Rachel Mailes

Amazing paper by the MEMBRA team clearly showing declines in regeneration across British mature woodlands! Check out the link to find out more about these declines and how this could impact the future of our forests: doi.org/10.1016/j.fore…

A great summary of the results and knowledge gained from the MEMBRA project. What an honour to be part of such a great disciplinary project! theconversation.com/what-do-trees-…

PLANTING QUESTIONS IN POLICY MAKERS’ MINDS. A MEMBRA project from @Earnshaw_K @PrincetownPress membra.info/planting-quest…

Published in PNAS by @Michaela_Reay @BIFoRUoB discovered that trees growing in a CO2-rich atmosphere tactically choreograph in-soil trading of carbon for nutrients through “do it yourself” and “outsourcing” strategies. birmingham.ac.uk/news/2025/fore… Paper link pnas.org/doi/abs/10.107…

Studies show: Trees are the true air conditioners. Under a tree, the temperature can be 15 C° cooler than measured in the ambient air. Shade and evaporation create the same effect as a conventional A/C, but without electricity. A tree produces about 20-30 KW/h, as much as ten A/C

Grow a bee and butterfly Garden! 🌼🌿🦋🐝 Help them thrive by creating a space full of the plants they love. When you give them the food they need, they return the favor by keeping our ecosystems healthy and vibrant 🌍✨

In some UK woodlands, every young tree has died. What’s going wrong? MEMBRA Ecology work featured @guardian 👀@RachelMailes @BIFoRUoB theguardian.com/environment/20…

Read the guardian article for more information, and stay tuned for the upcoming MEMBRA papers on these topics!

In a recent interview my colleague Bruno and I shared the projects results so far and our message of hope: there is still time. Time to reverse the trends and preserve the forest's carbon and biodiversity. Time to readdress the balance and protect the future generations of trees.

UK ancient woodlands are failing to regenerate! Obver the last few years I have been involved with project @MEMBRA_Trees, funded by @UK_Treescapes, working to analyse the trends in biomass and recruitment in ancient woodlands across the UK. theguardian.com/environment/20…

Butterflies and Bees of the last 2 weeks urban transects #UoBBiodiversity

Five Purple Emperors (mainly Empresses) feeding on oak sap at Knepp this afternoon. The most I've ever managed to photo together (they get disturbed by Hornets, and each other). This photo took years to get...

BIG NEWS! We’ve found that ash trees are fighting back against ash dieback disease! 🌳💪 Scientists at Kew and Queen Mary University of London have discovered that ash populations are evolving resistance to this devastating fungus - and fast. It’s a rare glimmer of hope for one of Britain’s most iconic trees, with up to 85% lost to the disease in some areas of the UK and Europe. Ash trees are financially, environmentally and culturally important, with their value to the UK economy estimated at hundreds of millions of pounds each year. This is also a breakthrough in evolutionary biology. We found the clearest evidence yet of polygenic microevolution – involving shifts across thousands of locations within the genome – supporting a theory first proposed over 100 years ago. Nature is adapting. And now, with breeding programmes and further genetic research, we can help it along. Read the full story and discover the surprising reasons why this is happening 👉 ow.ly/Ujt450WgGQ0 Find the paper in @ScienceMagazine here: science.org/doi/10.1126/sc… Here, I highlight the key findings 👇 @QMUL @DefraGovUK

Publication of 'Impact and Insight' Note on 'Analysing the trajectory of ancient woodlands to ensure resilience and carbon sink capacity' @UK_Treescapes @ELunaDiez @BIFoRUoB PDF -> uktreescapes.org/wp-content/upl…

The UK Government promised voters they would protect nature and build new towns “with nature at the heart”. Yet the Planning and Infrastructure Bill will undo important protections. That's why we're calling on Government to withdraw Part 3 of the Bill.

Lichen Lab afternoon! Practicing making sections and squashes of Xanthoria parietina.

Sugar is pumped into young leaves to fuel growth, and the sugar is sometimes converted into the red pigment anthocyanin and stored in the leaves. Anthocyanins absorb blue, blue-green, and green light. Therefore the light reflected by young leaves gives a golden hue

With an estimated 24 million gardens in the UK, making little changes to how they are cared for can make a big difference to wildlife! Swapping fences for hedges gives refuge to birds and insects, and brilliant blooms provide nectar for pollinators! 👉 wtru.st/2LCKcT1

Brown Hairstreak butterfly egg search this weekend - our group found a total of 231 eggs! A record of 15 finds for me, including the triple photographed here!

Lichen surveys this week - great to be back out in the field after lots of data analysis work!