Our pre-print analysing the 1 std decline in mass in Wytham great tits has just been published in @animalecology.bsky.social check it out: besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @biology.ox.ac.uk

Early‐life environment drives long‐term decrease in adult body mass in a wild bird population

Using more than 90,000 body mass measures of adult and nestling great tits Parus major, we show that the 1 SD decline in adult mass between 1978 and 2024 is a consequence of changes in the environmen....

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

David López-Idiáquez@davididiaquez.bsky.social · 8mo ago

We have published a new pre-print showing a decline in great tit adult and nestling mass of around 1 gram in 47 y. [rate of approx. -0.040 Hadanes] With @ellafcole.bsky.social, @devisatarkar.bsky.social, Sam. Crofts, @mcmahok.bsky.social & @sheldonbirds.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Gen. AI is rapidly becoming part of scientific work. But are we honest about how we use it? We screened 230 eco & evo journals & >2200 recent papers. The answer: nope. Our paper maps the problem & offers a solution. link.springer.com/article/10.1... @jagiellonskiuni.bsky.social @ioes-ju.bsky.social

A systematic map of generative AI guidelines and reporting in ecology and evolutionary biology: towards the framework of AI disclosure for Improved Transparency (AIdIT) - Research Integrity and Peer R...

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly becoming embedded across scientific workflows, yet mechanisms for transparently documenting its use remain fragmented and weakly enforced. Focusing o...

link.springer.com

in the winter. Flycatchers seem to have taken advantage of reduced competition as also great tits noted a30-40% drop in breeding pairs (100 pairs more of the collared flycatcher). Let’s hope it was just a fluctuation and significantly colder winter… last pic - a ringed tree pipit found in our plot;)

The number of breeding BT pairs dropped by 50% (sic! ~90-100 broods fewer!) Many broods are clearly attended by 1 parent, and we’ve noted almost a 100% drop in the number of recruits (1-2% of recruited 2nd yrs instead of the usual 20-30%). Our Swedish friends also reported almost no BTs in feeders

Day 68 of the 47th # Gotland season! After some May showers Gotland returned with dazzling sunny weather :) first flycatchers started to hatch, but this years weird. The blue tit population was hit hard by blåmessjuka („blue tit disease”) caused by Corynebacteria - Suttonella ornithocola.

@ioes-ju.bsky.social

Hej Blåmes! Gotland's long-term bird monitoring@hejblames.bsky.social · 5mo ago

But the good news is - blue tits are using our artificial feathers in their nest decorations, it’s the first year of the experiment so stay tuned in a year for the next steps! @ncn.gov.pl @jagiellonskiuni.bsky.social #gotland #birds #collaredflycatcher

@ioes-ju.bsky.social

Hej Blåmes! Gotland's long-term bird monitoring@hejblames.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Day 49: the season is ramping up really slowly… Tits started laying eggs very late and in two bouts (below blue tit data) and flycatchers - well, they started on the 11th but then most females decided to wait ;)

only a few dozen starting nests and only 1 with eggs!) This year we continue with the behavioral experiment on blue tits - testing their choice of feather decorations they add to their nests. Stay tuned for news and updates:)

Day 22 of the 26th Gotland season! We started on the 14th of April - it’s a surprisingly odd spring here in #Gotland. Exceptionally early arrivals of warblers (chiffchaff, willow warbler and blackcap already gear on the 18th) and exceptionally late for hole nesters (it’s past the 20th and we have

Flying past Mars, slaloming through the asteroid belt, then frontally towards Jupiter. This is how I'd imagine a soundtrack for such a trip. www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIww...

Nils Frahm - Says (Official Music Video)

YouTube video by Erased Tapes

youtube.com

Fantastic discussion lecture at @mpidr.bsky.social by @rmcelreath.bsky.social 😍 I cannot agree more with @ezagheni.bsky.social who introduced the guest as a true renaissance scientist of today 💎 Very thought provoking. I hope it will add to the collection of those "embarrassing" YouTube footage 🙃

A study in Nature reports that a transition from carbon sink to source for the aboveground woody biomass of moist tropical Australian forests has occurred, driven by increasingly extreme climate anomalies. go.nature.com/4ndWLmg ⚒️ 🧪

Wow! A paper on Wheatear plumage evolution in @science.org - unforeseen collision of interests here www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A mosaic of modular variation at a single gene underpins convergent plumage coloration

The reshuffling of genomic variation from multiple origins is an important contributor to phenotypic diversification, yet insights into the evolutionary trajectories of this combinatorial process and ...

science.org

#sortee2025 conference is on! Excited to see all amazing talks :) sortee.org/upcoming/

Upcoming events

Upcoming conference by Society for Open, Reliable, and Transparent Ecology and Evolutionary biology (SORTEE)

sortee.org

Continuing our series on difficult comparative models - and how to address them properly - we’re happy to showcase another study, this time in @jevbio.bsky.social academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-... We will guide you through a series of increasingly complex models, from binary, through ordered to

Promoting the use of phylogenetic multinomial generalised mixed-effects model to understand the evolution of discrete traits

Abstract. Phylogenetic comparative methods (PCMs) are fundamental tools for understanding trait evolution across species. While linear models are widely us

academic.oup.com

2025 #NobelPrize in physics for macroscopic quantum tunnelling phenomena in electric circuits :) suiting for the year of the centennial anniversary of quantum physics!

Our recent paper looks at location-scale interfaces in comparative data. But predicting variance in variance extends much further - if you still have not have a look here onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... (another recent paper in @globalchangebio.bsky.social). We show how extending the idea

Location‐Scale Meta‐Analysis and Meta‐Regression as a Tool to Capture Large‐Scale Changes in Biological and Methodological Heterogeneity: A Spotlight on Heteroscedasticity

Meta-analyses are widely used to understand how species and ecosystems respond to global change, but most assume that variability among studies is constant. This assumption can hide important biologi....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Are we doing simulations wrong? This paper convinced me we are. doi.org/10.1098/rstb... Usually we run 2 sets of "worlds" w and w-out intervention. Gives large uncertainties that include negative (harm) effects of interventions that are actually always positive (beneficial)!

I’m sad to hear the news that the wonderful Jane Goodall is no longer in the world. Her work with chimpanzees at Gombe in Tanzania taught us to look at other apes - and ourselves - differently. I was privileged to meet her later in life and tell her what an inspiration she was to me.

Our newest paper is out in Methods in Ecol Evol @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social :) amazing team effort - we show that the traditional way of analyzing comparative data lacks finesse. besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/oidcS... w/ @itchyshin.bsky.social Yefeng Yang, Losia Lagisz & Ayumi Mizuno

#maltese geometry

Unfolding the folded streets of La Valletta #Malta #holidays #relaxatlast

I am just back from a wonderful few days in Sweden where I visited the incredible Lars Jonsson exhibition in Stockholm, and then his museum on Gotland. Absolutely mind blowing, the selection and range of work was just unbelievable!

Our recent paper now live in Frontiers in Zoology @springernature.com - we show how climatic trends affect reproductive success of flycatchers in the Gotland population (nearing 50 yrs of continued monitoring ;)) link.springer.com/article/10.1... @ioes-ju.bsky.social @jagiellonskiuni.bsky.social

The impact of weather conditions on avian breeding performance: insights from a long-term study - Frontiers in Zoology

Understanding how weather conditions during early development influence reproductive success is essential for predicting avian responses to climate change. We used a 40-year dataset from a nest-box po...

link.springer.com

It's been a busy summer for our scientists. Several of them attended the #ESEB2025 conference in Barcelona.

With #eseb2025 coming to a close, it is time to start making plans for 2026. Interested in the interface of evolution 🧬 and ecology 🌳? Come to our #ExE conference hosted by @uniexecec.bsky.social in beautiful #Cornwall. Leave your email address at tinyurl.com/EvolxEcol to join our mailing list!

I keep saying scientists are amazing artists and again this tuned out to be true :) the art corner at @eseb2025.bsky.social organised by @evokeproject.bsky.social went great, I’m thrilled to see all your amazing pieces! If you’re interested in discussing art&sci in science communication or would

@eseb2025.bsky.social art corner goes well, it will be available throughout the conference. Join us, draw your science :) @evokeproject.bsky.social I get asked - what if I can’t draw? That’s even better! Trust me - your art will be more honest, and awesome. And we want to see it:)

At @eseb2025.bsky.social please go and visit the art corner organised by @evokeproject.bsky.social (6th Eseb art&sci corner!:)) It’s in the far back-right of the poster area. You don’t have to be an artist! No prior art knowledge required ;) just go there & draw/paint whatever portrays your science!

At @eseb2025.bsky.social - as during previous eseb conferences, we will try to express our artistic selves. The art&science corner available to all and ready to take your artistic visions of science will be live starting from Tuesday morning. More details soon, here and in the conference app.