Paolo G. Albano

Glad to read a quantitative appreciation of #taxonomy and field studies! "ongoing species discoveries substantially alter our understanding of macroecological patterns" And this is about terrestrial #vertebrates, think about the #invertebrates...
ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

Unlocking Palaeo-Historical Biodiversity Data to Inform Ecological Baselines through AI at University of Reading on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - Unlocking Palaeo-Historical Biodiversity Data to Inform Ecological Baselines through AI at University of Reading, listed on FindAPhD.com

Interested in Historical Ecology and Conservation Palaeobiology? 🪸🦀

Steve Pates and I are offering a PhD project on Unlocking Palaeo-Historical Biodiversity Data to Inform Ecological Baselines @es-ucl.bsky.social
@uclcber.bsky.social

🗓️ Apply by 19th January 2026

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

The fact that a large research institution drifts away from privately-owned databases which became the main system to assess scientists, institutions and science itself triggers the hope that critical mass to build a novel scientific ecosystem may soon be reached.

The fall of a prolific science journal exposes the billion-dollar profits of scientific publishing One of the 15 publications that put out the most studies globally has been expelled from the indexing system for irregularities. Its publisher, Elsevier, has a 38% profit margin that reached $1.5 bill...

Science of the total environment (elsevier) gets deindexed.

This is your regular reminder to please stop chasing impact factors and shitty metrics so we can stop feeding this awful system...

An alternative is to publish in more society journals (when possible).

Thank you! Hopefully it's not established yet. The presentation you linked had a quite long list of species rafting across the Atlantic!

Hey @dantheclamman.blog which Arca is this exactly? Any paper on its invasion of Europe? Thanks!

A unique historical baseline uncovers harvesting impacts on intertidal molluscs at Inhaca Island, southern Mozambique Abstract. The effects of ocean exploitation are especially pronounced in coastal, more easily accessible, regions. However, long-term ecological shifts oft

We used a really unique museum collection in #Mozambique as #baseline to quantify impacts due to harvesting of intertidal #molluscs. Action is needed to guarantee long term sustainability of this vital resource to local communities and biodiversity conservation.
academic.oup.com/icesjms/arti...

Global sampling decline erodes science potential of natural history collections - Nature Communications Natural history collections hold over two billion specimens representing Earth’s biodiversity, but their scientific value depends on continued specimen collection and digitisation. This study demonstr...

We need new collections but - most importantly - the future generations of scientists will need new collections. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The Drain of Scientific Publishing The domination of scientific publishing in the Global North by major commercial publishers is harmful to science. We need the most powerful members of the research community, funders, governments and ...

"The domination of scientific publishing by major commercial publishers is harmful to science. We need the most powerful members of the research community, funders, governments and Universities, to lead the drive to re-communalise publishing to serve science not the market."
arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820

Do you know which species is it?

upcoming seminars

I am giving an online presentation "Biodiversity collapses and future invasions in the Mediterranean Sea" in the "Tipping points in Earth's history" webinar series (Prof William Foster) @uni-hamburg.de on Tuesday 4 November 16:15 CET. You can register here: www.geo.uni-hamburg.de/en/geologie/...

Ready to take the next step in your research career at @icmcsic.bsky.social?We’re seeking enthusiastic candidates to join our team + apply for prestigious pre/postdoc fellowships. Learn more👇
🔗 icm.csic.es/ca/oferta-tr...

🔗 icm.csic.es/ca/oferta-tr...
@em-oyster.bsky.social @bryozoology.bsky.social

Debating the aesthetics of #wind & #solar is a luxury. The real crisis is climate change—threatening billions with deadly heat & catastrophic ecosystem breakdowns ♨️🥵🔥 Green #energy is a necessity🍃 Challenges exist (noise, land use) but are manageable - biggest risk is inaction #dkpol #climatechange

Shifting baselines: Have we forgotten what rivers used to be like? | Wildfish Dr. Sam Green explores the generational tolerance for environmental decline and asks: Have we forgotten the rivers from before.

As the Sea Around Us PI, Dr. Daniel Pauly, "put it in a TED talk in 2010, 'we transform the world, but we don’t remember it' wildfish.org/latest-news/...

Come to our amazing Bergen! Great work-life environment, 100s km of hiking around Bergen, and the project also looks pretty cool 😄

Protecting Big Tech, not free speech Trump and Farage are using censorship as a cloak for disinformation

“Rightwing populists all over Europe want to destroy the ability of the UK and the EU to regulate large tech platforms — a move that might threaten their disinformation campaigns with genuine political debate.”
www.ft.com/content/62b1...

What climate change means for the Mediterranean Sea Temperatures in the Mediterranean are currently rising to record levels. Instead of a refreshing dip, holidaymakers in places like Greece, Italy, and Spain, among other places, are now facing water te...

🌊 What climate change means for the Mediterranean Sea

July 2025 was the hottest on record, with sea surface temperatures hitting 28°C

Climate change is pushing marine life to the brink: seagrass dying, fish stocks shrinking, invasive species rising

Every 0.1°C matters

phis.org/news/2025-09...

Greece announces €1.6bn relief package to tackle population decline Government to use tax breaks and other financial incentives to encourage people to have more children

Tax cuts will not reverse the #demographic crisis in #Greece nor in other countries facing similar "existential threats". Young people need jobs commensurate to their qualifications and conditions to realize their potential. Or they will just continue fleeing.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

Excellent thread on what is going on at academic journals, from the perspective of an editor.

Clearly highlights the strain (direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...) caused by quantitative incentives, and that publishers cannot be allies in solving the mess -- they are part of the problem & profit from it.

The deadline for submitting an Abstract to the #GuardIAS Conference is close!
Conference Theme: “Prevention of Invasive Alien Species Introductions and Biosecurity Risk Assessment”

#bioinvasions #MarineEcology #AquaticEcology

but the main problem is the instability of the reply.

I tried Google Lens to identify a sea slug... The first reply was impressive: Aplysia parvula, correct! However, I refreshed the page by mistake and it re-identified it as Aplysia juliana... Then I refreshed the page on purpose and got genus Aplysia alone... Also Lens knows Aplysia is tricky...

Financial peril could doom a famed New York paleontological institute “Exceptional” fossil collections housed by the Paleontological Research Institute risk being orphaned

why we are doing this:

PRI is one of America's largest museum collections, and they need to raise the last 1/3 of funds (~$1mil) needed to pay off their mortgage by Dec (a donor backed out of a pledge) or it will be the largest orphaned collection in US history.

www.science.org/content/arti...

An illustrated type catalogue of Born’s collection at the Natural History Museum Vienna. Part 1: Mollusca (Bivalvia and Scaphopoda), Brachiopoda The Natural History Museum Vienna houses a valuable and rich mollusc collection that traces back to the early days of the Linnaean system of nomenclature. Its foundation was laid by Emperor Franz I St...

I am pleased to advertise the publication of the first part of the catalogue of type specimens of the #molluscs (and a brachiopod...) in the Born collection in the @nhmwien.bsky.social. Many Born's names introduced in the late 18th c. are still valid today.
zse.pensoft.net/article/1618...

Interesting! It's the same behaviour of the usually rock-boring Mediterranean Rocellaria dubia when it settles on shells on soft substrates.

I asked again "How can I estimate wave base from significant wave height?" to Perplexity AI and was impressed by the reply that correctly included "Significant wave height alone is not sufficient by itself; wave period or wavelength information is also generally needed" plus sources!

BHL's #CallforSupport soft closes Aug 31. Even if your ideas aren’t fully formed, we want to hear from you.
🌱 Thinking about hosting?
🌱 Considering funding support?
🌱 Want to partner but unsure how?
Every possibility helps secure BHL’s future. about.biodiversitylibrary.org/call-for-sup... #ILoveBHL

First time I see the concept of shifting #baselines in a natural history #museum! Effective exhibit in the Naturhistorisk museum at the University of #Oslo.

This surprisingly relaxing footage is from SIX MILES under the ocean – and it’s the deepest ecosystem yet discovered

AWESOME JOB OPPORTUNITY: Aldabra Science Coordinator (The Seychelles Islands Foundation)

www.sif.sc/node/679

#jobs #seychelles #coralreefs #jobopportunity #marinescience #coral #sciencecoordinator #marineecology #careers #marinebiology