We just wrapped up another great photogrammetry workshop at National Sun Yat-sen University. Special thanks to the awesome teaching team from Prof. Stuart Sandin's Marine Community Ecology Lab at UCSD/Scripps for sharing their expertise. We're excited to apply what we've learned on Taiwan's reefs!

Please don’t leave us hanging! Next time you 🔎spot a seahorse underwater, don’t forget to 📷 snap a photo & 💻 share your sightings with our #iSeahorseProject on 🔗 inaturalist.ca/projects/ise... #SavingSeahorses #iSeahorse

Ferns! The island nation of Taiwan is home to an amazing diversity of ferns - more than all of North America & Europe *combined*! In our 2nd episode we explore why Taiwan's nickname "fern kingdom" is truly apt! Taiwan: The World’s Hidden Hotspot for Plant Diversity | youtu.be/LXC6W1a2kBY?...

Botanical Wonders is now available on YouTube! The first episode takes you high up into the central mountain range - check out the link posted by co host @trevorpadgett.bsky.social below to gain a glimpse into the beauty and biodiversity of Taiwan!

Thank you for your interest - this position has been filled 👍

The start date (August 1st) for this position is quickly approaching. I am hoping to wrap up interviews by early next week, so if you are interested in applying, please send me your CV soon. Thanks! (note: fluency in Mandarin is required for this position)

📢Research Assistant Job Opportunity! Come join my lab at National Sun Yat-sen University (Taiwan). One-year full-time contract (responsibilities: administrative work, tank maintenance, lab work/field assistance) Start date: Aug 1. See link for details: mcraemarinelab.weebly.com/opportunitie...

Our lab had a great time at the Taiwan Geosciences Assembly in Taipei this week. A great way to learn about the vast array of marine science being done here in Taiwan - talks spanned research on sponges to barnacles to blue carbon...and corals too, of course! #Taiwan #MarineEcology

Was a real honour to speak at the #OOSC #UNOC3 last week about our inherent relationship between the terrestrial and marine, corals and seaweeds and how we can effectively apply science in restoration efforts 🌲 🪸 🌊

It’s been an exciting semester! We have been busy with in-situ monitoring/sampling, built our new aquaculture room, and hosted our first photogrammetry workshop (thank you to Guan Yan Chen, University of Hawaii). mcraemarinelab.weebly.com/outreach--la...

Over 200 scientists are streaming for 100 hours, FOR FREE, to try to raise awareness and activism for The National Science Foundation, The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Nasa. CLIMATE SCIENTISTS NEED YOUR ACTIVE VOCAL SUPPORT, PLEASE. www.youtube.com/live/5vsGBGR...

It was my pleasure to join as a panelist on the MARRES Around the World event - a 24-hour tour of marine ecosystems/issues! Check out this link for all of the live and recorded sessions: univ-cotedazur.eu/msc/marres/u...

In our 12th episode, we return to the mystical coral forests of Kenting & shores of Orchid Island. Home to unique tropical flora, here we explore the fig tree 'Ficus benjamina var. bracteata' - an ecological wonder & cultural icon! #Taiwan #BotanicalWonders www.taiwanplus.com/shows/nature...

📢Excited to see this paper published! link.springer.com/article/10.1... With Vianney Denis, Vicky Lin Yuting, and others from the #FRElab, #IONTU, #Taiwan, we explored #coral strategies in the light of intraspecific variation!

I am wrapping up interviews for these positions this week - if you are still interested please get in touch by Feb 28th.

Just a quick follow up - if you are interested in tuition waivers/graduate stipends make sure to contact me before the application deadline (supervisor pre-approval is needed for eligibility). I am aiming to wrap up interviews by the end of February, so get in touch soon! #MarineLife

It was such a pleasure to host Dr. Wing Chan from the University of Melbourne here in Taiwan last week. We had great dives and productive lab work - it was an all round excellent kick off to our collaboration together! Can't wait for 'round 2' of our work this summer!

RESEARCH: Harnessing Community Science for #Seahorse Population Monitoring: Insights From the iSeahorse Programme in Tampa Bay. Authored by Elsa Camins, Miguel Correia and @amandavincent.bsky.social of @projectseahorse.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/.... #OpenAccess

In our seventh episode, we explore the Taiwan Sugar Palm! While (as the name suggests!) this plant has some sweet uses, to the Tsou People this palm is used for many other important purposes. Join us to meet the plant, and the people who rely on it: www.taiwanplus.com/shows/nature...

📢Graduate Student Opportunity!📢 The McRae Marine Ecology Lab is recruiting MSc and PhD students. Come join our team in Taiwan to investigate the impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems. Check out our website for more information: mcraemarinelab.weebly.com/opportunitie...

In our sixth episode, we explore the Taiwan date palm (Phoenix) and screw pine (Pandanus). Join us as we venture across Taiwan visiting the western plains, southern coral forests, & volcanic Orchid Island to explore their cultural and ecological wonders! www.taiwanplus.com/shows/nature...

Neat study on a parasitic plant in Taiwan

New summary of 2 massive recent publications documenting the status and trends of sharks, rays, and chimaeras 🧪🦈🌎 @mongabay.bsky.social news.mongabay.com/2025/01/new-...

Our latest paper www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... reviews #ecosystem services from tropical marine systems, links to habitat, and maps services across the Great Barrier Reef 🪸 🧪🦑🌍 . Unlike on land, #marine ecosystem services tend to be highly clustered and localised.

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/...

Sadly, due to a recent earthquake, much of Taroko Gorge is no longer accessible to the public. However, in this blog, we will take you on a virtual tour of Taroko Gorge after the earthquake, from a recent trip where we risked rockfalls and poor roads. taiwantravelblog.com/taroko-gorge...

A new episode of Botanical Wonders is out! Join Trevor and Jason as they explore Taiwan's natural beauty and how it connects to unique and tasty food.

In our third episode, we gear up and climb to the forest canopy exploring the unique epiphytic community of orchids, ferns, and a few critters too. Taiwania cryptomeriodes is the tallest tree species in Taiwan, and have many secrets to share! www.taiwanplus.com/shows/nature...

🚨 AMAZING PhD opportunity alert (even though it's on salmon)!

Merry Christmas everyone! Also, there's still time to apply for a PhD with me and folks at the @nhm-london.bsky.social looking at tiny #fishes from the UK and beyond. Apply for this PhD @sotonoceanearth.bsky.social through www.findaphd.com/phds/project... and join #teamfish

Great photogrammetry talk by Guan-Yan Chen at the National Museum of Marine Biology & Aquarium. Guan-Yan is an excellent science communicator and is currently undertaking his PhD at the University of Hawaii. He'll be back in Taiwan soon to run a workshop for the McRae Marine Ecology Lab. Can't wait!

Often when people think about Taiwan, biodiversity isn't the first thing that comes to mind. Check out 'Botanicals Wonders' for a beautiful and informative peek into Taiwan's awesome terrestrial ecosystems!

Looking for some #marinescience starter packs? Current pack count = 20 ! 👇 🦀🪸🐟🦈🐡 #starterpack #ecology #conservation #marinebiology #oceanscience #coralreef #deepsea

An important commentary from @nancyknowlton.bsky.social in @pnas.org about the fact that some coral reefs may persist in new degraded forms, but that this must not make us complacent. We need both local and global action now. Well worth a read....inspiring as ever: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

New #GlobalSharkTrends study published in @science.org reveals #overfishing has more than halved shark & ray populations over the past 50-years causing widespread erosion of ecological function and exceptionally high extinction risk 👉Full article bit.ly/GlobalSharkTrends 🧵1/20

Fantastic first official 'McRae Marine Ecology Lab' dive! If you want to learn more about my new lab and research on coral reefs in Taiwan, check out our lab website: mcraemarinelab.weebly.com

#coral paper! Ever wonder how coral responses in the lab match up with reef-based responses? We examined how colonies from reefs in #Taiwan responded to a heat-stress assay #CBASS & compared this to photogrammetry monitoring of colonies before/after a marine heatwave. Link: doi.org/10.1007/s003...

𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚢𝚝𝚊𝚋𝚕𝚎 0.6.1 for #Rstats is out! It's an ultra simple, super flexible, and 0-dependency package to draw beautiful tables in HTML, LaTeX, Typst, Word, PDF, and PNG. And for those who ❤️ documentation, 𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚢𝚝𝚊𝚋𝚕𝚎 ships with a billion pages of tutorials: vincentarelbundock.github.io/tinytable/

I wrote (ranted) on experimental design as I was frustrated as an editor at how little guidance students were getting. I underestimated the interest in the issue: it has been downloaded 10,000+ times! Clearly it’s something we need to be talking about more. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

It was a pleasure to sit down with TaiwanPlus and the crew with "Ripple Effect" and dive into climate change impacts on forests & coral reefs globally, & specifically in #Taiwan. youtu.be/-XTobeq1Jos?...

Coming out very soon! A deep dive podcast on the research of the Coral Assist lab. James Guest and I explore the challenges that reefs face in the coming decades due to increasingly damaging marine heatwaves, and think about what we can do, what we know, and what we don't.