Erik Postma

Interested in a PhD connecting sensory ecology and evolutionary genetics? Applications are now open for a project on the Speciation Genomics of Eye Size Variation in Heliconius Butterflies in our lab at LMU Munich: www.evol.bio.lmu.de/research/mer... Please repost!

First chicks today on Penryn Campus @uniexecec.bsky.social
#springhassprung #phenology #nestboxpopulation

Plots illustrating the results of an interrupted time series analysis of submission and acceptance rates, showing a decline in submission rates but little to no change in acceptance rates post-COVID-19 pandemic.

How did the #COVID-19 pandemic shape scientific productivity? Stephanie Meirmans, @maurineneiman.bsky.social, Shalene Singh-Shepherd @royalsocietypublishing.org and I crunched the submission and acceptance data for 25 journals in #Ecology&Evolution: doi.org/10.1098/rspb... @uniexecec.bsky.social

What do you think, can we forecast evolution❓

@sevans.bsky.social and I would love to hear your thoughts, so if you are going to #ESEB2025, submit a talk to our symposium (S24: Forecasting evolution in natural populations) and join @colingarroway.bsky.social and Patrik Nosil!

Deadline April 25.

The Release of Non‐Native Gamebirds Is Associated With Amplified Zoonotic Disease Risk Spillback is potentially an important mechanism by which non-natives contribute to zoonotic disease emergence. We capitalise on quasi-experimental releases of non-native pheasants (Phasianus colchicu...

Emile Michels' first PhD paper published today. Amplification of Borrelia in ticks at pheasant-release sites – an intriguing example how non-native species can increase zoonotic disease risk through spillback. @uniexecec.bsky.social
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Scatterplot illustrating the tight correlation between the date of the very first egg and the mean laydate for that year.

Although it is based on the behaviour of just a single bird, the date of the first egg of the season is a remarkably good predictor of the mean laydate for that year, explaining almost 70% of the variation.

A scatterplot illustrating the advancement in mean great tit lay date over time.

The mean laydate is still unknown for 2025, but this shows a similar - albeit a less steep - advancement of about 1/10th of a day per year, or a week since the start of the study in 1955. The big ❓ is how this compares to the advancement of phenology of the trees and the caterpillars.

A plot the date of the first great tit egg on Vlieland against year showing 2025 is the third-earliest year since 1955.

Last year I posted too early and had to retract my post 🫣, but now that all @niooknaw.bsky.social @animalecol-nioo.bsky.social nest boxes on #Vlieland have been checked, we know for sure that it is - yet again - a very early start of the breeding season! @uniexecec.bsky.social @sevans.bsky.social

As I’m sure we’ll here about, lots of ways people are tackling this considerable challenge: predicting in situ adaptation, forecasting fit of today’s populations to the environments of the future, etc.

What do you think, can we forecast evolution❓

@sevans.bsky.social and I would love to hear your thoughts, so if you are going to #ESEB2025, submit a talk to our symposium (S24: Forecasting evolution in natural populations) and join @colingarroway.bsky.social and Patrik Nosil!

Deadline April 25.

We invite you to @eseb2025.bsky.social in Barcelona 😁 With 51 symposia at a unique location and around 2000 delegates expected, this is shaping up to be the biggest ESEB meeting ever!

ESEB members are entitled to reduced registration fee - we look forward to seeing you there - don't miss out!

Delighted to see Mollie Rickwood's @uniexecec.bsky.social MSc thesis out @royalsocietypublishing.org, in which she decomposes a nesting date 📉 in 🐢 into its individual- and population-level drivers.

A brilliant collaboration with a great team, incl. Annette Broderick, @brendangodley.bsky.social

Fieldwork opportunity: We're looking to hire a field assistant for the www.phenoweb.org project starting 1 April. Please repost. #phenology #fieldwork #birdringing

1/11
New preprint out with @hannahdugdale.bsky.social, @lummaalab.bsky.social, and @erikpostma.bsky.social: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Why do we age? And can a “natural experiment” during the Great Finnish Famine with long-term data help provide some answers?

Now with an @evolletters.bsky.social blog post about the work from study lead Ryan Imrie evolutionletters.net/examining-pa... @uniexecec.bsky.social

Counting chicks before they hatch: extending the observed lifetime to better characterize evolutionary processes in the wild Abstract. Evolutionary theorists have emphasized for over half a century that population sampling must be conducted at the intergenerational boundary if th

Lifetime reproductive success (LRS) is a key metric in evolutionary biology and ecology. But what counts as a success? And whose successes do we count? @sevans.bsky.social doesn't shy away from the big questions in this new paper just out in @journal-evo.bsky.social: academic.oup.com/evolut/artic...

📢 APPLICATIONS ARE NOW OPEN...

...for the BOU Summer Placement Scheme

Financially supporting undergraduate students to carry out summer #ornithology research placements

Application deadline: 31 March

Guidelines & application form: bou.org.uk/funding/s...

🪶 #ukbirds

YouTube video by University of Exeter Ecology and Conservation Isles of Scilly field course

A highlight of studying with us is the fieldwork!

In the second year students visit the Isles of Scilly, a group of islands a 2-hour sailing journey from the Cornish coast, renowned for their extraordinary climate that borders on the subtropical.

youtu.be/xI1phDwZlKc?...

#ExeterCEC 🌍🦤

Testing the evolutionary theory of ageing: from genes to populations | Aries Professor Alexei Maklakov, Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia – contact me Professor Tracey Chapman, UEA BIO Professor Simone Immler, UEA BIO Why do organisms age?

We have DTP PhD position advertised in evolution of ageing with Tracey Chapman and Simone Immler:

Please contact me if you have questions about the project or about this PhD programme

www.aries-dtp.ac.uk/studentships...

JOB OPPORTUNITY! I am hiring a postdoc for 18 months to investigate the links between temperature and antibiotic resistance. Ecoevo microbiology, plasmids, and some super fun stats, modelling, and bioinformatics. To starts in Feb 2025. Please share!
#exetercec

jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr...

Call for editors, Journal of Evolutionary Biology.
A great journal, and I encourage folks to apply!
jevbio.net/call-for-edi...

Project Project details

Do you or your promising undergrad/MSc student fancy a PhD involving fun fieldwork, evolutionary theory and one of the best evo eco data sets out there? Then look no further than this one looking at the role of maternal effects in evolution in @SoaySheep! e4-dtp.ed.ac.uk/e5-dtp/super...

⚠️ Only two days left ⚠️ to apply for 👇 PhD position with @btschirren.bsky.social on autoimmune disease in wild rodent populations @uniexecec.bsky.social

PhD studentship! Deadline Dec 11th 2024 SWbio application link: https://www.swbio.ac.uk/biomolecular-and-biophysical-studies/ For inquiries, please email: m.hanson@exeter.ac.uk Based in: University of Exeter, Penryn, Cornwall, UK....

I am hiring! PhD studentship available through the SWbio DTP. The interested student will investigate the evolution of innate immune signalling in a model species group. Infection biology & #Drosophila genetics combined! #ImmunoSky #AcademicSky

More info:
mahansonresearch.weebly.com/blog/phd-stu...

Two days left to apply for this! Please share.

* NEW #PhD * #Evolution #Ecology of Immune #Senesence in Wild Badgers - exciting project with me, @btschirren.bsky.social & our awesome collaborators @ APHA. Based at @exetercec.bsky.social in Cornwall, UK.
!PLEASE SHARE!

See www.animalsocieties.org and apply: www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...
🌏 🧪 🦑

Want to use a unique dataset to study the spatial and temporal dynamics of genomic diversity and its drivers in a wild bird population? Apply for this #NERC #PhD position @uniexecec.bsky.social @animalecol-nioo.bsky.social.

www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...

🐦🌍🧪🧬 #ExeterCEC #Vlieland #NIOO-KNAW

How does pollution impact behavioural evolution? We're looking for an awesome PhD student to find out. Project spans behaviour, genetics + ecotox, working with cherry shrimp @exetercec.bsky.social. Cosupervised with @lauraakelley.bsky.social and Dave Spurgeon at CEH. App + info tinyurl.com/yvthn7xn

I created a starter pack of researchers using quantitative genetics in wild populations. Let me know if you want to be added or have any additional suggestions 👇

go.bsky.app/HTEq79p

My coauthor @paolocrosetto.bsky.social just wrote a nice thread on the strain on scientific publishing from his own view. Lots of fun, and a bit more info on some of the subtleties of our analysis, what they mean, and why groups like @economist.com think they matter.