Markus P. Eichhorn

Markus Eichhorn

@markuseichhorn.bsky.social

5.2K followers 1.4K following 3K posts

Ecologist, author, tree watcher. Shill for Big Forest. Writing another textbook on biodiversity and biogeography. It's always karaoke time. More at treesinspace.com

Videos

Environmental science 47%

Agriculture 17%

Posts Replies Media Videos

Markus Eichhorn @markuseichhorn.bsky.social · 8h

Private student housing was notoriously dreadful 20+ years ago but at least it was cheap!

Markus Eichhorn @markuseichhorn.bsky.social · 8h

Already we see declining lecture attendance, not because students aren't willing, but in many cases they're working. Morning lectures are missed not due to drinking but from working late into the evening.

Markus Eichhorn @markuseichhorn.bsky.social · 8h

A similar story could be told in many European cities, and I don't think contests over who has it worse are helpful. The emerging problem is that access to university will be more limited by living costs than fees.

Markus Eichhorn @markuseichhorn.bsky.social · 8h

It's becoming impossible for our students to find or afford housing. It's even worse for international students and scams are rampant. The housing crisis is also a crisis for third-level education. #SpeirGorm

UCC students commuting before dawn as housing crisis fuels daily parking battle

Sky-high rents and a lack of public student housing are forcing UCC students into long commutes and daily parking stress

www.irishexaminer.com

Reposted by Jeremy Lindsell

Markus Eichhorn @markuseichhorn.bsky.social · 10h

Macroeconomics affect conservation on the ground. The surge in gold prices drove unregulated mining in Ghana's forest reserves. @mongabay.com report on the fightback led by local NGOs.

Successful campaign proves Ghana’s forests are worth more than gold (commentary)

On Dec. 10, 2025, Ghana’s government revoked one of the worst pieces of environmental legislation in our country’s history. The Environmental Protection (Mining in Forest Reserves) Regulations passed ...

news.mongabay.com

Reposted by Markus P. Eichhorn

Ian Duhig @ianduhig.bsky.social · 11h

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
An adult pleasure zone decree

Theo Sanderson @theo.io · 21h

I made a map of 3.4 million Bluesky users - see if you can find yourself!

bluesky-map.theo.io

I've seen some similar projects, but IMO this seems to better capture some of the fine-grained detail

Bluesky Map

Interactive map of 3.4 million Bluesky users, visualised by their follower pattern.

bluesky-map.theo.io

Markus Eichhorn @markuseichhorn.bsky.social · 2d

Did this paper need to be written? Unfortunately yes, it did. Trees don't collectively anticipate solar eclipses. Occam had something to say about this kind of problem. 🧪🌲🌳

Eclipse of reason: debunking speculative anticipatory behavior in trees

Advancing plant behavior research requires robust experimental design, falsifiable hypotheses, sufficient replication, and stringent controls. A recent study claims that Picea abies trees collectively...

www.cell.com

Reposted by Markus P. Eichhorn

The Daily Mash @the-daily-mash.bsky.social · 3d

Peter Mandelson stripped of Prince of Darkness title buff.ly/Y0u0AQT

Markus Eichhorn @markuseichhorn.bsky.social · 4d

Aye, but I don't hold a formal qualification in sack-opening which I spent a great deal of time and money obtaining. Perfect parking is sweeter because I've earned it.

Markus Eichhorn @markuseichhorn.bsky.social · 4d

No, and I'm not convinced that it would show much. There are too many confounding effects: landscape history, browsing pressure, management, connectivity etc.

Markus Eichhorn @markuseichhorn.bsky.social · 4d

Sorry, thought I was on LinkedIn for a moment there.

Markus Eichhorn @markuseichhorn.bsky.social · 4d

It may have looked like it only took a few seconds but there was a lifetime of preparation behind it. I'd like to thank my teachers and mentors, along with everyone who supported and believed in me along the way.

Reposted by Andy Purvis

Markus Eichhorn @markuseichhorn.bsky.social · 4d

I'm proud of many things in my life - the publications, the projects, the people I've worked with - but sometimes you nail a tricky parking manoeuvre and I feel we don't celebrate those often enough.

Markus Eichhorn @markuseichhorn.bsky.social · 4d

Postdoc research position in forest inventory and stand assessment using laser scanning data at LignoSilva in Slovakia. @3dforecotech.bsky.social 🌳🌲

Postdoctoral researcher - Forest inventory and stand assortments using laser scanning data - LignoSilva

Postdoctoral researcher in forest inventory and stand assortments using laser scanning data The National Forest Centre Zvolen, Forest Research Institute (NFC – FRI) is looking for the Centre of Excell...

www.lignosilva.eu

Reposted by Markus P. Eichhorn

Tom Cox @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 4d

10. My dad's advice for badger attacks.

“PUT SEASHELLS IN THE ANKLES OF YOUR SOCKS,” my dad told me on the phone today. “Why on earth would I do that?” I asked. “YOUR MUM TOLD ME YOU’VE GOT BADGERS IN THE GARDEN. WHEN THEY BITE YOUR LEG, THEY’LL CRUNCH ON THE SHELLS AND THINK THEY’VE ALREADY HIT BONE, THEN LEAVE YOU ALONE.”

Reposted by Markus P. Eichhorn

IFLScience @iflscience.com · 4d

The available evidence doesn't justify the bans. www.iflscience.com/review-of-52...

Markus Eichhorn @markuseichhorn.bsky.social · 5d

The odd thing about Oasis nostalgia is that they were already a nostalgia band in the 90s. That Who/Stones/Beatles/Kinks mash-up was dated even then.

Markus Eichhorn @markuseichhorn.bsky.social · 5d

I was there in 1996. I saw most of the bands. And I can safely say there are more students wearing Oasis t-shirts now than there were 30 years ago.

Markus Eichhorn @markuseichhorn.bsky.social · 5d

There are two answers. One is that we're working on it! Another is this report which was written in parallel to and independent of our project, and which identifies some of the same knowledge gaps. With that in mind I would treat the outputs as indicative rather than definitive.

www.wildlifetrusts.org

Markus Eichhorn @markuseichhorn.bsky.social · 5d

"The Distant And Mechanised Glow Of Eastern European Dance Parties" (65daysofstatic)

Richard Waite @waiterich.bsky.social · 5d

Deleted a post about “what’s your least favorite song” because the vibes are bad enough already.

Instead: what’s your favorite song that has a long title, say at least 6 words long?

Mine: “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town” (Pearl Jam)

Markus Eichhorn @markuseichhorn.bsky.social · 5d

This is the first paper by PhD student Kat Chernyuk whose project is on strategies and perceptions behind restoration of Atlantic oak forests. Follow her for more to come. 9/9 www.linkedin.com/in/katerina-...

www.linkedin.com

Markus Eichhorn @markuseichhorn.bsky.social · 5d

None of this is intended to undermine the case for restoring and expanding native woodlands, which remains a priority. Perhaps instead of an uncertain focus on temperate rainforests we should just demand more woods of all types. 8/9

Markus Eichhorn @markuseichhorn.bsky.social · 5d

It might mean expanding temperate rainforest in places where it doesn't currently occur. This brings it into conflict with other land uses, some of which are already protected (e.g. peatlands). Is this something local stakeholders would support? 7/9

Markus Eichhorn @markuseichhorn.bsky.social · 5d

What we can say is that the areas where temperate rainforest occurs now are at the limits of their environmental tolerance. If we are to restore the biome then we should be thinking about locations based on future climate. 6/9

Histograms showing the gradients of the key variables of interest for the three climate envelopes for temperate rainforest for Britain and Ireland, (a) Amann's Index of Hygrothermy at >100 (1929), (b) July mean temperature (°C) for Alaback's (1991) method and (c) annual mean temperature (°C) for DellaSala's (2011) method. The blue bars correspond to the mean for each figure and the dark grey bars show the standard deviation. All figures were created using ArcGIS (3.3.0) (ESRI, 2024) with climate data from WorldClim 2.1 (Fick & Hijmans, 2017).

Markus Eichhorn @markuseichhorn.bsky.social · 5d

This is partly a problem of defining what we're looking for. There is no unique set of species or structures that sets temperate rainforest apart from other native woodlands, making them difficult to map on the basis of composition. 5/9

Killarney National Park. Photo by Kat Chernyuk.

Markus Eichhorn @markuseichhorn.bsky.social · 5d

What can we take from this? First, any statements about the past extent of temperate rainforest or how much we should have in the British Isles should be treated with great caution. The truth is we don't really know. 4/9

Piles Copse. Photo taken by Kat Chernyuk.

Markus Eichhorn @markuseichhorn.bsky.social · 5d

The one which captures the greatest number of currently recognised temperate woodland sites (75%) only does so by projecting a huge and implausible area. The overlap between the three envelopes covers less than 20% of the known area. 3/9

Map of the area of Britain and Ireland that is covered by the intersection of three climate envelopes for temperate rainforest: Amann's Index of Hygrothermy at >100 (1929), Alaback (1991) and DellaSala (2011). The light blue to darker blue gradient depicts the range of Amann's Index of Hygrothermy across the area. The letters denote the areas under the intersected climate area that correspond to areas known for temperate rainforest: (a) the Mourne Mountains, (b) the Wicklow mountains, (c) Cumbria and the Lake District, (d) Dartmoor National Park and (e) Exmoor National Park. Figure was created using ArcGIS (3.3.0) (ESRI, 2024) with climate data from WorldClim 2.1 (Fick & Hijmans, 2017).

Markus Eichhorn @markuseichhorn.bsky.social · 5d

There are three main climate envelopes used to project temperate rainforest area in the British Isles. None were truly designed for the purpose and they disagree considerably in extent and distribution. 2/9

Map of Britain and Ireland showing climatic envelope extent constructed using (a) Amann's Index of Hygrothermy at >100 (1929), (b) Alaback's (1991) method and (c) DellaSala's (2011) method. The colour gradient in (a) depicts the Amann's index range from lower (lighter blue) to higher (darker blue). Colour gradient in (b) depicts the mean annual temperature from the minimum threshold of 4°C (yellow) up to 12°C (red). Colour gradient in (c) depicts the July mean temperature from 8.5°C (yellow) to below 16°C (red). (d) Shows the reported distribution of the 91A0 special area of conservation habitat for Ireland (NPWS, 2019) and the reported WN1 Fossitt (2000) habitat type from the National Survey of Native Woodland in Ireland (Higgins et al., 2004). The green cells represent 1 km2 cells that have reported instances of 91A0 or WN1 sites within their boundaries. All figures were created using ArcGIS (3.3.0) (ESRI, 2024), using the World Topographic basemap (ESRI, 2025), with climate data from WorldClim 2.1 (Fick & Hijmans, 2017).

Reposted by Mathias Disney, Stephen D. Murphy

Markus Eichhorn @markuseichhorn.bsky.social · 5d

How much temperate rainforest could there be in the UK and Ireland, and where? Despite campaigns calling for restoration in both countries, these questions have been difficult to answer. In our new paper we assess the evidence base 🌏🧪🌐🌳🌲 1/9

Comparison of three temperate rainforest climate envelopes for Britain and Ireland: Where could our rainforest be?

There are multiple methods for creating climate envelopes for temperate rainforest, and these climate envelopes result in different extents across Ireland and Britain. An awareness of these differenc...

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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