Check out @olross.bsky.social's new preprint on matching methods for field ecology! In our efforts to randomize plot selection, we've overlooked a more fundamental issue: the treatments themselves—e.g., disturbances—are rarely randomized! PSM provides a solution 🧪🍁 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Spread the word! My lab group is hosting a workshop tomorrow at #ESA2026: Ecological Theory for Everyone: A practical introduction to engaging with theory in your own research for those with little or no theoretical experience 1:30pm, Room 254B events.rdmobile.com/Sessions/Det...

#Cross-#ecosystem #biodiversity action is systemically #overlooked in biodiversity #policy and treaties⚖️: conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.... 🌐 🌍 🎯 🦐 🍃 #IPBES #BiodiversityPolicy #GBF #KunmingMontreal 🧵1/8

A new study challenges the idea that taller trees are more susceptible to drought by taking a close look at dipterocarps, a tropical tree group that dominates the rainforests of Southeast Asia. https://scim.ag/44fodsJ

Being a taller tree doesn’t doom you to drought after all

New study challenges idea that tall trees’ hydraulics make them more vulnerable to dry conditions

scim.ag

Finally published🙂🙂 A cellective multidisciplinary effort to understand what happens in trees attacked by bark beetles link.springer.com/article/10.1...

From Colonization to Collapse: a Mechanistic Perspective on Tree Mortality by Bark Beetles - Current Forestry Reports

Purpose of Review Bark beetle outbreaks are intensifying under climate change, yet the links among drought stress, beetle attack and colonization, rapid tree mortality, and tree physiology, remain poo...

link.springer.com

Warm, wet springs may raise tree death risk, not just drought. French forest data indicate favorable early growth can leave some trees, especially tall ones, more vulnerable when later dry conditions arrive. doi.org/hb9nzf

Why Europe's trees are dying

In Europe, trees are increasingly dying prematurely. A new study by the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) on French forests now shows that it is not only drought but also unusually warm or wet springs that increase the risk—even ideal growing conditions can prove fatal later on.

phys.org

After wildfires, areas deep inside of large burned scars are less likely to reburn than areas within 2 km of the burn edge, according to more than 200 years of data from eastern Canada. As climate change intensifies fires, forests may recover better. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/i4iI50Zm3Wm

#Postdoc #Position opening up in my group: Developing Analytical #Pipelines and #Analyses to Survey #Invasive Alien #Species in Aquatic Systems using #eDNA (2 years) 🧬 📈 ❗ 🦐 🦀 🐠 🌍🌐❗ #JobOpening 🎯 apply.refline.ch/673277/1364/... 📍 Apply now & thx for spreading the word (deadline Aug 14th)

Prevent damaging changes to the federal grant process Submit your comments by July 13, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. ET www.aps.org/initiatives/... 🧪🌐

Comment on OMB proposed rule for federal financial assistance

Make your voice heard on the Office of Management and Budget's proposed federal grant funding changes and defend the scientific community from this existential threat. Submit your comments by July 13,...

aps.org

I’m looking to recruit a postdoc to join my research group at University of Iowa to work on disturbance ecology and biodiversity! Start date flexible, lots of opportunity for skill development, collaboration, and mentorship. Will review applicants in mid-August! Link: gavinmjones.com/opportunities/

Opportunities

BIG NEWS! The Jones Lab will be relocating to the School of Earth, Environment, and Sustainability (SEES) at the University of Iowa in Fall 2026. Our work on disturbance ecology and conservation sc…

gavinmjones.com

Gavin is a great mentor and collaborator and does very cool science. Apply early and often 🦉🌎🌐

gavin jones@ecologyofgavin.bsky.social · 4w ago

I’m looking to recruit a postdoc to join my research group at University of Iowa to work on disturbance ecology and biodiversity! Start date flexible, lots of opportunity for skill development, collaboration, and mentorship. Will review applicants in mid-August! Link: gavinmjones.com/opportunities/

Published today in @nature.com, our study shows that the #foodweb trophic structure is critical for #ecosystemfunctioning. Read it here: rdcu.be/frxEl This has been an incredibly rewarding collaboration with many amazing scientists! 🌐🧪🦑🍁🌱 @waikatouniversity.bsky.social @idiv-research.bsky.social

What happens after a forest dies, a coral reef bleaches, or an oyster bed collapses? A study of 10 ecosystems reveals that they carry memory. The material remains of foundation species can shape resilience, recovery, or collapse for decades in a changing climate. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Legacies of foundation species shape life after death

The dead remains of habitat-forming organisms can have powerful influences on the resilience of the ecosystems they inhabit.

science.org

Rainfall intensity matters as much as how much rain falls. New in Nature: Corey Lesk and I show that daily-scale concentration of precipitation dries the land over the long-run, an effect as strong as total precipitation is climatological wetting. Paper here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

More concentrated precipitation decreases terrestrial water storage - Nature

Concentration of precipitation in large events decreases land water availability, and this effect will further increase with a future warming climate.

nature.com

Nature research paper: Higher-order interactions enhance the latitudinal tree diversity gradient go.nature.com/4mZSPag

Higher-order interactions enhance the latitudinal tree diversity gradient - Nature

Higher-order interactions are shown to contribute to the decrease in species diversity from low to high latitudes in global forests, potentially explaining why this intricate phenomenon cannot be adequately explained by pairwise interactions alone.

go.nature.com

For those with interests in #complexity theory and systems ecology, I enjoyed this recent and very nice & clear interdisciplinary introduction to tipping point concepts, published recently: doi.org/10.1038/s444... #thresholds #resilience #social-ecological 🌐🧪🦑

Integrating tipping point concepts across diverse systems - Communications Sustainability

Across diverse systems, tipping points are characterised by three key properties, namely self-reinforcing feedbacks, threshold behavior, and persistence, suggests a cross-disciplinary synthesis of the...

doi.org

Official USFS publication dated 1977. I keep it framed and hung on my wall because it reminds me of how long people have worked and cared for the same things I do. All of us have an obligation to protect our public lands and continue this work. #usfs #ecology #conservation 🍁 🌎 @alt.usfs.info

The Amazon rainforest was hit with two severe droughts during 2023–2024. Models suggest that just over half the forest will not recover within seven years, which is the maximum time between droughts in recent decades. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/BKQ150YySOw

New paper out! Lead by @camilletruong.bsky.social & with @spun.earth #FungiFoundation in Biod Conserv: “Large-diameter trees disproportionately contribute to soil fungal diversity in a coniferous forest with one of oldest living trees on Earth”. @tobykiers.bsky.social doi.org/10.1007/s105...

New #causalinference paper just dropped! As an ecologist, I was trained to ask: "What do the data tell me?" This paper: there are only specific instances when this question is appropriate—when you lack domain knowledge, which we often have! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

NEW PAPER🚨Ecological Feedbacks in the Earth System🌍We present an urgent call to the scientific community for the rapid development of understanding of ecological feedbacks and integrated ecosystem—Earth system research 🌐🧪 @imperiallifesci.bsky.social agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

Ecological Feedbacks in the Earth System

The role of our planet's diverse ecological feedbacks in Earth system processes is a major knowledge gap We review current knowledge on ecological feedbacks within ecosystems, and between ecologi...

agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

In a new #ScienceAnalyticalReview, researchers discuss the scale-dependent mechanisms through which forests regulate climate, highlighting their contributions to global mitigation and local adaptation. Learn more: https://scim.ag/4aGldbI

More than mitigation: The role of forests in climate adaptation

Forests regulate global and local climates in ways that impact human well-being. In this Review, we discuss the scale-dependent mechanisms through which forests regulate climate, highlighting their co...

scim.ag

New paper from our lab, led by Leah McTigue We reviewed 40+ years of research on drought affects on wildlife: 66% of single-species responses were negative, only 2% positive. As droughts intensify under climate change, wildlife are in trouble. 🌍🌐🧪 📄 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Global Trends in Drought Impacts on Wildlife—A Review

We reviewed peer reviewed literature pertaining to instances of anomalous drought (any drought event that deviates from standard conditions (e.g., dry season) when compared to a long term average) an...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

🎉🆕📰🎉: Thermal behaviour of lipids in short-lived seeds of Australian rainforest species doi.org/10.1093/aob/... #PlantScience

Thermal behaviour of lipids in short-lived seeds of Australian rainforest species

AbstractBackground and Aims. Recent studies on desiccation-tolerant Australian rainforest seeds demonstrated that some were short-lived in storage. We soug

doi.org

I have a new paper. We look at ~all stats articles in political science post-2010 & show that 94% have abstracts that claim to reject a null. Only 2% present only null results. This is hard to explain unless the research process has a filter that only lets rejections through.

Hotter, drier and more seasonal forests in the eastern and southern Amazon are losing species, while Northern Andean forests are accumulating species, acting as a refuge for those that are climate-displaced 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Tree diversity is changing across tropical Andean and Amazonian forests in response to global change - Nature Ecology & Evolution

This study examines long-term changes in species richness across tropical forests in the Andes and Amazon. Hotter, drier and more seasonal forests in the eastern and southern Amazon are losing species...

nature.com

Fast-growing trees are set to dominate the #forests of the #future — but at a cost🌳 Our Nature Plants (@natplants.nature.com) study shows a global shift toward "sprinter" tree species, while slow-growing, functionally critical #trees face elevated #extinction risk. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Global functional shifts in trees driven by alien naturalization and native extinction - Nature Plants

This study finds that native tree extinctions and alien naturalizations are pushing forests towards fast-growing, resource-demanding species. This global shift could affect carbon storage and ecosyste...

nature.com

#Mediterranean seafloors are heating fast 🌊🔥. Our new study shows bottom marine #heatwaves will intensify, last longer, and threaten benthic species—often year-round by 2100. A growing #ClimateRisk for benthic #biodiversity. #ClimateChange 🌍🌐🧪 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Increasing bottom marine heatwaves pose a critical risk to Mediterranean benthic species

Marine heatwaves (MHWs) are extreme ocean temperature events broadly affecting marine ecosystems. The Mediterranean Sea has faced severe impacts from …

sciencedirect.com

MAJOR NEWS! We just launched an awesome new tool! The illustrated Birds of the World Phylogeny Explorer lets users trace any bird’s lineage, compare species relationships, and explore major evolutionary milestones with a click of a button. SHARE and EXPLORE! birdsoftheworld.org/bow/news/phy...

⚠️ New paper out in Nature Ecology & Evolution 🌱 #Grasslands #SoilCarbon @natecoevo.nature.com

The global extent of the grassland biome and implications for the terrestrial carbon sink - Nature Ecology & Evolution

By combining satellite observations with ground-based data and expert validation, this analysis demonstrates considerable misestimation of grassland extent and thereby carbon stock estimates in previo...

doi.org