Invasive acacias are spreading in Iberia, harming ecosystems. We did a bibliographic search of acacia invasions in S Europe and used spatial data on their distribution and abiotic parameters in Iberia – Acacia dealbata and A. melanoxylon prefer acid soils and warm and humid areas with high fire incidence, while A. saligna prefers neutral soils in the driest and warmest areas. Several acacias outcompete native shrubs partly thanks to enemy release, so biocontrol agent introduction can be useful.

This paper summarizes the tree composition and structure of six sacred forests, located in northwestern Greece. These forests are recognized as important components of the cultural landscape and local traditional knowledge. However, they are gradually fading because of rural depopulation. To understand the effect of management on the forests' vegetation composition, we classified tree species across forests. Our results show the key role of former management in shaping the forests' structure.

The Roman snail has a high conservation status in Germany, and it is important to study the impact of predators and parasites on local populations. Morphometric traits and signs of external attack and internal utilization were studied in eight subpopulations. External attacks by predators were more frequently recorded on larger shells, while internal utilization depended on body density and local soil pH values. This highlights the value of abiotic habitat conditions and trophic interactions.

We introduce the Alpine research platform Ödenwinkel to promote observational and experimental research on the emergence of multidiversity and ecosystem complexity. The Ödenwinkel platform will be available as a long-term ecological research site where researchers from various disciplines can contribute to the accumulation of knowledge on ecological successions and on how interactions between various taxonomic groups structure ecological complexity in this Alpine environment.

Biocrusts are a key component in Spanish drylands, where their ecological relevance has been widely studied. However, by doing a literature review, we found that the social dimension of their role still remains unexplored. This may hinder biocrusts and their benefits from being known and understood by the policy community and the general public. Thus, we identified social–ecological knowledge gaps and proposed new research areas that need to be addressed to advance towards biocrust conservation.

Many factors can facilitate the coexistence of species that feed on the same resource and occupy the same niche. In this work, we saw that different feeding strategies adopted by curimatid fish promote differences in detritus consumption. This point may be essential for the detritivores to be one of the most representative and abundant trophic groups in rivers and floodplain environments in the Amazon.

The abandonment of extensively managed mountainous meadows affects the diversity of both plants and associated pollinators. However, not much is known about the effects of abandonment on hoverflies which consitute an important pollinator group in grasslands. Our research suggests that extensive management is most beneficial in preserving hoverfly richness in mountainous grasslands.

The rapid expansion of urban environments invariably presents a novel series of pressures on wildlife due to changes in environmental factors. In reptiles, any changes in temperature may be critical for their thermal ecology. How reptiles adapt to such changes may vary from those species that are impacted negatively to others that have the behavioural flexibility to exploit new conditions. This paper describes a behaviour change in in the African lizard, Agama agama.