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Citizen Science in Ireland
There is growing interest across Europe in developing the involvement of volunteers to collect biological observations. A common part of this development is the setting up of a data portal, where observers can submit their biological records for verification and adding to a national database. A portal has been developed in Ireland by the National Biodiversity Data Centre and this video give an introduction to the system.
Atlas of the Mammals of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
The new Atlas of the Mammals of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has been published. Covering both terrestrial and marine mammals, the atlas draws on more than 1.8 million observations from a variety of sources. For terrestrial species, the atlas uses the Ordnance Survey National Grid (Great Britain and Ireland) at a resolution of 10km. For marine species, a wider area is covered, with the resolution depending on data availability.
The atlas can be ordered directly from the publisher:
Defending the EU Water Framework Directive
Today, the EMF is a co-signatory, along with many organisations and individual scientists, to an open letter to the EU, asking for the Water Framework Directive to be defended against any weakening of the strong protection it gives to aquatic and wetland habitats, which are widely threatened across Europe.
Droughts, floods, wildfires are on the rise in Europe. Resilient water ecosystems are more vital than ever. But 60% of freshwater ecosystems in the EU are not healthy.
The EU Water Framework Directive is an integrated and holistic environmental legislation, designed to ensure that we will have healthy and resilient freshwater bodies to support people and nature, today and in the future.
XI International Dormouse Conference 2020
The XI International Dormouse Conference will be held from 14-18 September 2020 in Svilengrad, Bulgaria.
The International Dormice Conference (IDC) is being organized every three years to gather for four days scientists and conservationists to share findings and ideas on the research and conservation of the dormouse species. A mid-conference field trip, part of the conference programme, provides opportunities to get acquainted with the species ecology and habitats in different areas.
The Conference website can be found at http://dormouseconference.net/index.html
Jan Zima, 1952-2019
It is with great sadness that we report the death of our good friend and colleague Jan Zima, who died on 26th March 2019. He had been ill for some time.
Jan, known as Honza to his friends, was one of the editors of the first Atlas of European Mammals, published in 1999 and joined enthusiastically with our new project to prepare a second edition. He was present at our meetings in Rome and Prague and just last week had submitted a species account for Sorex araneus, which we will use as a model for our new atlas.
Jan was one of the most accomplished mammalogists in Europe, with a publication list of about 200 papers in international journals as well as many monographs, books and book chapters. This year, along with Jeremy Searle and David Polly, he published the multi-author book Shrews, Chromosomes and Speciation, a subject in which he had long been interested.
As well as being an outstanding researcher in both field and laboratory, Jan was also a gifted and experienced administrator and an important figure in the organisation of vertebrate research in the Czech Republic. He had a long association with the Institute of Vertebrate Biology in Brno, where he was Deputy Director, he was a Member of the Academy Council of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and he was also a member of the scientific councils of 7 universities and 4 research institutes. Truly a key figure in Czech science.
Our thoughts are with his wife and family at this sad time.