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Gary Burness

@garyburness.bsky.social

Ecological and Evolutionary Physiologist. Our lab studies animal energetics, mostly birds, sometimes mammals or fish; most recently butterflies too. Trent University (Peterborough, Ontario, Canada). Webpage: BurnessLab.ca

1,321 Followers  |  624 Following  |  101 Posts  |  Joined: 24.09.2023
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Posts by Gary Burness (@garyburness.bsky.social)

Close-up of a yellow and gray bird perched next to text inviting early career researchers to join the FACETS editorial board.

Close-up of a yellow and gray bird perched next to text inviting early career researchers to join the FACETS editorial board.

Curious about peer review beyond authorship? FACETS is welcoming early career researchers to join our editorial board as ECR Editors. Submit your application before Mar. 9!

Learn more ▢️ https://ow.ly/4WFa50Y1Ts8

#PeerReview #EarlyCareerResearchers #AcademicPublishing

02.03.2026 15:15 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Street transformation from car space to street willed with people including kids

Street transformation from car space to street willed with people including kids

It’s not just about what you remove (cars, noise, dirty air). It’s about what you add (people walking, a lot of bike parking, trees, outdoor dining, and room for kids to play safely). Amsterdam: 1986 and today.

Streets for people.

HT @hackneycyclist.bsky.social for the great before-and-after

22.02.2026 05:46 β€” πŸ‘ 476    πŸ” 123    πŸ’¬ 7    πŸ“Œ 3
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πŸš€ 60% capacity reached!
EOU Fledglings 2026 is filling up FAST!

Registration stays open until we reach full capacity πŸ‘€

πŸ’Έ Last chance TODAY for DO-G travel funding!
πŸ“… Programme is now live!
More info: eounion.org/fledglings

@biologists.bsky.social #EOU26 #Ornithology

20.02.2026 10:01 β€” πŸ‘ 8    πŸ” 8    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1
Uppsala in late autumn

Uppsala in late autumn

Join us at the Evolutionary Biology Centre at Uppsala University. We’re searching for an Assistant Professor in Biology. www.uu.se/en/about-uu/...

28.01.2026 20:28 β€” πŸ‘ 158    πŸ” 186    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 5
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Please repost: 🚨Field assistant position 🐧

We offer a 14-months field assistant position through the French Polar Institute to work on king penguin ecophysiology and behavioral ecology.

Requirements: EU citizen < 30yo having experience with harsh fieldwork & wild bird/mammal handling/sampling.

05.01.2026 13:37 β€” πŸ‘ 38    πŸ” 66    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 2
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Oxygen-free metabolism in the bird inner retina supported by the pecten - Nature While the photoreceptor outer segments in the bird outer retina have access to oxygen, the inner retina operates under chronic anoxia, supported by anaerobic glycolysis in the retinal neurons.

Bird retina uses anaerobic glycolysis for energy!!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

22.01.2026 12:57 β€” πŸ‘ 10    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Sorry, I thought you knew I was in Lund

21.01.2026 15:12 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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It’s Penguin Awareness Day which seems like a great excuse to post the greatest ever Wikipedia edit.

20.01.2026 09:37 β€” πŸ‘ 4248    πŸ” 1238    πŸ’¬ 33    πŸ“Œ 56

It's about 0C where I am. But if it's any consolation, it is a damp cold 😎

21.01.2026 12:57 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Wild turkey roost selection is more consistently associated with tree traits than microclimate Animals must cope with a range of climatic conditions across seasons, and they can accomplish this by selecting habitats that are favourable for thermoregulation. Sheltering from environmental condit...

Ever wonder why wild turkey choose certain roost trees? Using GPS- tagged birds over multiple years, recent MSc graduate student Kayla Martin showed that tree size is much more important than microclimate @jeffcbowman.bsky.social πŸ§ͺ
nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

15.12.2025 15:24 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Hermaphrodites have lower metabolic rates than gonochores Abstract. Hermaphroditism, where an individual can reproduce as both male and female, offers some clear reproductive advantages. Simultaneous hermaphroditi

Darwin speculated that it was energetically costly to be an hermaphrodite. He thought that might explain why they were relatively rare in animals. Our paper out today tested this conjecture for the first time.
royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

11.12.2025 01:13 β€” πŸ‘ 32    πŸ” 17    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 2
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The Puffin Conundrum: Young Atlantic Puffins Need Darkness, But Are Attracted to Light New research by Environmental & Life Sciences Ph.D. graduate offers key insight for helping Newfoundland’s beloved provincial bird avoid the risks of getting stranded

A nice write-up on the research of former PhD student @tbrownbirds.bsky.social on light attraction in Atlantic puffins fledglings (pufflings!)

www.trentu.ca/news/story/2...

09.12.2025 18:19 β€” πŸ‘ 10    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Reposting this - deadline to apply is January 15

09.12.2025 15:56 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Repeated heatwaves can age you as much as smoking or drinking Long-term study suggests that the more heatwaves people are exposed to, the more it accelerates body ageing.

Extreme heat doesn’t just feel exhausting β€” it ages your body.
A new study shows repeated heatwaves can age you as much as smoking or drinking.
Climate change is literally speeding up our biological clock.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

07.12.2025 10:24 β€” πŸ‘ 156    πŸ” 73    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 6
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Dietary melatonin supplementation mitigates the negative effects of artificial light at night in the Pacific field cricket, Teleogryllus oceanicus Abstract. Artificial light at night (ALAN) is linked to negative behavioural and physiological consequences in animals. A potential mechanism for these adv

Melatonin synchronizes internal processes & is an antioxidant. Scientists found that melatonin supplementation improved egg & sperm production in ALAN-exposed crickets. I don't think the upshot is supplements for bugs but it does show that similar mechanisms are involved in invert responses to ALAN

02.12.2025 19:55 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

the figures/graphics are fantastic

02.12.2025 21:25 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

I think someone should tag John Tory

02.12.2025 21:22 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Employment - Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

EEB Postdoctoral Fellowship @ U.Toronto app deadline Jan 15 2026. Opportunity for independent research, encourages collab across labs/disciplines. Lots of great folks to interact with, Come join us!
eeb.utoronto.ca/employment-2/

02.12.2025 21:09 β€” πŸ‘ 25    πŸ” 41    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Not all sexual swellings signal fertility. Some signal strategy. In our new Current Biology paper, we show how gelada females β€œfake it” during male takeoversβ€”and why it works.
authors.elsevier.com/a/1m7%7E93QW...

19.11.2025 16:16 β€” πŸ‘ 56    πŸ” 26    πŸ’¬ 4    πŸ“Œ 3
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N.L. asks Deloitte to carry out review after 'incorrect' citations found in $1.6M provincial health plan | CBC News The Newfoundland and Labrador government says it's been in contact with the private company responsible for a new report meant to guide the province into the future, which was found to contain fake ci...

ChatGPT fake citations in a 1.6M$ report! Absurdly unprofessional by Deloitte, NL gov't should sue for a full refund. I expect in a few years this too may be seen as 'normal'. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

24.11.2025 20:53 β€” πŸ‘ 9    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 4
Replaced "orthodoxy" with "evidence" in a edit of the NYT piece about how RFK Jr is dismantling federal support for vaccination- THE GREATEST INNOVATION FOR PUBLIC HEALTH IN THE HISTORY OF HUMANITY (shout outs also to closed sewer systems and safe municipal water systems!).

Replaced "orthodoxy" with "evidence" in a edit of the NYT piece about how RFK Jr is dismantling federal support for vaccination- THE GREATEST INNOVATION FOR PUBLIC HEALTH IN THE HISTORY OF HUMANITY (shout outs also to closed sewer systems and safe municipal water systems!).

Fixed it for you, @nytimes.com

21.11.2025 20:07 β€” πŸ‘ 263    πŸ” 69    πŸ’¬ 12    πŸ“Œ 2

The claim "the earth is not sitting on the back of a giant turtle" is not evidence-based because studies have not ruled out the possibility....

20.11.2025 18:16 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Autism and Vaccines Answers to common questions about vaccine safety and autism.

Everyone should check out the recently updated CDC webpage on Vaccines and Autism. It's now loaded with blatant anti-vax misinformation. Infuriating, but also totally unsurprising considering who it in charge.
www.cdc.gov/vaccine-safe...

20.11.2025 16:11 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Team fish - we need your help! We are trying to build a database of all the fish chromosome-scale genomes where sex chromosomes have been identified. Have you build one or some? Do you know someone who has? Can you post the link in the comments? Please spread the word and repost! Thank you!

20.11.2025 16:44 β€” πŸ‘ 45    πŸ” 64    πŸ’¬ 10    πŸ“Œ 0
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Please enjoy my cartoon in today's Toronto Star

13.11.2025 13:02 β€” πŸ‘ 592    πŸ” 159    πŸ’¬ 22    πŸ“Œ 11
A downy woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens) about to drill on a hardwood tree in Rhode Island, USA. Photo credit: N. M. Moody.

A downy woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens) about to drill on a hardwood tree in Rhode Island, USA. Photo credit: N. M. Moody.

When downy woodpeckers pound wood with their beaks they hold themselves rigid like hammers & grunt like tennis stars to stabilise their core muscles at the moment of impact

@nickantonson.bsky.social

journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...

11.11.2025 09:19 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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1/13 New paper out! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Historical records across thousands of women showed that mothers with more children had shorter lifespans during a famine, fitting an evolutionary explanation for why we age
@hannahdugdale.bsky.social
@lummaalab.bsky.social
@erikpostma.bsky.social

10.11.2025 10:55 β€” πŸ‘ 42    πŸ” 31    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 4
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We're hiring! Post-doctoral fellow in evolutionary ecology w/focus on ecophysiology.
Uncover why global warming and heatwaves reduce reproductive success and cause excess mortality in wild birds. Work with @cyanistesnord.bsky.social πŸ‘

Please apply no later than 25 November.
πŸ‘‰ lnkd.in/dkAh9jnc

05.11.2025 07:30 β€” πŸ‘ 9    πŸ” 17    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Post image 07.11.2025 18:13 β€” πŸ‘ 685    πŸ” 209    πŸ’¬ 5    πŸ“Œ 7
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The Fudge Lab at Chapman University is recruiting a postdoc for an NSF-funded project on the biophysics of hagfish defensive slime deployment. Please repost!
Apply here: tinyurl.com/4p937dn5

07.11.2025 18:36 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 5    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0