🧵 New Perspective in People and Nature “Strengthening responsibilities to face global crises: A call to ecologists, environmental scientists and their societies” Excited to share our latest paper! @peopleandnature.bsky.social @britishecologicalsociety.org

Reining in large for-profit academic publishers and valuing researchers for quality over quantity must be central as we reimagine the future of scholarly publishing.

The fall of a prolific science journal exposes the billion-dollar profits of scientific publishing

One of the 15 publications that put out the most studies globally has been expelled from the indexing system for irregularities. Its publisher, Elsevier, has a 38% profit margin that reached $1.5 billion in 2024

english.elpais.com

Attending #BES2025 in Edinburgh & interested in incorporating grey literature into evidence base? @dochpjones.bsky.social & I are giving a workshop on 16 Dec at 13:15. Learn about what @aer-ese-bes.bsky.social are doing to include grey literature in management & policy. Help guide its development!

Most ecologists know that they need to account for spatial autocorrelation in analyses. There are other forms of autocorrelation based on composition and phylogeny that similarly need to be included. The talented Toby Tsang shows how to deal with this issue. onlinelibrary.wiley....

The problems with academic publishing in one graph. The big for-profit publishers get product for free and sell it back to us. Their profits rival those from the big tech companies. This is money that could have supported research, teaching and graduate students. From: danielroelfs.com/pos...

Of the 8000 plant species introduced to cities around the world, about 300 are in cities on every continent and about 90 are basically in every city. Urbanization has selected for a common set of species that are the fingerprint of our activity: The urban florome. onlinelibrary.wiley....

please share with your networks. A great opportunity for a postdoc interested in working on synthesizing exotic tree benefits and risks into an integrated framework to address conflict-generating alien taxa. In beautiful Stellenbosch, South Africa. Apply by November 28 at: https://bit.ly/4p9K8dn

Does good policy depend on happiness? Happier places vote for governments that prioritize evidence & science. We need to make people happier. This means investing in education, infrastructure, health care, & a high quality of life. People then feel better about society.

Are evidence-based policies and pro-science governmental agendas dependent on happiness?

Blogging all things ecology and evolution

bit.ly

I know it is nearing the end of the field season when we can no longer walk through our sample processing lab. These are bags full of plant material awaiting our drying ovens which are running 24/7

A great 4-day EMAPI conference in Christchurch, New Zealand. Lots of great research on understanding and managing plant invasions from around the world. confer.eventsair.com...

The fabulous postdoc Toby Tsang published a paper on where exotic ants are restricted indoors and where climate might release new invaders into outdoor environments. And it got a lot of press! onlinelibrary.wiley.... For some press: http://bit.ly/3V5EuvJ

I went back to my hometown of Hearst, ON. While cycling gravel logging roads, after I saw 3 wolves & a bear, I realized there was no major settlement/infrastructure for 800 km ahead of me. There are so few places left on Earth where #nature is larger than humans, we need to ensure they persist.

Ecological/conservation practitioners generate invaluable insights from projects, which can help science and practice. Most of this grey literature is not discoverable or permanent. Here we call for adoption of Open Grey Literature principles. zurl.co/M0kdW

Grey matters: Ensuring management information is a part of the permanent evidence base by creating open grey literature principles

Sharing project outcomes for practitioners comes with a number of hurdles and barriers, but the benefits far outway these. We argue for a shift to open sharing of grey literature.

zurl.co

Public health success or ecological problem? CBC interview about declining shore bird numbers on Toronto beaches. zurl.co/PO0Xl

Nice summary of Toby Tsang's paper on incipient ant invasions. Many species are restricted to indoors in introduced regions, esp. climatically different ones. With climate change we predict many species will move outdoors, including problematic invaders. www.utoronto.ca/news/invasiv...

Invasive ants set to spread in Canada as global temperatures rise: Study

Invasive ants currently found only indoors in cooler regions such as Canada could soon begin to spread outdoors as global temperatures rise, according to a new study from the University of Toronto.  T...

utoronto.ca

Notes ready for radio interview about wild parsnip invasions

Ecological/conservation practitioners generate invaluable insights from projects, which can help science and practice. Most of this grey literature is not discoverable or permanent. Here we call for adoption of Open Grey Literature principles. besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Grey matters: Ensuring management information is a part of the permanent evidence base by creating open grey literature principles

Sharing project outcomes for practitioners comes with a number of hurdles and barriers, but the benefits far outway these. We argue for a shift to open sharing of grey literature.

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

This is why, despite having 'super elite' status, I am increasingly booking with other airlines. @aircanada.bsky.social just silly.

📸 #Ecologists & #environmental #scientists gathered at the ANDINA workshop in the Conguillío National Park (Chile) last year to discuss the roles, obligations & accountability of professionals in this field amidst the #environmental crises. 🔓 Workshop Report: doi.org/10.3897/rio.....

Well, this is an interesting Deepseek feature. Watch until the end when it self deletes. Yes, Let's talk about something else...

An important part of a broader conversation about how we support scientists trying to wrestle with their roles. "Ecology for a social revolution: Re-defining the role of ecological and environmental science professionals and their responsibilities towards society" riojournal.com/articles.php...

Ecology for a social revolution: Re-defining the role of ecological and environmental science professionals and their responsibilities towards society

The sixth mass extinction and the ongoing biodiversity and climate crises demand urgent action from ecologists and environmental scientists (EESs). Despite their critical role in addressing these chal...

riojournal.com

I've been collaborating with a group in Yunnan on plant diversity and ecosystem properties across elevation gradients for many years. We've just published an expansive review on plant biodiversity and conservation across the Himalayas. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Multifaceted plant diversity patterns across the Himalaya: Status and outlook

Mountains serve as exceptional natural laboratories for studying biodiversity due to their heterogeneous landforms and climatic zones. The Himalaya, a…

sciencedirect.com

Beautiful Victoria, BC. A quick two-day trip to present to pension funds about investing in way that considers biodiversity

So sad to see this. John Measey was a great herpetologist and a fun person to be around.

The majestic beauty of #KrugerNationalPark

We are so excited to continue our work on urban biodiversity with an awesome team and the support from ESIIL @cu-esiil.bsky.social. @urban-sci.bsky.social esiil.org/working-groups

Invasive species are a greater and more globally ubiquitous ongoing threat to UNESCO world heritage sites, compared to pollution, deforestation and climate change. link.springer.com/ar...

Gauging the threat of invasive species to UNESCO world heritage sites relative to other anthropogenic threats

Biological Invasions - There are 230 UNESCO World Heritage Sites that were designated based on their important natural features. These represent some of the most iconic and important natural places...

link.springer.com

Two studies in the same issue of Science examine macroecological biodiversity-ecosystem function relationships, showing that they fit broader scale sampling processes. Interesting, but with most things in ecology, the deviations are intriguing. https://bit.ly/4iGN0eQ https://bit.ly/4iWWUsv

Why aren't more researchers publishing in society journals? Two potential reasons: 1) They're often unfamiliar to early-career researchers, and/or 2) they need better promotion, a task for all of us.

The @besmacro.bsky.social group is one of the most active, dynamic and necessary networks in the @britishecologicalsociety.org. They're recruiting a new committee chair: could it be you?

Macroecology Group Committee Chair - British Ecological Society

Applications are open for the next Chair of the Macroecology Group

britishecologicalsociety.org