🚨 Exciting news! The Swiss Ornithological Institute is starting a collaborative program that offers multi-sensor geolocators and analytical support for bird migration research, focusing on underrepresented species & regions. Interested? geopressure.org/GeoCollabForm/ Please share!
Ally Phillimore
@allyphillimore.bsky.social
Phenology, adaptation and climate change. Based at University of Edinburgh. He/him www.phenoweb.org project. See also @phenoweb.bsky.social Programme director for Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity MSc
Let’s embrace wildfires, droughts, floods and climate change that will get progressively worse and more destructive Let’s embrace ecosystem collapse, food shortages, threats to infrastructure and economic disaster
Interested in water quality & citizen science? Then, you'll like our newly updated Bloomin' Algae app: www.ceh.ac.uk/our-science/... You can help us understand where and when blooms occur, and alert the community. #freshwater #CitizenScience #algae #UKCEH_AquaEco @ukceh.bsky.social 🧪🦠🌊🚣♀️👀🧪🦠🌊🚣♀️👀🧪
1/🧵 Our 2026 Spring field season data is in! Here are some highlights from our long-term monitoring of blue tits, invertebrates & trees across 44 sites in Scotland👇🏼
Our paper is out! 📣 we find that molecular measures of genetic variation do not predict heritable genetic variation across species - important implications for the application of genomic data for conservation! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Nucleotide diversity is a poor predictor of short-term adaptive potential | PNAS
The capacity to adapt is essential for a population to avoid extinction in a changing world and is recognized as a global conservation priority. Ad...
pnas.org
@jamiecweir.bsky.social's huge #phenology mismatch experiment from his PhD is now a preprint (www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...). Quite a few surprising results that Jamie summarises in the thread below.
The impact of phenological mismatch varies across woodland food-web interactions
Climate warming is altering the timing of seasonal events across ecosystems, impacting the temporal synchrony of interactions among species (1, 2). For trophic interactions, the match-mismatch hypothe...
biorxiv.org
📣 New preprint with @allyphillimore.bsky.social, out now! As climate change shifts seasonal timing across food-webs, we present an experiment testing the impact of phenological mismatch in *48* plant-caterpillar 🌳→🐛 trophic interactions. Read it here: doi.org/10.64898/202... ...or scroll 🧵👇 1/7
Funding-guaranteed PhD position in plant ecosphysiology and macroecology: data synthesis and tropical fieldwork opportunities. www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Plant thermal tolerances across scales: from a single tree to global trends at University of Aberdeen on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - Plant thermal tolerances across scales: from a single tree to global trends at University of Aberdeen , listed on FindAPhD.com
findaphd.com
As the good weather continues, nest boxes are filling up quickly here in Scotland, with around 70% occupancy across the transect. Many nests are now at the incubation stage, and today (5th May) we recorded the first chicks of 2026 to hatch!
Really enjoyed this paper. Super neat analysis and way of modelling how phenological shifts track a consistent thermal niche during breeding.
In our new paper, published yesterday, we use the long-term data set of Wytham Woods to show that great tits have maintained stable temperature at breeding despite the almost 2ºC increase in Spring temperature. w. E. Cole, C. Regan & @sheldonbirds.bsky.social Link -> www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Planning a nestbox temperature manipulation experiment in birds? We’ve just published a preprint that may be useful! 🪺🪶 We review 46 studies and also share our own blue tit pilot experiment from Wytham Woods, highlighting some very real practical challenges doi.org/10.32942/X25387
The first egg for the 13th year of data collection along the Phenoweb Transect was laid on 12th April 2026! Looking like we’re in for a fairly ‘average‘ year up here in Scotland, with nest building and budburst progressing slightly slower than in 2025, especially in the North of the transect🪺🌳
1/🧵My first preprint!🐛🌡️ We examine how environmental effects experienced during one life-history stage persist and modulate environmental responses in later life-history stages. With Lea Beaupere, @sheldonbirds.bsky.social, @rona-learmonth.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
🚨 ABSTRACT SUBMISSION DEADLINE APPROACHING! 🚨 Only 1 week left to submit your abstract for #ExE2026! Submissions close April 1. All the details are at evoxeco.uk and below 👇
Welcome
ExE 2026 is a 3-day conference aimed at evolutionary ecologists from around the world, hosted by the University of Exeter in beautiful Cornwall. It provides a friendly and inclusive platform for all c...
evoxeco.uk
Interested in the interface of evolution 🧬 and ecology 🌳? Then you cannot miss #ExE2026! Hosted by @uniexecec.bsky.social in beautiful #Cornwall, this #conference has a stellar line-up of speakers and lots of pre-and post-conference workshops. Space is limited, so register now at evoxeco.uk!
🚨🚨🚨 Field Assistant positions - four of them!! - working with the long-term Wytham project this coming spring. Details below. Previous year's field team - come and join us! Details below ⬇️
We are hiring at the Wytham Woods for the upcoming field season. 4 roles available. Please share with anyone who might be interested. #UKbirds #birdringing
If you're at the @britishecologicalsociety.org #BES2025 in Edinburgh and interested in #phenology, come and find me for a chat about how resource abundance modulates the impacts of the trophic #mismatch. My poster is A17.21 in the Cromdale Hall, and I'll be there from 6pm this evening! 🌳 -> 🐛 -> 🐦
Early-career ornithologists take note!! The next EOU Fledglings meeting will take place in Gdansk in March 2026. Please RT! #ornithology
The date is set for the next EOU Fledglings Meeting 🐥 in Gdansk, Poland! Share the news with your peers! 🦆
📢4-year fully funded #PhD on seasonal timing of egg overwintering insects 🦋🦗🪳 🔬Identify universal mechanisms underlying #insect egg developmental time under #ClimateChange 📌@niooknaw.bsky.social @animalecol-nioo.bsky.social ℹ️ vacatures.knaw.nl/job-invite/2... ❗Application deadline: 7 December 2025
PhD Seasonal Timing of Egg Overwintering Insects under Climate Change - NIOO-KNAW - Wageningen
PhD Seasonal Timing of Egg Overwintering Insects under Climate Change - NIOO-KNAW - Wageningen
vacatures.knaw.nl
Interested in island life and arthropods? There's a new PhD project advertised at the University of Birmingham to study the evolution of 'island syndromes' in a chosen group of island arthropods, with both museum and fieldwork-based research are expected. More details at: centa.ac.uk/studentship/...
2026-B22 The island syndrome in arthropods – CENTA
centa.ac.uk
Do you like islands? And/or arthropods? Please get in touch with me (m.t.jezierski[at]bham.ac.uk) or another member of the supervisory team! We will help you study island evolution in arthropods with a (funded) PhD @unibirmingham.bsky.social. 🪲🏝️🦋 centa.ac.uk/studentship/... *Please share this!*
2026-B22 The island syndrome in arthropods – CENTA
centa.ac.uk
I'm advertising a PhD project on the evolution of horizontal transfer. Interested in this or other topics in evolution and species diversity, please get in touch. www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
The evolutionary costs and benefits of horizontal gene transfer in eukaryotes (TB01) at University of Oxford on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - The evolutionary costs and benefits of horizontal gene transfer in eukaryotes (TB01) at University of Oxford, listed on FindAPhD.com
findaphd.com
Interested in a PhD in ornithology? Funding available for projects at the interface of ecology, behaviour & evolution from Oct '26 working on long-term population studies of tits at Wytham, based in @biology.ox.ac.uk in the new Life & Mind Building in Oxford www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
New preprint! 🌳🐛 We combined experimental and genomic methods to study local adaptation of winter moths to variation in oak budburst timing in Wytham Woods, UK. With @andreaestandia.bsky.social, Lea Beaupere, Ella Cole, and @sheldonbirds.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Integrative analysis of fine-scale local adaptation of winter moths to variable oak phenology
For herbivorous insects whose fitness depends on tight phenological synchrony with host plants, spatial variation in plant phenology can impose strong selective pressures and promote local adaptation ...
biorxiv.org
We're looking for Youth Reps for our BTO Youth team! ➡️ bit.ly/YouthRep25 If you love nature and would like to join our amazing team of volunteers (expenses paid) aged 16-24 then apply to become a BTO Youth Rep today!🐦 📝 Closing date: Sunday 9th November 2025.
I have an MRC-funded PhD project available (www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...) on how warming will change the problem of AMR. Join a small and friendly group (padpadpadpad.netlify.app/about) in (sometimes) sunny Cornwall. 🧪🦠 #microsky Please share the ad below with anyone who may be interested.
Confused writing is usually a symptom of confused thinking. As we struggle to clarify writing, we clarify our thoughts. AI writing aids rob us of that struggle, leaving clean-looking text and thoughts still confused for lack of inspection. Writing is not just a product; it is a diagnostic tool.
We are looking for Erasmus interns to help with our bird projects at Lammi Biological Station: www.helsinki.fi/en/research-... Apply here and specify that you are interested in the great tit project: www.lyyti.in/Application_...
As #climatechange becomes more extreme, organisms may no longer keep track in their phenology or seasonal activity e.g flowering, swarming or egg laying. @soerinegerlich.bsky.social led our study showing this is real for highly sensitive #arctic #arthropods royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
Keeping up with climate change: have Arctic arthropods reached their phenological limits? | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Many arthropods show earlier seasonal activity with warming, but these responses cannot continue indefinitely. Identifying such phenological thresholds is crucial for understanding limits to climate tracking and species persistence, but few studies test ...
royalsocietypublishing.org
many thanks to @soerinegerlich.bsky.social for leading this study into phenological limits in Arctic communities. For me this collaboration was a real eye-opener into the potential for species to reach limits to their ability to respond plastically. Who knows what the consequences will be.
As #climatechange becomes more extreme, organisms may no longer keep track in their phenology or seasonal activity e.g flowering, swarming or egg laying. @soerinegerlich.bsky.social led our study showing this is real for highly sensitive #arctic #arthropods royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
This is a huge mistake. My experience on NERC panels is that resubmissions score higher and are more likely to be funded: the review process improves good proposals that should not be lost (along with the time spent on them).
Really disappointing new policy from NERC banning resubmissions of grant applications Many of us, including me, have won grants on resubmission, using the reviews to improve the application This is is neither fair nor productive www.ukri.org/councils/ner...