Opwall Science

Congratulations to Joseph Oakley & Natalia Argüelles-Valle for their new note documenting the first record of the Salamander Bolitoglossa dofleini in Mexico! This extends the northern range of the species by >100km tinyurl.com/ycyuwttf
Photo: Joseph Oakley

Raman was one of our @opwall.bsky.social research assistants in Croatia a couple of years ago, and watching her impact as a young conservationist makes me so proud!!

Great new paper by Richard Bodmer et al. examining the ecology of River dolphins at fish aggregations in Amazonian Peru. It found that Pink dolphins formed feeding aggregations in both small and large rivers, while Grey dolphin aggregations largely occurred in large rivers; tinyurl.com/ezxjtmaa

Nice review by @thereremouse.bsky.social et al. of a new harp design that was extensively field-tested by the Croatia bat team in our Krka National Park field site this summer:

An extremely strong month for the Utila marine research team! Congratulations to @jamesboon.bsky.social, @salkeith.bsky.social et al. on another great paper, this one examining how reef structure influences fish anti-predation behaviour!

Great new open-access by @jamesboon.bsky.social, @salkeith.bsky.social, et al. showing high taxonomic and functional turnovers in the deep reef fish communities off Utlia, Honduras - a very interesting finding given deeper reefs have often been assumed to be more stable than shallower reefs!

Familiarity mediated by body size predicts intraspecific aggression in farming damselfishes - Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Abstract Aggressive territoriality can have significant benefits for resource acquisition yet is a costly behaviour. Selection should therefore favour mechanisms that allow individuals to modify their...

New paper by Catherine Sheppard et al. examining aggressive behaviour in damselfish in the coral reefs of Honduras. Results showed predicting aggressive responses can be complex, extending beyond simply whether the subject of the aggression is a “neighbour” or a “stranger”: tinyurl.com/mr3vhef9

The most gorgeous of larvae

These are immature Simuliidae - black flies. They sucker on to a fast-flowing river bottom & filter feed. They have beautiful cephalic fans which are filtering fans

@opwallscience.bsky.social @opwall.bsky.social #Honduras

#FlyFriday

Check out the most badass of larva - this is an immature lacewing

How cool is nature - from the cloud forests of Honduras @opwall.bsky.social @opwallscience.bsky.social

#NationalInsectWeek @royentsoc.bsky.social

For #Flyfriday & #NationalInsectWeek, Check out this golden boy

Eliozeta helluo (Fabrioius, 1805) is found across Europe, scattered parts of Russia, China, the Middle east, Korea, Japan & Mongolia!

This one was found in Romania, collected on an @opwall.bsky.social @opwallscience.bsky.social trip

Congratulations to @thereremouse.bsky.social et al. for their fantastic new paper provided a much-needed update to the terrestrial mammal inventory for Krka National Park, Croatia! Great output that should be highly useful for Park managers! Open access too so please take a look!

Thanks! Glad its a useful overview; good to get a summary of all our core methods published in one place!

New blog post out; our "fieldwork dictionary" summarizing the main survey methodologies used at our terrestrial and marine fieldwork sites: www.opwall.com/article/the-...

Was great to work on this collaboration with the IUCN (Simon Valle) and University of Birmingham (Tom Matthews and @david-peartree.bsky.social)

New paper out highlighting the threat tropical storms pose to global island biodiversity. It shows the Caribbean especially has many species likely to be at risk of extinction from storms, and identifies 60 'high-risk' species that could be wiped by a single future storm event: shorturl.at/EAqOS

New open-access paper by Asela Buenfil-Rojas et al. describing a method to extract RNA from Morelet's Crocodile scuts (partly based on samples obtained from our Calakmul site), just out in MethodsX - shorturl.at/PXBFO

Great new blog post by Glenn Shiach discussing the recent taxonomic spider discoveries from our research site in the dry forests of Madagascar: www.opwall.com/article/scie...

New paper by Rodney Roundtree et al. examining the acoustical ecology of dolphins and fish in the Pacaya-Samiria Reserve, Peru. They document distinct dolphin sounds seemingly used in different situations, and show a correlation between dolphin & fish acoustical activity: shorturl.at/gxerkhttps:/...

New Opwall blog post introducing Andrew and Annika at RARElab, who we hope to be collaborating with on many interesting things in the near future! www.opwall.com/article/rare...

Indeed - very much an amazing place!

Amazing species to be found in the cloud forests of Honduras!

Frederico Barosso - our new Research and Education officer - giving a great overview of his thermal ecology research in a new blogpost here: www.opwall.com/article/test...

New paper by Hrvoje Čižmek et al. on the ecology of the Critically Endangered Noble Pen Shell off Miljet, Croatia. Results show the population to be dominated by older individuals, making it vulnerable to the mass mortality events posing a particular risk to the species: www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/17...

Bias in neotropical and reef biodiversity monitoring programs may prevent detecting changes in species diversity through time Biodiversity monitoring networks are essential to quantify changes in biodiversity over time. Despite the importance of monitoring, studies using thes…

New paper showing patterns in neotropical monitoring programs (incorporating relevant Opwall sites). Results indicate spatial and taxonomic bias in these programs, and crucially that many span <10 years in duration, meaning they may not pick up important ecological trends shorturl.at/alx37

New book chapter preprint out on @authorea.com led by @jonathancazabonne.bsky.social. A massive piece of work using a wide range of data sources (including from Honduras) to provide an extremely thorough overview of the knowledge gaps that impede research into poorly-studied taxa.

Great to see samples collected by @flygirlnhm.bsky.social at our @kneppwilding.bsky.social project being used as comparative data to support this super-interesting project on demographic patterns in Hoverfly migration!

Fantastic Diptera collection being collated by @flygirlnhm.bsky.social at the @nhm-london.bsky.social from our project at @kneppwilding.bsky.social!

@whatalexseas.bsky.social giving a superb talk on how citizen science projects can contribute to marine conservation outcomes at the inaugural Ocean Advocate Summit in Bristol last week.

New paper led by Deepankar Mahabale examining hunting sustainability in a community-led wildlife management plan in the Peruvian Amazon. Results show planned quotas with community buy-in can yield sustainable hunting yields, and such approaches may be a counter to illegal hunting: shorturl.at/OTlSL

Congratulations to Dr James Boon on passing his Viva!