A nice overview of the factors driving the Canada fires and how fire in boreal forest differs from fire in dry western US forests

Andrew Dessler@andrewdessler.com · 3w ago

In case you're wondering, yes, the East coast smoke is related to climate change. @zekehausfather.com explains in a new post on The Climate Brink www.theclimatebrink.com/p/canadas-bo...

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

New paper documenting impacts of drought on birds in the already arid SW US. 🦉🌐🌎 TLDR: It's not good. * Abundance declines in response to drought for most species * In this region drought-related declines in the south may be pushing ranges northward conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Long‐Term Drought Exposure Shapes Declines and Range Shifts in Aridland Birds

Climate change increases drought frequencies and intensities, posing risks to biodiversity. Species inhabiting arid regions may be vulnerable to drought because they live near their physiological lim...

conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

A heartfelt thank you to federal scientists of the USA. The authors of this piece reflect on the massive losses that occurred in 2025 — 10,109 PhDs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and health — either voluntarily or involuntarily. 17% of the workforce gone in a single year!

Federal scientists, a great American invention: a letter to our federal colleagues

Click on the article title to read more.

esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

📣The Community Science team at @nhm.org is #hiring a Project Data Scientist to work w/us on our projects related human-wildlife interactions, environmental justice, biodiversity, & more! We also want this person to have experience working with communities. 🌱🐾👣Join us! 🧪🌎 tinyurl.com/CSProjectDat...

April 1 deadline for @nhm.org Student Collections Study Award. Get $$ to spend time collecting data in our collections, including @tarpits.org Open to: - current undergraduate and grad students - *not* local to Los Angeles (international applicants welcome) More: nhm.org/student-coll...

Where will novel fire regimes threaten birds? Our paper in @natcomms.nature.com shows that most bird diversity hotspots facing future high-sev fire occur in places that historically burned at low severity - a critical mismatch. These are the spots to focus restoration. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Exposure of western United States bird communities to predicted high severity fire - Nature Communications

Changing fire regimes, leading to higher likelihood of high severity fire, are having unknown impacts on biodiversity. This study identifies regions of high avian biodiversity and individual bird spec...

nature.com

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

My lab at the University of California, Davis is hiring a Junior Specialist! Apply by February 23. JPF07490: Junior Specialist: Vascular Biology – Beleford Lab For more information and to apply: recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF07490

Junior Specialist: Vascular Biology - Beleford Lab

University of California, Davis is hiring. Apply now!

recruit.ucdavis.edu

Apply to join our team at @nhm.org ! We are hiring a Program Manager of Community Science- full time temporary for 4 months (on grant funds) and part-time permanent after that. Application review begins January 5. tinyurl.com/NHMCS2025 🧪🌎

Please repost! The LOC Lab @UCSB is recruiting a #PostdoctoralScholar in forest ecology and data science to develop data-driven models of forest resilience to compound disturbances (e.g., fire, drought, insects). 🌱🍁🌏🧪🌐 Applications due Feb 5 Apply here: www.landscapesofchangelab.com/were-hiring-1

📣 Our team at @nhm.org is #hiring a Program Manager to support our community science programs and integrated social-ecological research. Full time temporary (on grant $) for 4 months, then part-time permanent. Application review begins Jan 5 - apply and/or share widely! tinyurl.com/NHMCS2025 🧪🌎

I’m recruiting a PhD and MSC student for fall 2026 working on the movement ecology and conservation of Mexican spotted owls in SW forests and rocky canyonlands. Exciting partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratory. Great vibrant lab group, high impact research! 🦉 gavinmjones.com/opportunities/

Opportunities

***PhD and MSc openings – Movement ecology and conservation*** I will periodically support graduate students, postdocs, and other staff through the Biology Department at the University of New…

gavinmjones.com

#Wildfire protection doesn't have to start from scratch. Using a pilot site in #Sonoma, a new report from Greenbelt Alliance shows how vineyards, woodlands, and working lands can be woven into a protective buffer. 📷: Greenbelt Alliance 🧵 1/2

A California study finds that human conflicts with bears, coyotes and mountains lions rise during distinct periods.

There’s a pattern to when bear, mountain lion conflicts worsen in California

A California study finds that human conflicts with bears, coyotes and mountains lions rise during distinct periods.

bit.ly

New climate-change side effect: People clash more with wildlife in drought years, says UCLA & UCDavis ecologist @kendallcalhoun.bsky.social. For each inch decrease in annual rainfall, the UCLA study finds a 2-3% jump in conflicts with pumas, bobcats, bears & coyotes newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/cli...

Our new study just came out taking a look at how drought influences human-wildlife conflict reports in California! Check it out here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Conflict between humans & wildlife is expected to increase with drought and climate change, finds @ucdavis.bsky.social @uclaioes.bsky.social study. "If we can make it worse, then we can make it better,” says @kendallcalhoun.bsky.social. @justineasmith.bsky.social www.ucdavis.edu/climate/news...

How Climate Change Brings Wildlife to the Yard

As climate change increases the frequency of droughts, UCLA and UC Davis researchers found one overlooked side effect: People report more conflicts with wildlife during drought, when resources are sca...

ucdavis.edu

Job Alert! Assistant Prof of Fish Ecology at @wfcbucdavis.bsky.social, with a focus on freshwater and anadromous coldwater fishes. This is a wonderful and supportive place to work. Please share with your fishy friends! recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF07351

Assistant Professor of Fish Ecology

University of California, Davis is hiring. Apply now!

recruit.ucdavis.edu

After the 2018 #MendocinoComplexFire burned acres of oak savanna, researchers found that nearly all of the bird species in the area —including California #quail—preferred burned areas over untouched habitat. #Mendocino #nativebirds #wildfire #ecosystem 📷: Dave Harper 🧵 1/3

A bunch of wonderful scientists are working to study how the LA fires in January impacted our local nature. We had a great time working with @brookejarvis.bsky.social and @nytimes.com on this beautiful article. feat. @kendallcalhoun.bsky.social @ltkelly.bsky.social et al.

What the Bloom After L.A.’s Wildfires Reveals About Our Ecological Future

nytimes.com

New research from our lab documents important drought impacts on desert bird communities in the SW United States 🌎🐦 25 years of bird data across the Mojave & Sonoran deserts, show drought drives clear declines in bird abundance & species richness. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 1/3

Increased drought drives avian community declines in the warm deserts of the United States

The frequencies, intensities, and durations of extreme weather are increasing under climate change, furthering biodiversity loss. In the Southwestern …

sciencedirect.com

The last of my PhD papers. This was a fun project uncovering species diel changes in response to wildfire.

Oikos@oikosjournal.bsky.social · last yr.

🔥🌿The impact of gigafire on vegetation structure, terrestrial vertebrate abundance and diel activity vist.ly/3y9st #BlackSummer #EcologicalResilience #FireSeverity #SpeciesActivity #TemporalActivity #VegetationRecovery #Wildfire

Last dissertation chapter is out! 😱 We compared the influence of fire severity and pyrodiversity in shaping bird and bat species distributions at the Hopland Research and Extension Center. 🦇🕊️🔥 Check it out here: esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Severity outweighs pyrodiversity in shaping avian and bat species distributions following an oak woodland megafire

Anthropogenic pressures have altered fire regimes across the western United States. These altered fire regimes, and the megafires they often produce, threaten ecologically and economically critical e...

esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

🎉Hi fam! I’m so thrilled to announce that I’ve been hired for my dream job: Assistant Curator of Community Science at @nhm.org ! I'll be working w/the incredible team there & also continuing my existing work on EJ & human-wildlife interactions in the Bay Area, LA, and Kenya. (1/n) 🧪🌎

Super excited to share this new pub led by @wilsonsherm.bsky.social! We used Nextdoor posts to explore human-carnivore interactions in Los Angeles. Nextdoor offers a useful data source for understanding urban human-wildlife interactions, if human biases are accounted for. Check it out! 🧪🌎

Wilson Sherman@wilsonsherm.bsky.social · last yr.

"The wildlife Nextdoor: Socioeconomics and race predict social media carnivore reports" is out in Science of the Total Environment. @scrappynaturalist.bsky.social, Christopher Schell, and I looked at how people post about coyotes and black bears on Nextdoor. doi.org/10.1016/j.sc...

‘Megafire’ — you may not like it, but you can’t avoid it. In our new paper, we argue why a clear, size-based definition (>10,000 ha) of megafire improves research, communication, and fire management globally. 🔥 Read it here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1... #wildfire #fire

‘Megafire’—You May Not Like It, But You Cannot Avoid It

Aim The term ‘megafire’ is increasingly used to describe large fires worldwide. We proposed a size-based definition of megafire—fires exceeding 10,000 ha arising from single or multiple related igni.....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Thanks so much for the feature about our work on urban coyote movement, @sfgate.com ! It's critical to continue examining the myriad links between human and wildlife wellbeing, and use these findings to more equitably design & redesign our shared landscapes. 👣🐾🧪🌎 www.sfgate.com/la/article/l...

New Calif. coyote study 'went against everything that we've learned'

A study of the movement of 20 coyotes in Los Angeles County turned up some unexpected findings.

sfgate.com

JOB ALERT! We are hiring two seasonal field technicians for mid July - mid October to conduct research on mule deer in the Santa Monica Mountains, CA. The project is a collaboration between UC Davis and NPS. Ungulate capture experience preferred. Please share! jobs.rwfm.tamu.edu/view-job/?id...

This job at UBC (Vancouver Campus) also looks amazing. forestry.ubc.ca/career-oppor...

Assistant Professor (Tenure Track): Wildfire Sciences | Job | UBC

Job Post: UBC Forestry is seeking an Assistant Professor in Wildfire Sciences to develop an novel research program and teach third-year courses. Apply now.

forestry.ubc.ca