Eurasian Grassland Conference 2025

Shanker R. Barsila

Agriculture and Forestry University, Bharatpur, Nepal

Biosketch

Dr. Shanker Raj Barsila, earned a PhD from ETH Zurich, Switzerland, is now an Associate Professor at Agriculture and Forestry University in Nepal. Academic mentoring of high-altitude grazing ecology in the Himalayan Mountain landscapes, primarily on pastoralism, is of great interest to him. He specializes in the study of Himalayan high-altitude transhumant pastoral systems. Long-term yaks and sheep in the transhumance pastoral systems of the Himalayan alpines have been documented as his research contributions. In 2015, the Nepal Academy of Science and Technology honored him with the Young Science and Technology Award in recognition of his innovative study on yaks and yak-cattle hybrids. Dr. Barsila has been actively involved in advancing high-altitude grazing studies to improve mountain herders' livelihoods; his research addresses the challenges faced by pastoral communities by combining traditional knowledge with contemporary scientific methods; and he continues to work with national and international institutions to further research in high-altitude pastoral systems.

Nepal’s Alpine Grasslands: A Legacy at Risk, and a Future to Secure

Abstract

High alpine grasslands in Nepal are unique ecosystems that support local communities' livelihoods, regulate water cycles, and preserve distinctive biodiversity. In addition to providing vital grazing areas for pastoral communities, these grasslands are home to iconic species of wild animals. Despite their ecological benefits, overgrazing, invasive species, climate change, and unsustainable land use practices are posing constant threats to these grasslands. Climatic change is causing shifts in vegetation patterns and increased vulnerability to extreme weather events such as droughts and floods. These shifts disrupt the delicate balance of alpine ecosystems, reducing productivity and affecting species distributions. Livestock overgrazing have been known to further worsen soil erosion, decreases plant diversity, and encourages the spread of alien species. These delicate ecosystems are further threatened by growing infrastructural development and human invasion. The dynamics of climate change consequences, especially in relation to species migration and ecosystem shifts, must be better understood in future research in order to maintain Nepal's alpine grasslands. For grassland management to be sustainable, research on the socioeconomic effects of overgrazing and the function of traditional pastoral practices is essential. Furthermore, in order to inform management techniques, it is essential to research the dynamics of invasive species and their ecological effects. Other important research topics include evaluating adaptive management techniques and looking into the possibilities of community-based conservation methods. Filling in these research gaps could help improve conservation efforts, give local communities sustainable means of subsistence, and guarantee the alpine grasslands of Nepal's long-term resilience.

Sara Cousins

Stockholm University, Sweden

Biosketch

I am a plant community ecologist and physical geographer with a focus on biodiversity, habitat fragmentation and conservation. My research focuses on understanding how past and present land use, habitat connectivity, and spatial patterns of landscapes affect present-day biodiversity, especially in grasslands. One key contribution has been in studying how landscape processes influences species dispersal and persistence, how habitat loss and isolation affects plant species, and exploring how ecological restoration efforts can replicate historical processes to support biodiversity. I’ve a diversity of methods like historical maps, remote sensing, species inventories and genetic analyses to try an unravel these processes.

Tracing the past to preserve biodiversity for the future: exploring past grassland extent, present-day patterns, and the role of people in conservation

Abstract

My talk covers three themes: exploring past grassland extent, present patterns, and the role of people and their livestock. Global threats to plant diversity vary in scale and can interact, amplifying or mitigating their effects. Habitat alterations and landscape change endanger species-rich grasslands directly and indirectly when isolated plant populations become increasingly isolated from both pollinators and dispersal vectors.

To protect and restore grassland plant diversity today, it is necessary to understand the extent and timing of major habitat changes in the past. Many grassland plants are long-lived and take time to disappear, so plant communities can respond slowly to change a so-called 'time lag' or 'extinction debt'. On the positive side, it may be possible to reverse detrimental changes while the plants and seeds are still around.

I have explored habitat change effects on grassland plant communities by combining methods across different biodiversity scales—genetic analyses, field experiments, and landscape studies using historical maps, aerial photos, and modeling. Each approach has challenges, which I’ll discuss to help others avoid similar pitfalls.

Conserving fragmented grasslands requires understanding functional connectivity and plant dispersal between isolated habitats. Ecologists often prioritize spatial data, overlooking the role of people, livestock, and management in shaping species-rich landscapes. A key question remains: Can grassland biodiversity be preserved and restored with only a few managers?

Sally-Ann Spence

Oxford University Museum of Natural History, United Kingdom

Biosketch

Sally-Ann Spence is a scientist, presenter, farmer, entomologist and a Fellow of both the Royal Entomological Society and the Linnaean Society. 

She specialises in dung beetles and pastureland biodiversity and founded the U.K. Dung Beetle Mapping Project accumulating species data. Her work with the project has seen her surveying field sites all over the U.K. including many outlying islands enabling her to study a multitude of grazing systems. 

This practical experience has been translated into collaborative projects working on sustainable land management plans within the farming community to promote dung beetles as important bio-indicators for soil, pasture and livestock health. 

Sally-Ann was awarded the British Entomological and Natural History Society’s gold medal for over two decades of promoting dung beetle awareness and her research into dung beetles and the livestock sector. A founding member of Dung Beetles for Farmers, which was formed to continue the awareness of this insect group and highlight their conservation, she provides dung beetle workshops, training days, surveys and advisory services.

Sally-Ann owns and runs an educational research centre ‘Berrycroft Hub’ based on her family farm where she has cattle and sheep and manages all the grassland. 

As a passionate advocate of British farming and biodiversity, Sally-Ann does a great deal of scientific public outreach both at her centre on the farm, at various events and on all media platforms including television.

The love of dung beetles & the inadvertent restoration of calcareous grassland

Abstract

Just how important are dung beetles in our livestock systems and what are they doing beyond removing dung? We generally don’t think of the tiny insect communities based around the dung piles in our pastures and these include our dung beetles. But what if we loose these beetles? What effect would it have on our livestock, pastures, soil and farm biodiversity? To answer these questions and more, Sally-Ann started to farm livestock around dung beetles implementing small changes in her management decisions that had much wider benefits for the landscape, livestock and biodiversity in general. From this grew a project that saw her inadvertently restoring calcareous grassland and finding ever more unconventional ways of putting dung beetles in the limelight.

Andrea Sforzi

Maremma Natural History Museum, Grosseto, Italy

Biosketch

Andrea Sforzi has a PhD in evolutionary biology, is the Director of the Maremma Natural History Museum (Tuscany). He is the scientific manager of the national Osprey project and the Wildcat project in Italy, carried out in collaboration with ISPRA and the Ministry of the Environment, in the framework of the National Biodiversity Network. He has been involved in citizen science since 2011, when the collaboration with highly successful the OPAL (UK) project started. Since then, he organises bioblitzes, field toolkits, surveys, training courses and other CS initiatives. He was among the founders of the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA) and has been a member of the Board of Directors from 2014 to 2020. Since 2016 he is a member of a panel of experts for the selection of Citizen Science projects in Austria, in the framework of the Top Citizen Science (TCS) initiative. In 2023 he was appointed in the international Jury of the European Commission for the first "European Union Prize for Citizen Science". He is among the founding members (and currently President) of the Citizen Science Italia association. He is the representative for Italy in the Working Group "Science Communication" in the framework of the G7. Since April 2024 he is coordinating the working group “Citizen Science” of the National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC), funded by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan in Italy.

Involving citizens in doing science: how collaborative research is changing the interface between science and society

Abstract

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Isabel C. Barrio

Agricultural University of Iceland, Iceland

Biosketch

I am Professor at the Faculty of Environmental and Forest Sciences at the Agricultural University of Iceland. Isabel is a terrestrial ecologist, and her research interests relate to plant-herbivore interactions in tundra ecosystems. Isabel leads two international research networks: the Herbivory Network that aims at understanding the role of herbivores in changing tundra ecosystems, and the Nordic Borealization Network, which investigates the drivers, patterns and processes associated with the borealization of tundra ecosystems. Isabel’s research in Iceland focuses on the impacts of sheep grazing on common highland ranges. Isabel obtained her PhD on management of native rabbit populations in agricultural landscapes of Southern Spain in 2010 and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Alberta (Canada) between 2011-2014 and the University of Iceland between 2015-2018. She teaches courses on ecology, conservation biology and grazing management at the graduate and undergraduate level and is actively involved in supervising students.

Treeless ecosystems in the North: role of climate and land use change in shaping the past and future of the region

Abstract

The colder regions of the planet are characterized by treeless environments. Tundra ecosystems cover vast regions at high latitudes and high elevations globally, but are threatened by ongoing climate and land-use changes. As a result of warming temperatures, species typical of southern latitudes and lower elevations are spreading north and upward, a process known as borealization. The borealization of tundra ecosystems can be manifested in different ways, from advances in treeline and range expansions of boreal herbivores, to more subtle increases in encroachment of tall shrubs. This shift in the boundary between the boreal forest and the tundra biome implies large structural changes, which will have wide-ranging consequences for the functioning of these ecosystems, from feedbacks to regional climate, changes in biodiversity and trophic dynamics and impacts to local livelihoods. 

Given the key role of herbivores, and more specifically megafauna, in maintaining extensive and highly productive grasslands during the Pleistocene, the so-called “mammoth steppe”, it has been suggested that grazing management could be a tool to mitigate some of the ongoing trends and preserve tundra ecosystems. During this presentation, I will highlight some of the ongoing work of two international research initiatives, the Herbivory Network and the Nordic Borealization Network, to coordinate research across this region and increase our understanding of the functioning of these cold ecosystems.

Majid Moradmand

Oulu University, Finland

Biosketch

I earned my Ph.D. in Biology–Zoology from Goethe University and the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Currently, I serve as an Associate Professor at the University of Isfahan in Iran, a Guest Professor at Trier University in Germany, and, more recently, as a Senior Project Researcher at the University of Oulu.

My research is closely tied to Natural History Museums, with a primary focus on arthropods. Over the years, I have developed a deep appreciation for the vital role scientific collections play in advancing biodiversity research. By integrating historical and environmental DNA analysis, high-throughput sequencing technologies, and advanced bioinformatics, my work seeks to bridge classical museum curation with modern genomic approaches. The overarching aim is to support biodiversity discovery, reconstruct interaction networks, biomonitoring, and habitat restoration.

Spiders in grasslands: using eDNA metabarcoding to reconstruct spider trophic guilds and arthropod communities

Abstract

Arthropods are the most diverse group of animals and play a key role in terrestrial ecological networks. Arthropod biodiversity is declining worldwide, and a massive decline of arthropods in European grasslands and forests has recently been reported. Spiders are the main arthropod predators in grasslands, where they have a critical impact on insect populations. Therefore, understanding trophic interaction networks through novel methodologies is crucial.

When an organism interacts with its environment and other organisms, it leaves behind a trace of its DNA, known as environmental DNA (eDNA). Arthropod eDNA can be recovered from a variety of environmental samples, such as plant compartments and spider gut contents. In recent years, the eDNA metabarcoding approach has revolutionized our understanding of biodiversity assessment, ecological interaction networks, and biomonitoring. Through a series of case studies, I will present recent results focusing on plant-arthropod interactions and reconstructions of spider trophic guilds by analyzing the spider web and gut content.

Didem Ambarlı

Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Türkiye

Biosketch

Dr. Didem Ambarlı is an ecologist and conservation scientist with over two decades of experience in biodiversity research, particularly in temperate grasslands and steppe ecosystems. She currently serves as an Assistant Professor at METU, where her research focuses on the spatial and temporal dynamics of biodiversity along land-use gradients and their implications for ecosystem functioning.

Her work integrates field-based biodiversity assesments—spanning plants, birds, and butterflies—with multivariate statistics, GIS, and conservation planning tools. Dr. Ambarlı has a special interest in socio-ecological systems and frequently incorporates land-use histories and stakeholder perspectives into her ecological analyses.

She has held academic and research positions in Germany (Technical University of Munich), the UK (University of Cambridge), and across Turkey, contributing to national and international conservation projects. Notably, she is a long-standing executive committee member of the Eurasian Dry Grassland Group (EDGG) and has co-organized multiple Eurasian Grassland Conferences.

Dr. Ambarlı has authored or co-authored over 60 scientific publications, including high-impact papers in Nature, Ecological Monographs, and Journal of Vegetation Science. Her research has been recognized through multiple fellowships and awards.

A strong advocate for applied conservation, she has also led major projects funded by national and international bodies, aiming to integrate biodiversity science into land management and policy.

Rethinking Degradation: Diversity, Grazing, and Conservation in Anatolia’s Ancient Grasslands

Abstract

Dry grasslands in Anatolia have one of the longest histories of human land use in the world. Shaped by more than 10,000 years of continuous interaction, these landscapes offer few clues about their original, natural state—whether grasslands or adjacent woodlands. As a result, understanding their potential vegetation, biodiversity, and ecological dynamics presents a significant challenge for researchers. Long-standing assumptions, such as the idea that lowland Artemisia dwarf shrub steppes or slope-dwelling, cushion-forming Astragalus thorn steppes are the result of degradation due to overgrazing, deserve critical re-examination. Located within the Irano-Anatolian Biodiversity Hotspot, these grasslands are exceptionally rich in endemic plants and butterflies, yet their diversity patterns remain an ecological puzzle. Recent quantitative studies across various grassland types reveal extremely high species turnover over short distances. Alpha diversity peaks notably in ecotones, while conventional vegetation surveys fall too short in representing the community diversity at the gamma scale.

Contrary to the meta analyses on grazing effects under dry conditions, moderate grazing appears to support higher levels of diversity. In contrast, the cessation of grazing often leads to the dominance of Stipa species, resulting in species-poor communities. Similarly, large-scale afforestation—the primary conservation strategy in many semi-arid regions—tends to reduce plant and bird diversity, though butterfly communities appear less affected. To preserve the unique biodiversity of Anatolia’s dry grasslands, conservation strategies must move beyond afforestation and embrace steppe-specific approaches tailored to these ancient, dynamic landscapes.