🚨 The collapse of our natural world is a direct threat to the UK’s national security. 🌍 The Nature + National Security Bill is a new, urgent, science-led response to this emergency. 📣 Ask your MP to choose the #NNSBill in the private members’ bill ballot. Head to 👉 zerohour.uk/write

Many talk about ecological complexity, but is the concept useful in practice? Our new paper shows complexity is measurable in the field & can be restored But it isn’t reducible to simple indicators - we must measure multiple ecosystem properties besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Can development actually improve biodiversity? 🌿 Natalie Duffus explains Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG)—how it’s measured and what it could mean for invertebrates and ecosystems. Watch the full talk: www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhSL... @britentsoc.bsky.social @amentsoc.bsky.social @royentsoc.bsky.social

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This week’s ECO Chamber is live ⚡ as @jamesxparsons.bsky.social and @shoshaadie.bsky.social get to grips with government’s changes to 🌿 biodiversity net gain and the potential consequences for nature markets. Link to episode in comment below ⤵️

UKBMS results out today! Results from fifty years of butterfly monitoring! The UKBMS data reveals declines in 33 species over the last 50 years. Check out the full story below butterfly-conservation.org/news-and-blo... And the full 2025 statistics can be found here: jncc.gov.uk/our-work/off...

Our recent paper projects large shifts in GB plant, butterfly & bird communities, even under mild climate futures ‘Disappearing bioclimates’, communities depending on climate conditions which will be lost ‘Novel bioclimates’, future climates with no current analogue www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Today is an exciting day: I have relaunched Inkcap! New website, new branding, lots of in-depth reporting on nature in Britain coming your way. Please share & help me get this thing off the ground. www.inkcap.co.uk/inkcap-is-ba...

🌱 New research shows how to make sure the nature credits you buy are real, not just greenwashing. Dive into science-based tips for stronger biodiversity & climate impact from Nature Recovery experts. Read more👇 @ecioxford.bsky.social @biology.ox.ac.uk @natduffus.bsky.social @joewbull.bsky.social

Brainwashing, 2026 edition. This paper shows how X's algorithmic feed shifts people's views rightwards. It's a sophisticated, highly effective form of reorientation. And it is utterly chilling. If you're still on that platform, unhook yourself now. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Really pleased to have passed my viva yesterday! Officially Dr Nat 🥳. Thank you to my examiners for a really pleasant and interesting viva, and to my supervisors for all their support over the last 4 years! 🪲💚

📣 registration for the rainbowR conference is now live 🎉 The conference is for anyone interested in R and/or analysing data to understand LGBTQ+ issues. The majority of speakers and workshop leaders are LGBTQ+, but you do not have to be LGBTQ+ to attend. pretix.eu/rainbowr/con... #RStats #LGBTQ

My first book, Darwin and the Queer Origins of Life, will be published by Yale University Press on 11 August (UK) and 8 September (US). Please help spread the word! 🙏 UK: yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300... @yalebooks.bsky.social 🏳️‍🌈📚🐵 US: yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300... @yalepress.bsky.social 🏳️‍⚧️ 🗃️🦋

This week's column is about something that's arguably more important than anything in the news, crucial as some of the other issues are. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

An across-government technical assessment published today recognises that "nature is the foundation of national security" and that "every critical ecosystem is on a pathway to collapse". A rational response to this would be to get very serious about nature recovery. www.gov.uk/government/p...

📢Executive Education Course Dive into Green Economy & Nature-Positive Finance - 5 days of expert training on why nature matters in financial markets 🌿 Oxford | 16–20 Mar 2026 bit.ly/greeneconomy...

A lot of what is said about Nature holding up development is simply not true. It’s wrong. False. At best misleading. If you’ve heard that newts are a cause of our national housing shortage, read this from @naturalengland.bsky.social naturalengland.blog.gov.uk/2026/01/14/b...

📉 UK biodiversity remains in serious decline—a worrying confirmation of what many suspected. We need an urgent rethink of our approach to protecting ecosystems, safeguarding species, and restoring habitats. It’s time for new, science-led legislation. #CANBill www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Super honoured to have contributed to this paper, led by the brilliant Sophus zu Ermgassen! We use our experience evaluating nature markets from around the world and derive 5 'golden' rules for the design and implementation of markets that deliver scientifically-credible outcomes. 🌱 rdcu.be/eYFx8

The programme is out for our Symposium, Exploring Queerness in Natural History, on 5 February. We're excited to hear from our Symposium Curators, Connor Butler and @aquadan1.bsky.social, as well as talks from Simon Goldhill, @canopyrobin.com and @rossbrooks.co.uk. (1/3) buff.ly/jc6Unz7

England’s most important nature sites are being failed.❌ Protected sites can and should be driving nature’s recovery. But today’s OEP report exposes the real problem: years of weak delivery, underfunding and political drift have left them unable to do the job the law intended.

We are super excited about Ross Brooks’ seminar on Tuesday! Details and sign up information below ⬇️🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Last year I wrote this for Transgender Awareness Week because of the challenges I've faced in my institution. Sharing it again as this week we celebrate trans identities and remember those who have been targeted for being themselves www.britishecologicalsociety.org/five-steps-t...

LGBTQ+ Journal Club is turning 1! 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈To celebrate, here's a bit about what we've been up to over the past year: a thread of interesting papers in queer biology (1/n) ⬇️🧵

In our session this week, we will be joined by the amazing @penguinacho.bsky.social for a discussion on penguin sexuality and the documentary Animal Pride: Nature's Coming Out Story! 🐧💬 #QueerStem #QueerAcademia #GayPenguins

Hello bluesky! We are an LGBTQ+ Biology Journal Club at Uni of Oxford 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️. We are interested in topics relevant to queer ecology and amplifying queer voices in academia 🪲🌱. For those in Oxford, we meet every 2 weeks - get in touch for more details! 🥳

Wish I could say I was shocked, but here's the Labour government constraining the right to peaceful protest again... 'You can protest but only according to our rules. The rules are: you're not allowed to use any of the tactics that make protest effective.'

New preprint alert! We DNA barcoded 95 thousand Ghanaian arthropods, more than doubling the number of BINs (a species proxy) available online from West Africa. In doing so we’ve released a huge amount of new data to scientists studying the region 🧪 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Big Doughnutty News. Just out in Nature: the all-new 2025 Doughnut. Transformed from a single-year snapshot to an annual global monitor of 21st century social & ecological thriving. Available to all in an open-access paper by @andrewlfanning.bsky.social and me. 🧵 1/ www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🚨Women are central to tropical wild meat systems, yet too often overlooked🚨 A new paper led by @jasminwillis.bsky.social, Dr Lauren Coad, @orchiddelirium.bsky.social & @ejmilnergulland.bsky.social reviewed 334 studies across 54 countries, finding women occupy 36 roles, from harvesting to trade.

"Today, we clear a soccer field’s worth of tropical forest every six seconds, a loss dramatically worsened by humanity’s growing hunger for meat" Wean ourselves off meat now, or the switch to a Pliocene climate that's locked in will do it for us www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Police continue to mass arrest protestors for opposing genocide and the Palestine Action ban. The day after the ban came into force, 29 were arrested. Last month, it was 500. Today, over a thousand people are defying the unjust proscription of a domestic direct action group.

Cool new research by @e-ellis1.bsky.social Moths & hoverflies are more sensitive to urbanisation than bees, but urban trees boost moth species richness in UK cities. #teammoth 🌍 royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Our upcoming Queer Ecology evening will be a real treat, with a special guided tour exploring the diversity of nature and its interpretation by scientists throughout history. 📍 Linnean Society 📆 6pm 25 September 🎟️ £15 (discounts for Members and concessions)

A romantic meeting of Wasp Spiders, Argiope bruennichi, at Thompson Common yesterday. The male is much smaller than the big, stripy female. They ended up going out to lunch afterwards, when he became the main course. srs.britishspiders.org.uk/portal.php/p... #Spiders #UKWildlife

Congratulations to @natduffus.bsky.social, who has been commended in the @mplsoxford.bsky.social Impact Awards! Nat has been recognised in the Early Career Policy Impact category for raising awareness of the ecological outcomes of Biodiversity Net Gain 👇 bit.ly/4eSmRZe

Having had time to digest the new BNG consultation, I am *astounded* at the proposed changes to the small sites metric (SSM). If the changes are implemented, the SSM could apply to developments up to 49 dwellings/1ha - affecting a lot of developments! 1/ consult.defra.gov.uk/defra-biodiv...

When warnings of Insectageddon were issued a few years ago, there was widespread denial. Less so now. It's devastating. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Very disappointing to see the govt not only cut funding for nature-friendly farming schemes but ALSO lay out a consultation on changes to BNG which would reduce the requirement for the majority of developments to compensate for their impacts on nature. www.wildlifetrusts.org/news/governm...

What part of nature emergency does the government not understand? These attacks on nature keep on coming. In a biodiversity crisis, the Govt should be expanding the nature friendly farming programme, not cutting it. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Labour promised to restore nature. ❌ Instead, their Planning Bill contains a licence to destroy it. We offered solutions. We’re done waiting. Part 3 of the Bill would gut the laws protecting our most precious habitats & species. Without significant change, it must be scrapped.

Congratulations to our wonderful colleague @natduffus.bsky.social who has been recognised as an unsung hero on the ENDS POWER LIST 2025 for her work on BNG and invertebrates 🐞 www.biodiversity.ox.ac.uk/research_sto...

Super honoured to have been recognised by the ENDS Power List 2025 for my work on Biodiversity Net Gain and invertebrates! 🪲🌱 www.endsreport.com/article/1918...

Dolphin Orgies, Intersex snails, Gay giraffes... Join award-winning drag king, Bi-Curious George, London’s most loveable nature boy, on a raucous romp through the animal kingdom as he shatters the heteronormative binaries through which we view the natural world. oumnh.ox.ac.uk/event/queer-...

This #earthday2025 we are thrilled to share some of the #Naturerecovery projects we have been working on with local partners in #Oxfordshire youtu.be/Yy1wRYRBtto @ecioxford.bsky.social @ox.ac.uk

this was just 10 years ago. the uk was ranked highest on the rainbow europe map for LGBTQI+ rights at 86%. in 2024 the uk had plummeted to just under 52%

Threats to nature in Labour’s planning bill | Letter

“It’s like claiming to have brought Napoleon back from the dead by asking a short French man to wear his hat.” A short piece in The Conversation by me on why “de-extinction” is nothing of the sort, and bad, bad conservation. theconversation.com/why-de-extin...

I gotta say, “women are going to space” sounds a lot nicer than “the ultra rich are taking hyper-polluting joyrides to space while the planet descends into climate chaos”

Ministers should listen to a powerful message from 32 nature organisations: the Planning Bill rides roughshod over nature protection, could push species towards extinction & cause greater loss of precious green space. Nature & development can go hand in hand - but this one-sided Bill isn’t the way