Repeat at the BES conference

The British Ecological Society organised its Annual Meeting in Edinburgh from 15 to 18 December 2025. Here, 1500 ecologists and other interested parties met for interesting days packed with lectures, seminars and poster presentations. Our small delegation gained valuable insights into many current issues, and also shared our own findings.

Katinka Vloon presented the poster Restoration of a boreal raised bog – does the state of the reference affect predicted time to recovery? Based on the ORBA method, which predicts time to successful restoration, she shows that the choice of reference data (historical or contemporary) affects the predictions. She also finds differences in the development of different structures (hummocks versus lawns ). The manuscript behind the poster will be part of her thesis that she will submit in 2026.

^{Katinka Vloon presented a rare long-time series (34 years of data) from the protected Rønnåsmyra. Here, she shows how much the choice of reference affects predictions of restoration success, measured in time until the bog vegetation is restored (Photo: Inger Auestad).}

Knut Rydgren presented the poster Restoration of formerly afforested blanket bog: how long does vegetation recovery take? This study predicted that blanket bogs   in Flow County, Scotland, which were drained for 15 years, will need up to 285 years to regain the vegetation that was there before drainage. This attracted attention among the British participants, who had many questions and views.

^{Knut Rydgren and Inger Auestad in front of Knut's poster. He received a lot of attention, both because the study was interesting and because many participants were familiar with the terrain-covering bogs in the UNESCO area of ​​Flow County in northern Scotland (Photo: Kyrre Groven).}

Julien Vollering was not in Scotland, but contributed with a digital presentation entitled Which ‘typical raised bogs’ in Norway can persist under a changed climate? He has modelled the distribution of raised bogs in Norway under a changed climate as a support for future management of the habitat.

Repeat members Inger Auestad and Stein Joar Hegland also physically attended the conference with presentations that were not about results from our project.

^{Edinburgh was a great setting for the conference, and fortunately, there was time for a bit of city walking between the sessions. Here, Katinka Vloon, Inger Auestad and Stein Joar Hegland pose in front of the magnificent castle that towers over the city centre. (Photo: Kyrre Groven)}