New paper out! Here's a puzzle: phototrophy, the ability to use light for energy, is one of life's great innovations. It evolved early and transformed the biosphere. But it evolved 2x. Why not just once, why not more? Our work suggests the answer is priority effects. www.nature.com/articles/s44...

#otd 175 years ago Lina Hähnle, pioneer in bird conservation, was born in Sulz am Neckar, Germany. She would lead the NGO later known as @nabu.de for almost 40 years en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lina_H%...

Juvenile pike above a metal grid with Aufwuchs (Quagga mussels, sponges, and probably bryozoans) from June 2025 #LakeConstance #fish #FreshwaterLife

On the subject of penguins and madness, did you know that 9 King Penguins were released in 1936 in Arctic Norway by the Norwegian Nature Protection Society? At least a couple possibly survived until 1944. So for a brief period Polar Bears and penguins could in theory have met. #biologicalinvasions

quagga mussels on the move (July 2023) #InvasiveSpecies #LakeConstance

Spiralling global temperatures (1850-2025) The last 3 years really jump out, rather like 2015-6 did when we first produced this graphic back then. Now, 2015-6 looks rather cool... More on the spiral: doi.org/10.1175/BAMS...

We've got ISSUES. Literally. We scraped >100k special issues & over 1 million articles to bring you a PISS-poor paper. We quantify just how many excess papers are published by guest editors abusing special issues to boost their CVs. How bad is it & what can we do? arxiv.org/abs/2601.07563 A 🧵 1/n

Very pleased that this paper is now out esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/.... Fascinating #moth with a crazy life history. Led by Oliver Miler in cooperation with Frantisek Marek #Lepidoptera #teammoth @uni-konstanz.de @ecologicalsociety.bsky.social

A different kind of #LakeIce story: During the Second World War (winter 1939/1940), Swiss soldiers built a canal in the ice of Lower Lake Constance to prevent German soldiers (officially) and refugees (welcome side effect) from entering Switzerland. (Rosgarten Museum, Konstanz) #LakeConstance

Skating on #LakeIce

Still cold temperatures and near-shore ice cover at Lake Constance. But nothing compared to years with complete ice cover, such as 1963 (the last year with complete ice cover) or 1695, the latter depicted in a painting by X F Ziegler (Rosgartenmuseum, Constance). #LakeConstance #LakeIce

Ice skaters in a sheltered bay in Lower Lake Constance #LakeConstance #LakeIce

Mikroskopische Gemüths- und Augen-Ergötzung (Microscopic delight for the mind and eyes) (1763) from Martin Frobenius Ledermüller

Input from new study. Marjohn Yucada Baludo, Dietmar Straile. 2025. Long-term changes in intra- and interspecific trait variability of a small herbivore in a deep perialpine lake. LO aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Wassertemperaturen im Bodensee (Lake Constance) #ShowYourStripes @uni-konstanz.de

First post on Bluesky! Picture of snorkeling in Lake Constance: Mixed species shoal in the littoral zone. More snorkeling pictures and other content coming soon.