Ruth Dunn

Temporal Variation in Early-Life Conditions Impacts on Later-Life Levels of Infection in Sex Specific Ways | doi.org/10.1002/ece3... | Ecology and Evolution | #ornithology 🪶

Title and author list for the synthesis paper titled "Understanding and Predicting Population Response to Anthropogenic Disturbance: Current Approaches and Novel Opportunities" published in Ecology Letters.

The latest paper from the DISCAR synthesis group is out at Ecology Letters! We discuss the key approaches to predicting human impacts on wildlife populations, highlighting avenues for incorporating indirect effects, such as energetic modelling. doi.org/10.1111/ele....

A simple landscape illustration with a grey-green ocean, a dark grey rocky islet partly covered by orange lichen and a light grey overcast sky. On and around the islet are seabirds of several species, most pictured realistically in colour. The largest bird is a now-extinct great auk, depicted as a semi-translucent white ghost figure.

#SciArtSeptember 1: Islet

Somewhere in the waves of Barents Sea, a rocky islet acts as a perch for seabirds. Puffins, guillemots, razorbills and skuas are still here, though threatened by heating oceans and spreading disease. With them sits a lonely ghost of a great auk that once roamed these seas.

Ride On Board A Red-Footed Booby As It Catches Flying Fish Above The Indian Ocean Bird-borne cameras revealed that boobies might catch more fish in the air than in the sea.

Bird-borne cameras revealed that boobies might catch more fish in the air than in the sea.

www.iflscience.com/ride-on-boar...

These Majestic Seabirds Never Stop Pooping

You know this story is going to be a good time because my editor told me the first draft had too many instances of the word "poop" www.nytimes.com/2025/08/18/s... 🧪 (featuring Leo Uesaka, @ruthedunn.bsky.social‬ and @movementecology.bsky.social)

This Superpooper Seabird Is Amazing Scientists The first detailed observation of the bathroom habits of Streaked Shearwaters at sea leave scientists with a surprising load of questions

I have a real shitshow of a science story here for all my friends: 🧪 www.scientificamerican.com/article/thes...

Large marine protected areas can encompass movements of diverse megafauna Our results provide clear evidence for the value of the large scale of the Chagos Archipelago very large marine protected area (VLMPA) for protection of taxonomically diverse mobile megafauna. Furthe....

Hello people. Today in “One day, one paper”, The Chagos Archipelago Marine Protected Area MPA (640,000 km²) covers >99% of manta, hawksbill turtle, and seabird movements. Its large scale highlights the value of safeguarding diverse megafauna and achieving global ocean conservation targets 🌎

Homing navigation is optimized to diurnal constraints in a tropical seabird, the red-footed booby | doi.org/10.1016/j.an... | Animal Behaviour | #ornithology 🪶

A graphical abstract depicting the paper title, author list, and brief description of the paper. One images displays an adult common gullemot with one logger on each leg, next to a chick. The second image displays a close-up of a common guillemot's legs with both loggers shown. The text reads: An improved method to derive behavioural budgets and energetics from geolocator data in Common Guillemots Uria aalge Lila Buckingham, Maria Bogdanova, Francis Daunt, Robert Furness, Sophie Bennett, Ruth Dunn, David Jardine, Mark Newell, Ewan Weston & Jonathan Green We deployed two devices (time-depth recorder & geolocator) on 39 Common Guillemots for one non-breeding season. We allocated time to behaviours using 1) both devices (see Buckingham et al. 2023) and 2) only geolocators, following previous methods. We compared the behavioural budgets. We could not extract foraging behaviour (diving) when only using geolocator data. We devised an improved method for estimating behaviours and energetics in Common Guillemots using geolocator data. We also provide guidance for studies of other diving seabirds that rest at sea. Photos by Andrew Carter Seabird 37 (2025) Early Release

Do you use geolocators to estimate foraging time, behaviour, or energetics in diving seabirds? See our new paper for insights from a study of Common Guillemots.

doi.org/10.61350/sbj...

@theseabirdgroup.bsky.social

Thank you, Sal! 🤩

Tropical birds filmed catching flying fish mid-air for first time ever | Discover Wildlife When researchers fitted tiny cameras to the backs of red-footed boobies, they got an intimate view of exactly how these acrobatic seabirds hunt.

“When researchers fitted tiny cameras to the backs of two Red-footed Boobies, they got an intimate view of exactly how these acrobatic #seabirds hunt.”

Press release and link to open access paper here:
www.hw.ac.uk/news/2025/on...

www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts...

Photos of a reef manta ray, red-footed booby, and a hawsbill turtles with biologging devices attached to them. The journal logo is also featured, alongside the article title and author list. Some text reads: "Tracking data reveal that very large marine protected areas offer protection for mobile marine megafauna including benthic foragers (turtles), pelagic planktivores (manta ray), and oceanic predators (seabirds)".

New research led by @alicetrevail.bsky.social combines tracking data to show the value of large marine protected areas in encompassing diverse megafauna movements 🐢

doi.org/10.1111/1365...

@jappliedecology.bsky.social @iomarinescience.bsky.social @exetermarine.bsky.social @zslofficial.bsky.social

Nice little thread on some of our recent red-footed booby work 💨👇

Using lightweight bird-borne cameras, scientists have captured unique footage of Indian Ocean seabirds speeding just above the waves to catch flying fish.

Dr Ruth Dunn (@ruthedunn.bsky.social) of @lec-reefs.bsky.social is lead author of the study.

📰: https://tinyurl.com/yezeyxu2

Composite image of the Proceedings B journal title, the manuscript title and the author list, alongside an image of a red-footed booby flying amongst palm trees. Some text reads: "Winds shape the behavioural decisions of red-footed boobies, impacting their foraging commutes and feeding behaviour".

"Commuting in crosswinds and foraging in fast winds: the foraging ecology of a flying fish specialist" 💨🐦🐟

New @iomarinescience.bsky.social research out now in @royalsocietypublishing.org: doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

📸 @robinfreeman.bsky.social

🧪🌍🪶

New paper out in Proceedings B! 🔊

Seabirds' impacts on reefs extends even to some of its tiniest inhabitants - cryptobenthic reef fishes 🐠
Near colonies, these fishes assimilate seabird nutrients (💩), grow larger 📈 & more at: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

@royalsocietypublishing.org

Our Indian Ocean marine science programme supports established researchers and has a major focus on training the next generation of ocean scientists. A big congratulations to all our recent PhD Graduates for 2024!

#PhDGraduates #Doctor #MarineScience #MarineBiology #Scientists

Our Special Feature with @aer-ese-bes.bsky.social is now available to read! 🌎🧪

This collection aims to combine the latest insights and provide an integrated road map for ecologically optimal decisions on the energy transition 🛰️

Check it out 👇
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/hub/global-e...

New paper lead by @etspencer.bsky.social We use biologging to understand why great hammerheads may specialize on large prey like other sharks. If they hunt blacktips off south Florida then they probably only have to catch a shark once per month link.springer.com/journal/442

Yay, well done!! 🦈

Proud to share that my second dissertation chapter is now published in Oecologia! Great hammerheads often eat other elasmobranchs, which suggests there must be some kind of advantage to going after big prey instead of smaller fish. (1/4)🦑🧪🌊🐟

Isle of May #seabirdpride 2025. @theseabirdgroup.bsky.social @ukceh.bsky.social

Burrowing Into the Past: Extending Niche Space Models of Procellariiform Breeding Grounds by Merging Fossil and Historic Data Aim Predicting species' potential distributions and niches requires multi-scale data encompassing the past and present. Increasingly, researchers have advocated using historical context to inform ec...

Stoked to finally see this one out in the wide world: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Tube-nosed #seabirds in #Aotearoa #NewZealand have been largely driven extinct on the mainland, since the arrival of humans. Our paper shows just how dramatic this collapse likely was...(1/4)

New paper out! Understanding the relative importance of nutrient transfer pathways on coral reefs. Revealing work led by @ruthedunn.bsky.social and available #OpenAccess in Coral Reefs #ecology #coralReefs

Rucha and Ruth on the research vessel after a day of SCUBA diving and carrying SCUBA tanks backwards and forwards (hence some damp patches on their clothes)

Javier, Laura-Li, Ruth, and Casey in the sea in their snorkelling kit during their last day of fieldwork.

Out now in Coral Reefs: 'Active and passive pathways of nutrient transfer in coral reef ecosystems'

doi.org/10.1007/s003... 🐚

Thank you to my co-authors and field friends from @lec-reefs.bsky.social and beyond for all their help bringing this piece of work together 🌊

Nesting Red-footed Booby

📢New blog is out!

Joshua Coste shares details about his research on Red-footed Booby homing behaviour in the Indian Ocean 🌊

➡️ tinyurl.com/RFB-navigation

Full paper here: doi.org/10.1016/j.an...

@iomarinescience.bsky.social
@exetermarine.bsky.social
@zslscience.bsky.social

Call for proposals! 🎉

We are inviting proposals for our cross-journal special feature (between @funecology.bsky.social and @animalecology.bsky.social):

"Energy trade-offs under changing environments"

Guest edited by myself, @amandapettersen.bsky.social, and @nealdawson.bsky.social!

We are starting May with a fascinating talk from @jenniferappoo.bsky.social on the impacts of seabird-derived nutrients on mangrove ecosystems! Follow this link and set a reminder now! www.youtube.com/live/muPejoo... 🌏🪶 #WomenInSTEM #Seabirds #AcademicSky

Obituary in IBIS

Mike Harris (1939 - 2023)

doi.org/10.1111/ibi....

One of the world's best known, most loved and most outstanding seabird biologists

#ornithology

New open access paper! Led by Joshua Coste

Results show tropical seabirds meet diurnal constraints by navigating efficiently back to low-lying reef atoll colonies
doi.org/10.1016/j.an...

Great work from Joshua's masters internship with @uniexecec.bsky.social and @iomarinescience.bsky.social