Immigration is good for Britain. A government trying to reduce immigration is acting against the nation’s best interests
Kate Parr
@funkyant.bsky.social
Ecologist - particularly fond of ants, savannas and cold beer (preferably at the same time). She/her
Tonight in the ai reading group i was reminded of something that happened in 2006 after I dropped out of college, when I was living in a run-down old house next to jb alberto's in rogers park with a bunch of dudes. it was, as you can imagine, not clean.
What a great idea for a special issue! Sometimes you learn more from failure than from success 🫠
Ecol. Solutions & Evidence | Applied Ecol. Resources@aer-ese-bes.bsky.social · 4mo agoWe're accepting proposals for our Special Feature! We invite scientists and practitioners to share experiences from management projects that didn't go to plan, but still provided important insights into how best to manage ecosystems and species🌱 ⏰Submit by 30th April More here👇 buff.ly/EXXBFsJ
Science funding needs fixing - but not through chaotic reforms.
Science funding needs fixing — but not through chaotic reforms
The changes announced by a major UK science funder are putting scientists — and the future of research — in a difficult position.
nature.com
Very happy to share this new article on Andes-Amazon tree diversity change. We found that over the last 4 decades, tree richness changed differently across the Andes-Amazon regions. Thanks to the many researchers across the world who made this possible! www.nature.com/articles/s41... Keep reading!
Come and join us! Plants, mountains and the Tropics!
Belen Fadrique@belenfadrique.bsky.social · 7mo agoApply for this fully funded PhD studentship in Tropical mountain forest ecology! Join us at University of Liverpool to carry out research on plant range shifts in the cloud forests. With: @fdraper.bsky.social @funkyant.bsky.social @jhomeier.bsky.social. Applications due Jan 21. tinyurl.com/23ary845
Last chance to apply for this ACCE+ DPT PhD project on nomadic birds in East Africa: www.findaphd.com/phds/project... deadline is tomorrow, so still time to draft soemthing good! It will be a great project with @funkyant.bsky.social too, so please apply!
Our @bes-cascade.bsky.social survey of ecologists asked which socio-political changes might be most effective in the biodiversity & climate crises Broad-scale transformative changes were most selected Biodiversity or carbon credits, use of AI, & de-extinction were each selected in <1% of responses
"Bond’s work leaves behind an inconvenient lesson for an era of climate urgency: that speed is not a substitute for understanding, and that good intentions, applied without care, can erase ancient worlds as efficiently as neglect." A beautiful tribute to William Bond. Forever missed by many.
William Bond, defender of grasslands
In recent years, one of the loudest ideas in environmental policy has been that trees are the planet’s universal remedy. Plant enough of them, in enough places, and carbon will be soaked up, water wil...
butlernature.com
Hendrik Mesdag's sunset (1887) looks simple: sea and the sky, which a low horizon divides into unequal parts, a few sails in the distance, on the left, enliven the rather severe construction. But look at the multiplicity of tones and the complexity of this work sinks in.
Our research group has an open PhD position! Please share widely! Possible topics include: Determinants of range limits Assembly of ecological networks (eg, plant-pollinator) The role of soil arthropods (eg, ants) in carbon storage Details: docs.google.com/document/d/1...
PhD position opening in community and biogeography
PhD Position in Community Ecology & Biogeography, Montreal, Canada Our research group at Concordia University investigates the forces enabling the maintenance, and governing the distribution, of biol...
docs.google.com
This paper has been on the way for just about a decade: the 1st draft was written 8 years ago - some great pesistence by the fab T. Michael Anderson! Lots of fun to have been working on it wth the likes of @funkyant.bsky.social y.social, @sallyarchibald.bsky.social & @carlastaver.bsky.social etc!
y.social
BrilliANT time at #Mirmeco2025 in Recife. A meeting full of enthusiasm & passion for #ants. Fabulous to see all my Brazilian and other ant friends again ❤️
Shiny new PhD being advertised with me and @cmbeale.bsky.social !!
Colin Beale@cmbeale.bsky.social · 9mo agoSo, next up is this fabulous project with me and @funkyant.bsky.social on nomadic birds in East Africa. Fieldwork and fancy spatial statistics are on offer here, and who doesn't want birds like this fabulous, nonadic Temminck's Courser?! www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Ed Luce watching democracy die in the United States of America
When I was a teenager there was a bus direct from my hometown in Germany to London - we had a British army base, and this direct bus connection was one of the benefits of that. One summer I went on that bus to go volunteer in an old people's home in Southend-on-Sea. I had just turned 18 and was... 🧵
Great to discuss the flagrant disinformation peddled at the Reform conference by Malhotra with @garethiacobucci.bsky.social As @LawrenceYoung11 et al agree, the 💩 re mRNA vax and "turbo cancer" (anyone taking that name seriously?!🤦♂️) is pure, insidious fiction designed to ⏫️ hesitancy.
We have a new paper developing methods for looking at bird-fire macroecology. What’s most fascinating to me is that the magnitude *and* direction of fire effects can vary enormously across a species range. Stationarity is dead!! Long live non-stationarity!! doi.org/10.1002/fee....
Evaluating macroecological fire impacts on bird populations
Fire regimes are context-dependent, as are the ways that animals respond. However, most information on animal responses to fire comes from short-term local field studies, which are hard to extrapolat....
doi.org
woah this is genuinely, utterly WILD Ant queens of one species produce males of another species, so she can then mate with them and produce hybrid workers! This is so gloriously weird I can't quite compute it 🤯🧪🐜 www.nature.com/articles/d41...
‘Almost unimaginable’: these ants are different species but share a mother
Ant queens of one species clone ants of another to create hybrid workers that do their bidding.
nature.com
Unraveling the arc of vaccine progress www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Unraveling the arc of vaccine progress
The philosopher Thomas Hobbes famously described life in 1651 as “nasty, brutish, and short.” He was undeniably correct, with estimates of average life expectancy in the UK at the time ranging from 37...
science.org
Hot off the press: Metabolic traits are shaped by phylogenetic conservatism and environment, not just body size Our article in PNAS explores several controversies in metabolic theory in a macroscale study of 🐜 #aridity #temp #SMR #DGC 📸:François Brassard www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2501541122
Awesome to see our paper exploring competing hypotheses in macro/metabolic ecology out in PNAS. Led by the all star @lilyleahy.bsky.social with a range of amazing folks including @funkyant.bsky.social @natejsanders.bsky.social @ianjwright.bsky.social. Check it out! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Metabolic traits are shaped by phylogenetic conservatism and environment, not just body size | PNAS
Metabolic rate dictates life’s tempo, yet how ecological and environmental factors integrate to shape metabolic traits remains contentious. Conside...
pnas.org
Really disappointing new policy from NERC banning resubmissions of grant applications Many of us, including me, have won grants on resubmission, using the reviews to improve the application This is is neither fair nor productive www.ukri.org/councils/ner...
NERC policy on resubmissions
This policy only applies to research grant applications.
ukri.org
Hiring a marine biology lecturer at @universityofessex.bsky.social! Permanent position. Deadline to apply= 20 Aug. We have aquaria, lots of mass specs/genomic facilities, field trips to Crotia, Indonesia, Scotland and a super collegial department. Pls share! vacancies.essex.ac.uk/tlive_webrec...
vacancies.essex.ac.uk
The Tropical East Asian Savanna Symposium is today! Join us in person or online to hear from some truly fantastic speakers. Online via teams Meeting ID: 374 127 860 994 5 Passcode: Yq3je9Jo or in person at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh 9:30-4:30 @royalsoced.bsky.social 🌐🌏 #ecology #savanna
Ecologists/botanists: In the 80s/90s tropical tree monitoring plots showed evidence of degradation. A counter argument was that when you set up monitoring plots in "old growth", you are biasing toward older trees that will die sooner. Anyone remember key cites? And if this held up?
