Grant Report: The 20th Eurasian Grassland Conference XXEGC2025
The Eurasian Grassland Conference is an annual event organized by the Eurasian Dry Grassland Group EDGG, with support from the International Association of Vegetation Science IAVS, and this was the twentieth time that such a conference has been held. This year the Nordic Society Oikos was our main sponsor. The EDGG is an organization that brings together researchers and stakeholders working with grassland biodiversity from the whole Palaearctic Region, and each year we organize a conference and field workshops, generally in understudied parts of the region. This year, the conference was organized for the first time in the Nordic Region, at Oulu University, hosted by Marko Mutanen and the Biodiverse Anthropocenes programme, with the goal of involving researchers and stakeholders from Finland and elsewhere in the Nordic region, and to give participants from other regions the opportunity to learn about Finnish grasslands habitats and their management. The conference was from 6-10th July, with a subsequent Post-Conference Excursion to Oulanka. The conference this year was attended by 49 participants from 14 countries.
The conference began on Sunday 6th July with workshops at Oulu Botanical Garden, on the topics of “Citizen science on biodiversity”, led by Andrea Sforzi and “Meadow butterflies of northern Finland”, led by Marko Mutanen and Harry Nyström and an excursion to the Haaraoja meadow in Kiiminki, followed by an Ice-breaker event back at the Botanical Museum. Other workshops given during the conference were on “Metabarcoding” by Stefan Prost and Majid Moradmand (Oulu), “Scientific writing and publishing” by Friederike Gehrmann (Nordic Society Oikos) and “Vegetation surveys using the GrassPlot methodology” by Jürgen Dengler and Denys Vynokurov.
The three-day academic programme began on Monday 7th with a plenary presentation on “Treeless ecosystems in the North: role of climate and land use change in shaping the past and future of the region” by Isabel Barrio (Agricultural University of Iceland), followed by a stakeholder session. Stakeholders from Parks and Wildlife Finland, the northern Ostrobothnia Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (ELY Centre), WWF, Nordic Society Oikos, Society of Conservation Biology, gave presentations about their work on grassland conservation, which was followed by small group discussions about interaction between stakeholders and researchers.
Other plenary presentations during the conference were Shanker Barsila (Nepal) “Nepal’s Alpine Grasslands: A Legacy at Risk, and a Future to Secure”, Andrea Sforzi (Italy) “Involving citizens in doing science: how collaborative research is changing the interface between science and society”, Majid Moradmand (Finland/Iran) “Spiders in grasslands: using eDNA metabarcoding to reconstruct spider trophic guilds and arthropod communities”, Sara Cousins (Sweden) “Tracing the past to preserve biodiversity for the future: exploring past grassland extent, present-day patterns, and the role of people in conservation”, Didem Ambarlı (Turkey) “Rethinking Degradation: Diversity, Grazing, and Conservation in Anatolia’s Ancient Grasslands” and Sally Ann Spence (UK) “The love of dung beetles & the inadvertent restoration of calcareous grassland”. The programme also included 21 oral presentations in seven sessions and a poster session with five posters.
A traditional element of the Eurasian Grassland Conferences is the Mid-conference excursion; a one-day excursion to visit relevant sites and practitioners in the region near the conference venue. The venue for this excursion was the island of Hailuoto, where we were guided by Kalle Hellström (ELY-centre) and visited meadows managed by livestock grazing by local farmers Salla Rahikkala and Susanna and Timo Kujala. The climax of the day was the Grassland Party at Maikkula Manor, which included music from local band Frosty River and a charity auction, which raised a total of €650.
Thursday 10th was the final day of the academic programme. After sessions on “Grasslands and People”, “Urban Grasslands” and “Grassland Biodiversity”, it was time for the General Assembly of the EDGG, and the presentation of the Young Investigator awards, generously donated by the Nordic Society Oikos before the closing ceremony. The Young Investigator Best Poster was awarded to Vineta Vērpēja and the Young Investigator Best Presentation went to Christian Klopsch. Congratulations to both!
For most participants that meant the end of the event, though a group of 16 remained for the Post-conference excursion to Oulanka, in NE Finland. En route to Oulanka, we stopped at the Saunavaara flood meadow site in the Korouoma river valley. Eventually we arrived at the Oulanka Research Station, where we hosted by Station Manager, Riku Paavola. Whilst in Oulanka we visited the Siira’s meadow and Mataraniemi meadow riparian flood meadow sites, as well as the Jäkäläkorpi meadow. Here we also visited the Kujala reindeer farm to learn about reindeer husbandry practises in the region. Finally, before our departure on Sunday, Riku showed us the long-term ecological monitoring project at Puukkosuo fen, where studies are being conducted on the effects of grazing and grazing exclusion, as well as the effects of climate change on gas fluxes.
This event was supported by the NSO Networking and Education Grant 2025 awarded to Stephen Venn.