Graeme Cumming

Body mass–abundance relationships reveal uneven global energy distribution across body size classes in vertebrates The relationship between species body mass and abundance (MAR-SPP) is a fundamental feature of ecosystems, reflecting whether energy is accumulated in few large organisms or dispersed amongst several ...

In productive ecosystems, larger animals capture more energy per species biogeography.pensoft.net/article/1644...

Picture of the Oyster Bay stone #fishweirs from Kalgan River

Diagram of Oyster Harbour structures 3 and 4 (see Fig. 1c). Based upon plane table survey by w.e. Dix. Dix, W.C. and Meagher, S.J., 1976. Fish traps in the south-west of Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum, 4(2), pp.171-187.

A photograph of the fish traps taken around 1900 (Supplied: WA Museum)

Title Aerial images Photographer City of Albany Dimensions 1129 x 883, 0.22 MB https://inherit.dplh.wa.gov.au/Public/inventory/Image/9c8acfe6-bbf2-4284-887f-8cd5760825c3

Aerial image of the Oyster Bay stone #fishweirs from Kalgan River, #Albany #WesternAustralia. They were built by #indigenous #Menang #Noongar people, for whom fishing is believed to have been a central part of their culture for generations deep into history. 1/3 #Coastalhistory #tcdtceh

Seals, shipwrecks and a screaming swallower: Underwater Photographer of the Year 2026 – in pictures The annual competition draws thousands of entries from across the world and brings together images from below the water’s surface that show the diversity and challenges of subaquatic life

Some lovely images in this - 2026 Underwater Photographer of the Year www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Wild dolphin playing with a pufferfish. They are believed to use the potent defensive chemicals produced by puffefish to get high.

Original post

This used to be the norm. But about 15-20 years ago there were complaints that editors weren’t expert enough to check revisions properly, and a push for more careful checking of revisions. Pick your poison?

Recovery of marine #TopPredators is achievable. Our global review identified 481 success stories. The commonest management measure was bycatch reduction (57%), followed by the establishment of #MPAs (15%) and #InvasiveSpecies management (6%)
👉 www.frontiersin.org/journals/mar...
🌍🌐🧪 #OceanOptimism

Azores dodges proposal to overturn no-fishing zones in its giant new MPA network SÃO MATEUS, Portugal — Winter forced Emanuel Alves to remove his boat from the water at the port of São Mateus in the Azores, the Portuguese archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean. The 64-year-old fi...

It was huge news in 2024 when the #Azores established its huge Marine Protected Areas Network, which 19 species of #whales & 19 #sharks, plus sea turtles & more call home

So when these #MPAs were pressured to open up for fishing recently, there was a big outcry

That measure has now been defeated:

Birdwatching may reshape the brain and build its buffer against ageing Expert birdwatchers have changes in their brain structure compared with novices, which probably help them better identify birds and may even protect against age-related cognitive decline

Expert birdwatchers have changes in their brain structure compared with novices, which probably help them better identify birds and may even protect against age-related cognitive decline

Mapping tipping risks from Antarctic ice basins under global warming - Nature Climate Change Climate change threatens the future of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Here the authors show that individual drainage basins have different thresholds and loss patterns, suggesting the need to consider the d...

⚠️"A first threshold, potentially as low as 1–2 °C above pre-industrial levels, triggers the long-term collapse of ~40% of marine ice volume in West Antarctica"

I.e. The Paris Agreement target locks in approximately 2.1 metres sea-level equivalent from WAIS alone.

🌊

An Orca tossing a Sea Lion out of the water

Incredible capture of an Orca tossing a 1,000 pound Sea Lion like a rag doll.

The Orca is upside down, note its 2 pectoral fins pointing up in the center of the photo. The Sea Lion's back flippers are on the right.

Salish Sea, San Juan Islands, Washington
📸Tandem Wheels Photography

Degradation of fish food webs in the Anthropocene The decrease in body size driven by the selective species turnover is widely altering fish food web topology and function.

New paper out examining fish food web degradation in the Anthropocene. We show the structure of aquatic food webs are changing-- even when species richness doesn’t. These signals are strongly associated with decreases in body size within fish communities. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🌐🐠🐡🦈🐟

Fossil isotope evidence for trophic simplification on modern Caribbean reefs - Nature Using nitrogen isotopes from ancient and modern fish otoliths and corals, the study shows Caribbean reef food webs are now 60–70% shorter and functionally less diverse, indicating human-driven trophic simplification and increased risk of collapse.

The food chains on modern Caribbean coral reefs may have shortened by up to 70% compared with those on their prehistoric counterparts, according to research in Nature. The findings suggest that modern reefs could be increasingly vulnerable to external stressors and ecosystem collapse. 🌍 🧪

Interested in how climate change will impact oxygen and CO₂ extremes in mangroves? Check out our new paper: doi.org/10.1029/2025...

Tell don’t ask: how to use social media to mobilise local collective climate action - npj Climate Action npj Climate Action - Tell don’t ask: how to use social media to mobilise local collective climate action

This new paper in Nature Climate presents the results of a field experiment regarding what is the most effective social media strategy for climate communication, finding that "exhortations were more effective than requests." Read on for details: www.nature.com/articles/s44...

"The Southern Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia is becoming less salty at an astonishing rate, largely due to #climate change, new research shows."

The landscape of no worries? Increased recreation exposure decreases the landscape of human fear in wildlife Recreation's expanding footprint increasingly overlaps habitats once considered refuges from human disturbance. Yet our ability to predict wildlife re…

With the increase of recreation on public lands, there is an increasing need for data on how recreation affects wildlife. We ask whether wildlife responses to recreation depended on previous exposure to recreation

Paper, led by @markdittmer.bsky.social here www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Great to see the new paper being picked up in the press

phys.org/news/2026-02...

Weak trophic position–body mass relationships undermine simple size-spectrum models for coral reefs 🦑🧪

royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

Ecology is definitely to blame for resilience. But I don’t know where transformation originated… Is it embedded in any social science? Ecologists don’t really use it outside SES circles.

Exactly. Confusion also comes from mixing scales and levels of analysis. So you can in theory be more resilient at one level while transforming something else (less important for identity) at a lower level. e.g., transform water management (lower level) in order to remain an irrigation farmer.

I find a lot of the published thinking/terminology very confused and inconsistent. The problem IMO started when a leading group of resilience scholars wanted to include transformation as a form of resilience while also continuing usage of resilience as a return to equilibrium.

I would say that adaptation means keeping your identity, while transformation means losing it. So these terms are both problematic.

🦜 Can we map #bird communities, not just species? Using 50 years of #CitizenScience data, this new study defines 29 distinct bird communities across #Australia, providing a new continental framework to assess community condition and track change over time.

🔗 doi.org/10.1111/ddi....

Green ocean wave you can see through with a few dozen yellow tang fish swimming just under the surface.

This is a throng of yellow tangs hanging out together just a few feet from the ocean shore.

#fish #nature #photography #marinelife #love #yellow #maui #hawaii #bluesky #goodnight #peace #nokings #vacay

That's a Giant Kelp holdfast or base clinging to rocks on a shallow part of a reef. The mass migration of urchins seeking food is called an "urchin stampede". The holdfast is only a fraction of the mass of a kelp stand so this behavior is very destructive. This happens when their predators are gone.

McCoy's elf skink from northeastern Australia. Look at those stubby little arms, likely an adaptation to its burrowing lifestyle.

What causes tipping points in complex microbial ecosystems? Check this @pnas.org paper by @thilogross.bsky.social showing that cross-feeding networks create strong interdependencies & small structural changes can trigger abrupt collapses. @akhilesh-nandan.bsky.social www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10....

Swim bladder problems? Fish do this when swim bladder is infected or damaged.

ah the joys of evolution... this is the kind of beast that got me hooked on biology 🤩

Extreme temperature events reshuffle the ecological landscape of the Southern Ocean - Nature Communications Satellite records reveal that Southern Ocean phytoplankton responds in contrasting ways to marine heatwaves and cold spells. These opposing impacts vary sharply by region, exposing distinct ecological...

New study uses #satellite records and shows that #SouthernOcean #phytoplankton responds in contrasting ways to marine #heatwaves and #cold spells. The impacts vary sharply by region, exposing distinct #ecological sensitivity to #climate -driven extremes. www.nature.com/articles/s41...