Vadim Karatayev

Viruses aren’t all bad: In the ocean, some help fuel the food web – a new study shows how Marine viruses attack cells, but the material that spills out helps fuels marine life around the world.

New with @tn-marine-micro.bsky.social, exploring how viral-mediated infection and lysis can fuel the marine food web:

theconversation.com/viruses-aren...

Hot droughts in the Amazon provide a window to a future hypertropical climate - Nature Thirty years of forest demographic data, combined with recent ecophysiological measurements, reveal that intense Amazon droughts sharply increase tree mortality once soil moisture falls below a thresh...

It was an honor to work with this group... and the paper is excellent, but the implications for tropical ecosystems make me really sad. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Screenshot from GRC portal confirming microbial population biology meeting June 27, 2027 in Andover, New Hampshire.

It’s officially happening folks! The Microbial Population Biology Gordon Research Conference is back in Andover, New Hampshire starting June 27th of 2027!
See you there!!

@wcratcliff.bsky.social @ksbakes.bsky.social @surtlab.bsky.social

#microsky #mevosky

Looking forward to the Modern Coexistence Theory workshop tomorrow.

Please repost :)

Novelist Cormac McCarthy’s tips on how to write a great science paper The Pulitzer prizewinner shares his advice for pleasing readers, editors and yourself.

#3 - writing:
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Harmonizing nature’s timescales in ecosystem models Modeling complex, nonlinear ecosystem processes across different timescales presents a significant challenge. We identify two key issues: selecting a …

#2:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Cool papers: #1
ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/IE...

Mmm two saddle nodes

Rigorous validation of ecological models against empirical time series - Nature Ecology & Evolution Validating theoretical models against empirical data presents challenges. Here the authors present an assumption-light method to validate ecological models against time series data, along with a dedic...

Ecology faces an accumulation of models but not an accumulation of confidence. Our new paper w/ Jonathan Levine www.nature.com/articles/s41... in @natecoevo.nature.com introduces a rigorous test rooted in queueing theory to falsify inadequate models and build confidence in useful ones.

🧪,🌍,#ecoevo

Hi all! I am seeking an ecology or applied math PhD student interested in quantitative ecology, specifically ecological theory, food web modeling, or population dynamics. If you are interested, have a look at our lab website below and reach out to me.
resiliencelab.github.io/join/

@joshuasweitz.bsky.social @mixotrophe.bsky.social

Job Alert! Looking for a PhD student and a postdoc in quantitative ecology
Deets here: resiliencelab.github.io/join/

Global distribution of forest landscapes covered by airborne LiDAR

Only a pre-print for now, but after 4 years of hard work I couldn't resist sharing this!

The Global Canopy Atlas: analysis-ready maps of 3D structure for the world's woody ecosystems

📜: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Huge team effort led by the brilliant Fabian Fischer!

Happy to share our research on traditional farming landscapes in northwest Himalaya is out in Science Advances! Thanks to my advisor Tulja & all the wonderful collaborators- Ale @ornithoale.bsky.social, Katie @kasolari.bsky.social, Akshata, Kullu, Rinchen, Lamaji. 1/7 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Interested in theory and looking for a postdoc or grad school? Come talk to me at #ESA2025!
resiliencelab.github.io/join/

EPA eliminates research and development office as it begins thousands of layoffs The Environmental Protection Agency said Friday it is eliminating its research and development arm and reducing agency staff by thousands of employees.

A 23% reduction in staff at the EPA and closure of their research program will make it much easier for companies to pollute land, water, and air without being held accountable. This will hurt all of our children and grandchildren. This is very sad to watch. 🧪
www.pbs.org/newshour/pol...

Study finds AI tools made open source software developers 19 percent slower Coders spent more time prompting and reviewing AI generations than they saved on coding.

a new study found that experienced open source programmers became 19% less efficient when they used AI tools, because they spent more time prompting and reviewing AI generation output than they saved on coding.

Trump’s NIH And NSF Cuts Estimated To Cost The U.S. Economy $10 Billion Annually Economists find public R&D drives U.S. productivity growth — and pays for itself

www.forbes.com/sites/johndr...

"For every dollar spent [on science], the economy eventually produces an additional $1.71 in output. That return exceeds nearly every other form of public or private investment."

Is this YTD for 2024?

Okay I know I've got a bunch of bug needs among my followers, and y'all need to see this one LOOK AT IT

Ecological acclimation: A framework to integrate fast and slow responses to climate change Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

A synthetic paper about fast vs. slow responses of ecological systems to changing climate, explaining how and why those responses can shift (even in sign) over time. Examples across scales and subdiscplines (population genetics, ecosystem ecology). besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Paper: "data available upon request"
Upon request: "our data source doesn't want us to share data"

Postdoc ad 2025 3yr Postdoc in complexity-stability theory Department of Biology, University of Maryland College Park Application window Open date: now Review date: August 10 2025, or until filled Start date: late 2...

Job in my lab: 3yr postdoc on how and when complexity promotes network stability.

Looking for physics, math, or theory folks who use analytical approaches, but there'll be great opportunities for data connections too.
docs.google.com/document/d/1...

NSF, NASA and NIH budgets per year, inflation adjusted from 2000-2025 along with the proposed cuts. NSF includes research component only. Massive cuts across all sectors, well below support spanning 25 years.

How bad will it be? Catastrophic.

Proposed cuts to #NSF, #NIH, and #NASA will set the US R&D landscape back 25 yrs+, cause economic and job loss now, and undermine innovations to come.

But, this is the WH's *proposed* budget.

Speak up now before it is too late.

(inflation adjusted $-s below)

‘Scienticide’ in Argentina sparks huge protest by researchers Hundreds of activists wearing gas masks took to the streets to call out their government for slashing science funding.

Soybeans and sirloin are not incompatible with science.

But a country that only produces soybeans and sirloin is going to run into some recurring, structural problems.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

How do ecological communities respond to pulse perturbations (e.g. storms, wildfires)? We have a solid theory for stable fixed points, but what about cycles, transients, or chaos? In this preprint, we introduce a unified framework for these nonequilibrium cases. 1/7
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Done. Please comment, click on public comments on left bar. Suggestions in thread.
bsky.app/profile/free...

Dad: what papers are you writing rn?
Me: an exam for my course
Dad: that's not a paper
Me: I KNOW!! 🙃

Favorite word of the month: equifinality. When multiple paths lead to the same end.