Read the original #OpenAccess study here, in our journal "Ecology": esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Science X / Phys.org@sciencex.bsky.social · last wk.

Near rat-infested islands, coral reef food webs shift at the bottom: cryptobenthic fish and small invertebrates reach nearly equal biomass instead of fish outweighing invertebrates more than fivefold. doi.org/hccvrb

🐠📣 New paper alert! 🦀 📣 Cryptofauna doesn't react uniformly to nutrients: cryptobenthic fishes are better able to capitalize on extra nutrients near seabird colonies, likely boosting larger piscivores; when rats are present, inverts thrive instead ▶️ doi.org/10.1002/ecy....

A busy week for LECREEFS at #ICRS2026🪸 A plenary from @christinahicks.bsky.social & talks from @cherfychow.bsky.social @lisagoberdhan.bsky.social @lljeannot.bsky.social Khatija & @nickajgraham.bsky.social about diversity patterns, cryptofauna distributions & pelagic subsidies to coral reefs 🪸🐠

Seattle updates! @lljeannot.bsky.social attended a cryptobenthic fish taxonomy workshop at the University of Washington, led by Luke Tornabene, @chrisgoatley.bsky.social, Diego Vaz & @lizmillermacroevo.bsky.social, to learn about delineation, descriptions, phylogenetics, CT scanning & more📊🐠👩

New paper out on the use of Virtual Reality to increase ocean literacy in higher education 🤿🌊 Not everyone has the chance to see & interact with reefs, but immersive tools like these can allow for a more personal connection with the ocean & ultimately foster a deeper sense of agency and empathy!

Sal Keith (she/her)@salkeith.bsky.social · 5mo ago

VR dive experience tested on my coral reef ecology module @lancasteruninews.bsky.social found it helped consolidate knowledge & motivated learning+pro-environmental behaviour. Just avoid that uncanny valley! esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... @lec-reefs.bsky.social VR by thehydro.us

This international women’s day we celebrate the inspiring women that are part of, and work alongside our group. The UN’s theme for #IWD is “Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls”- learn more here: www.unwomen.org/en/get-invol... 👩🏽‍🔬👩🏻‍🎓👩🏾‍🏫👩🏼‍💻

🚨 Two funded PhDs (one int'l, one UK) - study coral restoration & corporate sustainability with us in Lancaster! Enquiries welcome, January 30, please share widely! 🚨 🪸🐠 Coral restoration (int'l): www.findaphd.com/phds/project... 🌴📊 Corporate sustainability (UK): www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Seabirds can help support #CoralReef biodiversity and resilience. Nutrient inputs from seabirds affect the feeding strategies and physical traits of reef fishes, enriching reef waters with nitrogen and phosphorus. @lljeannot.bsky.social https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2025.0539

New in @natrevbiodiv.nature.com: our review of the influence of #seabirds, via their nutrient transfer, on islands & adjacent marine ecosystems 🐦🏝️🪸 We highlight knowledge gaps & future directions ✨ "The circular seabird economy is critical for oceans, islands and people": doi.org/10.1038/s443...

Seabirds act as powerful connectors between marine and terrestrial ecosystems - and protecting them can help tackle the crises of climate change, failing ocean health, and biodiversity loss, according to a new study published in Nature Reviews Biodiversity 🐦

Global study reveals seabirds as critical connectors between islands, the ocean and people - Lancaster University

A new global synthesis published today in Nature Reviews Biodiversity reveals how seabirds act as powerful connectors between marine and terrestrial ecosystems and why protecting seabirds is a powerful opportunity when tackling the triple crises of climate change, failing ocean health, and biodivers...

lancaster.ac.uk

It's apparently #WorldOctopusDay, so here's a tiny little fellow we unfortunately captured in our last fieldtrip in Chagos while looking for small fishes and other invertebrates. Hope all other three-hearted creatures have a better fate than his!

🗞️ New Ocean Science Roundup is live! Head to our website to read all the latest studies on ocean and climate. Looking for more? Check out past summaries of scientific reports on a broad range of ocean topics. #OneOceanOnePlanet www.oceanprotect.org/2025/08/06/m...

"Commuting in crosswinds and foraging in fast winds: the foraging ecology of a flying fish specialist" 💨🐦🐟 New @iomarinescience.bsky.social research out now in @royalsocietypublishing.org: doi.org/10.1098/rspb... 📸 @robinfreeman.bsky.social 🧪🌍🪶

Nice little thread on some of our recent red-footed booby work 💨👇

ZSL@zslofficial.bsky.social · 12mo ago

🐦 The true meaning of a birds-eye view! Scientists use lightweight cameras fitted to the wing of red-footed boobies to capture feeding behaviour for the first time 📽️ @ruthedunn.bsky.social

New research led by @alicetrevail.bsky.social combines tracking data to show the value of large marine protected areas in encompassing diverse megafauna movements 🐢 doi.org/10.1111/1365... @jappliedecology.bsky.social @iomarinescience.bsky.social @exetermarine.bsky.social @zslofficial.bsky.social

Heard of "Darwin's paradox"? It refers to Charles Darwin's observation that coral reefs are wildly productive despite occurring in nutrient-poor tropical oceans. Reefs are, so the story goes, oases in marine deserts 🏝️... Turns out that 2/3 of these assertions are very wrong... 🌐 🦑🧪 🧵⬇️

#Angelsharks may be more vulnerable to #ClimateChange than we thought! Out today in @globalchangebio.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1111/gcb.... @lancasteruni.bsky.social @zslofficial.bsky.social @ulpgc.es @qmul.bsky.social @leibniz-gemeinschaft.de @lec-reefs.bsky.social 📸 @nuno_vasco_rodrigues

Thrilled to be part of this new paper led by Mayukh Dey & Nature Conservation Foundation, summarizing 25 yrs of 🪸 reef resilience monitoring in Lakshadweep 🏝️ 🇮🇳 We find distinct recovery archetypes shaped by atoll location & coral assemblages onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

New paper out in Proceedings B! 🔊 Seabirds' impacts on reefs extends even to some of its tiniest inhabitants - cryptobenthic reef fishes 🐠 Near colonies, these fishes assimilate seabird nutrients (💩), grow larger 📈 & more at: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... @royalsocietypublishing.org

New paper 📢 Coral reef depth zonation patterns are not 'universal' and may be disrupted by local human impacts. We show evidence of spatially dependent effects of depth on benthic community structure across the Pacific Ocean. 🌊🧵⬇️

We've had a blast at the Indo-Pacific Fish Conference in Taipei. Thanks to the organisers for a fantastic week! 🐟🐠🦈 Ft. talks from @cbenkwitt.bsky.social @lljeannot.bsky.social @ruchakarkarey.bsky.social @james-robinson.bsky.social

Eeek! Here my new paper where we predicted the distribution of #mesophotic #coral ecosystems in the Chagos Archipelago, using #Maxent onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/.... I can now say that MY ENTIRE PHD IS PUBLISHED! @plymbiomarsci.bsky.social @plymuni.bsky.social @iomarinescience.bsky.social

Predicting the Distribution of Mesophotic Coral Ecosystems in the Chagos Archipelago

This study aims to map and predict the distribution of mesophotic coral ecosystems (MCEs) in the Chagos Archipelago, Indian Ocean, using high- and low-resolution bathymetry data. The models, develope...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

🦑🧪 Three days left to apply for the postdoctoral position in my lab. We're looking for a population geneticist/ecologist/evolutionary biologist who is interested in studying tiny fishes in the Indo-Pacific! Come join us! 🤗 fishandfunctions.com/s/Postdoc_Ad...

🚨Our paper now out and Open Access in Conservation Biology🚨 🦈Urgent conservation action needed for WIO’s large-bodied fish. Sharks, giant groupers & green humphead parrotfishes face alarming declines in the WIO due to overfishing & climate change. 🦈 @sosbangor.bsky.social t.co/wJiMuTmZih

Great Barrier Reef fish reveal that large-scale macroecological patterns have changed significantly 🐟🐠 We found that changes in latitudinal diversity gradient & rising species turnover were strongly correlated with shifts in coral composition Out now in Nature Comms www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Emergent patterns of reef fish diversity correlate with coral assemblage shifts along the Great Barrier Reef - Nature Communications

Coral reefs have been severely affected by anthropogenic stress. Using long term data from the Great Barrier Reef, this study found temporal changes in the latitudinal diversity gradient, and stronger...

nature.com

Marine heatwaves are getting hotter and more frequent. This incredible underwater time-series from Seychelles has taught us how coral reefs can respond to bleaching - including regime shifts, boom-bust cycles, and now, a regime reversal from algae -> coral. Out now in Ecology Letters! 🦑 🧪 🌊 🌍

Nick Graham@nickajgraham.bsky.social · 2y ago

Still hope for coral reefs. Using 28-years of data in Seychelles, we find reefs recovering 4-5 years faster from the 2016 bleaching event, than they did after 1998. Also, a reef that had regime-shifted to macroalgae for over 15 years, is recovering to coral. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Check out our new paper! We compare indicators for monitoring the impacts of island restoration on coral reefs. Massive thanks to our huge list of collaborators, which enabled us to look at seabirds, nutrients, microbes, algae, corals, and fish! 🐦🦠🌱🪸🐠 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Feather stable isotopes & dive data reveal links between habitat use & foraging behaviour across 3 populations of red-throated diver during their moult 🪶🌊 Out now in Ecology & Evolution: dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3...

Linking Foraging Behaviour and Habitat Preferences During Moult Across Multiple Populations of Red‐Throated Diver

We demonstrate a link between foraging habitat and behaviour in an elusive aquatic bird, the red-throated diver (Gavia stellata) across three populations (Finland, Iceland and Scotland) during their ....

dx.doi.org

A bit late but excited to share our new paper exploring how seabird nutrient inputs influence mangrove food webs! 🐦🌿 @entropie-marinelab.bsky.social @lec-reefs.bsky.social @iomarinescience.bsky.social Open access: esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

📢New Paper Alert📢 (and first chapter of my PhD!) We show that scale matters when quantifying motile cryptofauna on tropical coral reefs 🦀 Paper in MEPS: www.int-res.com/abstracts/me...