It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Friday, February 06, 2026
Restoring the web of life in farmland
MSCA fellowship funds METAGROLAND project on optimising environmental farming schemes
Do common measures used for Agri-environmental schemes (AES) – such as this permanent flower strip in agricultural land in the Northeim region in Germany – truly attract and maintain pollinator species in ways that support insect population growth across agricultural landscapes. The METAGROLAND project will investigate.
Dr Elena Velado-Alonso at the University of Göttingen has been awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellowship to launch “METAGROLAND: Understanding metacommunity dynamics through plant–pollinator interactions in agroecosystems to improve the efficiency of agri-environmental schemes.” Agri-environmental schemes (AES) are government-funded schemes set up to help farmers manage their land in an environmentally friendly way. The new 24-month project will investigate how AES can better sustain pollinator communities and the fundamental interactions that underpin plant reproduction and crop yields. Supported by the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme, METAGROLAND will develop tools to guide the design of more effective, large-scale AES and help build more resilient agricultural ecosystems.
Across Europe’s farmlands, biodiversity loss is a pressing challenge that leads not only to fewer species, but also to fewer interactions between them. These interactions drive essential ecosystem functions such as pollination and natural pest control. Evidence suggests that these functions are disappearing even faster than species themselves. METAGROLAND addresses this challenge by studying interactions between plants and pollinators. It will also test whether common AES measures – such as permanent wildflower strips or areas – truly attract and maintain pollinator species in ways that support insect population growth across agricultural landscapes. A distinctive feature of METAGROLAND is that it takes both a social and ecological perspective. The project will examine how land managers’ social networks – meaning how farmers exchange knowledge and make decisions – shape ecological outcomes. METAGROLAND will generate practical guidance for AES that align ecological processes with real-world management.
“Farmers and policymakers need conservation measures that work beyond single fields,” says Velado-Alonso. “By looking at the web of interactions – and how it spreads and persists across entire landscapes – we can redesign agricultural schemes to support both nature and sustainable food production.”
METAGROLAND will study interactions between plants and pollinators – such as this solitary bee visiting a flower.
Credit
Alfred Kok
Windows into the past: Genetic analysis of Deep Maniot Greeks reveals a unique genetic time capsule in the Balkans
Team member Anargyros Mariolis, Director of Areopolis Health Center, has built deep bonds within the Deep Maniot community, through years of dedicated medical and social service. Photograph by A. Mariolis, with permission.
MORE IMAGES AVAILABLE VIA THE LINK IN THE NOTES SECTION
A new genetic study has revealed that the people of Deep Mani, who inhabit one of the remotest regions of mainland Greece, represent one of the most genetically distinctive populations in Europe, shaped by more than a millennium of isolation. The findings, published today (4 February) in Communications Biology, reveal that manylineages can be traced back to the Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman period of Greece.
Set among rugged mountains, dramatic coastlines, and distinct stone tower houses, the Mani Peninsula of the Peloponnese, Greece, has long captivated travellers, historians, and writers, most famously, Jules Verne and Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor. Now, an international research group has found that the Deep Maniots living at the very southernmost tip of the peninsula form a rare genetic “island” within mainland Greece – predating the major population movements that reshaped the ancestry of mainland Greeks and other populations in the Balkans after the fall of Rome.
The research team, comprising scientists from the University of Oxford, Tel Aviv University, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, the Areopolis Health Centre, the European University Cyprus, and FamilyTreeDNA, found that Deep Maniots largely descend from local Greek-speaking groups living in the region before the Medieval era. In contrast to many other mainland Greek populations, they show little evidence of absorbing later incoming groups, such as the Slavs, whose arrival transformed the genetic and linguistic landscape of much of southeastern Europe.
The findings revealed that most paternal lineages trace back to Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Roman-era Greece. Their geographic and temporal dispersal lineages closely mirror the distribution of Deep Mani’s characteristic and globally unique megalithic residential and religious structures, supporting the hypothesis that present-day Deep Maniots may descend from the same communities that built and inhabited this landscape more than 1,400 years ago.
"Our results show that historical isolation left a clear genetic signature,” said lead author, Associate Researcher Dr Leonidas-Romanos Davranoglou (Oxford University Museum of Natural History, University of Oxford, Tel Aviv University, and National and Kapodistrian University of Athens). “Deep Maniots preserve a snapshot of the genetic landscape of southern Greece before the demographic upheavals of the early Middle Ages and likely descend from the same people who constructed the unique type of megalithic buildings that are found exclusively in Deep Mani.”
He added: “Our study demonstrates how geography, social organisation, and historical circumstances can preserve ancient genetic patterns in certain regions long after they have become altered elsewhere.”
Maternal lineages, however, were found to be more diverse, reflecting sporadic contacts with populations from the eastern Mediterranean, the Caucasus, western Europe, and even North Africa. Senior author Professor Alexandros Heraclides (European University Cyprus) said: “These patterns are consistent with a strongly patriarchal society, in which male lineages remained locally rooted, while a small number of women from outside communities were integrated. Our study is the first to recover the untold histories of Deep Maniot women, whose origins were largely obscured by male-centred oral traditions.”
The study also revealed that over 50% of present-day Deep Maniot men descend from a single male ancestor who lived in the 7th century CE. Such an extreme pattern points to a period when the local population was reduced to very few families, likely because of plague, warfare, and regional instability.
In addition, the research team used state-of-the-art tools from molecular biology that allowed them to date the origins of the founders of certain Deep Maniot clans and understand the relationships between them. As the study’s results indicate, the founders of some of the present-day clans lived in the 14th and 15th centuries, suggesting that Deep Maniot clans may trace their origin to that period.
“Many oral traditions of shared descent, some dating back hundreds of years, are now verified through genetics,” said Athanasios Kofinakos, co-author and research advisor on Deep Mani genealogical and historical matters. “Deep Mani’s geographical isolation and limited economic resources galvanised the warlike character of the locals. In such a harsh environment, family alliances became paramount for individual and collective survival.”
The team included researchers from FamilyTreeDNA, who curate the most extensive human phylogenetic trees. By carrying out high-resolution analyses of paternal (Y-chromosome) and maternal (mitochondrial DNA) lineages, the researchers compared Deep Maniot genomes with more than one million modern individuals from around the world, as well as with thousands of ancient DNA samples. The analysis found almost no matches to other populations, showing how isolated and distinctive Deep Maniots are from a genetic perspective.
The inhabitants of Deep Mani have long intrigued historians and archaeologists. While much of the Balkans experienced repeated waves of migration during Late Antiquity, historical sources describe Deep Mani as unusually resistant to outside control. Even the Eastern Roman Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (905–959 CE) remarked on the Deep Maniots’ unusual origins, noting that they “are not of the lineage of the Slavs, but of the Romans of old who were called Hellenes.”* He further recorded that Deep Maniots continued worshipping the Olympian gods well into the 9th century,* which is an extraordinary oddity since the Empire had been fully Christianised many centuries earlier.
Together, these historical observations have long suggested that the inhabitants of Deep Mani followed a demographic and cultural trajectory distinct from much of the Greek-speaking world. The new genetic findings provide strong biological evidence supporting this view.
As many villages in Deep Mani are inhabited by a single clan, the research team worked closely with the community to ensure volunteers originated across multiple villages and clans, so that a representative range was included in the study. This approach was made possible by long-standing relationships of trust built over years of local medical and community service by co-author Dr Anargyros Mariolis, MD, Director of the Areopolis Health Centre.
Dr Mariolis said: "The community was engaged in every stage of the research – from planning our sampling strategy and helping their fellow Deep Maniots interpret the results of our research. This study gives a voice to the stories of our ancestors. As a Deep Maniot myself, I wish my forefathers could have witnessed many of their oral histories being verified through genetics. It is a moment of immense pride and connection to our history."
Looking ahead, the brother of Anargyros, co-author Prof. Theodoros Mariolis-Sapsakos, MD, (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens), said: “The team aims to re-engage with the community to explore whether further genetic analysis on the Deep Maniot population may also be relevant for clinical and public-health research, ensuring that scientific insights continue to benefit the people who made the study possible.”
* Constantine Porphyrogenitus, De administrando imperio , ed. G. Moravcsik, trans. English by R. j. H. Jenkins, Washington 1967.
Notes for editors:
For media enquiries and interview requests, contact Dr Leonidas-Romanos Davranoglou leonidas-romanos.davranoglou@oum.ox.ac.uk and Caroline Wood: caroline.wood@admin.ox.ac.uk
The study ‘Uniparental analysis of Deep Maniot Greeks reveals genetic continuity from the pre-Medieval era’ will be published in Communications Biology at 10 AM GMT / 5 AM ET Wednesday 4 February at https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-026-09597-9. To view a copy of the paper before this under embargo, contact Caroline Wood: caroline.wood@admin.ox.ac.uk
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Uniparental analysis of Deep Maniot Greeks reveals genetic continuity from the pre-Medieval era
Article Publication Date
4-Feb-2026
The collective memory of Deep Maniot culture is preserved through oral histories, lament songs, and family traditions that are carefully maintained by older generations. Shown here is the renowned Deep Maniot sculptor and painter Michalis Kassis (with lead author Dr Leonidas-Romanos Davranoglou), whose first-hand knowledge of Maniot oral history, genealogy, and settlement patterns provided invaluable cultural context that helped shape the study’s design.
Photo by Vinia Tsopelas, with permission.
Interior of the church of Agios Georgios, which was built using a synthesis of classical, Roman, and Byzantine architectural elements and materials. Like this church, the genomes of present-day Deep Maniots are mosaics that preserve layers of ancestry tracing back to all these historical periods, revealing continuity across millennia in both material culture and genetic ancestry.
Photo by Leonidas-Romanos Davranoglou.
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A Roman mosaic in Cape Matapan (also known as Cape Tainaro), thought to have been the floor of a bath. In the early Roman period, Deep Mani was a bustling centre of economic activity and attracted people from across the Empire.
Photo by Leonidas-Romanos Davranoglou.
The Deep Maniot landscape is dotted with tower houses, such as those in the village of Vatheia, shown here. These towers served both as fortified structures and as living spaces, each belonging to a particular clan. The new study was able to trace the origins of certain clan founders to the 14th century. Photograph by Leonidas-Romanos Davranoglou.
Temperature of some cities could rise faster than expected under 2°C warming
New research led by the University of East Anglia (UEA) shows how many tropical cities are predicted to warm faster than expected under 2°C of global warming.
Cities are often warmer than rural areas due to a phenomenon known as the urban heat island, which can be influenced by various factors, such as regional climate and vegetation cover. This can lead to increased heat-related health risks for some urban populations.
Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the study combined state-of-the-art climate change projections with machine learning models to show how these urban heat islands can be amplified in many tropical and subtropical cities under climate change - mostly in monsoon regions such as India, China and Western Africa.
The researchers produced projections for 104 medium-sized cities with populations ranging between 300,000 and one million.
Their results show the day-time land surface temperatures in 81 per cent of these cities are predicted to warm more than surrounding rural areas. In 16 per cent, they may rise between approximately 50 to 100 per cent higher than surrounding areas under 2°C of global warming, a benchmark likely to be reached in the second half of this century.
The cities studied are in the warmer parts of the world, which the authors say makes these increases even more significant for human health and the urban environment. Medium-sized cities also represent a large proportion of global cities, with more than 2.5 times as many in this category than those with a population over one million.
Lead author Dr Sarah Berk, who did the work while a PhD student in UEA’s School of Environmental Sciences, said: “Under climate change, cities face not only the challenge of increasing temperatures in their surrounding areas, but also the challenge of potential changes in their heat islands.
“However, while global climate models are essential for projecting future temperature changes, they are limited in their ability to capture the trends of smaller cities. Even high-resolution global models can only predict changes for the largest urban areas or megacities.
“To bridge this gap, in our study we projected changes in land surface temperature in medium-sized cities, showing that in many of them, the urban warming rate is faster than rural surroundings,” added Dr Berk, now at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Co-author Prof Manoj Joshi, from the Climatic Research Unit at UEA, said: “Urban heat stress under climate change is an increasing concern, as many cities in the tropics and subtropics can be warmer than their rural surroundings, heightening their vulnerability to rising temperatures.
“This analysis shows even state-of-the-art projections likely underestimate future urban warming. For example, our results suggest that several cities in North-East China and northern India are projected to warm by 3°C, despite Earth System Model projections of their hinterlands showing a warming of 1.5-2°C.
“Our research enables more informed planning for the future risks to human health and the urban environment, highlighting the need to complement conventional climate modelling with approaches such as machine learning and AI.”
Prof Joshi added: “These findings also underscore the importance of investigating the effects of climate change on urban heat exposure, since climate change results in an increased frequency of extreme heat events, which can have severe human health impacts including increased mortality.”
The team excluded cities in mountain and coastal regions to remove influences of features such as hills, lakes and oceans, to ensure they captured relationships based on physical processes related to climate, rather than other differences.
In the five largest cities by population, the greatest changes are seen in Jalandhar (India), Fuyang (China) and Kirkuk (Iraq), which experience 0.7-0.8°C additional change in temperature compared to their rural surroundings.
The remaining two, Marrakech (Morocco) and Campo Grande (Brazil), see negligible differences between urban warming and that of their surroundings.
However, other cities experience significantly greater warming, for example Asyut (Egypt), Patiala (India) and Shangqui (China), which experience 1.5-2°C additional change, which is up to 100 per cent more than their hinterlands.
This work was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council and the ARIES Doctoral Training Partnership. It also involved researchers now at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.
‘Amplified warming in tropical and subtropical cities at 2°C climate change’, by Sarah Berk, Manoj Joshi, Peer Nowack, and Clare Goodess was published in PNAS on February 3.
