Shaun Killen

Deficiency of vital organic nutrients in ecosystems limits brain development and fitness in wild fish Summary: Omega-3 LC-PUFA deficiency in aquatic ecosystems alters brain fatty acid composition in salmonids, reducing their cognitive capabilities and competitiveness in social interactions, highlighti...

Our new paper led by Libor Zvorka: omega-3s in food webs affect brain chemistry, which affects dominance, habitat use and growth in juvenile trout. A mechanistic link from ecosystem change to social performance and fitness. Read in @jexpbiol.bsky.social !: journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...

📣 Calling fish biologists & conservation scientists!

We’re convening a session at #ICBF2026 (UBC, Vancouver):
Bridging experimental biology & conservation

If your research connects mechanism to real-world application- from lab to field- we want your abstract!

Apply by March 3rd! 🐟🌎
icbf2026.com

Replication studies: a win-win for early-career training and behavioral ecology Replicating previous research builds confidence that results are real and meaningful. But close replications are rare due to limitations in resources and d

How do we know our research results are REAL? We replicate them! Most folks agree but lament on how hard it is to publish these replications.

My dearest gentle reader, lament no more! Delighted to unveil: Replication Studies, a new section of Behavioral Ecology 1/

academic.oup.com/beheco/artic...

We're building ShoalBase: a global database of fish social systems. Undergrad or other students wanting research experience in behavioural ecology, data synthesis or evolution - please DM! www.shoalbase.org

New paper out!
Social context should be integrated into comparative and environmental physiology

🔍 I am looking for a 5-mo research technician to join my lab at CEAB-CSIC!

The position will work on the DRYFISH project and combines fieldwork in drying Mediterranean streams with laboratory experiments with fish

📄 Details here: tinyurl.com/4ckf357j
📅 Deadline: 17 Feb 26

Excited to see this out, our detailed commentary on the importance of social context for comparative physiology. Led by @shaunkillen.bsky.social out now in @jexpbiol.bsky.social here journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...

When studying animal physiology we carefully control temperature, oxygen…but often ignore who animals live with.

Social context such as parents (1), social environment (2), litter mates (3) can shape physiology and later plasticity (4). We discuss it in this commentary 👉 doi.org/10.1242/jeb....

Further integrating social context into comparative and environmental physiology Summary: Social environments affect all aspects of animal physiology. We highlight how overlooking social effects might lead to inaccurate physiology-based predictions of species’ responses to environ...

🚨New paper out now! Excited to see this commentary, led by @shaunkillen.bsky.social, showing that social context is key in comparative physiology and must be integrated! Read more here: doi.org/10.1242/jeb.... #ComparativePhysiology #Behaviour #Ecophysiology @sbohvm.gla.ac.uk @jexpbiol.bsky.social

kind of funny that an olympian said they are here to represent "compassion, respect, and love for others" and some people automatically knew that was a statement against them

We face two potential missteps in ecophysiology: 1) measuring animals under socially unrealistic conditions & 2) extrapolating results to nature, where social dynamics alter trait expression, plasticity, & evolutionary outcomes. Our new commentary in @jexpbiol.bsky.social : doi.org/10.1242/jeb....

Simulated catch and release angling of Atlantic salmon before spawning alters activity, exploratory behaviour and aggression of offspring C&R of wild Atlantic salmon can lead to offspring that are less active and exploratory in novel environments, but more aggressive. These intergenerational effects were strongest when air exposure was....

Sorry, here is the working link!: besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Thank you! Not sure why I'm having so much trouble with links lately!

Catch-and-release stress in Atlantic salmon shortly before spawning can affect next generation. Offspring show ↓ activity & exploration, & ↑ aggression, all traits that matter during early life. Read here: besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... Great work from Magadalene Papatheodoulou!

Principles of experimental design for ecology and evolution Here I argue that we do not discuss experimental design, often until it is too late. This editorial seeks to begin a conversation about how and where to replicate appropriately.

The principles of experimental design in ecology and evolution has 20k downloads, but unfortunately I still have to reject ~20% of papers without review because they lack replication at the right level. More discussion among mentors and mentees please.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Can't wait to start this cross disciplinary project with a fantastic team, including @kochhanndaiani.bsky.social, @katjaenberg.bsky.social, Nick Hanley, Kath Sloman, and many others. Linking fish welfare, rural livelihoods, and rainforest conservation. Postdoc (x2) and tech positions forthcoming. 🙂

Nation could really use Catherine O'Hara to deal with passing of Catherine O'Hara OTTAWA - Following the passing of screen and comedy legend Catherine O'Hara, nationwide reports indicate that the only thing Canadians could use to cheer them up from their grief is Catherine O'Hara.

Nation could really use Catherine O'Hara to deal with passing of Catherine O'Hara

Fatal Attraction: Light Pollution Creates an Ecological Trap for Wild Fish This graphical abstract provides a snapshot of the ecological trap created by artificial light. At night, larval fish are attracted to illuminated habitats and settle there, but subsequently experien...

Apologies, the link above doesn't work. Use this one for the paper! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

I have two #PhD scholarships available on either the ecophysiology or movement ecology of the Pilbara leaf-nosed #bat at @murdoch.edu.au 🦇

Apply now: www.murdoch.edu.au/study/schola...

Lab website: www.nicholaswulab.com

Our new paper in @globalchangebio.bsky.social: artificial light at night creates an ecological trap for wild reef fish. Settlement ↑ under artificial light (up to 8× higher), but survival ~50% lower due to predation, disrupted settlement timing, and altered metabolic rhythms: doi.org/10.1111/gcb....

Finally moving beyond the fiction of a constant metabolic baseline will give us a more realistic foundation for bioenergetics, ecology, and evolution! (9/9)

We are not saying SMR is useless. We are saying it should be treated as state-dependent, or explicitly time-integrated across the sleep–wake cycle, depending on the biological question. (8/9)

These effects may have implications for repeatability, heritability, metabolic scaling, behaviour–metabolism links, thermal performance curves, and even “calming effects” of conspecifics. Sleep architecture is a hidden axis in ALL of these. (7/9)

Derived traits are affected too. Because aerobic scope = MMR − SMR, state-biased SMR estimates can inflate or shrink apparent performance capacity, even if maximum performance is unchanged. (6/9)

Environmental or treatment effects can also be missed entirely. If a factor affects a sleep-dominant process and SMR is measured during wake (or vice versa), any metabolic change may never be detected. (5/9)

This creates systematic measurement bias. SMR measured only during sleep underestimates daily maintenance costs; SMR measured only during wake overestimates them. The size and direction of the bias depend on sleep duration and sleep architecture. (4/9)

Wake, NREM sleep, and REM sleep each prioritise different physiological processes, with distinct energetic demands. How maintenance is defined and what constitutes SMR depends entirely on WHEN you measure it. (3/9)

Basal and standard metabolic rate are treated as fixed traits: the minimum cost of staying alive. But many core maintenance processes are not continuously active. Instead, they are temporally partitioned across wakefulness and different sleep states. (2/9)

Thread: In our new paper in Biological Reviews, we argue that one of physiology’s most basic assumptions is wrong. There is no single, static “baseline” metabolic rate. Instead, sleep-wake cycles quietly subvert how BMR and SMR are usually interpreted. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... (1/9)

Congrats @helenanorman.bsky.social on an amazing poster!