Ben Goldstein

Science Magazine gets it wrong. 🧵

Our article is now available open access! Come learn what we learned about the last 50 years of invertebrate conservation under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

doi.org/10.3389/fcos...

YouTube video by Wild Animals How to Attract a Weasel

Where are our weasels?
Weasels are so sneaky – how would you know if their populations were stable or on the decline?
To lure weasels in we did a test to figure out what their favorite food is, check out the result here.
youtu.be/fKaPWv7YJIQ

iNaturalist observers in PA, USA actually tended to specialize, even within taxonomic groups, and were more likely to re-report species than expected.

Evidence of novelty and specialization behavior in participatory science reporting Participatory science (or ‘citizen science') records are becoming increasingly useful for wildlife monitoring due to their volume and spatiotemporal coverage. Statistical analysis of these data can b...

I used to assume that iNaturalist observers were mainly interested in filling out their "life list," and so would be less likely to report species they'd already seen. When we looked into it, we found the opposite.
nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

We have a cool new job that just opened up at the museum.
Head of Conservation ($50-$88K)

Be the champion for the conservation activities and the related messaging for the NC Museum of Natural Sciences.

www.governmentjobs.com/careers/%7B0...

How wildlife survives after wildfires The biggest danger for wildlife is the aftermath. But many species have evolved to rely on the opportunities created by others.

I gave an interview to the BBC at midnight while the #LAfires were raging outside and I couldn't sleep. Turned into one of the most thorough and well-researched articles on wildlife and wildfire I've had the pleasure of contributing to.

Elephant PhD Position Opening PhD Position in Movement Ecology of Forest Elephants Kays lab at North Carolina State University and NC Museum of Natural Sciences Starting Fall 2025 Salary is $28K/year (+ insurance and tuition) for...

PhD Position in Movement Ecology of Forest Elephants
Kays lab @ncstate.bsky.social and the NC Museum of Natural Sciences
Starting Fall 2025
docs.google.com/document/d/1...

YouTube video by Wild Animals 3 Raccoon Mysteries Caught On Camera

I thought I knew a lot about raccoons, then I got this footage. Had to bring in @mikecove.bsky.social to help me figure it out. youtu.be/7-3c-VrYf1g?...

Really good and easy to read article on 'that tiny, tiny, little fish', useful for language classes and more . . .

No General Trend in Functional Diversity in Bird and Mammal Communities Despite Compositional Change Aim Despite unprecedented environmental change due to anthropogenic pressure, recent work has found increasing dissimilarity due to turnover but no overall trend in species diversity through time at...

How are different facets of biodiversity changing? A new study looks across 2432 time series and 90 years finding no general trend in *functional diversity* of birds and mammals.

By @karinorman.bsky.social @cboettig.bsky.social and Perry de Valpine

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

How do ecologists estimate occupancy in practice? https://nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ecog.07402 #SDM

How do ecologists estimate occupancy in practice? https://nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ecog.07402 #SDM

Title slide: Will your code run again? Tips for making code reproducible in R

If you missed my talk but still want to learn how to make your R code more reproducible, my slides are here 🙂:

daxkellie.quarto.pub/will-your-co...

All the links to packages and resources I mentioned are there, so hopefully this can be a nice reference, too!

#ESAus2024 #rstats #quartopub 🧪🌏

And @kristinjbarker.bsky.social !

I'm really grateful for the incredibly hard-working, thoughtful crew of fellow UC Berkeley scientists who worked on this over the last few years, including @kendallcalhoun.bsky.social , @drpheebs.bsky.social, and others not yet on this platform! 3/3

Some highlights. Ecologists love model selection for frequentist estimation methods but not when using MCMC. We are usually analyzing multiple species per paper but use single-species models. And we still love the classic "occupancy model" even considering the variety of extensions available! 2/3

How do ecologists estimate occupancy in practice? Over 20 years ago, ecologists were introduced to the site occupancy model (SOM) for estimating occupancy rates from detection-nondetection data. In the ensuing decades, the SOM and its hierarchical m...

Thrilled to share "How do ecologists estimate occupancy in practice?" out now in @ecography.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1111/ecog...
We highlight patterns, best practices, and outstanding questions in studies of wildlife "occupancy." Let me know what you think. 1/3

Really proud of this paper and the opportunity to work with the Stacks! I definitely recommend it for folks trying to break out of the toxic for-profit publishing groups.

Pathways to reduce global plastic waste mismanagement and greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 Plastic production and plastic pollution negatively affect our environment, environmental justice, and climate change. Using detailed global and regional plastics datasets coupled with socio-economic ...

We formed the Schmidt Center for Data Science & Environment 2 years ago to transform research into real change. On the eve of the likely final UN meeting on Global Plastics Treaty, our paper led by center RSE staff appears in Science (doi.org/10.1126/scie... ). But the real story is on the ground 🧵