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Juan G. Rubalcaba

@jgrubalcaba.bsky.social

Macroecologist and modeller - now at UCM https://jrubalcaba.github.io/

7 Posts129 Follower 241 Folgt

British Ecological Society @britishecologicalsociety.org · last wk.

Insects could face an uphill battle adapting to climate change. A new review of research in @funecology.bsky.social found that lower oxygen levels and air pressure at higher elevations could pose a barrier to some insect species moving upslope to escape climate warming.

Damselfly clinging to a vertical green stem, large iridescent eyes visible, gripping and feeding on a small insect

Jenn Sunday @jennsunday.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Want to think about ecology differently this summer? Still some spots at the 2026 Unifying Ecology Across Scales GRC. www.grc.org/unifying-eco...

Unifying Ecology Across Scales Gordon Research Conference, July 12-17, 2026. Image depicting the themes and ideas at this years' conference. List of topics explored in 2026:
Scaling temperature-performance from organisms to ecosystems, Counting humans in a unified ecology
Do microbes make or break the rules in ecology?
Applying network concepts to predict ecological change
Principles for understanding scaling of time in ecology
Observational vs. theoretical frameworks for ecological prediction
Evaluating whether species traits advance predictive ecology

PLOS Biology @plosbiology.org · 4mo ago

Predicting survival of #ectotherms in stressful & variable #thermal environments is important in a time of rapid #ClimateChange. This study shows that a parametric model, including temperature-dependent variance, improves predictions of cumulative #survival curves @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4nFOVna

Changes in median (top left) and (top right) variance in adult failure times (tf), and in estimated log-logistic scale (bottom left) and shape (bottom right) parameters, as functions of temperature for 11 Drosophila species. For each species, the median of log(tf) and the scale decline linearly with increasing temperature. In contrast, the variance of log(tf) is greater and more variable at higher temperatures, and shape generally declines with increasing temperature. Line color (blue to red) for each species is ordered using the mean of log(tf) at 10 min (dashed line in top left plot).

AEMET @aemet.es · 7mo ago

➡️ El área afectada por lluvias extremas (más de 180 mm) se expandió un 55 % por el calentamiento global. ➡️ Se atribuye esta intensificación al aumento del contenido de humedad y a una mayor inestabilidad atmosférica, procesos exacerbados por el calentamiento del Mediterráneo.

Moisés Canle @moisescanle.bsky.social · 7mo ago

En un contexto de supuesta bonanza macroeconómica, comienza un nuevo asalto a la enseñanza e investigación públicas. Hemos llegado aquí tras un prolongado proceso de: i) desacreditación sistemática de las universidades públicas, ii) desregulación del sector, iii) asfixia económica continuada.

Instituto de Investigación en Cambio Global @iicg-urjc.bsky.social · 8mo ago

📢 Nueva edición del Curso “Gestión y visualización de datos con R. Convirtiendo datos en historias. 6ª edición” impartido por Carlos Lara Romero @carlos-lara0.bsky.social, investigador del IICG y @biodiversosurjc.bsky.social. Organizado por la AEET @eco-aeet.bsky.social. 👇+ info:

DigniMad @dignimad.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Desde la plataforma Dignidad Investigadora Madrid (DigniMad) denuncian la paralización de la convocatoria de ayudas predoctorales de 2025 por parte del Ejecutivo de Isabel Díaz Ayuso www.elplural.com/autonomias/m...

Los investigadores predoctorales se levantan contra el último tijeretazo de Ayuso: "Estrategia de privatización"

elplural.com

Global Change Ecology group @uniwuerzburg.bsky.social @globalchangeeco.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Very happy to have @jgrubalcaba.bsky.social as a guest at our lab to talk about ongoing & new collaborations. Thanks for a fantastic talk in the @uni-wuerzburg.de Biocenter colloquium about his work that integrates biophysical modelling with macroecology to better understand diversity variation.

DigniMad @dignimad.bsky.social · 8mo ago

🔴 URGENTE: La Comunidad de Madrid suspende las ayudas predoctorales 2025 📌 Exigimos: convocatoria 2025 ya, mantener la inversión y una mesa de diálogo urgente. 🧵 Breve hilo detallando la situación en conjunto con las seis universidades públicas de la región.

iBartomeus @ibartomeus.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Let's make @ecosistemas-aeet.bsky.social a fair and well-used journal!

Danny Kingsley@dannykay68.bsky.social · 10mo ago

EXCELLENT graphic on the drain of scientific publishing! zenodo.org/records/1759...

Mark A. Hanson @hansonmark.bsky.social · 10mo ago

We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing: a 🧵 1/n Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820 Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/... Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...

A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below.

1. The four-fold drain
1.1 Money
Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for
whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who
created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis,
which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024
alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit
margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher
(Elsevier) always over 37%.
Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most
consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial
difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor &
Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American
researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The
Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3
billion in that year.

A figure detailing the drain on researcher time.

1. The four-fold drain

1.2 Time
The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce,
with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure
1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material
has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs,
grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for
profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time.
The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million
unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of
peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting
widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the
authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many
review demands.
Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of
scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in
‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow
progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to
volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier,
local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with
limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging
with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks
intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision.

A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below:

1. The four-fold drain
1.1 Money
Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for
whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who
created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis,
which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024
alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit
margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher
(Elsevier) always over 37%.
Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most
consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial
difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor &
Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American
researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The
Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3
billion in that year.

The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised
scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers
first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour
resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.

Andrew Jackson @yodacomplex.bsky.social · 11mo ago

And our paper is out! One curve to rule them all: a simple universal thermal performance curve for ectotherms that explains at least 2700 datasets across 39 phyla and myriad measures of performance. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Biological performance across the tree of life collapses onto the Universal Thermal Performance Curve (UTPC). Shown are approx. 30,000 performance measurements derived from seven kingdoms, 39 phyla, and 2,710 experiments. Performance is represented by diverse rates including metabolism, individual growth, foraging intensity, voluntary activity, and population growth (see SI Appendix for data grouped by phylum and performance metric). Data are presented on both axes relative to the parameters (Topt, Tc and Pfmax ) estimated by fitting the UTPC equation to each of the 2,710 experiments; the UTPC is overlaid as a yellow line and fits the rescaled data extremely well. Data are colored by the relative density of neighboring points showing very high density of points close to the line and relatively few datapoints further from the line.

Data collapse, and models converge, onto a Universal Thermal Performance Curve (UTPC), which only requires optimal and critical temperatures as parameters. Top panels show empirical data on thermal performance encompassing (A) specific growth rate of proteobacteria (), (B) biochemical rates of photosynthesis in plants (), (C) running speeds of lizards (), and (D) population growth in insects (). Lower panels (E–H) showcase the rescaled data from the processes exposed on top, along with their corresponding alignment to the Universal Thermal Performance Curve (UTPC) equation. Datasets are from Kontopoulos et al. (21) for proteobacteria and from Rezende and Bozinovic (6) for other groups. The upper panels of the raw data show substantial variation in the shape and location of the thermal performance curves. The lower row shows that rescaling the data using the simple model results in the data conforming to a single underlying curve with very little variation from the model.

American Naturaliﬆ / ASN 🐌@asn-amnat.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Why we aren’t lizards: the evolution of endothermy through optimizing life history Summary & Analysis by Kaleigh Remick of “The Evolution of Homeothermic Endothermy via Life History Optimization” by Rubalcaba www.amnat.org/an/newpapers...

Why we aren’t lizards: the evolution of endothermy through optimizing life history

Read about “The Evolution of Homeothermic Endothermy via Life History Optimization” by Juan G. Rubalcaba (August 2025) Why do endotherms spend so much energy? A ...

amnat.org

iBartomeus @ibartomeus.bsky.social · last yr.

Five 3-year Postdoc positions open at @ebdonana.bsky.social. I am happy to sponsor and mentor good candidates working in my field, but note that these are quite independent positions aimed at helping stabilize new researchers in the system. www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/4nqkq...

dropbox.com

PEEER @peeer.bsky.social · last yr.

Science deserves better than profit-driven publishing. Change starts from within the community — here’s how we can reclaim it: peeer.net/2025/08/18/r... #BetterPublishing

Rethinking Scientific Publishing: A Call for Change

Scientific publishing lies at the core of academic life. It is the main mechanism through which knowledge is shared, careers are built, and progress is evaluated. However, this system has evolved i…

peeer.net

Germán Orizaola @gorizaola.bsky.social · last yr.

Lo que ocurre en USA no es un suicidio de la Ciencia, es un asesinato. En un mundo sumido en múltiples crisis, necesitamos más que nunca que se hagan políticas desde el conocimiento, respaldadas por Ciencia básica, y no desde la ignorancia. Y no sólo en USA... elpais.com/opinion/2025...

El suicidio de la ciencia en EE UU

Las agencias científicas más potentes del mundo están siendo desmanteladas por un Gobierno ignorante y fanatizado

elpais.com

American Naturaliﬆ / ASN 🐌@asn-amnat.bsky.social · last yr.

Why do endotherms spend so much energy? Juan G. Rubalcaba describes a theoretical model that shows that species followed one of two possible evolutionary patches: live fast while spending a lot, or live slowly and keep your costs low. Read now! www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

The Evolution of Homeothermic Endothermy via Life History Optimization | The American Naturalist

Abstract Endothermy is an energetically expensive trait, yet it has posed an evolutionary advantage across different lineages—a paradox that remains puzzling to biologists. Here, I investigate whether...

journals.uchicago.edu

Carlos Lara-Romero Ph.D @carlos-lara0.bsky.social · last yr.

🎓 ¡Quedan plazas libres! 📊 Gestión y visualización de datos con R: Convirtiendo datos en historias 📍 Modalidad online | 🕒 Plazas limitadas ¿Quieres aprender a transformar datos en narrativas visuales impactantes usando R? 🔗 Inscripciones: www.aeet.org/events/2025/...

Juan G. Rubalcaba @jgrubalcaba.bsky.social · last yr.

Excited and honored to have my first solo paper out in Am Nat!! @asn-amnat.bsky.social doi.org/10.1086/736225

The Evolution of Homeothermic Endothermy via Life History Optimization | The American Naturalist

doi.org

Juliano Sarmento Cabral @jsarmentocabral.bsky.social · last yr.

Postdoc call in Mechanistic Biodiversity Modelling (up to 6 ya) at my lab @unibonn.bsky.social. We focus on modelling terrestrial plant communities, island biogeography, range dynamics, eco-evolutionary feedbacks, diversity gradients, tropical forests, vascular epiphytes. Pls rt! shorturl.at/CL1ny

Postdoc in Mechanistic Biodiversity Modelling with temporary civil servant status (“Akademische*r Rätin*Rat)

100%, A 13, Reference number: 2025/49

shorturl.at

Paul Smaldino @psmaldino.bsky.social · last yr.

As grant money starts drying up, it's more important than ever not to waste it on paying publishers' open access "article processing fees" when we can host PDFs for free. Tom Morgan and I wrote a paper on this, forthcoming at Science and Public Policy. Accepted draft here: osf.io/preprints/os...

Author-Paid PublicationFees Corrupt Science and Should Be Abandoned
Thomas J. H Morgan & Paul E. Smaldino

Sean Michaletz @seanmichaletz.bsky.social · last yr.

Fully funded PhD in Plant Ecophysiology at UBC in Vancouver 🍁! Possible topics include leaf physiology, thermal ecology, microclimates, scaling, tree physiology, forest ecology & more. Start Jan/May/Sept 2026. michaletzlab.org Please share! #PlantEcoPhys #Ecology #Botany #PhDposition #GradSchool

Guillermo Fandos @gfandos.bsky.social · last yr.

📢 Título de experto en Aplicaciones bioinformáticas en biodiversidad, ecología y evolución 📅 26 mayo - 4 julio | ⏰ 15:00 - 20:00 📍 Facultad de Biología, Universidad Complutense de Madrid 💰 300€ 🎯 Metodología 100% práctica con proyectos y tutorización experta 📌 Inscríbete ya! ucm.es/formacion-pe...

Juan G. Rubalcaba @jgrubalcaba.bsky.social · last yr.

Next week (!!) we are presenting our workshop "integrating mechanisms into species distribution models" - don't miss it! Online 2-4 April www.biogeography.org/news/news/wo... @gfandos.bsky.social @biogeography.bsky.social

Juantxo López de Uralde @juralde.bsky.social · last yr.

Dato mata relato #lobovivo #loboprotegido

llloredo @llloredo.bsky.social · last yr.

Se ha filtrado el borrador de ley de universidades que está preparando la CAM. Si se aprueba, será la muerte de la universidad pública madrileña. Es escandaloso. No exagero. Se vienen tiempos oscuros como no espabilemos. Explico algunos puntos críticos. Va hilo. 👇

Juan G. Rubalcaba @jgrubalcaba.bsky.social · 2y ago

Real breakthroughs come from long-term investment in public research and then exploited by big tech companies

European Research Council (ERC)@erc.europa.eu · 2y ago

It was researchers, predominantly working in public sector universities & laboratories, who developed many of the ideas & techniques that are now being used on a massive scale by the big tech companies. Maria Leptin's (@marialep.bsky.social) speech @europarl.europa.eu erc.europa.eu/news-events/...

Nature Ecology & Evolution @natecoevo.nature.com · 2y ago

In our latest Editorial we discuss the continuing damage being done to US science, and its impact on researchers and the environment 👇 Deep cuts: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Screenshot of text from a Nature Ecology & Evolution Editorial entitled "Deep cuts"

The International Biogeography Society @biogeography.bsky.social · 2y ago

Join us this Wednesday for our monthly Funk lecture, presented by Dr. Sidney F. Gouveia! To register, please visit our website: www.biogeography.org/news/news/ne...

Juan G. Rubalcaba @jgrubalcaba.bsky.social · 2y ago

Interested in mechanistic & hybrid species distribution models? Don't miss our workshop! Online - 2-4 April @gfandos.bsky.social REGISTER: www.biogeography.org/news/news/wo...