Publication: Kitti's paper has been accepted in the special issue "Spatial heterogeneity of forest-steppes" of the journal Forests with the title: "Smaller and isolated grassland fragments are exposed to stronger seed and insect predation in habitat edges". Our study emphasizes the important role of landscape and fragment-scale factors interacting with edge effect in shaping ecosystem functions in natural grassland fragments. December 2020.

Publication: Péter's paper has been accepted in Oecologia with the title: "Increasing connectivity enhances habitat specialists but simplifies plant–insect food webs". Our paper shows food web complexity appeared to be a poor indicator for the management of insect diversity, as it is driven by specialist species, which require high connectivity of large fragments in complex landscapes. December 2020.

Publication: Jelena Seat and Attila's paper has been accepted in Acta Oecologica with the title: "How steady is the nested pattern in saline grassland true bug communities? Effects of sampling effort and data completeness on nestedness". Our paper shows a nested pattern of true bug communities of Serbian salt grasslands, presumably due to the patchiness of vegetation. December 2020.

Publication: Dávid's paper was accepted in Urban Ecosystems with the title: "Urbanization does not affect green space bird species richness in a mid-sized city". Our paper shows that green spaces with a high variety of local characteristics should be incorporated into urban planning designs in order to ensure diverse and functionally rich bird communities in cities. December 2020.

Publication: Ben Woodcock's paper has been published in Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment with the title: "Historical, local and landscape factors determine the success of grassland restoration for arthropods". Here we emphasise the importance of successfully establishing floral communities typical of the target species rich grasslands as a necessary requisite to restore the arthropod species. December 2020.

Publication: Ingo Grass' paper has been published in Advances Ecological Research with the title: "Combining land-sparing and land-sharing in European landscapes". Here we discuss the dichotomous world-view of these two strategies and suggest a combination of them to halt ongoing losses of farmland biodiversity and to promote sustainable multifunctional landscapes. November 2020. 

Publication: Tamás Szűts and Niki's book chapter has been published in the Muséum national d'Histoire naturel book of "Insects of Mount Wilhelm: Papua New Guinea - volume 2" with the title: " Jumping Spiders (Araneae: Salticidae) of the Papua New Guinean Mount Wilhelm and surrounding mountains". Our book chapter presents the taxonomic description of new genera and species of jumping spiders. November 2020. 

Publication: Christina's paper has been published in Landscape Ecology from the former East-West Project of Péter with the title: "Large carabids enhance weed seed removal in organic fields and in large-scale, but not small-scale agriculture". Here we showed that predator body size and species identity need to be taken into account for better predicting the biological weed control potential and reducing the use of plant protection products. November 2020. 

Publication: István Maák and Attila's paper has been published in Scientific Reports with the title: "Behaviours indicating cannibalistic necrophagy in ants are modulated by the perception of pathogen infection level". Here, we suggested that the consumption of nestmate corpses seems to be common in the ant species Formica polyctena, and the threat of infection via cannibalistic necrophagy may be prevented by an efficient pathogen recognition as part of the hygienic behaviour repertoire of this species. October 2020. 

Publication: Asma's paper has been published in Global Ecology and Conservation with the title: "Changing pollinator communities along a disturbance gradient in the Sundarbans mangrove forest: A case study on Acanthus ilicifolius and Avicennia officinalis". Here we provide the first insights into plant-pollinator interactions in the largest mangrove forest in the world. October 2020. 

Publication: Dávid's paper has been published on Urban Ecosystems with the title: "Urbanization alters the abundance and composition of predator communities and leads to aphid outbreaks on urban trees." Here we showed that abundance of predatory arthropods and occurrence of poorly dispersing species within the predator community were negatively related to urbanization and these factors were significant predictors of aphid abundances on urban trees. October 2020.

Publication: Robi's and Péter's paper has been published in Basic and Applied Ecology with the title: "Arthropod functional traits shaped by landscape-scale field size, local agri-environment schemes and edge effects". Our study demonstrated that both local and landscape management shaped fuctional diversity of spiders and carabids.  September 2020. 

New group member:  We would welcome Attila Torma as junior researcher with part time position to our group. Happy sciencing! September 2020. 

Publication: Edina's opinion paper has been published in European Journal of Ecology with the title: "Unmeasured side effects of mosquito control on biodiversity". This is an opinion piece about mosquito control and their effects on non-target animals and ecosystems. Additionally, here, we recommend to conduct direct ecological studies to understand the effects of both chemical and biological control. August 2020.

PhD application: Kitti received a PhD position in the Biological Doctoral School of the Szent István University, Gödöllő, Hungary. August 2020. 

PhD application: Tamás received a PhD position in the Biological Doctoral School of the Eötvös University, Budapest, Hungary. July 2020. 

Publication: Costanza Geppert and Péter's paper has been published in Journal of Applied Ecology with the title: "Agri-environment schemes enhance pollinator richness and abundance but bumblebee reproduction depends on field size". Our study demonstrated that both local and landscape management shaped pollinator communities and their reproduction. A short overview of our results is included in the accompanying blog post. July 2020. 

Publication: László Mezőfi's paper has been published in the journal PeerJ with the title: "Beyond polyphagy and opportunism: natural prey of hunting spiders in the canopy of apple trees". Our study demonstrated how specific generalist predators can differ from each other in aspects of their predation ecology even within a relatively narrow taxonomic group. June 2020. 

Publication: Dan Chamberlain's paper has been published in Global Ecology and Biogeography with the title: "Wealth, water and wildlife: Landscape aridity intensifies the urban luxury effect". Here we showed a positive association between biodiversity and socioeconomic status in urban areas. This luxury effect is more expressed in arid areas. June 2020. 

Publication: Péter's mini review has been published in Biologia Futura with the title: "Landscape perspectives on farmland biodiversity conservation". Here, we discuss the importance of landscape heterogeneity considering the interplay of farmland biodiversity and ecosystem service conservation. June 2020. 

Publication: Audrey Alignier and Péter's paper has been published in Journal of Applied Ecology with the title: "Configurational crop heterogeneity increases within-field plant diversity". Our study shows that increasing configurational crop heterogeneity, i.e. in landscapes where fields are smaller, is beneficial to within-field plant diversity. March 2020. 

Publication: Robi and Péter published an article in the journal Community Ecology with the title "Trait-based paradise - about the importance of real functionality". In our forum paper we briefly overview the origins of trait-based approach, challenges of trait classifications, and we provide an example of a commonly used trait, body size. January 2020.

Publication: Riho's paper has been published in Scientific Reports with the title: "Desert crossing strategies of migrant songbirds vary between and within species". We showed how variable are desert crossing strategies between and within migratory songbird species. January 2020.