Research for the Environment

Less beekeepers throughout Europe

The number of bee colonies in Central Europe has decreased over recent decades. In fact, the number of beekeepers has been declining in the whole of Europe since 1985. This is the result of a study that has now been published by the International Bee Research Association.

Population trends for honey bee colonies and beekeepers

Participatory processes can be an important contribution to successfully implementing environmental policy. It is however important that the respective goals, costs and benefits are clear and that participatory procedures are individually tailored to take into account the respective institutional and social contexts.

Scientists submit recommendations for environmental legislators

Species distribution models are of only limited use in predicting the future distribution of mammals. This is the finding of a study of the climate niches of 140 indigenous European mammals.

Competition plays a decisive role in climate change adaptation

With increasing species richness, due to more plant introductions than extinctions, plant communities of many European regions are becoming more homogeneous. The same species are occurring more frequently, whereas rare species are becoming extinct.

Europe’s flora and the ability to react to environmental changes

Deforestation in tropical rain forests could have an even greater impact on climate change than has previously been thought. The combined biomass of a large number of small forest fragments can be up to 40 per cent less than in a continuous natural forest of the same overall size.

Conserving continuous forests for mitigation of climate change