I am excited to share that @hannahmcgx.bsky.social's first PhD chapter (with @amydeacon.bsky.social and Francesco Santi) on how oil pollution influences male guppy ornamentation just got published in @ecol-evol.bsky.social @rhulbiology.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Oil Things Bright and Beautiful? How Hydrocarbon Pollution Impacts Guppy Ornamentation

Spatial variation in crude oil pollution in Trinidad leads to differing levels of pollutant exposure in connected guppy populations. Male guppy ornamentation is an important sexually selected trait a...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

My first publication is out at last !!! 🐟🥳 We looked the effects of oil pollution on colouration, a key sexually selected trait in male guppies. A few key takeaways in the thread below, or read the full text if you want all the juicy details: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Oil Things Bright and Beautiful? How Hydrocarbon Pollution Impacts Guppy Ornamentation

Spatial variation in crude oil pollution in Trinidad leads to differing levels of pollutant exposure in connected guppy populations. Male guppy ornamentation is an important sexually selected trait a...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

happy #WorldWetlandsDay !!🐟🐸these photos are all from the same site- the Pitch Lake in Trinidad, the worlds biggest tar pit 🇹🇹. despite how barren the asphalt in the middle here appears, the rainwater pools that form in the cracks are home to genetically unique guppies, + fish, frog and bird species!

Happy #WorldWetlandsDay! Traditional knowledge has long guided the sustainable use of wetlands. As the Convention on Wetlands marks 55 years, #WorldWetlandsDay2026 calls on us to protect wetlands and honour cultural heritage. www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_Mc...

World Wetlands Day 2026

YouTube video by The Convention on Wetlands

youtube.com

is there any way to report a paper for being made up? thought id finally found a relevant "lit review" discussing what id been stuck trying to research all day. went to check the "lit" it had been "reviewing" only to find none of the papers actually existed😠 wasted a good hour there smh

good news monday !! excited to see london genuinely considered for rewilding efforts. cities arent often thought of as spaces for nature- even people who live here assume all we have is pigeons and foxes, leading to more nature disconnect + less protections for the wildlife we do have. 1/2

White storks to make historic return to London in 2026

Species extinct as breeding birds in Britain since 1416 to be reintroduced in Barking and Dagenham as part of rewilding effort

theguardian.com

I am absolutely thrilled to share my first chapter, published today in @jappliedecology.bsky.social! Results are summarised in the thread below, or you can read it OA here doi.org/10.1111/1365... @ellileadbeater.bsky.social @rhulbiology.bsky.social @uclcber.bsky.social @ucl-pnl.bsky.social 1/7 🧪

Resource supplementation later in the colony cycle improves real‐world bumblebee colony survival

Our findings suggest that B. terrestris colonies became food-limited towards the end of their colony cycle in early summer. We suggest ecological intensification through planting native wildflower sp....

doi.org

New paper out in #ES&T where we show that killifish exposure to crude oil has impacts (on embryo/larval development and transcriptome) that propagate to their offspring and to their grand-offspring. pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.... @acs.org

great symposium yesterday at the @linneansociety.bsky.social! discussing the importance of evolution under anthropogenic changes in the same place the OGs first pitched the origin of species was pretty cool (not to fangirl)

nothing wrong with tangled tape measures and string transects 😂😭 #leafcounterandproud

Royal Holloway Biology@rhulbiology.bsky.social · 12mo ago

First of the two @rhulbiology.bsky.social presentations at today's @ceevol.bsky.social Autumn Symposium is by @hannahmcgx.bsky.social who presents her PhD work on effects of oil pollution on guppy colouration

jogging round uni of reading campus this morning, had to stop to check out the wildlife -so many butterflies in a patch of long grass left unmown over the summer! just goes to show how something as easy as not cutting the grass can help nature 🌾🦋🌻

Flying over Caroni Swamp on the first leg of our 18hr journey home. After a month of floods, sweat and (occasional) tears this years field season is at an end 😢 But the experiences we've had, wildlife we've seen and people we've met have made this trip truly unforgettable 💙🏝️🐟 Thank you Trinidad!!!

halfway through fieldwork already! time flies when you're catching smallfry🐟🐟🐟 guppy gang in the pitch lake + surrounding waterways catching fish and exploring the gooeylogical features of the largest asphalt lake in the world

repping RHUL at caroni swamp 🇹🇹🦩🐊 spectacled caiman, flamingos, scarlet ibis and silky anteaters ... it's not only guppies on this field trip!

first day of fieldwork complete! got a little too up close and personal with the pitch lake water (you can really feel the upwelling) but overall success ✨🐟🌎

@evolecollab.bsky.social lab cleaned up at the RHUL biology PGR symposium 🐟💪 best MSc talk (Ella) + runner up (Rebecca) and best PhD poster (yours truly)😎

I put way too much effort into this, but I think it scans

sending this to my old landlord who threatened the deposit if we didnt mow the lawn before moving out 💪👊

Morgan Morrison@morganmorrison73.bsky.social · 2y ago

New paper🚨 Using the UK MoJ prison sites as a case study, we show that reducing lawn mowing frequencies to between 6-12 weeks increases pollinator abundance by 170% 🐝🦋 in urban and suburban building complexes doi.org/10.52201/CEJ22/YGEL5296 A simple message to help #pollinators

considering the state of our rivers this is not at all surprising, though still incredibly depressing 😟 the decline of freshwater habitats may not be as visually dramatic as something like coral bleaching or deforestation but it is still just as significant for global biodiversity 🐟

Nature@nature.com · 2y ago

A detailed extinction risk assessment of freshwater fauna, covering more than 23,000 species, reveals that around 24% of the studied species are threatened with extinction. The analysis identifies major threats from pollution, dams, agriculture and invasive species. www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧪

Scientists! We are trying to get 1000 of us into the volunteer database by Jan 1. You'll be volunteering to speak with classrooms over video chat about your work, and answer their questions! You can volunteer for up to 5 sessions per semester. Sign up here! www.skypeascientist.com/sign-up.html

interesting case study where an offshore wind farm appears to have actually protected marine mammals by setting back vessel traffic and creating a de facto no-fishing zone: 🦑 🌍

Dr Charlie Gardner@charliejgardner.bsky.social · 2y ago

1/ Do Norfolk's growing grey seal colonies suggest an unexpected biodiversity benefit from renewables infrastructure? "Wilson and Sayer speculate that more seals are breeding on the east coast because offshore windfarms may have provided a new footing there for underwater vegetation,..."

X is for... eXtinct The Slender billed Curlew was declared globally extinct this year. 1st mainland European #bird to go extinct in half a millennium 'The last New Moon' Slender billed curlew is by textile artist, Angela Knapp. Inspired by Horatio Clare's 'Orison for a Curlew' #alphabetbirds 🪶

food for thought👀and also by global standards even those of us on relatively low UK wages are still within the top % of consumers. fruit and veg in all seasons, new outfits, brand new tech etc are all luxury items that we can now access whenever we want and this does come at a cost 😔

Jonathan Tonkin@jdtonkin.bsky.social · 2y ago

Clearly, then, we need to focus on high-expenditure consumers. Without changing their behaviour, effectively addressing our overshoot of planetary boundaries will be much more challenging. predirections.substack.com/p/the-wealth...

I knew walking around with nice looking leaves in my pocket would eventually come in handy

Very excited to be @britishecolsoc.bsky.social #BES2024! Like behaviour, frogs, captive management for conservation? Come and see my poster at A2.1 at 18:00 TODAY! Also seeking machine learning expertise - come and chat if that’s your thing! 🐸

Hey there! I’m Grace, a PhD student at @qmul.ac.uk, studying the impacts of large herbivores in rewilded areas🍃🐂 I’m looking at #geomorphology, #ecology and even some #remotesensing 🏞️

why do guppies keep colonising oil polluted habitats and how is this affecting their ecology? is oil pollution all bad*? come find out at the #bes2024 poster session this evening! (*it is yeah)

Pitch Lake in Trinidad, the worlds biggest asphalt lake. the water on the surface is full of toxic sulphur + hydrocarbons, but still supports a diverse wetland ecosystem 🐟🪿we've been looking at community composition to see whats going on under the surface 🌊

I see #Crustmas seems to be a thing, and people are sharing Ostracod photos!? I don't need an excuse to share photos of my Favourite crustacean! Or better yet, here's a video! #BugSky #invert #PondLife