Blennies & the Jetty 🐟 Small fishes that inhabit Texas jetties may have surprisingly important roles as links in local food webs between the nutrients and detritus they eat and larger iconic Texas game fishes! @texasscience.bsky.social @utmsi.bsky.social www.portasouthjetty.com/articles/the...

The Secret lives of Port A’s cryptic fishes - Port Aransas South Jetty

If you’ve ever strolled a long the Port Aransas jetty or paddled past the pier to catch some surf, you’ve likely been watched by hundreds of tiny, tufted eyes from some of our smallest residents! Thes...

portasouthjetty.com

7 years ago, I gave my first talk at an R stats conference. At the reception, a man asked me, "Do you use R?" 🙄 My mentor, Dr. Kelly Bodwin, helped me shake off my subsequent feeling that I didn't belong and encouraged my love of statistics. Effective mentorship matters: ojs.elte.hu/cejntrep/art...

❄️ In a new collaborative study, WHOI scientists found that bacteria riding on “marine snow” can break down the minerals that help it sink. That means less carbon may reach long-term storage in the deep ocean. 📲Learn more: go.whoi.edu/eco-snow

Work with 4-5th graders? Check out our 'Coral Reefs & Our Changing Oceans' 3-part lesson series on OER Commons! 🪸👩‍🏫 Students build a coral reef food web, then explore how human impacts influence it through hands-on group activities! oercommons.org/courseware/l... #TEKS #NGSS #K-12 #teachersky

4-5th Grade Lesson: Coral Reefs & Our Changing Oceans

This three-part series of 50-minute lessons on 'Coral Reefs & Our Changing Oceans' aligns with Texas Essential Knowledge & Skills Standards for 4-5th Grade Science. It covers: (1) Coral Reefs & their ...

oercommons.org

Great new pub by Pappalardo et al. on taxon-specific BLAST % identity thresholds for DNA #metabarcoding 🧬, with an associated Shiny app for optimized COI thresholds tailored to your data: besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... shiny.si.edu/ebbs_blast_f... #eDNA

Taxon‐specific BLAST percent identity thresholds for identification of unknown sequences using metabarcoding

The identification of organisms in environmental samples using metabarcoding relies on factors such as taxonomic assignment methods, genetic markers, reference databases and confidence thresholds ...

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

🐠🦈 Just out: In this paper we ask "How has reef trophic structure changed since humans started removing predatory fishes from Caribbean coral reefs?". www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... Illustrations @cookedillustrations.com

On this celebratory day of women and girls in science, let’s reflect that the US National Science Foundation has put the words “women” and “female” (but not “men” and “male”) on the list of forbidden words that will get your grant slated for the reject bin.

Today is the last day of our #Metabarcoding in Microbial Ecology course! A huge thank you to our instructors and all the participants for making this week a great learning experience. @fonamental.bsky.social @delcampolab.bsky.social

As part of the ‘24-25 SWIMM program, a group of students from Mexico, Cuba and the US have been helping develop a Report Card of coastal resources of Tabasco. 🇲🇽🇨🇺🇺🇸 Last week, we presented a first draft to collaborators in Villahermosa! This has been an amazing group and project to be a part of! 💕

How is bat acoustic activity influenced by noise pollution? How do impacts differ between natural sounds and human ones with similar acoustic characteristics? 🦇💧🚗 Learn more in our new open-access publication, led by Ryan Vosbigian: dx.doi.org/10.1002/ecs2...

Natural and anthropogenic noise shape bat activity and sonar behavior

As human development has expanded, so has the prevalence of anthropogenic noise, which can interfere with acoustic channels used by wildlife. However, since landscapes contain natural sources of pers....

dx.doi.org

Just did the last PCR of my PhD and with that, Im done with the last of my lab work! 🧬🧪🎉

Coral bleaching surveys in Bonaire from 2016-2023 show that last year had the most widespread bleaching and related coral colony mortality. While this is disheartening, focusing on increasing local reef resilience can help buy time to address global climate change. 🪸💪 📖: www.dcbd.nl/reposerver/a...

For folks interested in coral reef ecosystem related research and news, check out the Coralsky feed! 🪸🐠🦀 bsky.app/profile/did:...

a picture of a coral reef with the words that 's the coral of the story

ALT: a picture of a coral reef with the words that 's the coral of the story

media.tenor.com

🚨 Preprint! We combine our recent open dataset of #APC prices with the article counts per journal-year from #OpenAlex to estimate how much the academic community has paid in APCs over the last 5 years. A. $8.349 billion ($8.968 B in 2023 USD) $2.5B in 2023 alone. arxiv.org/abs/2407.16551 #metasci

Estimating global article processing charges paid to six publishers for open access between 2019 and 2023

This study presents estimates of the global expenditure on article processing charges (APCs) paid to six publishers for open access between 2019 and 2023. APCs are fees charged for publishing in some ...

arxiv.org

Im elated to share that my coral reef piece won the Society for Women in Marine Science art competition! #sciart #stippling

Hannah Sima Rempel@hannah-rempel.bsky.social · 3y ago

2 years & 2 months later, a stippling drawing I began inspired by a class assignment on "picture an ecosystem" is done! There's something magical to reefs that's always encaptivated me. While Ive never seen the coral triangle myself- the birthplace of reefs, I wanted to capture a bit of that magic.

Recognizing and celebrating the many contributions, achievements, and inherent value of LGBTQIA+ community members today and every day! 🧵 of a few papers describing how we can better support 🏳️‍🌈 and 🏳️‍⚧️ individuals in STEM. #QueerInSTEM #LGBTQStemDay

In 'A framework for training graduate students & campus communities in inclusive teaching', @botanyberit.bsky.social, @scubamelman.bsky.social, Chris Biggs and & I share a tips & resources for formal professional development training in inclusive pedagogy. 🧵(1/4) doi.org/10.1128/jmbe...

Why do animals eat their own poop—and other animals’ too? It's not just your dog that does it, but fish, moose, and many other creatures! 💩 Learn more in a Nat Geo article by Katarina Zimmer highlighting my research and that other scientists: nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti...

Why do animals eat their own poop—and other animals’ too?

This natural survival strategy, known as coprophagy, reveals how wildlife makes the most of every available resource.

nationalgeographic.com

Parrotfishes help maintain resilient reefs by grazing algae & cyanobacteria, but some also eat live coral. 🪸 In a new study, we evaluated how parrotfish coral predation intensity varies across gradients in coral cover, diversity, & parrotfish abundance across 4 Caribbean regions: shorturl.at/fjZ22

I am honored to receive a Scholar Award given by the International Chapter of the P.E.O. Sisterhood. I am very grateful for this support as I advance in my PhD research on the trophic ecology of nominally herbivorous fishes! @thecaseylab.bsky.social #womeninSTEM

It was a wonderful to share work on 'Developing inclusive teaching frameworks for campus and community STEAM education' by myself, @scubamelman.bsky.social @botanyberit.bsky.social + Dr. Chris Biggs, and hear about projects by other grant teams at the @CTL_UT Teaching & Learning Symposium last week!

Amazing performance by the Casey lab at the 52nd Benthic Ecology Meeting! 🧬🐠 Shoot out to @hannah-rempel.bsky.social and @Zoe for winning best presentation awards 🏆#BEM2024

2 years & 2 months later, a stippling drawing I began inspired by a class assignment on "picture an ecosystem" is done! There's something magical to reefs that's always encaptivated me. While Ive never seen the coral triangle myself- the birthplace of reefs, I wanted to capture a bit of that magic.

Are you a woman or non-binary person studying or working in a marine science field in Texas? Consider joining the Texas Chapter of the Society for Women in Marine Science @txswms.bsky.social! texasswms.wixsite.com/texas-swms #TexasScience #WomeninSTEM #nonbinaryinSTEM

For folks learning to use General Additive (Mixed) Models in R, this free guide by the Quebec Center for Biodiversity Science has been a great resource for me! r.qcbs.ca/workshop08/b... #statistics #GAM #GAMM #academicsky #statsky

A few days before Christmas, Posit shared all talks & workshop materials from posit::conf 2023! I had the honor to teach two 1-day courses—the dedicated web pages feature slides, scripts & exercises👇 2️⃣ "Engaging and Beautiful DataVizes with ggplot2" posit-conf-2023.github.io/dataviz-ggpl...

I am elated and incredibly grateful to receive a 2024 UT Austin Stengl-Wyer Graduate Fellowship! This will support another year of my PhD research investigating the ecological roles of nominally herbivorous fishes in Panamá and Texas using molecular techniques. 🪸🐠🧬 #TexasScience #womeninstem

It’s been incredible to spend the past two weeks assisting on projects on Tropical Eastern Pacific reefs and see the other side of the isthmus of Panamá!

I’m elated to receive a UT Texas Gulf Coast Research Center Predoctoral Award & dive into some new research on Texas fish! Mariana Rivera Higueras, Juan Pablo Lozano Peña, Mel Niell, & I kicked off this project with fun & successful of field collections & lab work yesterday! @txacsci.bsky.social

Happy Halloween from the University of Texas Marine Science Institute! 🎃 I love being part of such a fun community!