Mathias Disney
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matdisney.bsky.social
Mathias Disney
@matdisney.bsky.social

Scientist, trees, forests, carbon, ecosystem structure and function, in all the ways. One tree at a time. Prof at UCL Geography, and NCEO

Environmental science 71%
Geography 18%

New paper by Wout Cherlet & @qforestlab.bsky.social team led by @kimcalders.bsky.social, comparing tree extraction methods from TLS data. TL;DR it's hard to automate, ecosystem dependent & parametric approaches currently outperform DL www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Benchmarking tree instance segmentation of terrestrial laser scanning point clouds
Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) has revolutionized forest measurement techniques by providing detailed three-dimensional (3D) point cloud data that c…
www.sciencedirect.com

Reposted by Mathias Disney

I had a wonderful few days this week, hosted by the government of Catalonia and the University of Barcelona, and receiving the Ramon Margalef Prize for ecological research from the president of Catalonia
Forest measurements are more important than ever.

“Dedicated teams working in the field to collect vital ground-truth data are essential to the success of our missions” - Simonetta Cheli #ESA Director of Earth Observation. Find out more in our latest newsletter.
sway.cloud.microsoft/pdXbVpmWR2Io...
JD Vance claims that diversity weakens unions, as people end up distrusting each other and not organizing.

Let me tell you two menswear stories related to this claim. 🧵
New study from Ty Loft’s PhD thesis. We used an energetic approach to quantify, acr sub-Saharan Africa, how mammal- and bird-mediated ecosystem functions have changed. We found that overall trophic energy flows have decreased by more than one-third, but this change varies across biomes and land uses
Energy flows reveal declining ecosystem functions by animals across Africa - Nature
An ecosystem energetics approach, quantifying trophic energy flows across species, offers a unified framework for linking animal biodiversity loss to changes in ecosystem function and Earth system pro...
www.nature.com
On a busy day I had a TED talk published. This talk is about the energy flows of the living world, and how we need to centre this vibrancy as a core value when thinking about working with nature for climate change and other challenges

www.ted.com/talks/yadvin...
How to measure the planet’s heartbeat
Ecosystem scientist Yadvinder Malhi takes us on a jaw-dropping journey through the hidden flows of energy that make life on Earth tick. From sun-soaked forests to tropical islands, he shows how his te...
www.ted.com
Our new paper in Nature uses ecological energetics to track ten ecosystem functions of all birds and mammals in sub-Saharan Africa. It shows that the ecological power of African wildlife has declined by a third since pre-colonial times @natureportfolio.nature.com
🌍 New Oxford-led study in Nature finds Africa’s wildlife has lost a third of its natural “power” — the energy driving ecosystems and livelihoods.

Large animals once sustained this flow; their loss now reshapes life across the continent. @ymalhi.bsky.social
Africa’s wildlife has lost a third of its natural ‘power’, Oxford-led study warns
New paper in Nature today
naturerecovery.ox.ac.uk
Many congratulations to Adriane Esquivel, Rebecca Morgan and to all our colleagues supporting Amazon forest monitoring with RAINFOR and ForestPlots.net!
Our analysis of 30 years of Amazon forest change is highlighted on the cover of @natplants.nature.com.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The October issue is now fully online:

www.nature.com/nplants/volu...
deadtrees.earth — An open-access and interactive database for centimeter-scale aerial imagery to uncover global tree mortality dynamics. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Led by @cmosig.bsky.social

Reposted by Mathias Disney

Fascinating insight from Professor James Cheshire on BBC Radio 4 🎙 He discusses our amazing Map Library, as featured in his new book The Library of Lost Maps.

#UCLGeography #Mapping #DataStories

Reposted by Mathias Disney

Dead satellites aren’t just space junk – they release metals and chemicals that could affect the ozone layer and climate. @ucl.ac.uk's Eloise Marais & @connorbarker.bsky.socialare studying this new pollution. Read more: tinyurl.com/ucl-noxious

#SpacePollution #UCLGeography @newscientist.com

Reposted by Mathias Disney

🎧 Professor James Cheshire joined BBC Radio 4’s Start the Week to discuss The Library of Lost Maps, his new book about our amazing Map Library.

#UCLGeography #BBC #Radio4 #Maps @ucl.ac.uk
Start the Week - Maps – lost, secret and revealing - BBC Sounds
James Cheshire, Jerry Brotton and Jenny Uglow, with Tom Sutcliffe.
www.bbc.co.uk
New OA publication from TreE_PlaNat project @uktreescapes.bsky.social in Ecological Solutions and Evidence: Creating woodland through natural processes: Current understanding and knowledge gaps in Great Britain besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Creating woodland through natural processes: Current understanding and knowledge gaps in Great Britain
Natural colonisation can successfully create structurally diverse, locally adapted woodlands in Britain, but the outcomes of this process can vary considerably. Combining natural colonisation and tre...
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
PhD applications are now open @treesdla.bsky.social for 2026 intake. Have a look at a project on effects of forest diversity on floral reward production for pollinators that we advertise with @philstevenson.bsky.social. Do apply/get in touch if you are interested! www.trees-dla.ac.uk/projects/eff...
Please pass along, I’m recruiting PhD students to join our Macroecology Lab @uofa-eeb.bsky.social We study phys ecology, macroecology, biodiversity - spanning scaling, trait-based ecology, theory, comparative biology & ecoinformatics. Several avenues for funding. Please reach out if interested🧪🌐🌾

Reposted by Mathias Disney

This is what 40 years of glacier retreat looks like in Laguna San Rafael National Park 🇨🇱

Images from 1987 (left) and 2024 (right) reveal the dramatic retreat of the park’s two largest glaciers — San Rafael and San Quintín — driven by global warming. #EarthFromSpace 🌍🧪

www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...
Deciduous leaves may have evolved to be symmetrical and subtly lobed so they fall quicker and land near their parent tree, recycling their annually sequestered carbon. Join us 22 Oct 3:00 PM (London, UK) to hear #JRSocInterface author Kaare Jensen talk about his research: cassyni.com/events/5PbU2...
As droughts become longer and more intense, their toll on ecosystems could be far greater than we thought. Our new paper in @science.org shows how prolonged & extreme droughts cause dramatic, cumulative losses in ecosystem productivity across the globe www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Reposted by Mathias Disney

Reposted by Mathias Disney

Rights of Nature laws shift Nature from object to subject-but turning ideals into impact depends on legal detail. Ecuador’s bold vision, NZ’s guardianship model: both inspire, but face challenges. Curious how principle meets practice? Read our intern's blog on RoN in action 🌿
@ecioxford.bsky.social
Rights of Nature: Different Legal Frameworks and implications
naturerecovery.ox.ac.uk
Our new perspective on what TLS can (& can't) do in forest research www.nature.com/articles/s41... - led by Eduardo Maeda w lots of great colleagues including @kimcalders.bsky.social @emilyrlines.bsky.social @louiseterryn.bsky.social @benjaminbrede.bsky.social (apols for any I don;t have @ for)
Expanding forest research with terrestrial LiDAR technology - Nature Communications
This Review highlights how terrestrial laser scanning is transforming forest research by enabling highly detailed 3D measurements of trees, supporting applications in forest ecology, carbon monitoring, and biodiversity assessment.
www.nature.com

Reposted by Mathias Disney

This family-friendly social ride by the LCC Women's Network is in just over 3 weeks! 👀

It's an easy ride on Sun 26 October through central London parks, for all abilities, supported by @forestbike_uk

Sign up for your free place 👇

lcc.org.uk/events/wn-fa...

Amazing! 👏👏👏

But obvs your point the heartwood is what we use is the important bit!

Many big old trees are hollow, sometimes completely - a thin circular shell is even stronger as you don't have much mass to hold up in strong winds

Reposted by Mathias Disney

📖Published📖

Using a novel method to visualize in situ underwater sound, Dantzker et al. have developed a technique that combines visualizations of spatial audio with concentric 360° video recordings 📹 🌊 Read more here 👇

buff.ly/McXYHwA

🌍 🧪
Big Doughnutty News.
Just out in Nature: the all-new 2025 Doughnut. Transformed from a single-year snapshot to an annual global monitor of 21st century social & ecological thriving. Available to all in an open-access paper by @andrewlfanning.bsky.social and me. 🧵 1/
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Reposted by Mathias Disney

'The Nerve', a new female-founded media title is up and running, bringing independent journalism, a dash of culture and a weekly Stewart Lee column.
www.thenerve.news

Reposted by Mathias Disney

We’re excited to see @ukceh.bsky.social launching a new rice-growing trial in the UK, exploring how agriculture can adapt to a changing climate🌾

NCEO are working with UKCEH thru AgZero+ project, using satellite data + AI to improve crop yield mapping across the UK

Read More: tinyurl.com/2bmyzcrm
Rice takes root in British soil for the first time
Rice is being grown in the UK for the first time. This is part of a wider trial within the AgZero+ project that brings together UKCEH scientists and farmers to grow rice and other food, bioenergy and ...
tinyurl.com