Did you know "Ecology" publishes Statistical Innovations papers? These articles spotlight cutting-edge methods that tackle pressing ecological questions and advance data analysis in the field. Learn more in our author guidelines: esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/hub/journal/...

This looks like an important one! Nice work all!

New paper out today in Ecology Letters! In this synthesis we dive into the equilibrium assumption in ecology - why it's everywhere in ecological theory, the evidence for it in nature, when meeting the assumption is important, how to achieve it in empirical research, and more! tinyurl.com/yh6kyysm

“We fundamentally believe that publishing less – but better – is essential for the health of the entire research system worldwide,” the authors of the report state.

Interested in resource competition theory, mutualism, spatial patterns or temporal dynamics? I'll be giving a talk in the IITE online seminar series tomorrow summarizing our recent work on microbial cross-feeding that includes all these ingredients.

Our lab's first trip together to the field in SoCal! So fun to explore and talk remote sensing, plants, pollinators, and ecosystem restoration with my new grad students.

New paper led by former post-bac researcher Isabelle Turner, with @chriscatano.bsky.social: Seeding density alters the role of soil moisture in structuring plant abundance during prairie restoration onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

I'm developing a grad course on experimental design (study design generally) & data analysis in biology. What topics, papers, etc. do you think are most important? If you teach something similar, I would love to hear what/how you teach (if you are willing to share a syllabus that would amazing!).

🌱📚Excited to share my journey and experiences in academia, the ups, downs, and everything in between! Hope it sparks good conversations! @plantaeofficial.bsky.social @aspbofficial.bsky.social @plantpostdocs.bsky.social @plantgrads.bsky.social

My department is searching for a new Microbiologist!!! Come join us at the University of South Alabama. We are broadly defining microbiologists, so microbial ecologists, human health, environmental microbiologists, etc encouraged to apply www.southalabama.edu/departments/...

But if i change the terminology... 🤫

I know about the Freshamn 15, but no one told me about the Assistant Professor 15...

"Biologists often become alienated from mathematics at an early stage in their career under the misconception [...] that biology is not a mathematical science. The claim is also often made that mathematical theory is overly simplistic, ignoring the [...] complex nature of biological systems." 1/

Absolutely! I'm experiencing the same thing as AE for a few journals. Authors are getting frustrated with me (I feel awful), and often, the additional burden shifts to me to provide a second review. 😒

As an Associate Editor, this is what I'm going through. It can take *months* just to get 2 people to agree to do a review. Many don't respond to the invitation at all, prolonging the process further. People are busy, that's understandable. Please respond, and if "no", suggest alternative reviewers.

Confused writing is usually a symptom of confused thinking. As we struggle to clarify writing, we clarify our thoughts. AI writing aids rob us of that struggle, leaving clean-looking text and thoughts still confused for lack of inspection. Writing is not just a product; it is a diagnostic tool.

I made the mistake to open my email on a Friday evening. It's eight review requests... Eight! We need a system that shows automated unavailability if you have two accepted requests. It's just not okay.

PLEASE respond to review requests! Saying "No" as soon as you can is helpful so we can move to the next invitation. Each ignored invitation can delay the process by around 2 weeks. Be considerate of your peers relying on this process!

After 18 months of writing on Substack, I put together a bit of a highlights post for new readers. It's a good place to start if you're interested in future focused writing on biodiversity, climate and water. predirections.substack.com/p/why-i-writ...

As always, Ted Chiang is great in this interview. cdh.princeton.edu/blog/2025/08...

The study can be found here. All the more reason to recreate nature, even if it is small patches in your own yard. Replace those lawns with native plants, and let your kids get their hands dirty! 🧪 www.mdpi.com/2673-4834/6/...

Shocking but perhaps unsurprising finding by @findingnature.bsky.social that human connection to nature has declined precipitously. This is bad for our health and for the preservation of nature. The solution? Regreen, and take your kids outside. 🧪 www.theguardian.com/environment/...

If you're doing mentoring right, your mentees will argue with you. And when they win one - that's a great day! scientistseessquirre...

Happy to share new work from the lab and a wonderful group of co-authors: We argue that conservation biology needs to move beyond the current focus on species richness metrics. While this has been argued before, we highlight the unappreciated impacts of using richness for a variety of problems:

What is spectral biology? We explain in this synthesis article on “Spectral biology across scales in changing environments” esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/R6QXPK www.spectralbiology.org

Are you a PI in a biology field looking for students to join your lab as a PhD student? I made a Starter Pack to help PIs and potential PhD students connect! If you would like to be added to this pack, please let me know! go.bsky.app/EFj87fi

It was great to be back at my Alma Matter, Washington Univ. in St. Louis and the Tyson Research Center, to catch up with good friends and present at the Tyson Environment Research Conference. Tyson is an amazing community supporting great research and people. Thanks @jamyersecology.bsky.social

How can we reform science? I have some ideas. But I am not sure you’ll like them, because they don’t promise much. elevanth.org/blog/2025/07...

You would not judge a hammer by how well it drives a screw; likewise, do not blame a spread metric for failing a richness test. Functional diversity is multifaceted and needs a toolbox, not a universal index.

Work from our lab shows that non-native milkweed can allow monarch development into the winter, creating butterflies during a season where they can no longer migrate or breed. If you want to help monarchs, plant native milkweed only. 🧪 #plant-insect #nativeplants academic.oup.com/jinsectscien...

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/...

"Science is about interacting with and discovering the world, so isn’t it a shame that so many of us are persuaded to walk the same narrow and well-trodden path to perceived academic success?"

Start of a new landscape scale experiment in SoCal to understand how conservation grazing, seed arrival, and environmental heterogeneity interact to alter the distribution of biodiversity across scales.

"Thinking time —the time needed to concentrate without interruptions has always been central to scholarly work. It is essential to designing experiments, compiling data, assessing results, reviewing literature and, of course, writing. Yet, [it] is often undervalued." www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Check out our new publication lead by Lucie Mahaut in @royalsocietypublishing.org Functional diversity shapes the stability of reef fish biomass under global change 👉 Trait diversity and redundancy drive stability; human impacts reduce it. 🔗 doi.org/10.1098/rspb... #ReefLifeSurvey 🌐🧪🦑🌍

Endorse. One of the interesting things about LLM discourse is that so many people seem unable to picture any application EXCEPT the "AI wheel of death". Is "Author gets AI to write paper" bad? Of course! Is that the only way authors can use LLMs? Of course not.

Since we are still talking about interactions, I worked with some ecologists a couple of years ago on measurement scale, interactions and interpretation issues. I think some problems arise from failure to distinguish prediction from inference, a chronic problem in ecology imo doi.org/10.1111/brv....

So happy to share our Review paper A well-connected Earth: The science and conservation of organismal movement @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

It’s official! The Dutch translation of my @princetonupress.bsky.social book just came out with @knnv.bsky.social Uitgeverij. I’m so excited to share all the fascinating stories of animals acting like doctors and pharmacists in my native language.🧪

A 🆕 Editorial from the Editor-in-Chief of "Ecological Applications" hypes our new article type ("Method") and reaffirms the journal's commitment to being a forum for all authors. Read it here: doi.org/10.1002/eap....

What I wish I knew: 33 thoughts for early career researchers Reflections I wish someone had shared with me early in my research career. predirections.substack.com/p/what-i-wis...

Alonso-Crespo et al. explore priority and year effects on plant diversity, productivity and vertical root 𖣂 distribution. Read about their insights from a grassland field experiment.🌿 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Want to understand grasslands? Look at the bigger picture Great writeup of @chriscatano.bsky.social's recent paper showing how arrival rates of individuals and species alter community assembly locally, influencing diversity patterns over time and across scales natsci.msu.edu/news/2025-05...

I'm hiring a postdoc! Searching for a candidate interested in the process of speciation to come join me at Georgia Tech in Atlanta -- an exciting place with a growing core of eco-evolutionary researchers. Various skill sets will be applicable. Please share!

This was predictable.

Leonie Schönbeck showed how drought tolerant species with leaves below turgor loss point maintain photosynthesis and avoid plasmolysis with me and @santiago-ecofiz.bsky.social. check it out online-library.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Leaf drought and heat tolerance are integrated across three temperate biome types I am very happy to see our paper out! Plant responses to many stresses are mediated by the same processes and I have long wondered how this relates to hotter droughts. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Twenty years ago this month Kevin Wright and I set out on an 18,000 mile journey from Durham, NC across North America to collect monkeyflowers. The seeds from that trip (my third rotation project) have given rise to major advances and scores of scientific publications over the past two decades.

An interview where I reflect on a decade of work on biodiversity change and in particular the evidence for local biodiversity change - some of the most inspiring and heated debate happened at iDiv. It’s is great to be part of this podcast.