Science funding needs fixing - but not through chaotic reforms.

Very happy to share this new article on Andes-Amazon tree diversity change. We found that over the last 4 decades, tree richness changed differently across the Andes-Amazon regions. Thanks to the many researchers across the world who made this possible! www.nature.com/articles/s41... Keep reading!

Come and join us! Plants, mountains and the Tropics!

Last chance to apply for this ACCE+ DPT PhD project on nomadic birds in East Africa: www.findaphd.com/phds/project... deadline is tomorrow, so still time to draft soemthing good! It will be a great project with @funkyant.bsky.social too, so please apply!

Our @bes-cascade.bsky.social survey of ecologists asked which socio-political changes might be most effective in the biodiversity & climate crises Broad-scale transformative changes were most selected Biodiversity or carbon credits, use of AI, & de-extinction were each selected in <1% of responses

"Bond’s work leaves behind an inconvenient lesson for an era of climate urgency: that speed is not a substitute for understanding, and that good intentions, applied without care, can erase ancient worlds as efficiently as neglect." A beautiful tribute to William Bond. Forever missed by many.

Hendrik Mesdag's sunset (1887) looks simple: sea and the sky, which a low horizon divides into unequal parts, a few sails in the distance, on the left, enliven the rather severe construction. But look at the multiplicity of tones and the complexity of this work sinks in.

Our research group has an open PhD position! Please share widely! Possible topics include: Determinants of range limits Assembly of ecological networks (eg, plant-pollinator) The role of soil arthropods (eg, ants) in carbon storage Details: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

This paper has been on the way for just about a decade: the 1st draft was written 8 years ago - some great pesistence by the fab T. Michael Anderson! Lots of fun to have been working on it wth the likes of @funkyant.bsky.social y.social, @sallyarchibald.bsky.social & @carlastaver.bsky.social etc!

#Mirmeco2025 community!

BrilliANT time at #Mirmeco2025 in Recife. A meeting full of enthusiasm & passion for #ants. Fabulous to see all my Brazilian and other ant friends again ❤️

Shiny new PhD being advertised with me and @cmbeale.bsky.social !!

Ed Luce watching democracy die in the United States of America

When I was a teenager there was a bus direct from my hometown in Germany to London - we had a British army base, and this direct bus connection was one of the benefits of that. One summer I went on that bus to go volunteer in an old people's home in Southend-on-Sea. I had just turned 18 and was... 🧵

Great to discuss the flagrant disinformation peddled at the Reform conference by Malhotra with @garethiacobucci.bsky.social As @LawrenceYoung11 et al agree, the 💩 re mRNA vax and "turbo cancer" (anyone taking that name seriously?!🤦‍♂️) is pure, insidious fiction designed to ⏫️ hesitancy.

We have a new paper developing methods for looking at bird-fire macroecology. What’s most fascinating to me is that the magnitude *and* direction of fire effects can vary enormously across a species range. Stationarity is dead!! Long live non-stationarity!! doi.org/10.1002/fee....

woah this is genuinely, utterly WILD Ant queens of one species produce males of another species, so she can then mate with them and produce hybrid workers! This is so gloriously weird I can't quite compute it 🤯🧪🐜 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Join us!

Unraveling the arc of vaccine progress www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Hot off the press: Metabolic traits are shaped by phylogenetic conservatism and environment, not just body size Our article in PNAS explores several controversies in metabolic theory in a macroscale study of 🐜 #aridity #temp #SMR #DGC 📸:François Brassard www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2501541122

Awesome to see our paper exploring competing hypotheses in macro/metabolic ecology out in PNAS. Led by the all star @lilyleahy.bsky.social with a range of amazing folks including @funkyant.bsky.social @natejsanders.bsky.social @ianjwright.bsky.social. Check it out! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Really disappointing new policy from NERC banning resubmissions of grant applications Many of us, including me, have won grants on resubmission, using the reviews to improve the application This is is neither fair nor productive www.ukri.org/councils/ner...

Hiring a marine biology lecturer at @universityofessex.bsky.social! Permanent position. Deadline to apply= 20 Aug. We have aquaria, lots of mass specs/genomic facilities, field trips to Crotia, Indonesia, Scotland and a super collegial department. Pls share! vacancies.essex.ac.uk/tlive_webrec...

The Tropical East Asian Savanna Symposium is today! Join us in person or online to hear from some truly fantastic speakers. Online via teams Meeting ID: 374 127 860 994 5 Passcode: Yq3je9Jo or in person at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh 9:30-4:30 @royalsoced.bsky.social 🌐🌏 #ecology #savanna

Ecologists/botanists: In the 80s/90s tropical tree monitoring plots showed evidence of degradation. A counter argument was that when you set up monitoring plots in "old growth", you are biasing toward older trees that will die sooner. Anyone remember key cites? And if this held up?

Somerset looking quite splendid today

So excited to finally share our new paper charting the global spectrum of tree crown architecture, out today at @natcomms.nature.com ‬🧪🌐 Paper link 🔗: www.nature.com/articles/s41... A brief thread of what we found 🧵

WTF? If this Government can’t even agree to this smallest of initiatives, which has no cost to them & absolutely no down-sides, what hope that it will step up to the bigger nature challenges we face? This is a *popular* policy, for heavens sake. Obstinate tin-eared stupidity doesn’t come close …

Closing tomorrow! Last chance to apply for postdoc to explore the role of animals in savanna ecosystem productivity & nutrient cycling! Link to job: tinyurl.com/53dy4584 #savanna #termites #largemammals

The hysterical reaction of certain commentators to today’s UK-EU agreement is something to behold. The “surrender” of using e-gates when you go on holiday. The contempt for the “will of the people” of making education abroad more accessible. Rigorous debate is good. This nonsense is a waste of time.

Job Opportunity: Lecturer in Ecology and Global Change at University of Leeds. We welcome dynamic applicants from across the world to join our team of tropical ecology and global change scientists. jobs.leeds.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...

Reminder we are advertising a postdoc to explore the role of animals in savanna ecosystem productivity & nutrient cycling! Link to job: tinyurl.com/53dy4584 #savanna #termites #largemammals

'Pond water crowfoot.' (1895) Eero Järnefelt was christened Erik but Finnicised his name to Eero, just as his fellow artist Axel Gallén later renamed himself Akseli Gallen-Kallela. This work, painted near Koli in eastern Finland, shows a strong influence from Japanese prints.

Simply this.

Thursday #morningread 🪽🪶🪽🪶

President Trump's "skinny" budget request absolutely eviscerates scientific research funding. The @aaas.org estimates the request would constitute an 82.5% reduction in research spending (and that's just the agencies named in the request).

Postdoc available! Come help us understand where the green stuff goes! Link to job: tinyurl.com/53dy4584

In February, Yadvinder & Eleanor traveled to South Africa to collect trait data at collaborator, Kate Parr’s @funkyant.bsky.social field site for her new ‘The Green Stuff’ Project. @naturerecovery.bsky.social We cover this visit in a visual way on our blog www.oxfordecosystems.org/post/explori...

Postdoc alert! Looking for someone to join our new savanna zoogeochemistry project with @ymalhi.bsky.social and Mark Robertson. Please circulate widely! Contact me if interested. #ecosystemecology #largemammalherbivores #termites my.corehr.com/pls/ulivrecr...

Spring in Somerset

‘Megafire’—You May Not Like It, But You Cannot Avoid It doi.org/10.1111/geb.... New paper on the meaning of 'megafire'.

'Dandelions,' was painted by the Danish artist Bertha Wegmann around 1910. It wasn't an arbitrary choice of a plant to paint: the dandelion was used to promote the women’s liberation movement in Scandinavia because of its capacity for uncontrolled, strong-willed growth.

If you're an entomologist/soil invertebrate scientist, then it's likely your dream job advert just went live at Reading University in the UK! #Invertebrate 🧪 jobs.reading.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

‘New’ book! The irony of researcher surnames.

Funding crisis for UK biodiversity research? No ecology-specific funding calls from UKRI, NERC pulled its large grant & highlight topic grant rounds, and very little from Defra. We have not joined the Biodiversa round At a time of biodiversity crisis, this lack is astonishing & worrying

I am #hiring! Do you like #lidar #data and #forests? Enjoy both computational & field work? I am hiring a Computational and Field Senior Technician to join my UKRI FLF project team for 2 yrs, based in Cambridge, UK (not remote). More details here (closing April 7th) www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/50700/

Declined to review a Royal Society fellowship proposal. Need to get their house in order re. #ElonMusk.

🚀 Exciting news! The Global Grassy Group (GGG) website is now live! 🌱🌍 GGG is a network of ecologists & biologists working to standardise and improve vegetation sampling in grassy biomes. Want to contribute your data? Check out our participation guide and get in touch! globalgrassygroup.github.io

Spine free zone! It is time for invertebrates to stand up and be counted. There are quite a lot of them apparently. Today's cartoon... www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...