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Hengxing Zou

@hengxingzou.bsky.social

Postdoc at Utah State University and Emory University. Species interactions under global change. Theory, data, birds. Previously Institute for Global Change Biology, UMich. PhD Rice University. UChicago alum. Made in Beijing. hengxingzou.github.io

33 Posts167 Follower192 Folgt
Chuliang Song@clsong.com · 4d ago

Very grateful to the editorial board for the opportunity to write about a topic I care deeply about. This review is deliberately opinionated, a personal view of where theory in community ecology stands and where it might go next. Pushback and disagreement are very welcome! doi.org/10.1146/annu...

Toward a Conceptual Commons for Theory in Community Ecology

Community ecology has developed a rich and increasingly diverse body of theory, but its rapid expansion has outpaced efforts to compare and synthesize competing frameworks. As a result, semantic ambig...

doi.org

Rona Learmonth@rona-learmonth.bsky.social · 2w ago

Excited to share this joint first-author paper with @andreaestandia.bsky.social, now out in @royalsocietypublishing.org! We combined translocations, common garden experiments and genomic analyses to test for local adaptation to individual tree phenology in winter moths 🌳🐛 doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

No evidence of fine-scale local adaptation of winter moths to variable tree phenology | Proceedings B | The Royal Society

royalsocietypublishing.org

Yangkang Chen@chenyangkang.bsky.social · 2w ago

We were shocked to find that serious data and analytical flaws appear to invalidate the findings of last week’s Science paper @science.org , “China’s Solar Expansion Policy Reduces Bird Diversity.” Citizen science data are useful to answer such important questions, but must be used rigorously.

bioRxiv Ecology@biorxiv-ecology.bsky.social · 2w ago

The devil in citizen science data: observation processes invalidate the causal inference that photovoltaic policy reduces bird diversity https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.25.746390v1

Hengxing Zou@hengxingzou.bsky.social · 2w ago

You might have seen the paper @science.org last week on the solar panels decreasing bird biodiversity. Our reanalysis, led by the talented Yangkang Chen, found fundamental, retraction-worthy flaws in their results, especially from the citizen science data and their models… (1/6)

bioRxiv Ecology@biorxiv-ecology.bsky.social · 2w ago

The devil in citizen science data: observation processes invalidate the causal inference that photovoltaic policy reduces bird diversity https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.25.746390v1

Jeremy Cohen@drjerbs.bsky.social · 3w ago

Doing a bioacoustics project somewhere in the eastern US? For a large-scale study exploring how bird communities react to disturbance across regions/habitats, we are looking for daytime recordings at consistent sites over 2+ years, during the same season(s) each year. Please get in touch!

Joe Brennan@biologyjoe87.bsky.social · 3w ago

Looking for sci comm opportunities? Join us as a writer for American Naturalist press releases! These write-ups are primarily written by graduate students and other early-career scientists. No experience required; we have editors to help along the way. Apps due Sept 1. Please share widely :D

Looking for Press Release Writers & Editors for The American Naturalist

Sign up for the opportunity to write and/or edit for The American Naturalist! We are seeking authors to write press releases for new journal articles. See examples of recent press releases here. We a...

forms.gle

Anya Auerbach@aauerbach.bsky.social · last mo.

This semester I'm designing a freshman seminar I've titled "Evolution and Society". Post-defense I'm now working on course planning details, & have both too many ideas & worry what I'm neglecting.. What would you consider an essential topic(s) or reading(s) for a class like this? Please do share!

Image of the course description, which reads: Our society has been shaped by evolutionary ideas. Learning about evolution has led people to question human nature, our place in the natural world, and what that means for us as individuals and a society. Through reading, discussion, and museum visits, this class will explore how evolutionary study has filled us with wonder and a sense of kindship with all living things, been used to justify some of humanity’s greatest atrocities, and continues to be misused and misunderstood today. With grounding in the logic of evolutionary theory, we will ask how understanding evolution does – or doesn’t – help us understand ourselves. Field trip(s) required.
Dr. Valentina Alaasam@vale-alaasam.bsky.social · last mo.

I am looking for PhD students and postdocs to join my lab at the University of Pittsburgh in Fall 2027. Anyone excited about urban evolution, hummingbirds, & community engagement, please reach out! And/or find me at #AOS2026 this week! More info here: www.valentina-alaasam.com

Volker Rudolf@volkerrudolf.bsky.social · last mo.

Excited to see this out in print now! Led by @hengxingzou.bsky.social this work empirically shows that the "Consequences of phenological shifts are determined by the number of generations per season." & how this relates to coexistence mechanisms. esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Consequences of phenological shifts are determined by the number of generations per season

The order and timing of species' arrival in a community can often change species interactions. Termed priority effects, this phenomenon arises in communities with drastically different life histories...

esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Science Magazine@science.org · 2mo ago

A new analysis in Science of more than 116,000 bird songs has revealed that the astonishing variety of passerine birdsong is built from just eight basic acoustic motifs, like trills, whistles, and harmonic notes. https://scim.ag/4ft2KBF

The global biogeography of passerine songs

Although bird songs are classic models for understanding the evolution of vocal communication, their global diversity has long made the development of a unifying framework challenging. By analyzing th...

scim.ag

Jake Berv@jakeberv.bsky.social · 2mo 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

Rates of passerine body plan evolution in time and space

Nature Ecology & Evolution - A reconstruction of the evolutionary history of passerine body plans over the past ~50 Myr shows rare bursts of phenotypic innovation near the origin of major...

rdcu.be

Morgan Tingley@mwtingley.bsky.social · 2mo ago

As smoke chokes eastern US cities (again), this is your daily reminder that as recent as 2023, an NSF panel rejected our grant about wildfire smoke impacts because they did not see the connection between wildfire smoke and climate change.

screen capture from New York Times headlines about wildfire smoke
Jelena Pantel@jhpantel.bsky.social · 2mo ago

😑 "many social media platforms are already flooded with AI-generated images of animals, which undermines the long-touted potential of these sites as sources of harvestable ‘pas-sive’ citizen-science biodiversity records"

Nature Ecology & Evolution@natecoevo.nature.com · 2mo ago

Citizen science platforms must mitigate against the threat of generative AI rdcu.be/ftL0T Lees et al. highlight the growing problem of AI-manipulated media contaminating citizen science platforms

Hengxing Zou@hengxingzou.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Glad to see my last dissertation chapter published! In this experiment, we tested how the arrival times and number of overlapping generations affect competitive outcomes between two flour beetles… doi.org/10.1002/ecy.... @esajournals.bsky.social (1/3)

Consequences of phenological shifts are determined by the number of generations per season

The order and timing of species' arrival in a community can often change species interactions. Termed priority effects, this phenomenon arises in communities with drastically different life histories...

doi.org

Takuji Usui | 薄井拓路@usuitakuji.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I am incredibly thrilled to announce that I will be starting as an Assistant Prof at Yale EEB in January 2027!! 🎉🎊 Stay tuned for student and postdoc openings, and please feel free to reach out to me if you are interested in eco-evo, range dynamics, species interactions, and global change! 🌐🌱🦠🧬