Evidence suggests that AI-driven ‘deskilling’ is starting to happen in medicine, computer science and other fields go.nature.com/4uJdRvW

Is AI ruining our skills? Early results are in — and they’re not good

Nature - Reliance on artificial-intelligence tools degrades the abilities of physicians and software engineers, studies show.

go.nature.com

Job opening for Lecturer/Associate Professor of AI for Biodiversity Science at University College London (UCL). www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

bit.ly/PD_Senna

"Something remarkable happened in April. For the first time in history, wind and solar generated more electricity than gas across the entire planet. Not in a country. Not in a region. Globally." Tons of great news here from Danny Kennedy (via @billmckibben.bsky.social's newsletter, which rules).

Elite Cognitive Dissonance and the Asian Energy Disruption

Notes from the Field — Singapore & Indonesia, May 2026

proelectrica.substack.com

Honestly, I love this approach.

anil oza@aniloza.bsky.social · 3mo ago

wow — the preprint host, arxiv, is banning authors for a year if they submit papers with hallucinated citations 🤖

Just gave a seminar at the School of Food Science and Nutrition, who do many meta-analyses etc. Talked at length about ForestPlots.net Blank looks; finally someone said, for us, that's just a type of graph. I should get out of my bubble more often. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_...

Forest plot - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

First-hand experience today of 'rewilding' limestone pavement for our undergrads. AI can't replace that.

Wow this figure. AI reviews appear to be (subjectively) much better along almost all dimensions 👀

Mark Riedl@markriedl.bsky.social · 3mo ago

AAAI used a novel AI paper reviewing system on all 22k papers submitted. In phase 1, authors received 1 clearly marked AI generated review and 1 human review. arxiv.org/abs/2604.13940

Solar panels don’t damage the countryside you just don’t like the way they look. Skylarks. Linnets. Yellowhammers. www.ecoportal.net/en/solar-pan...

Solar panels were known to attract birds, but they are now drawing in species never seen in these areas before

New research from the University of Cambridge has found that some birds species are making a triumphant return to the area around solar panels in England.

ecoportal.net

Freshly published paper led by @santiagotrueba.bsky.social on leaf water losses across vascular plants 🌳🔬🧪 The 50-fold variation in gmin across ecological groups was weakly related to phylogeny with evidence for convergent evolution in response to climate 🌡️💦 @newphyt.bsky.social

Ecological drivers and phylogenetic patterns of leaf minimum conductance variability in vascular plants

Stomatal closure prevents significant water losses during drought events. Yet, leaves are not perfectly hermetic and dehydration ensues through residual water losses, known as minimum conductance (g...

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Great new paper on the biogeography of the Brazil nut family #Lecythidaceae led by #UMichEEB PhD student Diana Medellín-Zabala. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Assembling the Neotropical Tree Flora: Andean Uplift and the Historical Biogeography of the Brazil Nut Family (Lecythidaceae)

Aim The assembly of tropical tree floras is complex, involving many lineage-specific histories; however, focusing on the biogeographic history of diverse clades can reveal general patterns. We inves...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Our new #BIEN biodiversity data workflow paper is out! BIEN is an ecosystem of modular, open-source BIEN tools for collecting, harmonizing, and validating biodiversity data -- and an integrated global database (BIEN db) of plant occurrences, traits & geographic ranges. doi.org/10.1111/2041... 🧪🌐🌾🌵

BIEN: A biodiversity informatics ecosystem advancing open and reproducible workflows for plant observation, plot and trait data

The rapid expansion of biodiversity data presents new opportunities to understand and forecast biosphere dynamics. However, disparate and dispersed data, taxonomic and geographic inconsistencies, ...

doi.org

Very excited to announce that we are hiring for three faculty positions at @universityofleeds.bsky.social in @bioscienceleeds.bsky.social: A/Prof Plant Science, A/Prof Animal Biology and Lecturer in Ecology, Zoology, Biodiversity or Ecosystem Management. Please do get in touch to chat. Links below:

Job Opportunity at University of Leeds: Associate Professor of Plant Science

Associate Professor of Plant Science Salary: Grade 9 (£61,759 - £73,708 p.a, depending on experience)This role will be based on the university campus, with scope for elements of the job to be undertak...

jobs.leeds.ac.uk

These are great courses, apply if you can; going to Kibale was my first step to a career in ecology and conservation

Tropical Biology Association@tropicalbiology.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Less than two weeks left to apply! Join the 2026 TBA Field Course in Kibale National Park, Uganda for a month of hands-on tropical ecology. Design research projects, analyse data, and work alongside students from 20+ countries. Apply now: tropical-biology.org/uganda-2026/

Meanwhile, Spain's massive investment in renewables is paying dividends now: with prices for Spanish industry and consumers low and stable compared with other European economies. www.ft.com/content/ac77...

Distinguishing the signal of the vegetation from the water is not straightforward, but L-band SAR shows promise for monitoring the water level in Amazonian peatlands. Wonderfully led by Antje Uhde using precious field data from IIAP @congopeat.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Big effort, exciting results - our paper on the constraints of thermal limits in tropical insects is now out in @nature.com! 🦋🐝🪰🪲🦗 @ecoresearchzoo3.bsky.social @biologie-uniwue.bsky.social @uni-wuerzburg.de

Nature@nature.com · 5mo ago

Nature research paper: Limited thermal tolerance in tropical insects and its genomic signature go.nature.com/4ua5R82

Fabaceae emerge as amongst the most embolism-resistant tree families in Amazonia. Forests in the Brazilian and Guiana Shield regions, where Fabaceae abundance is high, are expected to have greater drought resistance than Western Amazon forests.

ForestPlots@forestplots.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Large-scale patterns of tropical forest embolism resistance mapped across space and angiosperm phylogeny. Combining measurements across the Amazon with 100s of floristic samples, Julia Tavares & colleagues report remarkable variation in vulnerability to drought. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Applications open for a 3-year Post Doc position in Leeds (UK) on the #UKRI funded Still Waters project. We are looking for #hydrology #geomorphology modelling skills to embed surface hydrology into #malaria models with fieldwork in Zambia. Pls contact me for more details: tinyurl.com/3356rt44

🚨3 Lectureships in Biology 🚨 Come join us in Bristol @bristolbiosci.bsky.social! We are looking for new collegues working across a broad spectum of topics in biology, including ecology & environmental change. Get in touch if you have Qs! Apply here by 8 March: www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find/de...

Our research with the SECO project to understand the trajectory of the dry tropics depends on a team of wonderful people across the world, working in Peru, Brazil and beyond, in fieldwork, data management and lab analysis. Here are some of their stories: www.leeds.ac.uk/directory-re...

Piper dispersed from South America first to Southern Africa, then on to South East Asia, where it spread across the Wallace & Lydekker's lines several times! Intrigued? The full paper can be found here: doi.org/10.1093/botl... (2/2) @linneansociety.bsky.social

Origin and biogeographical history of Palaeotropical Piper (Piperaceae): multiple long-distance dispersals from South America initiated during the Middle Eocene climatic optimum

Abstract. Piper is the largest genus of Piperaceae and second largest in the angiosperms, but the biogeography and timing of its global radiation has not y

doi.org

Many congratulations to Adriane Esquivel, Rebecca Morgan and to all our colleagues supporting Amazon forest monitoring with RAINFOR and ForestPlots.net! Our analysis of 30 years of Amazon forest change is highlighted on the cover of @natplants.nature.com. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Nature Plants@natplants.nature.com · 10mo ago

The October issue is now fully online: www.nature.com/nplants/volu...

Really great to see our colleagues and friends at IIAP, Peru recognised by FAO for their long-term work on the ecology and management of Amazonian peatlands. www.facebook.com/100000023934...

Jose Luis Marcello (U Jaén, Peru) está liderando los estudios de la dinámica y el impacto del cambio climático en los bosques secos en el Peru - un trabajo muy importante, y con coordinación con ForestPlots.net Descubre mas aqui: fb.watch/CjP0DvNbL0/

We have a #Tansley review out today @newphyt.bsky.social led by Becky Banbury Morgan in which we put forward a new framework that aims to explain how and why edge effects on forest structure vary across ecosystems and through time 📜 doi.org/10.1111/nph....

Huge new work in the central Congo peatlands, showing that the peatlands began forming 42,000 years ago. Culmination of around 15 major expeditions over the past decade, and a huge effort by many people.

Bart Crezee@bartcrezee.bsky.social · last yr.

Our new study, led by Greta Dargie and published yesterday in Environmental Research Letters, shows that the Congo Basin peatlands are twice as old as previously thought. www.leeds.ac.uk/main-index/n... @congopeat.bsky.social @simonlewis.bsky.social @iopp-environment.bsky.social

Nueva entrevista en MongaBay a propósito de nuestro nuevo paper sobre la boogeografía del género Weinmannia.

Un estudio revela los secretos de la evolución escondida de los imponentes árboles Weinmannia en Latinoamérica | ENTREVISTA

Un nuevo estudio reconstruyó la historia evolutiva de Weinmannia, un género con más de 90 especies de árboles emblemáticos.

es.mongabay.com

¡Recién publicado! 🌿 Descubrimos que Weinmannia, un género emblemático de los Andes, se originó fuera de los trópicos y migró hacia los Andes tropicales, donde se diversificó. A pesar de expandirse en altura y latitud, conserva su nicho ambiental. #Evolución #Andes #Biogeografía

Phylogeny of Weinmannia (Cunoniaceae) reveals the contribution of the southern extratropics to tropical Andean biodiversity

The Andes are a relatively young mountain range with impressive biodiversity, but the biogeographic processes underlying its hyperdiversity are still …

sciencedirect.com

📢 Fully funded PhD studentship for UK students is available in my lab @rhulbiology.bsky.social as part of new EU project Trees4Adapt 🌲🌳 Fieldwork in forest diversity experiments in Finland www.sataforestdiversity.org 📆 Apply by Sept 8th, start date - Jan 2026 👉 www.findaphd.com/phds/project... 🍁🌍🧪