🧵1/6 New paper from #NearLab dropped! Wood et al. (2026) tackle a long-standing mystery: how did freshwater perches, walleyes, and darters (Percidae) end up on BOTH sides of the Atlantic? Spoiler: they may have swum there. 🐟🌊 #Ichthyology #Evolution #Systematics

The complex interaction between mammalian herbivores, climate, soil and fire has shaped the evolution and distribution of plant spinescence across biogeographical realms - Souza Ferreira - New Phytologist - Wiley Online Library nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The complex interaction between mammalian herbivores, climate, soil and fire has shaped the evolution and distribution of plant spinescence across biogeographical realms

Evolution of spinescence in mimosoid legumes.

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

‼️ new article ‼️ Happy to collaborate with incredible Dr. Fernanda Souza!!! “Climate Predicts Tree Dispersal Strategies Across Brazil’s Ecosystems,” Global Ecology and Biogeography, doi.org/10.1111/geb....

Climate Predicts Tree Dispersal Strategies Across Brazil's Ecosystems

Aim We investigate the distribution of dispersal modes—endozoochory (via animal ingestion), synzoochory (via animal seed accumulation) and anemochory (via wind)—and seed mass of woody plants across ...

doi.org

Super excited to share the first preprint from my PhD! In this, we couple species range maps with daily-scale climate records over the last 80 years to produce the ClimLimits database, a record of 44 realized climate limits for ~55,000 terrestrial and freshwater species. (1/4)

bioRxiv Ecology@biorxiv-ecology.bsky.social · 3w ago

ClimLimits: a global database of multivariate realized climate limits for animal species https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.16.738937v1

In addition to temporal patterns, we investigated macroecological patterns across space and discovered a strong statistical signal of an inverse latitudinal gradient in mean rates of phenotypic evolution (after accounting for many potential covariates). Figure 3 (and supp info section 3 and 4).

Jake Berv@jakeberv.bsky.social · 2w ago

Happy to share this 'capstone' project from my time as a postdoc @umich.edu, where we show that hierarchically nested bursts of body-shape evolution may underlie much of perching-bird diversification over ~50 million years. Free access link here: rdcu.be/fuxB1

Macroecological insights can support local #conservation, but temporal mismatches may misidentify threatened species locally 🌍 New paper out in Sci.Adv. by Simon D. Schowanek et al. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Predictors of extinction risk in large tropical forest mammals: From global to local

Studies predicting extinction risk come to different conclusions if their analyses use different temporal extents.

science.org

A 10-million-year biogeographic holding pen primed the Great American Biotic Interchange | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A 10-million-year biogeographic holding pen primed the Great American Biotic Interchange

The movement of taxa between North and South America across the Panamanian land bridge, known as the Great American Biotic Interchange (GABI), established modern-day mammal assemblages in the Americas...

science.org

There is ample evidence that climate change is altering ecosystems into novel configurations. Chuffed to have been part of this new paper on how climate change induces ecological novelty, and how we can possibly adapt and mitigate the impacts. www.nature.com/articles/s41558-026-02697-8

Ecological novelty induced by climate change - Nature Climate Change

The authors review ecological novelty—ecological situations with no precedent—arising from climate change. They discuss ecological novelty due to direct and indirect effects of climate change, and due...

nature.com

New @econovoau.bsky.social study led by @jonastrepel.bsky.social: Global analysis shows that #vegetation in semi-natural areas greened (densified) faster w/ higher #Ndeposition - #nitrogen pollution may be an underestimated driver of global vegetation change🌿 doi.org/10.1002/ecog... #globalgreening

Global analysis suggests nitrogen deposition as an underestimated driver of vegetation greening

The local effects of atmospheric nitrogen deposition on plants are well established, yet a global empirical analysis of nitrogen deposition effects on vegetation dynamics is missing. Here, we assess ...

doi.org

Stoked to see our paper out as a pre-print! Check it out if you're interested in how we can expand comparative methods to better accommodate the many-to-one mapping of evolutionary process to pattern... (or if you think frogs are cool) @gjslater.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Beyond the Panglossian paradigm: adaptation, constraint, and anuran functional trait evolution.

Recognizing patterns in functional trait evolution is a necessary step in testing macroevolutionary questions. Quantification of these patterns and interpretation of their generative processes relies ...

biorxiv.org

RESEARCH ARTICLE Spatially‐Uneven Observations Cause Overestimation of Global Soil Respiration 🔗 buff.ly/hJT4Snt

How many languages have existed over the Holocene—and what does that reveal about the design space of languages and cultures? Now out in @science.org www.science.org/eprint/QDZNY....

The rise and fall of language diversity through the Holocene

Characterizing the factors that have shaped linguistic diversity is fundamental for understanding human history, culture, and cognition. In this study, we combined statistical and social computational...

science.org

Our newest paper on mammalian dental evolution, out today as the cover article in @science.org, lead by @narimanechatar.bsky.social with a team of fantastic early career scientists!!! 🎉🥳 “Performance trade-offs define a fundamental dental dichotomy in mammals” www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

🚨Out today in @society4conbio.bsky.social, in my new paper with @birdmapper.bsky.social, we show a positive relationship between exinction risk and colourfulness across the world's passerine birds! conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The link between colorfulness and extinction risk across the world's passerine birds

Many of the functional traits that mediate extinction risk across the range of biodiversity relate indirectly to a species’ ability to persist in a changing world, yet certain traits such as colorati...

conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

New paper out! 🖨️ Glad to be part of this study, out in Science Advances: "Emergent patterns of island biodiversity in the Anthropocene" www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Much of what looks natural in island biodiversity is a legacy of human impacts going back millennia. See main findings 👇🧵 (1/8)

Emergent patterns of island biodiversity in the Anthropocene

Human impacts substantially affect our ability to detect and understand natural biodiversity patterns.

science.org

1/ The world's songbirds sing in just 8 basic sounds. And where a bird lives decides which ones it uses. My first PhD paper is out now in @science.org (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aee6239) Here is what we found:

🚨 #MUSEUMJOBS KLAXON🚨 We're looking for a Senior Digitiser and two Digitisers to work across @zoologymuseum.bsky.social & @camplantsci.bsky.social to help create biodiversity data for the researchers who need it, through #DiSSCoUK. 1. www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/senior-... 2. www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/digitis...

Registration is OPEN for the main BES meeting in December. The past two years they've had to close registration early, so sign up while you still can! www.britishecologicalsociety.org/content/bes-...

New paper from @jakeberv.bsky.social harnesses a massive skeletal measurement dataset for passerines to show nested bursts in phenotypic evolution, many of which appear coincident with intervals of climate instability. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Dancers in fine feathers: the evolution of gestural display organization in lekking birds doi.org/10.1098/rsbl... | #BiologyLetters #Behaviour #Ecology #Evolution

Apparently the "boring billion" was actually exciting! We provide molecular evidence of complex Mesoproterozoic eukaryotic communities. So happy to see this out 🥳 Thanks to @phoebefossil.bsky.social , Hélène Morlon & @fburki.bsky.social for a lovely collab! doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

⏰️1 week left to apply! We're recruiting for an Associate Editor with data integrity expertise! 📊 join us in improving the clarity, transparency, & accessibility of ecological research. 🌳 more information on the role and how to apply can be found here 👉️ buff.ly/R8z4TLe

Scrutinizing the Wallacean shortfall: global gaps in snake occurrence data across space and environment vist.ly/5aqsx #GBIF #Inventory #Serpentes

Fine-grained plant species distributions across Europe are strongly shaped by disturbance regimes - and by short-term #climatechange lags (in addition to long-term lags); see our new study in @natecoevo.nature.com 🌿🌼🌍 Thx @seh-pang.bsky.social for leading #macroecology #vegetation #plants #eccb2026

Sean Pang@seh-pang.bsky.social · 4w ago

Almost every European plant species is out of equilibrium. Climate change is only part of the story—disturbance greatly shapes where species actually occur. 🚨Our new paper 🌱in @natecoevo.nature.com analysed 3,047 species across >1.1M European vegetation plots. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🧪 Physiology is a hidden dimension of diversity in the radiation of woodland salamanders | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Physiology is a hidden dimension of diversity in the radiation of woodland salamanders | PNAS

Morphological evolution can be explosive, producing visually spectacular adaptive radiations like Caribbean anoles, Malagasy vangas, and African Ri...

pnas.org

If you think you're attending #BESMacro2026 in-person, you should have received an email from us on June 19. If you think you're attending #BESMacro2026 online, you should have received an email from us earlier this afternoon. If not, let us know! macro at britishecologicalsociety dot org.

Really interesting work, which explores the biotic and abiotic #Bretskyan_hierarchy determinants of intraspecific population variability - the fuel of evolution. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.... 🧪 #Geology #EvoBio #Macroecology

⛰️ New paper out! We show that alpine biodiversity hotspots are concentrated in the Neotropics. A fantastic piece of work led by @lottaschultz.bsky.social Check it out! 🌿 🦎 🐦‍⬛🦉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

📢 We’re hiring at Aarhus University! Tenure-track or permanent on vertebrate-driven #ecosystem processes, especially large #mammals w/in @econovoau.bsky.social's strong interdisciplinary environment spanning #ecology, paleoecology, biodiversity science & global change biology 🦬🌿🌍 ➡️More info below

Leaf size is an important trait shaping species distributions globally. We looked at how climate and evolutionary history influence leaf size in conifers! Spoiler: lots of evolutionary conservatism! Check out our paper in @globalchangebio.bsky.social out now: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Leaf Size in Conifers: Global Associations With Climate and Evolutionary History

Global patterns in leaf size are linked to climatic trade-offs, so we explore these relationships in a major group of plants, the conifers. Using contemporary phylogenetic methods, we show that conif....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com