BES Macro

📣 Don’t forget to sign up to our first Quantifying Ecology webinar! 📣

We join Dr James Orr in collab with @bes-aquaticgroup.bsky.social for:

”Variability of community-level responses contains information about ecosystem functioning and global change impacts”

5th Aug @ 9am BST

bit.ly/44SzlwG

Reconsidering space-for-time substitution in climate change ecology - Nature Climate Change Ecologists often leverage patterns observed across spatial climate gradients to predict the impacts of climate change (space-for-time substitution). We highlight evidence that this can be misleading n...

New paper out on the dangers of using patterns across spatial climate gradients to predict what will happen with changing climate. That includes species distribution modeling. Space-for-time substitution can be misleading in sign, not just the magnitude of effects.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🍄The Functional traits in primary producers: recent advances and future directions special feature is open for proposals!

🌲The issue will look at approaches in understanding, measuring and predicting traits, and scaling from traits to ecosystem processes buff.ly/VISbRhs%F0%9...

📖 A new review concludes that understanding the functional consequences of biodiversity loss is critical but we need to be clear about what type of biodiversity change we are measuring and to focus on the loss of stably coexisting core species.🌳🌲🌼
👉 buff.ly/kqQghYU

North American bird declines are driven by reductions in common species Declines in North American birds are driven not by rare species vanishing but by sharp losses among formerly common species.

🚨 First PhD chapter is out! My work thus far, with @andy2dobson.bsky.social

We found that formerly common species have declined the fastest, on average.

📄 North American bird declines are driven by reductions in common species | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Job opening: lecturership (research & teaching) in forestry or agroforestry at Bangor University. This is probably the best forestry programme in the UK and a great place to work. Deadline 1 Sep. More here: 🌳🌲🌏

This should be a lot of fun! Help us find out if BES journal data and code sharing policies are actually working, with a little side bonus quest about data equity 🤓

Determinants of global variation in taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity of invasive plants

🌎This global-scale study reveals invasive plant diversity is shaped by geography, climate, socioeconomics, and trade. Nearly 1/3 of countries show phylogenetic clustering. These findings call for tailored regional management strategies🧪
buff.ly/wJhGKTi

Limited biodiversity spillover from forest fragments into Amazon oil palm plantations 🌴

👉Nearby forests can't buffer the loss of bird functional & phylogenetic diversity 🦜🌏
👉Is an urgent need to preserve large forest fragments & improve matrix permeability 🧬🧪

🔗 doi.org/10.1111/1365...

A new time tree of birds reveals the interplay between dispersal, geographic range size, and diversification Flight may affect the dispersal and evolution of birds. Using a new evolutionary tree, Claramunt et al. find that efficient fliers have broader geographic ranges, and speciation reduces range size, bu...

Happy to share our latest paper in which we use a new big phylogeny of birds to analyze the relationships between dispersal, geographic range size and diversification rates across all birds. See also post by
‪@sheardcat.bsky.social‬ and @josephtobias.bsky.social
www.cell.com/current-biol...

Forest #streams may discharge one tenth of the annual total global #forest carbon sink through dissolved organic carbon www.the-innovation.org/article/doi/... to have been involved in this important work on the global #carbon balance🌍
#carbonsink #carbonbudget #forestcarbon

IUCN Red List Client IUCN Red List (<https://api.iucnredlist.org/>) client. The IUCN Red List is a global list of threatened and endangered species. Functions cover all of the Red List API routes. An API key is required.

📢 rredlist 📦 1.1.0 is now on #CRAN!!!

- wrapper to download multiple assessments ⬇️
- wrapper to extract assessment data from lists of assessments 🐍
- filter latest assessment to a particular scope 🌏

Docs 👉 docs.ropensci.org/rredlist/ind...

#rstats #iucn #redlist #api

Our new paper in BioScience shows how iNaturalist data is powering research across the globe, with use growing 10x in 5 years and spanning 128 countries & 638 families of life.

Paper: doi.org/10.1093/bios...

@ifas.ufl.edu @inaturalist.bsky.social

#Biodiversity #iNaturalist #OpenScience

An anole lizard with a protruding orange dewlap sits on a shaded log.

We know we know, you're dying to know what's new in the world of Adaptive Radiation...well wonder no more! Here, Julia Day, @jameststroud.bsky.social, @fishspeciation.bsky.social & María del Rosario Castañeda discuss it in their Editorial below 👇🌍🧪
doi.org/10.1093/evol...

The biomechanics and evolution of quadrupedal gaits at The University of Manchester on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - The biomechanics and evolution of quadrupedal gaits at The University of Manchester, listed on FindAPhD.com

Funded PhD claxon!! Bill Sellers at University of Manchester is advertising a fully-funded PhD position on the evolution of quadrupedal gaits. Exact focus is open and *could* include fossils. Deets here: www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

I'll have more info in a few weeks when I get back from fieldwork but I'll be recruiting 2 graduate students to begin in 2026 (1 PhD, 1 MS). My lab investigates macroevolutionary dynamics using phylogenetic methods & the fossil record. Please share with students having strong research interests!

Could we use community/citizen/participatory science data to estimate population extinction risk? Our results comparing the estimates from eBird and from a standardized survey suggest we can!!

#ornithology #ecology #conservation

See our detailed tutorial oaccolombia.github.io/vpm_eBird/vp...

Interested in knowing behind the scenes of the BES Annual Meeting 2025?

Volunteering as a Helper at our conference in Edinburgh could be the perfect opportunity for you!

Are you a researcher 5+ years post-PhD and interested in moving to Ireland? We have a new scheme which will support relocation and start-up costs.

Share of common mammalian species across continents

Ecological characteristics of species with different degrees of geodispersal.

Cool study. Shows low dispersal of mammals across continents. Most are continental scale endemics. Significant in understanding the modern structure of the Bretskyan hierarchy from mammalian perspective.
nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....
🧪 ⚒️ #Paleobio #EvoBio #Macroecology

🔊 PROGRAMME ANNOUNCED & REGISTRATION OPEN

#BOUasm25 | A day at the museum | 18 November 2025 | Natural History Museum, London & online & Bluesky

Check out the line-up and registration options now!

bou.org.uk/event/a-d...

#ornithology 🪶

Read our latest paper on the application of macroecological theory to better understand human impact on biodiversity, great collaborative work led by @pierregauz.bsky.social
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Thank you to everyone who participated in #BESMacro2025 last week! You can catch us at the annual meeting (now open for registration) or at next year's conference (watch this space for location announcement!).

And as always, if you have any ideas to improve the society, let us know!

Welcome to our 2025 Annual Meeting - British Ecological Society Join ecologists from around the world for Europe’s largest and most welcoming conference dedicated to ecology.

Registration and abstract submission are now open for BES2025.

Learn more 👉

Kunming Institute of Zoology, China, seeks Senior and Junior PIs and postdoctoral fellows in evolution, genetics, ecology, and conservation. Applications assessed from 12 Aug 2025. Info: www.kiz.ac.cn #job

Metabolic traits are shaped by phylogenetic conservatism and environment, not just body size | PNAS Metabolic rate dictates life&rsquo;s tempo, yet how ecological and environmental factors integrate to shape metabolic traits remains contentious. Conside...

Awesome to see our paper exploring competing hypotheses in macro/metabolic ecology out in PNAS.

Led by the all star @lilyleahy.bsky.social with a range of amazing folks including @funkyant.bsky.social @natejsanders.bsky.social @ianjwright.bsky.social.

Check it out!

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Are you looking for a PhD project starting this year?

I have a funded (UK rates) project on mammal skull diversity and function, looking at skull allometry and how mammal heads adapt to trade-offs in tissue demands during growth 🦌🦘🐘🦥

Please share and apply: www.liverpool.ac.uk/courses/buil...

Good morning from #BESMacro2025 ! We're off to a slightly-cooler start and excited for a fun day of talks, workshops, and networking!

Traits, Threats, and Popularity Explain Extinction Risk of Birds Globally | Global Ecology and Biogeography | onlinelibrary.wiley.... | #ornithology 🪶🌍🧪

Well done to all of today's speakers and poster presenters (and a giant thank you to our workshop presenters!) -- despite the heat, we've managed to learn about some really cool science! #BESMacro2025