Great few days travelling south down the loooong coastline of Croatia for reproductive phenology of Cystoseira forests! Also saw some of the biggest G. Barbatas ever! It’s great to see “pockets” of hope for Mediterranean algal forests! Not so great to be attacked by swans.

New pre-print titled 'A Systematic Review of Coral Research in Taiwan' where we discuss the more beautiful and interesting side of Taiwan that many miss. Great to work with an amazing team - Yuting Vicky Lin 🇹🇼, Daphne Hoh 🇲🇾, Takanori Satoh 🇯🇵 and Crystal McRae 🇨🇦 papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Check out our new paper “Density-driven bottlenecks constrain restoration of macroalgal forests" published in the @jappliedecology.bsky.social 🌿 When it comes to restoring Mediterranean macroalgal forests, less is more. besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Density‐driven bottlenecks constrain restoration of macroalgal forests

This single-species and single-site experiment provides evidence that high-density restoration strategies accelerate mortality, suppress growth and delay reproduction, whereas low-density approaches ....

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Check out our new paper “The Role of Live and Dead Corals in Shaping Fish Assemblages Across Life Stages” onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

The Role of Live and Dead Corals in Shaping Fish Assemblages Across Life Stages

We assessed the effects of experimental patches of live and dead corals on reef fish assemblages in different live stages. While dead and live corals provided equal shelter for mobile recruits, only ....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

NEW PAPER “Pioneer generation shapes long-term recovery of coral populations" Here we challenge what a reef recovery looks like and show: 🪸 Early recruits drive long-term recovery 🪸Later recruits failed to survive 🪸 Apparent recovery masks declining diversity link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Pioneer generation shapes long-term recovery of coral populations - Coral Reefs

Reef recovery following a disturbance largely depends on successful coral recruitment and the absence of chronic stressors. However, recent recovery events show increasing homogenization, with dominan...

link.springer.com

Our interconnected planet is all we have 🌍❤️

First day back teaching of a new semester after a wonderful, science-filled 4 days in the Lerin Islands with new MSc students!

Check out our new paper: 🐠 🪸 🔈 🌊 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Environmental and acoustic drivers of fish recruitment along degraded coral reefs

The global degradation of coral reefs threatens the persistence of fish assemblages, and protection-based management strategies alone may be insuffici…

sciencedirect.com

Fantastic opportunity in beautiful Taiwan with a great PI! Apply ASAP! 🪸 🐟 🌊 🤿 ☀️

Crystal McRae@crystaljmcrae.bsky.social · last yr.

📢Research Assistant Job Opportunity! Come join my lab at National Sun Yat-sen University (Taiwan). One-year full-time contract (responsibilities: administrative work, tank maintenance, lab work/field assistance) Start date: Aug 1. See link for details: mcraemarinelab.weebly.com/opportunitie...

#WorldOceansDay

It was also a privilege to meet and talk to Sylvia Earle outside the opera. This coming week at #UNOC3 calls for the most experienced and recognised voices of our ocean!

Was a real honour to speak at the #OOSC #UNOC3 last week about our inherent relationship between the terrestrial and marine, corals and seaweeds and how we can effectively apply science in restoration efforts 🌲 🪸 🌊

If you're attending the One Ocean Science Congress in Nice this coming week, come discuss corals, seaweeds and everything marine forest recovery on Thursday 5th June at 2pm in Room 7! #OOSC #UNOC

As an official affiliated event of UNOC (United Nations Ocean Conference) 2025, we set out on a 24-hour live relay, following the Sun across all time zones, speaking to professionals in all fields of marine science across 24 sessions. Catch up with all sessions here: lnkd.in/gn75BhT3

Join us LIVE on Youtube for 24 hours of #MarineScience as we welcome the 3rd United Nations Ocean Conference #UNOC3 to Nice, France! Use this link to access the entire schedule: univ-cotedazur.eu/msc/marres/u... And this link to watch live: www.youtube.com/watch?v=x07A...

Check out our new pre-print www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-6...

Beautiful Cladocora caespitosa, forms the only true coral reef in the Mediterranean 🪸

Field work à Île Sainte-Marguerite with those special people from Taiwan 🇹🇼❤️

I was lucky enough to receive a grant from @britishecologicalsociety.org this year! Would definitely recommend applying! 🤿 🪸 🌊 🇬🇧 🇫🇷

British Ecological Society@britishecologicalsociety.org · last yr.

Round 1 of applications closes on 10 March.  Find out more about BES grants here:

A little hope in all the doom from @nancyknowlton.bsky.social - Resilience through change - New ecological balances - Long-term perspective is important www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Excited to present at the UN One Ocean Science Congress next year in our beautiful home that is Nice 🇫🇷 looking forward to meeting lots of new people too! #OOSC2025

Final couple of weeks leading up to Christmas and we are lucky enough to have a quick getaway along the coast from all the rush to Sanary-sur-Mer. Extra beautiful at this time of year 🎄✨ (It might be 12° but it’s still cold for the south of France and we’re in training for the U.K!!)

Of all the concepts that humankind needs to absorb + act on with extreme urgency, this tops the list.

What a life, what achievements right until the end. We truly stand on the shoulders of giants and Kike Ballesteros was one big one. 🪸

@informemarbalear.bsky.social · 2y ago

Ahir ens va deixar en Kike Ballesteros. 🖤 No tenim paraules per descriure el gran buit que deixa. Segurament la persona que millor coneixia la biodiversitat marina de Balears. Una pèrdua inestimable per la ciència i la conservació marina. Que la mar li sigui lleu 💙

Diving under full moon conditions like this for coral reproduction means you don’t really need your torch! #CoralReefs 🪸

Moon 🌙@moonpic.bsky.social · 2y ago

Moon light

A list of #marinebiology starter packs! 🌊 go.bsky.app/4PTX62K Marine Ecology go.bsky.app/RS5zQHv Marine Biologists I go.bsky.app/8DoyTMs Marine Biologists II go.bsky.app/Qo5Gh2H Coral reef science go.bsky.app/E8vrnd6 LGBTQIA+ Grads go.bsky.app/7MdiLgo Ocean Women go.bsky.app/4wMsfX4 Ocean Women II

In Nature, Delavaux et al., 2024 suggest that species richness on oceanic islands is reduced by mutualism rates on the mainland. In arxiv.org/abs/2411.15105, @maximilianpichler.bsky.social and I had another look at this question and conclude that this effect is likely a statistical artefact.

Is there a robust effect of mainland mutualism rates on species richness of oceanic islands?

In island biogeography, it is widely accepted that species richness on island depends on the area and isolation of the island as well as the species pool on the mainland. Delavaux et al. (2024) sugges...

arxiv.org

Marine folk, you’re needed! 👇

Rodrigo Granjel@granjel.bsky.social · 2y ago

I hope this starter pack helps bring our community together on this platform. If you identify as an ECR, work in community ecology, and would like to be added, please reply! 🌱 It's currently too land-centric, but I'd love to see folks from marine and freshwater systems join! 🌊 go.bsky.app/5XJXVyX

This week has been one paper rejection and one grant approval. I’ll take the balanced approach 💪

Aziz here! Currently between tropical coral reefs in Taiwan and Mediterranean marine forests in the south of France! Looking forward to more science-focused discussions on here! Will be sharing beautiful pics, great papers and updates from our underwater world!