natural resources, and environmental sciences.
Brochure of the diamond open-access Individual Based Ecology Journal.
Close up photo of the Advances in Pollinator Research brochure at ESA 2026.
Nicole Nogoy, managing editor of Agricultural and Environmental Modelling at ESA 2026.
Attendees curious about AEM had the chance to speak directly with its Managing Editor, Nicole Nogoy, who was on site throughout the conference to discuss publishing opportunities and promote the journal’s search for Subject Editors.
We also introduced attendees to our newest addition, the diamond open-accessJournal of Regeneration. For those interested in sharing early-stage research or project outcomes, Research Ideas and Outcomes (RIO) offered another avenue worth exploring, publishing everything from project proposals and data to policy briefs and null results.
Those looking for a new publisher or white-label solutions had the opportunity to exploreARPHA, Pensoft’s own publishing platform, which supports the full journey from manuscript writing and peer review to publication, dissemination, and archiving – all in one seamless workflow.
Combined brochure of EU-Funded project in which Pensoft participates.
Beyond the journals and publishing solutions, the team took the opportunity to spotlight some of Pensoft’s ongoing EU-funded projects, including our pollination initiatives and our continued work with eLTER.
This time around, our team created “Pensoft Species Quiz,” challenging booth visitors to identify the correct Latin name for a series of species beautifully illustrated by Denitsa Peneva. Being more than just a fun activity, it became a natural conversation starter – leading into deeper discussions about Pensoft’s journals, services, and potential collaborations with attendees.
Some of the winners from our quiz at ESA 2026.
Some of the winners from our quiz at ESA 2026.
Happy winners from our interactive quiz game at ESA 2026.
Attendees interacting with our fun quiz.
The Agricultural and Environmental Modelling Poster Award
AEM’s Managing Editor – Nicole Nogoy ran a poster competition at the meeting, and it turned out to be one of the highlights of our week. Three researchers stood out:
Julian Resasco (University of Colorado, Boulder) took home the prize for overall best presentation with a hand-drawn comic-book poster on climate change effects on Basque country thistles;
Gwendolyn Lloyd (Indiana University) impressed us with her research on arthropods and mites in agricultural soils;
Emily Redding (Fort Hays State University, KS) joined in with a poster on fire suppression’s effects on Juniper-dependent bird species, having been inspired to bring modelling into her own research.
We also took part in a raffle organised by ESA, to which each exhibitor contributed a prize.
Kanchana Balasubramanian one of the winners of Pensoft Publishers’ raffle prizes at ESA2026.
Elizabeth Afkhami Searcy received our book “Mapping Ecosystem Services” as part of the Ecological Society of America’s conference raffle.
ESA2026 was a strong reminder of just how much energy – and uncertainty – is currently shaping the ecology community. Between thought-provoking plenaries on AI and conservation science, engaging conversations sparked by our species quiz, and the enthusiasm we saw around the AEM poster competition, it was a week full of meaningful connections for Pensoft.
We’re already looking forward to the next time, and we hope you’re looking forward to it, too!
This study marks the first freshwater cave snail ever recorded in China, and it represents the highest-altitude distribution known among cave-dwelling species in the family Erhaiidae.
Recently published in the journal Subterranean Biology, the research marks a major milestone for the study of subterranean aquatic life in East Asia. Prior to this discovery, there were no records of freshwater cave snails within Chinese territory, and the region’s subterranean freshwater mollusks were generally poorly studied.
Mythological Namesake and Unique Adaptations
Perfectly suited to its pitch-black environment, Erhaia dijiang is a true troglobiont, having evolved without eyes entirely while its ocular structures show total degeneration. Its shell is small, conical, and highly translucent, while its body is delicate and unpigmented, with slender tentacles.
Natural habitats of Erhaiadijiang. Credit to He et al., 2026.
Fittingly, researchers named the species dijiang after “Di Jiang,” a mountain patron god from ancient Chinese mythology described as a faceless beast in the classic text Classic of Mountains and Seas (山海经). The name suits the animal’s habits: in laboratory observations, the snails proved highly photophobic, actively seeking out dark crevices beneath rocks to escape light.
Beyond its mythological namesake, the species is also notable for where it was found. Discovered at an elevation of 2,062 meters, Erhaia dijiang sets a new record for the highest-altitude distribution among all known cave-dwelling snails in Erhaiidae, evidence that freshwater cavesnails can survive in karst caves at altitudes exceeding 2,000 meters.
Species of Erhaiadijiang. Credit to He et al., 2026.
According to the researchers, the species inhabits underwater gravel and crushed stone at depths of less than one meter, where cave water temperatures remain consistently near 20°C. While rapid water flow during the rainy season occasionally flushes a small number of snails out through the cave’s outlet, they are never found in nearby surface streams and stay strictly within two meters of the cave entrance. In the lab, the snails fed on diatoms growing on rock surfaces as well as artificially supplied fish food.
Urgent Call for Conservation
Erhaiadijiang. Credit to He et al., 2026.
However, despite marking a significant advance for the study of subterranean aquatic life in East Asia, the research team warns that the survival status of this newly discovered species is “far from optimistic.”
During their initial field survey in August 2025, the population density of Erhaia dijiang was found to be extremely low. The team was only able to locate three live adult individuals and a single empty shell in the shallow underground waters, and no juvenile snails were observed.
The researchers are urgently calling for extensive surveys of Chinese caves to improve our understanding of these complex ecosystems, along with the rapid formulation of conservation measures to protect these vulnerable, endemic mollusks.
Original study:
He Y-M, Xiang H-Q, Yang J-M, Zheng H, Yang S-Z, Zhou Y-F, Zheng J (2026) A new eyeless species in Erhaiidae (Gastropoda, Truncatelloidea) from a cave in Yuxi City, Yunnan, China. Subterranean Biology 56: 127-136. https://doi.org/10.3897/subtbiol.56.188075
International research team identifies South America’s unique coastal lake system as a global hotspot for tracking environmental change
More than 100 shallow lakes stretching over 1,000 kilometers along the Atlantic coast of southern Brazil and Uruguay could become one of the world’s most important natural laboratories for understanding how climate change and human activities reshape freshwater ecosystems.
An international team of researchers reports that these largely overlooked subtropical lakes offer an unparalleled opportunity to monitor biodiversity, water quality, pollution, and ecosystem resilience in a rapidly changing world.
Published in One Ecosystem, the study is the first comprehensive assessment of the Southern American Coastal Shallow Subtropical Lakes, highlighting their global scientific importance and outlining a roadmap for long-term international monitoring.
The Tramandaí Lagoon estuary, located between the municipalities of Imbé (left side of the channel) and Tramandaí (right side of the channel) in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, connects a complex of more than 40 coastal lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. Credit: CECLIMAR Collection (Photo credit: Acervo CECLIMAR).
“Most of what we know about lakes comes from the Northern Hemisphere,” says lead author Mariana Kluge of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU).
These subtropical lakes fill a major gap in global freshwater research. They allow us to test ecological theories under very different environmental conditions while providing crucial insights into how subtropical freshwater ecosystems respond to climate change and increasing human pressures.
adds Prof. Renata Medina-Silva of Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS)
The lake network forms one of the largest continuous coastal shallow-lake systems on Earth. Despite its extraordinary size and diversity, it has received far less scientific attention than well-known freshwater systems elsewhere in the world. Yet the region is already experiencing many of the environmental challenges, expected to intensify in the coming decades – including a direct impact of the El Niño Southern Oscillation – alongside heavy urbanisation, which has driven eutrophication, agricultural and wastewater pollution, emerging contaminants such as pharmaceuticals and microplastics, and increasingly frequent extreme rainfall and flooding events.
Overview of the environmental heterogeneity found across South America’s unique coastal lake systems. Credit: Kluge et al., 2026.
Christian Wurzbacher of the Technical University of Munich argues that these lakes can serve as “sentinel ecosystems“- natural observatories that reveal early signs of environmental change. By combining microbial ecology, environmental DNA, remote sensing, water chemistry, and long-term ecological monitoring, scientists hope to develop new indicators capable of detecting ecosystem stress before irreversible damage occurs.
Our vision is to establish an internationally coordinated monitoring network that not only benefits South America, but also improves our understanding of freshwater ecosystems worldwide. The microbial communities living in these lakes can act as highly sensitive biological sensors, helping us identify pollution, ecosystem degradation, and even emerging public health risks.
says Prof. Haig of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS).
Despite their high ecological value, these lakes are under increasing pressure from eutrophication, urban growth, and competing human uses such as water supply, irrigation, navigation, fishing, recreation, and sewage disposal. Credit: Kluge et al., 2026.
The publication emerged from an international workshop held at two universities – PUCRS and UFRGS – in Porto Alegre, Southern Brazil, bringing together researchers from Brazil, Uruguay, Germany, and Sweden to define future research priorities. The team identified four representative large-scale lake regions that together capture the broad environmental gradients across the system and offer ideal sites for coordinated long-term observation.
As climate change accelerates and pressures on freshwater resources continue to grow, the researchers believe that protecting and studying these remarkable lake systems will generate knowledge extending far beyond South America – informing global strategies for safeguarding biodiversity, improving water management, and strengthening resilience to environmental change.
Original source:
Kluge M, Shubeita A, Uchaikina A, Alonso C, Herrman B, Menegotto-Silva C, Lopes C, Pagani D, Marques D, Moreira-Silva E, Kristiansson E, Quintana I, Cavalcanti J, Fleck J, Ribeiro K, Varghaei L, Oliveira L, Rodrigues LR, Ramilo L, Crossetti L, Stockenreiter M, Cabezudo M, Lima M, Gonçalves NP, Mazzeo N, Schneider R, Utz LP, Bertilsson S, Wurzbacher C, They NH, Medina-Silva R (2026) Coastal subtropical Southern American shallow lakes as unique ecosystems for monitoring anthropogenic induced ecosystem changes. One Ecosystem 11: e186107. https://doi.org/10.3897/oneeco.11.e186107
As a longstanding supporter of vegetation science publishing, and publisher of Vegetation Classification and Survey, Pensoft was proud to sponsor EGC 2026 and attend throughout the week.
From 19 to 23 July 2026, Sofia hosted the 21st Eurasian Grassland Conference (EGC 2026), organised by the Eurasian Dry Grassland Group (EDGG), a working group of the International Association for Vegetation Science (IAVS). EDGG is dedicated to research on, and the conservation of, natural and semi-natural grasslands across the Palaearctic biogeographic realm, spanning any taxonomic group, whether plants and vegetation, animals or fungi.
This year’s conference was held under the theme “Connecting science and conservation for grassland sustainability”, with the aim of highlighting how research into grassland ecosystems connects with management practices and conservation goals on the ground.
Grasslands, particularly species-rich semi-natural grasslands and Eurasian steppes, are among the most threatened habitat types in one of the most heavily urbanised and intensively managed regions in the world, despite providing a wide range of ecosystem services. Bringing scientific knowledge together with conservation practice was therefore a central thread running through the week.
The conference was hosted by the Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research (IBER) at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. IBER conducts research across fundamental and applied ecology, biodiversity, nature conservation and the sustainable use of biological resources. The institute also provides scientific and methodological support to state institutions and NGOs, making it a fitting host for a conference concerned with the practical application of grassland science.
As a longstanding supporter of vegetation science publishing, and publisher of Vegetation Classification and Survey (VCS), one of IAVS’s official journals, Pensoft was proud to sponsor EGC 2026 and attend with an information stand throughout the week.
Pensoft’s stand at the 21st Eurasian Grassland Conference.
A gathering of the grassland community
EGC 2026 brought together around 60 participants, from early-career researchers to established names in vegetation science. Among the attendees were several members of the editorial board of VCS, including Editors-in-Chief Idoia Biurrun and Jürgen Dengler, as well as members of the IAVS council:
We were also delighted to catch up with authors who have published with us across several of our journals, including Biodiversity Data Journal (Naim Berisha), PhytoKeys (Marcin Nobel) and VCS(Arkadiusz Nowak).
Naim Berisha, an author in BDJ, at Pensoft’s stand at EGC 2026.
Marcin Nobis, a subject editors for PhytoKeys, at Pensoft’s stand at EGC 2026.
Arkadiusz Nowak, an author and editorial board member for VCS, at Pensoft’s stand at EGC 2026.
Our stand attracted a steady flow of visitors over the course of the week:
Conference participants visiting Pensoft’s stand at the 21st Eurasian Grassland Conference.
Pensoft’s journal portfolio in vegetation science.
Throughout the event, we shared our vegetation science portfolio, including VCSand Vegetation, Ecology and Diversity (VED), with strong additional interest in our following open-access journals:
Biodiversity Data Journal (BDJ) – a community peer-reviewed journal, designed to accelerate publishing, dissemination and sharing of biodiversity-related data of any kind.
MycoKeys– dedicated to the taxonomy, phylogeny, biogeography, evolution and ecology of the fungal kingdom, including lichens, and publishing everything from new species descriptions to checklists, monographs and methodology papers.
Nature Conservation – a rapid, peer-reviewed journal spanning all aspects of nature conservation, from populations to whole ecosystems, and from microorganisms and fungi to higher plants and animals.
A new special feature on the way
We were pleased to learn, just ahead of the conference, of a forthcoming VCS special feature tied to the event: “Vegetation of the Balkan Peninsula”, edited by Jürgen Dengler, Erwin Bergmeier and Urban Šilc.
The special feature welcomes contributions on any vegetation type from the Balkan Peninsula, including syntaxon revisions at national or supranational level, regional vegetation monographs, synthetic overviews of a country’s or region’s syntaxa, nomenclatural proposals, habitat typologies and applications, and long and short database reports.
VCS offers Gold Open Access publishing, holds a Journal Impact Factor of 2.7, and provides reduced article processing charges for IAVS members, with the option of complete waivers. Further details on the special feature will be announced soon on the VegSciBlog and across Vegetation Classification and Survey’s channels.
Scientific highlights
The five-day scientific programme was organised around five sessions: patterns, classification and biogeography of Palaearctic grasslands; grasslands of the Balkan Peninsula; animals in Palaearctic grasslands; innovative methods, experimental approaches and open science in grassland research; and global change, conservation, restoration and management of Palaearctic grasslands.
Participants at the 21st Eurasian Grassland Conference.
Jürgen Dengler – Global change in European grasslands: insights from local to continental studies.
Anna Kuzemko – Impact ofmilitary actions on the steppe ecosystems of Ukraine.
One of the highlights of the week was our own Head of Journal Development and PR, Iva Boyadzhieva, presenting on how Pensoft supports FAIR publishing for biodiversity and conservation research. Her talk set out how, as biodiversity and sustainability research gains momentum through greater international and interdisciplinary collaboration and the pressures of an unfolding environmental crisis, bridging scientific knowledge and conservation practice has become ever more critical.
Iva Boyadzhieva presenting – “At the forefront of FAIR publishing for biodiversity and conservation research”.
We also enjoyed Editor-in-Chief of VCS Jürgen Dengler’s talk on global change in European grasslands, which drew on regional resurveys of historic vegetation plots, combined analyses of multiple resurvey datasets, and decades of plot data from the European Vegetation Archive (EVA).
Anna Kuzemko’s talk on the impact of military actions on the steppe ecosystems of Ukraine was another highlight of the week. Her research offered a valuable basis for prioritising and planning the restoration of Ukraine’s damaged steppe habitats going forward.
Anna Kuzemko – Impact of military actions on the steppe ecosystems of Ukraine.
Awards
Pensoft also sponsored a best presentation and poster competition at the conference. Best Presentation was awarded to Sara Nigro for her talk “Climate and management changes drive semi-natural grassland community assembly over twenty years”, based on the resurvey of 49 vegetation plots in central Italy over two decades, revealing how climatic warming and shifting management practices are reshaping mountain semi-natural grasslands.
Best Poster went to Nadiia Skobel for “Drivers of vascular plant diversity in cultural heritage sites: a case study of old cemeteries (southern Ukraine)”, which showcased how old cemeteries in the grass steppe zone of southern Ukraine act as important refuges for native and steppe specific flora amid widespread habitat loss elsewhere in the region.
Looking ahead
EGC 2026 offered a valuable opportunity to connect with the authors, editors and researchers who make up the vegetation science community, and to see first hand how grassland research is being put to work for conservation across the Palaearctic. The next Eurasian Grassland Conference will take place in 2027 in Dilijan, Armenia – stay tuned for further updates!
Closing ceremony of the 21st EurasianGrassland Conference.
Calabria’s updated bird checklist now lists 363 species, 43 more than in 1993, including Italy’s first documented breeding White-rumped Swift and continued Egyptian Vulture nesting.
Calabria, the toe of the Italian peninsula, lies between the Tyrrhenian and Ionian seas, a short crossing from Sicily and the North African coast. That position has long made it a place where birds from very different regions turn up. Yet its avifauna had not been reviewed in full for more than thirty years.
Our study in Biodiversity Data Journal brings that picture up to date. Drawing on published papers, technical reports, ringing bulletins, museum specimens and validated citizen-science records up to 31 December 2025, we compiled an updated checklist of 363 species and nine subspecies.
That is 43 species more than the previous regional list of 320 (Scebba et al. 1993). None of the older records was dropped, so the additions represent a real gain in regional knowledge.
White-rumped Swift, whose first Italian and central-Mediterranean breeding was documented in Calabria (Pucci et al. 2022). Photo credit: Mario Pucci.
One addition stands out. At an inland site in the province of Crotone, White-rumped Swift (Apus caffer) was found nesting, the first documented breeding of the species in Italy and in the central Mediterranean Basin (Pucci et al. 2022). An African swift breeding this far north suggests Calabria may be a bridgehead for Afro-Iberian species reaching Europe.
Bird ringing at Punta Alice, where several of the region’s rare vagrants were first detected. Photo credit: Mario Pucci
Most of the other new entries tell a quieter story. Thirty-five of the 43 additions are accidental or vagrant birds, and they point to decades of more systematic fieldwork rather than to genuine range change. Targeted ringing at coastal stations such as Punta Alice (Crotone) and San Michele di Cetraro (Cosenza) has turned up Siberian warblers and flycatchers, among them Pallas’s Leaf Warbler, Dusky Warbler and Red-flanked Bluetail, that would otherwise pass unnoticed. In all, the vagrants recorded in Calabria come from Asia, Africa, northern Europe and even North America, a spread that makes the region a meeting point of separate migration systems.
The checklist also shows what is at stake for conservation. Of the 363 species, 125 are listed in Annex I of the EU Birds Directive, and national Red List categories are available for 230, including nine Critically Endangered.
Egyptian Vulture, one of the Critically Endangered raptors still breeding in Calabria. Photo credit: Pierpaolo Storino
Most of the Critically Endangered birds depend on wetlands, tied to a small and fragmented network of coastal marshes. Among the region’s emblematic raptors is the Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus), still breeding in Calabria but represented in Italy by a small population with worrying fluctuations in the number of breeding birds, a reminder of how precarious the country’s cliff-nesting and scavenging raptors remain.
The full dataset is openly available on Zenodo, and the work is coordinated by the Stazione Ornitologica Calabrese (StOrCal), which brings the region’s observers together under shared standards. Much is still missing: the inland massifs of Pollino, Sila and Aspromonte remain under-surveyed, and breeding densities are poorly known for most species. The checklist gives that work a verifiable point to build on.
Original source:
Urso S, Martino G, Muscianese E, Policastrese M, Pucci M, Vena M, Storino P (2026) Updated checklist of the birds of Calabria (southern Italy). Biodiversity Data Journal 14: e195967. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.14.e195967
Scientists and citizen volunteers discovered two new snail species in northwestern Montenegro, highlighting the region’s hidden biodiversity and bolstering calls to protect Komarnica Canyon within Durmitor’s World Heritage Site instead of building a hydropower plant.
The descriptions of the two new additions to the European snail fauna, named Cochlostoma komarnica and Cochlostoma dobrido, have been published today in the open-accessBiodiversity Data Journal.
A Cochlostoma snail crawling in Montenegro – video by Roman Willi | Wildreach Productions.
The elegant snails, which do not yet have English names, have conical shells of around 7 mm long and live on limestone rocks, where they graze algae and lichens. Unlike most land snails, they do not carry their eyes on the end of eye-stalks, but on the sides of their head. And their shells come with a circular disk stuck to the animal’s tail that can close off the shell like a door.
Cochlostoma komarnica (a, b) and Cochlostoma dobrido (c, d) – Photos by Enrico Zallot.
The snails were discovered by the teams of Taxon Expeditions, which run real scientific expeditions that anyone can join. Between 2018 – 2025, expeditions in Montenegro were organised as a collaboration of Taxon Expeditions, the non-profit Taxon Foundation, and local partners from the Montenegrin Ecologists Society.
Citizen scientists and researchers from Taxon Expeditions searching for land snails on the Dobri Do Plateau, Durmitor, Montenegro, where Cochlostoma dobrido was discovered. – Photo by Pierre Escobas | Taxon Expeditions.
Participants of the taxon expedition studying snails in the makeshift field lab near the Komarnica Canyon. – Photo by Marjolein Koster.
Mixed teams of international researchers, citizen scientists, local students, and conservationists studied the biodiversity of Durmitor National Park and Komarnica Canyon. The new snails were found at several sites during fieldwork in the rugged mountainous terrain, but their novelty only became clear once they were dissected and genetically analysed in the field laboratory.
Cochlostoma snail crawling in Montenegro – photo by Roman Willi | Wildreach Productions
Cochlostoma dobrido – Photo by Sotiris Kountouras | Taxon Expeditions.
During a voting session at camp, the team decided to name the species after the localities in which they were discovered: “Cochlostoma dobrido,” after the Dobri Do Plateau, which lies between the peaks of Durmitor National Park, and “Cochlostoma komarnica,” after the stunning but unprotected Komarnica Canyon, south of Durmitor.
I was amazed that it is still possible to discover new animal species in Europe.
says musician Janine Buisman from The Netherlands, who joined one of the expeditions and co-authored the paper.
Another author, biologist Jovana Đokić of the Montenegrin Ecologists Society (MES), explains that the rich biodiversity in the canyons, mountains, and gorges of this part of the Balkans is still largely unexplored and undiscovered.
The endangered Komarnica Canyon, Montenegro – Photo by Sotiris Kountouras | Taxon Expeditions.
It is all the more worrying that the Komarnica Canyon is targeted to be flooded by a hydropower dam and reservoir. This will destroy this wild river canyon and all the biodiversity in it, including many species still unknown to science.
Jovana Đokić
Because of these threats, Komarnica Canyon has become a focus for structured biodiversity surveys, part of an effort to build a science-based case for its conservation.
Hydropower is neither green nor sustainable energy when it destroys a unique ecosystem like this.
says Đokić
Original source:
Schilthuizen M, Boomsma R, Faes S, Jousma M, Buisman J, Lankenau D-H, Kountouras S, van den Broek M, Hemelaar EM, Noomen J, de Vries R, Lopatriello G, Limongi AR, Maestri S, Kamchev P, van Manen S, Khalik MZ, Delledonne M, Đokić J, Mićanović A, Popović J, Njunjić I, Zallot E (2026) Two new Cochlostoma species from the Durmitor and Komarnica regions of northern Montenegro (Caenogastropoda, Cochlostomatidae). Biodiversity Data Journal 14: e196955. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.14.e196955
Now that the 2026 FIFA World Cup is over, it’s time for us to blow the final whistle on Pensoft’s Biodiversity Cup.
The floodlights have dimmed, the confetti has settled, and the 2026 FIFA World Cup has officially come to an end. A huge congratulations to Spain, who saw off Argentina 1-0 after extra time to lift their second World Cup trophy.
And with the football finished, it’s time for us to blow the final whistle on our own tournament too. Throughout the World Cup, we ran the Pensoft Biodiversity Cup alongside the real competition – a weekly knockout contest on our Instagram page, pitting some of the most remarkable species described in our journals against one another.
Every Thursday we opened the polls, and every Monday we brought you the result. Now that the dust has settled, we thought it was the perfect moment to look back at how the tournament unfolded.
Here’s how each fixture played out, with the winning species (as voted for by you!) shown in blue bold:
Date
Species #1
Species #2
11/06
Nadzikambia goodallae
Ferreiraella populi
18/06
Hellwigia opalina
Neohelicomyces coffeae
25/06
Thecacera sesama
Dolichopoda balrogi
02/07
Pikelinia floydmuraria
Trachischium lalremsangai
09/07
Theridion himalayana
Pyralis papaleonei
19/07
Iberoscia zaragozai
Echinodorus nenufar
General recap of Pensoft’s Biodiversity Cup.
Our first week’s competition kicked off with a cloud-forest chameleon named after Jane Goodall, which faced off against a public-named deep-sea chiton from the abyssal Pacific:
…and round two went to the fungi! Neohelicomyces coffeae ended up decisively defeating the jade ginger Hellwigia opalina in this Plant vs Fungi edition.
Round three brought Cave vs. Coast: a Balrog-named cave cricket unearthed on Kastellorizo faced a sesame-speckled nudibranch discovered off northeastern Taiwan:
Our third round went to the underdog (or in this case, undercricket): Dolichopoda balrogi, which hopped past Thecacera sesama in a unanimous win.
Round four was our Animal Kingdom edition, with the newly described Pink Floyd spider Pikelinia floydmuraria facing off against the burrowing snake Trachischium lalremsangai for the top spot:
Pikelinia floydmuraria vs Trachischium lalremsangai.
The snake slithered through – Trachischium lalremsangai defeated Pikelinia floydmuraria, its burrowing lifestyle proving harder to top than a rock-star spider name in this round.
Our second-to-last round paired the smiley-faced Himalayan Happy-Face Spider, Theridion himalayana, against Pyralis papaleonei, a papal-named moth endemic to Crete’s White Mountains:
The moth flew past the competition! Pyralis papaleonei took the win over Theridion himalayana, its rare papal namesake and striking wing bands proving enough to edge out even a face full of smiles.
Our own final on 19 July ended up mirroring the World Cup final to a tee, with a species from Spain going head-to-head with one from Argentina:
Representing Spain in the final was Iberoscia zaragozai, a newly described genus and species of cave-dwelling isopod, published only this April in our open-access journal Subterranean Biology.
Discovered in caves across Catalonia, Murcia and the Valencian Community, this blind crustacean measures barely 3-4 mm long, yet required a new genus to accommodate it, thanks to its unique features – right down to its antennal sensory structures.
Fittingly, it’s named in posthumous tribute to the Spanish arachnologist Juan Antonio Zaragoza-Miralles, in recognition of his decades of work on the cave-dwelling fauna of the Iberian Peninsula.
Standing in Argentina’s corner was Echinodorus nenufar, a new aquatic plant described in PhytoKeysback in January. Found in the temporary ponds and seasonal wetlands of the dry Chaco region of northern Argentina and western Paraguay, it earns its name – “nenúfar” being Spanish for water lily – thanks to its rounded floating leaves and creamy-white flowers, which give it an uncanny resemblance to a true Nymphaeaceae water lily.
Like the seasonal killifish it shares its ephemeral ponds with, it has evolved to complete its whole life cycle in habitats that can appear and vanish with the rains.
Two species, two countries, both barely a few months old to science. This is a proper final if ever there was one. And… just like their footballing counterparts, it was the Spanish contender that came out on top!
We had an absolute blast running the Biodiversity Cup alongside this year’s World Cup, and we hope it gave you a fun new way to discover some of the incredible species being described in our journals. Thank you to everyone who voted, shared and cheered along from the side lines.
The seal recognises institutions that consistently share open-access agricultural research with the global community.
Pensoft has been awarded the Seal of Recognition for the FAO AGRIS Active Data Provider of the Year for 2027. The seal is granted by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations through its AGRIS initiative, and it recognises institutions that consistently share open-access agricultural research with the global community.
Notably, Pensoft joined the FAO AGRIS network back in 2024, and the organisation has renewed our seal every year since, a recognition we’re proud to have kept.
What has changed is the scale of our contribution. In 2024, Pensoft’s records on AGRIS numbered just under 15,000. Today, that figure has doubled to nearly 30,000, drawn from all 51 of our journals that fall within the scope of FAO AGRIS. The subjects covered are wide-ranging, spanning taxonomy, biodiversity, conservation and biogeography – these are all areas that feed directly into sustainable agriculture and natural resource management.
Through AGRIS, this research travels well beyond our own journals to researchers, policymakers and practitioners worldwide, adding to the shared pool of open knowledge that supports global food security and environmental sustainability. We’re glad to keep contributing to that effort, and look forward to continuing our work with FAO AGRIS in the years to come.
About FAO
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is a specialised agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Its goal is to achieve food security for all, ensuring that people have regular access to enough high-quality food to lead active, healthy lives. With 194 members, 193 countries and the European Union, FAO works in over 130 countries worldwide.
About Pensoft
Founded in 1992 “by scientists, for scientists,” Pensoft is an academic open-access publishing company well known worldwide for its cutting-edge publishing tools, workflows and methods for text and data publishing of journals, books and conference materials. In 2010, Pensoft became the first scientific publisher to introduce semantic enrichments in scholarly publications. Through its Research and Technical Development department, the company is involved in a range of research and technology projects.
