It's never occurred to me that it IS an assumption. This is the most astonishing start to a paper I've read in years: "Living organisms are assumed to produce same-species offspring. Here, we report a shift from this norm in Messor ibericus, an ant that lays individuals from two distinct species."

"We’re now closer to that goal. Putting an end to billions in fishing subsidies would restore fish stocks, support coastal communities & improve ocean health for all. The job is not yet done." @drrashidsumaila.bsky.social & @drdanielskerritt.bsky.social theconversation.com/what-the-wto...

Have you ever seen a gull eat something weird? A new citizen science project, Gulls Eating Stuff, is tracking what gulls gobble, and anyone can participate! Submit your photos, explore the observations of other gullers, and help document the changing diets of gulls for science.

A few months ago, Nature published how-to guide for using ChatGPT to write your peer reviews in 30 minutes. This is, of course, a horrible idea. Here’s my response with @jbakcoleman.bsky.social .

My coffee is telling me that I need to go camping 🔥⛺️.

Can kelp forests help tackle climate change? 🌿 A study led by University of Victoria researchers suggests that Canadian kelp forests may export up to 400,000 metric tons of carbon to the deep ocean each year. theconversation.com/can-kelp-for... @uvicscience.bsky.social @ca.theconversation.com

🌿 You’ve probably heard forests help fight climate change by storing carbon—but what about underwater forests? Learn how the underwater kelp forests that line Canada’s coastlines may offer an untapped option for natural climate solutions: news.uvic.ca/media-releas... @uvicscience.bsky.social

1/ Just in time for #WorldOceanDay: Check out our new study in #npjOceanSustainability taking critical first look at whether Canada's kelp forests can be a source of natural climate solutions. We offers a blueprint for other countries looking to do the same. 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Found in the Fire Swamp, no doubt.

My ✨new paper✨ looking at how low salinity and high temperatures alter the bacterial community of sugar #kelp was just published! Lab and field results agree: the overall changes are small, but core taxa decrease under abiotic stress onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #PhycologyFriday 🦑

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

Rather than signing with the conventional, "Chris", AI-enabled MS Outlook has recently decided that my emails will be betters signed as "Christmas". Super helpful when writing work emails.

More shots fired in the #causalInference #ecology literature! 🌍

For me: Hansel and Gretel, not cool. For our kids: anything with a Tomten.

For anyone who grew up in 🇨🇦 in the '80s, this will make sense... #beachcombers, #relic

What a week working with Huu-ay-aht First Nations staff, citizens and youth to establish an intertidal monitoring program for culturally-important species like ḥay̓ištup (black chiton)! So long for now, Bamfield friends.

For #PhycologyFriday, here's a smattering of gorgeous 🤩 NE Pacific kelps, including Laminaria setchellii, Costaria costata, Egregia menziesii, Alaria marginata, and a few other seaweeds for good measure. Hope all who celebrate are enjoying this week's minus tides! #marinelife #intertidal 🐙

To everyone fighting for a fact-based and democratic society, I offer you some rays of hope from this 🇨🇦 sea star.

Sea Urchins love to wear things, like rocks and little shells, as hats. How many urchin hats can you count?

#UrchinSearchin #InvertFest

White-lined dirona 🤩 #InvertFest

Day 3 of minus tide surveys on Vancouver Island. Plenty of cool finds... 1. Granular claw crab. Most were sealed up in old barnacle shells, with their claw as a door, but this one was feeling adventurous. 2. Lined chiton 😍 3. Baby ochre star 🤩 4. Bonus tidepool pic 🦑 #InverteFest #MarineLife

🦑 #marinelife #Invertefest finds from today's fieldwork on Vancouver Island: 1 Tar spot seacucumbers! 2. All 3 species of Nucella in the same quadrat (L-R: lamellosa, canaliculata, ostrina) 3. A 2-armed ochre star 4. Amorous leopard nudibranchs blending in with a sponge they eat

When I do fieldwork in this one little coastal town, I get to walk past this fence window every day. Today it was looking particularly nice 😍.

Posting this mating pair of kelp isopods (Pentidotea wosnesenskii) for #InverteFest. They actively participated in our intertidal survey this morning by hopping righ onto the transect tape to get measured, at a whopping 4 cm no less, close to the max. size recorded for this species.

🌷 Peak tulip 🌷 in our backyard.

Early spring textures

The Canadian Rockies offered up some serious drama yesterday.

“All Red Line” These are the submarine cables connecting the British Empire in 1902. Communication via telegraphy was crucial to manage a world spanning empire. Source: buff.ly/41W4Z8g

If you've spent time on any university campus recently, it probably had a very similar feel. Service vehicles are allowed but walkers and bikers rule. #bikesky

When I called @arnokopecky.bsky.social in late March with a last-minute opportunity to stalk the Poilievre campaign (which barred reporters from joining), I fully expected a no. Instead, from his family vacation in Tofino, he asked if he could have four days to get home and pack.

Just published! We used #Sentinel2 🛰️ EVI 🌿 & NDWI 💧 to track recovery in restored cranberry bogs. Older restorations = more vegetation Newer = more water But both still trail reference wetlands. @restorationecology.bsky.social 🌍🌐🦤🧪🌱

🤩 I'm always so happy when I see *one* umbrella crab. 🤩 Three is off the charts!!

This piece from @tressiemcphd.bsky.social starts with a bang and just gets better and better. Gift link.

Behold! 🐡a gorgeous juvenile Silverspotted sculpin (Blepsias cirrhosus) posing as #kelp 🌿a green alga known as 'Dead man's fingers' (Codium fragile, bottom) posing as... well ... fingers (real fingers, top right, for comparison) #MarineLife #PhycologyFriday

🚨New Study🚨showing that Macrocystis and Nereocystis #kelp canopy cover has remained relatively stable through several decades in a cool-water region of central BC, Canada. #PhycologyFriday 🧪🐙 👏This was a huge effort led by Lauren with many great collaborators 👏 www.frontiersin.org/journals/mar...

Pizza night required a reminder of a common conversion. Yep, that tracks. Love this AI stuff.

🔥🔥🔥

✨ New paper alert! ✨ We found that the #kelp #microbiome is disrupted in a warming ocean! 🌊🌡️ #Temperature had a larger effect than #nitrogen. Thanks to lead author Nichos Molnar, Robin Fales @intertidaleco.bsky.social & Cathy Pfister! enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

This is a wild story. Well worth a read.

NEBRASKA CROWD: “TAX THE RICH! TAX THE RICH!” @USRepMikeFlood: “So your proposal to solve (the debt) is tax the rich?” NEBRASKA CROWD: *CHEERS WILDLY* (not sure this went quite as he planned 😬)

Just an absolutely, fundamentally wrong way to report this research. AI models do not experience "anxiety" or any other emotion. This is misinforming the public. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/17/s...

This is also, sadly, true of North American manufacturing.

❤️ WISCONSIN: “I’d like to apologize. My eyes were opened. I’ve learned a very lot about this group of people.” Larry came to testify against the anti-trans youth health care bill, but had an epiphany and changed his mind. Context: www.pride.com/politics/ant...

What do you see? I see Fish scales.

What will happen if one enters the forbidden square? 🤷‍♂️

A baby giant. 🌊💙 #PhycologyFriday

Big Duck Energy