Tessera
Folgen

David Boukal

@davidboukal.bsky.social

Ecologist and occasional photographer. Interested in [the ways we humans destroy] life on Earth and what can be done about that. Aquatic habitats, experiments, modelling. Wild East, south of Prague. Professor @JihoceskaUni. Opinions my own.

12 Posts151 Follower141 Folgt
David Boukal@davidboukal.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Like Pavel @kratina.bsky.social, I greatly enjoyed the friendly atmosphere at the GRC conference on predator-prey interactions. Main highlights: lots of inspiring talks and posters, meeting new colleagues and old friends, and night-spotting endemic salamanders. Hoping to come back in two years!

Pavel Kratina@kratina.bsky.social · 6mo ago

It was great to catch up with some old friends and colleagues at the Gordon Research Conference on predator-prey interactions in Italy last week, including a night chase of salamanders and a brief stroll through Florence. @davidboukal.bsky.social

David Boukal@davidboukal.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Still time to apply for one #modelling #postdoc and one #experimental #PhD position to study species #invasions in the context of climate #warming and #eutrophication together with @kratina.bsky.social, Arnaud Sentis and Otto Seppälä. See bit.ly/4pcWMIV for details.

Opportunities

Web presentation of David Boukal and his research group.

bit.ly

David Boukal@davidboukal.bsky.social · 8mo ago

We are hiring! One postdoc and two PhD positions to study (i) species invasions along environmental gradients and (ii) zooplankton-cyanobacteria interactions. See bit.ly/4pcWMIV for details. Application deadlines: 31 Jan 2026 for postdoc, 15 Jan 2026 for both PhD positions. Please repost.

Dustin Marshall@djmmeeg.bsky.social · 2y ago

We have a few funded spots left for ECRs! Join us if you’re interested in the ecology/evolution of size in unicells!

The Company of Biologists@biologists.bsky.social · 2y ago

🧪 Deadline to apply for a funded early-career researcher place at our Workshop 'Why Are Cells the Size They Are?' organised by Dustin Marshall @djmmeeg.bsky.social and Craig White has been extended to 31 January 2025. Find out more and apply at bit.ly/4gVDROh #BiologistsWorkshops #ECR

A banner with the text: "Workshop Why Are Cells the Size They Are? Organisers: Dustin Marshall and Craig White Early-career researchers apply for funded places 13-16 July 2025 Buxted Park, East Sussex, UK" with The Company of Biologists logo to the left.
Brian J. Enquist@bjenquist.bsky.social · 2y ago

A critical read for anyone who has used or is thinking of using #TRY plant trait data -- "Currently, ecological analyses using TRY data appear, at best, not as powerful as they can be and, at worst, wrong." -- We likely need to start anew and rebuild how we share, access, and cite #PlantTrait data

Francisco Rodriguez-Sanchez@frodsan.bsky.social · 2y ago

1/ Important read for anyone using, contributing, or building large databases by aggregating data sources. Discusses issues with data quality, duplication, credit attribution, etc, and includes recommendations for improvement doi.org/10.1111/gcb.... #ecopubs

Improper data practices erode the quality of global ecological databases and impede the progress of ecological research The scientific community has entered an era of big data. However, with big data comes big responsibilities, and best practices for how data are contributed to databases have not kept pace with the collection, aggregation, and analysis of big data. Here, we rigorously assess the quantity of data for specific leaf area (SLA) available within the largest and most frequently used global plant trait database, the TRY Plant Trait Database, exploring how much of the data were applicable (i.e., original, representative, logical, and comparable) and traceable (i.e., published, cited, and consistent). Over three-quarters of the SLA data in TRY either lacked applicability or traceability, leaving only 22.9% of the original data usable compared with the 64.9% typically deemed usable by standard data cleaning protocols. The remaining usable data differed markedly from the original for many species, which led to altered interpretation of ecological analyses. Though the data we consider here make up only 4.5% of SLA data within TRY, similar issues of applicability and traceability likely apply to SLA data for other species as well as other commonly measured, uploaded, and downloaded plant traits. We end with suggested steps forward for global ecological databases, including suggestions for both uploaders to and curators of databases with the hope that, through addressing the issues raised here, we can increase data quality and integrity within the ecological community.