The U.S. military action in Venezuela marks a turning point. An international human rights scholar warns it reflects a shift toward unilateral, autocratic power, unconstrained by law and balance of power, and using force to impose the Trump administration’s will on other nations.

Gazing into the flames: A guide to assessing the impacts of climate change on landscape fire www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Major fires are increasing in Aotearoa. "In the five decades from 1964 to 2015, there had been 19 such fires. In the past decade from 2015 to present day, there had already been 13." www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

👀Behind the paper!👀 🌳By climbing into the canopy and studying trait variation across species and forest layers, author Leonardo Ziccardi explains how the emergent trees of the Amazon are dynamic strategists💡 Read it here👇 buff.ly/PnMrVkX 🧪🌍

In our new Biological Conservation paper, we show the potential of social media in improving #invasive species #distribution. Incorporating social media data 🔍 identified new locality records, 🔍 expanded range size for 67% of species Link: doi.org/10.1016/j.bi... (1/6) @monashbiol.bsky.social

Should ecologists be worried about the carbon footprint of their own use of “AI” and LLMs? esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

🌲🌡️How do forests stay cool despite #heatwaves? Charlotte Grossiord (WSL/EPFL) receives an ERC #grant of just under 2 million Swiss francs to research how European #forests cope with “atmospheric drought” and which tree species are especially resistant to heat and #drought. www.wsl.ch/en/news/how-...

When global temperatures shot up by ~6°C about 56 million years ago, plants were unable to thrive The reduced ability of vegetation & soils to capture & store carbon may have kept temperatures elevated for >100,000 years Today Earth is warming ~10 times faster than it did 56 million years ago

How social–ecological #networks can improve our understanding and management of #biologicalinvasions – new paper by Fiona Rickowski et al. now published in #BioScience doi.org/10.1093/bios... #InvasiveSpecies #nonnative #pests #conservation #alienspecies

I'm very sad to say William Bond, of the University of Cape Town & Fellow of the Royal Society (@royalsociety.org ), has passed away. It is a great loss. He was an enthusiastic ecologist and a critical thinker. I learned a lot, and I still had a lot to learn from him. RIP. 😢 🧪🌎🔥🌿🌳🪴🌐 #PlantScience

Garden ponds often serve as potential sources of plant invasions share.google/RmS1UyGblH8c...

Plants for space exploration and Earth applications Fountain et al. nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #plantscience

www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/i... Grim but very good story by @kiwifarah.bsky.social on how absolutely awful introduced predators are. More trapping needed.

Increased nitrogen deposition may facilitate an invasive plant species through interfering plant–pathogen interactions - Lin - 2025 - Journal of Ecology - Wiley Online Library besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The path toward a unified trait space: synthesizing plant functional diversity - Carmona - 2025 - New Phytologist - Wiley Online Library nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

A new study says only 3% of Earth’s land remains “untouched.” We’ve been editing the planet for millennia as a result of pushing animals/plants to extinction….reshaping entire continents. www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/h...

The final version is now available #AmJBot bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

When invasive species become part of our culture – our study on the process of cultural integration of #invasivespecies and its implications, now published in #npjBiodiversity www.nature.com/articles/s44... #biologicalinvasions #alienspecies #nonnative #invasive #pests #conservation

How the #arts and #science can jointly protect #nature – our new article on building synergies between #art and #biodiversity #conservation now published in in Front. Ecol. Environ. @esajournals.bsky.social esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Final version now available #AmJBot @botsocamerica.bsky.social Sequoia & Sequoiadendron: Two paleoendemic megatrees with different adaptive responses to high-severity fires bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... Plants are not adapted to fire, but to fire regimes 🧪🌍🔥🌳🌿🪴 #ecoevo #wildfire

Pine plantations burn more severely & recover more slowly than other vegetation types. This is observed using the forest map (L) or the forest inventory (R), Spain besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... jgpausas.blogs.uv.es/2025/10/16/p... 🧪🌎🔥🍁🌳🔥 wildfire @jappliedecology.bsky.social

“Study: Wildfire smoke could drive tens of thousands of deaths each year by 2050” www.axios.com/local/portla... - @axios.com #AirQuality #Health #Wildfires #WildfireSmoke

Drought sensitivity in eucalypts is climate‐adapted and consistently influenced by wood density - great work by PhD student Victoria Perez-Martinez at @deannicolle1.bsky.social Currency Creek Arboretum during the Tinderbox drought besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Tuned in yesterday for an impassioned plea and delightful talk by @john-m-dwyer.bsky.social on how dry rainforest trees, including our beloved vine thickets, could be used to revegetate Brisbane's streets in the lead up to the 2032 Olympics. Lots of neat data on temp. niches!

I'm so very proud of Niger Sultana and the first chapter of her PhD thesis!!! She had so many challenges and came through them all with flying colours. With @loraxcate.bsky.social @azhar06.bsky.social et al. in @botsocamerica.bsky.social bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Toxic toad invasion puts ecology of Madagascar at risk https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/24/madagascar-toxic-toads-lemurs-ecology-threat?CMP=share_btn_tw

1/ Invasional meltdown is a popular but nebulous concept in invasion ecology. It involves multiple direct & indirect mechanisms, yet it is rarely studied beyond simple pairwise facilitations. In a new paper, we expand the concept & offer testable hypotheses: redpath-staff.mcgill.ca/ricciardi/Ri...

“The amount of spring rain is one of the best indicators of when you’ll hit the more severe part of the fire season,” Max Moritz @ucanr.edu said. “But the warming trend still plays a role because... plants are drying faster than in the past.” www.independent.com/2025/08/18/f...

‘Pray for rain’: wildfires in Canada are now burning where they never used to Canada’s response to the extreme weather threat is being upended as the traditional epicentre of the blazes shifts as the climate warms www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

We need an "In Bed" rule for extreme weather headlines, except add "Thanks to Big Oil's Avoidable Pollution." ‘We’re being cooked alive:’ Europe burns as temperatures soar above 100 degrees Thanks to Big Oil's Avoidable Pollution:

www.dw.com/en/firefight... Fire season in the northern hemisphere is well under way. This article has some sensible solutions.

Great fun working with Lyndle Hardstaff, Megan Murray, and @zoexiro.bsky.social on our latest flammability project Toward a macroevolutionary understanding of live-leaf flammability in plant species of fire-prone forests @botsocamerica.bsky.social doi.org/10.1002/ajb2...

🔥🌱 From the #AJB Special Issue: “Understanding novel #fire regimes using plant trait‐based approaches" 🌱🔥 Fight fire with food #forests: Assessing flammability of tropical crop plant species to design fire-smart #agroforestry systems By Ashley Pacheco, Hannah Goodman et al. doi.org/10.1002/ajb2...

Citizen Scientists Are Accelerating Ecology Research, Study Suggests www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/s...

It's 2025, and it's still climate change driving major forest loss through wildfires. With insights from @climate-guy.bsky.social and @calxcunningham.bsky.social @ucmerced.bsky.social @utas.edu.au www.nytimes.com/2025/07/21/c...

⚡Striking impacts on forests!⚡ Our perspective on how lightning impacts forest dynamics, through igniting fires in boreal forests and being a major cause of tree mortality in tropical forests.🔥🌳⚡ Led by Sander Veraverbeke @vuamsterdam.bsky.social @globalchangebio.bsky.social doi.org/10.1111/gcb....

Our new research highlights the extent that aspen stands may act as a firebreak, slowing or stopping fire. Applications for land management and implications for fire-driven conifer-to-aspen forest conversion. Thanks @grumpyunclesean.bsky.social for the summary below. doi.org/10.1002/eap....

The countries most affected are Italy, Greece, Spain and Portugal, with temperatures nearing or topping 40C (104F).

If you're waiting on a reply, a peer review, or other effort from me--please be patient. I urgently left to document a developing forest die-off event more intense than any I've seen. No obvious biotic agents, dead & dying include multiple Pinus & Juniperus, many Quercus, & shrubs. #WhatKillsTrees

If you think the seasons are feeling… different, you may be right. Our new review in Science (@science.org) shows that Earth’s changing rhythms could have major and underestimated consequences for life on Earth. 🌍🧵 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

And if you want to have a chat about it outside of Bluesky, I've also published The Conversation piece on my Substack: predirections.substack.com/p/earths-sea...

Fuel moisture matters more for some species than for others. Cool stuff by Azaj Mahmud.

An iconic plants of the Californian chaparral: chamise (Adenostoma fasciculatum, Rosaceae). It is a flammable plant that both resprouts & recruits (from the soil seed bank) after fire, as you can see here. Los Padres NP, California 🧪🌍🔥🌳🌿💚🪴 wildfire

“[It is] a collective call to action for every country, every business and every person who cares about a livable planet. Our economies, our communities, our health – none of it can survive without forests.” #wildfires #climate #forests #science #environment

‘Researchers estimate that 67,000 sq km (26,000 sq mi) of these pristine, old-growth #forests were lost in 2024 – an area nearly as large as the Republic of Ireland, or 18 football pitches a minute. #Fires were the main cause, overtaking land clearances from #agriculture…’ 1/

Given that a substantial number of people will likely read AI-based summaries of our scientific papers, how should we be adapting our writing style? Are there stylistic or structural choices that will make writing more palatable to our AI overlords?

🔥🌱 From the upcoming #AJB Special Issue: “Understanding novel #fire regimes using plant trait‐based approaches" 🌱🔥 From plant traits to fire behavior: Scaling issues in flammability studies By Dylan Schwilk, Md. Azharul Alam, Nathan Gill et al. doi.org/10.1002/ajb2... #botany #plantscience

(EN) Exciting new publication with the participation of @alefidelis.bsky.social. Don’t miss it! (PT) Nova publicação com a participação de @alefidelis.bsky.social. Não perca!

Check out this new #AJB essay by Jitka Klimešová, Timothy Harris & Tomáš Herben! Morphological knowledge in plant #ecology and why it matters doi.org/10.1002/ajb2... #botany #plantscience