EASAC report “Changing Wildfires in Europe” presented at the Cyprus Institute

On 22 January 2026 the Cyprus Institute, the Cyprus Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts, and the European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC) organized a public lecture and presentation of the EASAC report entitled Changing Wildfires - Policy Options for a Fire-literate and Fire-adapted Europe.

In the public lecture, we discussed the main findings of the EASAC report, emphasised the importance of preventive measures in wildfire governance, and also focused on the specific challenges of the Mediterranean region. The lectures were followed by fruitful discussion on these topics and on the relevance on the EU decision of establishing a Wildfire Hub in Cyprus. Many thanks to the organizers for making this super-important and interesting event possible!

The event was live-streamed and can be watched here (from 10:30). 

Please find below some brief information about the panel and the abstract of the event.

Convenor: Prof. Costas N. Papanicolas, President Emeritus, The Cyprus Institute, Director, Research Unit of Climate Crisis and Sustainable Development; The Cyprus Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts

Panelists:

Prof. Thomas Elmqvist, Professor, Stockholm Resilience Center, Stockholm University, Sweden and EASAC Environment Director

Dr. Orsolya Valkó, Research Group Leader, HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research, Hungary

Prof. Efthymis Lekkas, Professor of Dynamic, Tectonic, Applied Geology, and Natural Disaster Management, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

Mr. Kostakis A. Papageorgiou, Chief Conservator of Forests, Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development & Environment, Department of Forests

Abstract

“Suppressing fires alone is not sufficient. We need to address the root causes, strengthen efforts to combat climate change, invest in resilient landscapes, and actively engage society in learning to live with fire,” says Dr. Cathelijne Stoof, Co-Chair of EASAC’s Wildfires Working Group.

 

According to the newly published EASAC report Changing Wildfires in Europe, many regions across Europe are experiencing multi-year droughts, significantly increasing the likelihood of extreme wildfire events. On average, wildfires in the European Union currently burn approximately half a million hectares each year—an area roughly equivalent to half the size of Cyprus.

 

The event will examine the escalating wildfire risks across Europe, with a particular focus on the Mediterranean, and assess their implications for Cyprus, the Eastern Mediterranean region, and the proposed European Wildfire Hub. Topics covered will include wildfire risk reduction, prevention strategies, and building fire-resilient societies in Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean, and Cyprus. Experts, policymakers, and stakeholders will convene to explore how EU and regional strategies can transition from reactive fire suppression toward proactive, risk-based land and landscape management. 

Session on Grasslands and Pastoralists at the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) conference

The 2025 Triennial Conference and General Assembly ofthe InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) took place 8-11 December 2025 in Cairo, Egypt, hosted by the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology (ASRT). This is a very interesting and prestigious international conference with the aim to discuss how science can help advancing sound policies, improve public health, promote science excellence and achieve other critical development goals. It was our great honour that one of the sessions of this conference was dedicated to grasslands and pastoralists, and together with excellent colleagues we could show the beauty of these unique ecosystems and pastoral communities as their stewards. We had a very diverse and interesting session and panel discussions.

You can read the abstract and the program of the session below.

Pastoralism and Grasslands: Science and Policy for Regenerative Rangeland Management

Moderator: Thomas Elmqvist, Programme Director EASAC

Rapporteur: Georg Bërveniku-Brunner, Executive Director, EASAC secretariat

Speakers

Gregorio Velasco Gil, Coordinator of the Pastoralist Knowledge Hub, FAO: International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists 2026

Orsolya Valkó, Scientific advisor, HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research, Institute of Ecology and Botany, Hungary: Biodiversity conservation of European grasslands: challenges and opportunities

Batgelder Gantuya, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Mongolia: Rangelands and pastoralists in Asia

Zsolt Molnár, Scientific advisor, HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research, Institute of Ecology and Botany, Hungary: Transdisciplinary research and knowledge systems: who’s knowledge counts

Abstract

The UN General Assembly has declared 2026 the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP) to increase worldwide understanding of the value of grasslands and pastoralism for food security, economy, environment and cultural heritage. Semi-natural grasslands are among the most species-rich ecosystems on Earth, offering a unique example of how long-term, low-intensity human activities can enhance biodiversity.

Their ecological value is closely tied to traditional management practices, such as grazing and mowing, which help maintain their open structure and biodiversity. Steppes and other drylands also harbour outstanding biodiversity that is shaped by the herders and the one billion people living in these ecosystems globally. Today, grasslands are rapidly disappearing in many regions of the world, due to climate change in combination with land use changes including abandonment that leads to secondary succession toward shrubs or forests, or, through intensification (use of fertilizers, frequent mowing, or sowing monocultures) causing biodiversity loss. This session will contribute to the aims of the IYRP and through taking a global view of grasslands and focussing on how to bring multiple knowledge systems together at the table to discuss what policy options and actions are available in different regions for reversing current trends.

Many thanks for EASAC, the European Academies Science Advisory Council for supporting my participation at the conference, for the organizers, and to everyone who made this possible.

How Can Small Grasslands Help Protect Biodiversity in Agricultural Landscapes?

We are very grateful for the support of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFIH) for supporting our project entitled “How Can Small Grasslands Help Protect Biodiversity in Agricultural Landscapes?” (PI: Balázs Deák), that provides an excellent possibility for studying the importance of small habitat islands (covered with pristine and recovering grasslands) in preserving grassland biodiversity and ecosystem services in intensively used landscapes.

While the primary role of agricultural landscapes is food production, they also hold significant biodiversity potential. Small, pristine grasslands and recovering grassland habitats embedded in agricultural parcels can help maintain populations of several grassland species, thus, they support ecosystem stability and agricultural sustainability. However, these habitats are increasingly threatened by weed and woody encroachment, and by isolation, leading to time-delayed species loss. We investigate the impacts of these processes on grassland biodiversity using ancient burial mounds (so called kurgans) involved into the system of agricultural subsidies (functioning as out-of-production sites). We study the effects of both local- and landscape-level factors such as soil characteristics, microclimate, habitat structure, and the surrounding landscape matrix.

Our main research questions include:

(i) How do weeds spread in recovering grasslands, and can diverse weed communities suppress harmful weeds hindering restoration and agricultural production?

(ii) What happens when woody species encroach grasslands, and how capable are these habitats of self-recovery when woody vegetation is removed?

(iii) How does the biodiversity in isolated grasslands change over time, and what actions can prevent further species loss?

Beyond advancing scientific knowledge, our findings help conservationists, farmers, and policymakers make informed decisions about biodiversity protection and sustainable land use. By understanding the underlying ecological processes, we can improve the design of agri-environmental schemes, support sustainable farming, and restore valuable habitats. This research aligns with EU conservation and restoration objectives and provides scientific evidence to support policies that balance food production with nature conservation. The four-year-long project starts on 1 Jan 2026, we are looking forward to this new and exciting challenge!

Fire in Central European Ecosystems - a very interesting conference

Last week, the first Central European fire ecology conference, entitled 'Fire in Central European Ecosystems', was held in Decin, Czech Republic. The conference presentations dealt with the consequences of forest and grassland fires, post-fire regeneration, and the nature conservation opportunities of prescribed burning. The event was prompted by a huge forest fire in Bohemian Switzerland National Park in July 2022, which burned down 1,200 hectares of land. Many presentations focused on post-fire regeneration and the responses of individual groups of organisms, and we were able to see the burned areas for ourselves during a field trip. It was a very interesting and informative conference with excellent presentations — it was great to see that more and more people are working on fire ecology in Central Europe as well!

We presented two presentations at the conference:

Deák, B., Süveges, K., Gőri, Sz., Kapocsi, I., Valkó, O. (2025): The legacy of wildfires: Grassland vegetation recovery in burned grasslands and differently managed firebreaks.

Valkó, O, Stoof, C, Akala, T, Arianoutsou, M, Arsava, K, Ascoli, D, Bengtsson, J, Castro, R, Engelbrecht, J, Fra Paleo, U, Granström, A, Ibisch, P, Kalabokidis, K, Kandárová, H, Marinšek, A, Knottnerus, A, Metallinou, M, Müller, M, Oliviera, T, Pereira, J, Plieninger, T, Palaiologou, P, Pulido Diaz, J, Saražin, J, Stoyanov, T, Thacker, FN, van der Werf, G, Zerefos, C., Elmqvist, T. (2025): Living with Fire: Policy Recommendations from the EASAC Report on Changing Wildfires in Europe. (keynote talk)

Many thanks to the organizers for the wonderful conference and excursion!

Birch trees grow higher than three metres in some of the areas burned in 2022.

Burned mushroom.

Life has found a way to thrive in the scorched area.

The weather was a bit rainy during the field program ...

The Conference was held at the beautiful Decin castle.

The way up to the castle.

View from the castle to the brewery.

The lecture room was also very nice.

Ancient mounds, modern refuges: Out-of-production sites on kurgans support rare weeds in agricultural landscapes

It is a sad but evident fact that the expansion of agricultural areas over the past centuries has led to an enormous loss of natural habitats worldwide. However, it is perhaps less well known that the unprecedented intensification of agriculture in the decades following the Second World War has also caused the disappearance of many weed species traditionally associated with extensively managed farmland. These rare weeds used to inhabit arable fields, oldfields, and pastures, but many have now become endangered.

Formerly widespread weed species have declined due to multiple factors: changes in landscape structure (due to land consolidation), altered tillage systems (for example, changes in the timing of ploughing), the increasing use of chemicals in agro-ecosystems, the disappearance of fallows and oldfields, and the abandonment or overgrazing of pastures. Importantly, rare weeds do not threaten crop yields. Instead, they contribute to agro-biodiversity and provide valuable ecosystem services. Their preservation is therefore important both for nature conservation and, indirectly, for agricultural production.

One promising refuge for rare weeds is kurgans – ancient burial mounds scattered across Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe and beyond. When embedded in agricultural fields and covered with grasslands of various ages, these small, elevated sites often escape intensive management and host diverse vegetation.

In an intensive field survey covering approximately 21,500 km² in Eastern Hungary, we set out to identify which site- and landscape-specific factors (such as geographic position, habitat area, soil properties, vegetation age, and environmental heterogeneity) influence the occurrence and species richness of rare weeds. Altogether, we surveyed 216 kurgans: 24 covered with ancient grasslands and 192 with successional grasslands, ranging in age from one to 144 years. All were out-of-production sites surrounded by agricultural fields.

We recorded 38 weed species that have become rare in the region in recent decades, including 15 red-listed and two legally protected species. Rare weeds were present on more than half of the kurgans (50.9%), showing that even small, abandoned patches of land can provide important refuges for species once common in arable lands, oldfields, and pastures.

Several ecological factors shaped their occurrence. Environmental heterogeneity – linked to the topographic variation of kurgans – proved to be the strongest predictor of whether rare weeds were present at a site. And species richness of rare weeds was also considerably higher on mounds with larger environmental heterogeneity. Species richness was generally lower in northern sites, which reflects the Mediterranean origin of many rare arable weeds and their association with warmer climates in southern regions. High soil CaCO₃ content supported species-rich weed communities. While high soil phosphorus content suppressed them, likely by increasing the level of competition in nutrient rich environments. Sites with more diverse vegetation harboured more oldfield and grassland-related rare weeds, probably due to reduced competitive pressure typical of species rich grassland assemblages.

Interestingly, we also found that smaller kurgans hosted more rare weed species. At first glance, this seems paradoxical: for habitat specialists, larger areas usually support more species because they contain larger undisturbed core zones. In contrast, as rare weeds depend on a certain level of disturbance, the high edge-to-core ratio of small kurgans appears to provide precisely the slightly disturbed conditions they need. As was found in our previous study, the presence of burrowing mammals (such as red foxes) on kurgans can also support the existence of disturbance tolerant species that require open gaps for establishment.

In summary: our study shows that small, island-like out-of-production sites on kurgans can play an outsized role in maintaining rare weed populations in intensively managed agricultural landscapes. Preserving such landscape features – a form of land sparing – can therefore make a major contribution to conserving biodiversity in farmland.

The full study, published in Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, provides further insights into factors supporting the existence of rare weeds on kurgans holding pristine or secondary grasslands.

The citation of the paper:

Deák, B., Bede-Fazekas, Á., Süveges, K., Tölgyesi, Cs., Kelemen, A., Bede, Á., Borza, S., Godó, L., Valkó, O. (2025): Ancient mounds, modern refuges: Out-of-production sites on kurgans support rare weeds in agricultural landscapes. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 394: 109902.

The paper is open access and can be downloaded from here:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167880925004347

Kurgans holding small grassland patches provide hotspots for medicinal plant and associated phytochemical diversity in agricultural landscapes

Our recent study published in the Plants, People, Planet journal revealed that ancient burial mounds – also known as kurgans – play a crucial role in preserving medicinal plant species and their phytochemical diversity within European agricultural landscapes. These mounds, constructed thousands of years ago by steppe nomadic cultures, are widely distributed across the Eurasian steppe biome. While their original grassland vegetation has often been destroyed by agricultural activities, in many cases they remain intact – often due to their spiritual, historical, or cultural significance. These intact mounds are commonly covered by natural or semi-natural grasslands, forming isolated ecological refuges in otherwise intensively cultivated areas. In other cases – thanks to agri-environmental schemes supporting the cessation of arable farming on mounds – these sites are now covered by spontaneously recovering grassland vegetation. Based on our former field observations, we assumed that kurgans have the potential to serve as habitats for medicinal plant species. However, this specific ecosystem function has not been previously studied in any region.

We surveyed 166 kurgans in Hungary to assess their role in conserving medicinal plants and the phytochemical compounds they produce. We identified over 160 species of medicinal plants, many of which are rarely found in the surrounding agricultural matrix. Importantly, kurgans harbour not only plant species diversity but also a broad spectrum of secondary metabolites, which contribute to ecosystem resilience. In total, we recorded 33 secondary metabolite groups in the vegetation of the mounds, 23 of which were associated with grassland-related medicinal plants. These compounds enable plants to survive drought, herbivory, and intense solar radiation – factors that are becoming increasingly common due to climate change and intensive land use. We found that the presence and diversity of certain secondary metabolites were strongly linked to environmental conditions and biotic interactions, which followed clear gradients based on vegetation age and level of landscape transformation.

(a) Kurgan with a pristine grassland, (b) old field and (c) young fallow; The most frequent grassland-related medicinal plants on kurgans: (d) Achillea collina (102 mounds), (e) Podospermum canum (79 mounds), (f) Tragopogon dubius (66 mounds), (g) Galium verum (64 mounds), (h) Epilobium tetragonum (42 mounds) (photos by Balázs Deák a, b, c, d and Attila Lengyel e, f, g, h).

For example, mounds covered with older, recovering grasslands were characterized by a higher abundance of species producing iridoids and diterpenes. This is likely due to that, in later successional phases, the shading effect of tall-growing weedy species (that are suppressed by time) decreases, exposing medicinal plants to higher solar radiation, which in turn stimulates the production of these protective compounds. In kurgans surrounded by croplands, medicinal plants frequently produced a wide array of nitrogen-containing compounds, such as alkaloids, saponins, and plant steroids. These function as antifeedant chemicals and may deter crop-feeding pests like rodents – making these small grassland patches valuable not only for biodiversity conservation but also for pest management in adjacent farmlands.

Although plant collection is not permitted on protected kurgans, these sites offer valuable opportunities for conservation, ecological restoration, and environmental education. As natural seed banks, they may help restore medicinal plant populations in degraded landscapes. Our findings underscore the importance of integrating cultural heritage with biodiversity conservation. Once valued solely for their historical significance, kurgans now emerge as key elements of ecological infrastructure, helping to preserve “nature’s pharmacy” in modern agricultural regions.

The full study, published in Plants, People, Planet, provides further insights into the links between land use history, soil conditions, and medicinal plant diversity.

The citation of the paper:

Engel, R., Valkó, O, Lengyel, A., Bede, Á, Deák, B. (2025): Small grassland patches are hotspots for medicinal plants and associated phytochemical diversity in European agricultural landscapes. Plants People Planet DOI: 10.1002/ppp3.70074

The paper is open access and can be downloaded from here: https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ppp3.70074

Kurgan "Bio-blitz" Day in the Hortobágy Nature Conservation Research Camp

We were very happy to visit the Hortobágy Nature Conservation Research Camp again this year after a very long time :) This wonderful camp was 51 years old this year, and many Hungarian ecologists and conservationists got to know the beauty and diversity of the lowland landscape for the first time here - including me more than 20 years ago :) This year we finally made it back to the camp, unfortunately only for one day - but it was still a great experience. The day was dedicated to kurgans, and in the morning Balázs Deák gave a comprehensive lecture on the natural and cultural heritage of the mounds, and then we visited the kurgans near Nádudvar. This year's drought (and the droughts of previous years) have left their mark on the vegetation, unfortunately most of the perennial grassland species have now also dried up, and the mass of the plumeless thistle (Carduus acanthoides) on the mounds has increased several times compared to our 2017 surveys.

On our way to the Tök-halom (Pumpkin-mound).

Thanks to the enthusiastic group, we could search every square meter of the mounds very effectively looking for plants :)

On the Pumpkin-mound, crop production was ceased in 2012 and spontaneous grassland recovery started thereafter. This year we found some specimens of the protected yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis) which probably established spontaneously from the seed rain.

On our way to the Hegyes-halom (Pointy mound), another kurgan, where arable farming was abandoned.

The name "Pointy mound" is adequate, it is a spectacular landmark in the yellow sea of the large grassland.

Many thanks to the camp organizers, Sára Csiha and Csaba Tóth for their kind hospitality, and we hope to see you next time :)