Toby Pennington

Big effort, exciting results - our paper on the constraints of thermal limits in tropical insects is now out in @nature.com! 🦋🐝🪰🪲🦗
@ecoresearchzoo3.bsky.social
@biologie-uniwue.bsky.social
@uni-wuerzburg.de

Fabaceae emerge as amongst the most embolism-resistant tree families in Amazonia. Forests in the Brazilian and Guiana Shield regions, where Fabaceae abundance is high, are expected to have greater drought resistance than Western Amazon forests.

We already have more than 💯 participants for #ExE2026, but there are still places available.

Once you have registered, you have until April 1 to submit an abstract, so don’t miss out and register now at sites.exeter.ac.uk/exe/registra...

Everything you need to know is 👇 and at evoxeco.uk!

Acceleration hotspots of North American birds’ decline are associated with agriculture Human activities might have accelerated declines of population abundance, but this acceleration remains underexplored. Using 1033 North American Breeding Bird Survey routes, we analyze abundance chang...

Thrilled to share our new paper out in @science.org, led by François Leroy and Petr Keil! Using the Breeding Bird Survey, we document not only a continent-wide decline in bird abundance since the 1980s — but, crucially, the acceleration of these declines over time. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

For background on the project see "BioNames: linking taxonomy, texts, and trees" (https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj. 190 L) and "Ten years and a million links: building a global taxonomic library connecting persistent identifiers for names, publications and people" (https://doi.org/BDJ.11.e107914 L). Database Statistics Distinct name clusters Names with publications Names with DOls Names with free PDFs Total names 5,464,929 4,496,603 1,782,674 504,962 286,091

Slowly adding content to bionames.org and tweaking the interface. Hope page loads faster now and looks a little better on mobile. Lots of DOIs and PDFs for taxonomic papers, but so much to do. Half a million names linked to DOIs, wish it were more.

From Soil Seed Banks to Seedlings: Deciphering the Natural Regeneration of Tropical Dry Forests in the Americas By Viviana Londoño-Lemos Viviana Londoño-Lemos is a Ph.D. candidate with the Powers Lab in the Plant and Microbial Biology Program at the University of Minnesota. Email: vivianalondonolemos@gmail.c…

Wanna know about you should care about seeds and seedlings as much as I do while learning what I'm up to during my PhD?

Check the #NHER post from the @mobotgarden.bsky.social, the Ecological Health Network and the Restoration Ecology Lab at Virginia Tech.

#RestorationEcology #Seedlings #Seeds

Diverging responses of taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic plant diversity to biogeographic parameters in arid habitat islands of southern Africa Habitat islands conceptually bridge true islands and habitat patches, adding new perspectives to island biogeographic principles that shape community assembly processes. Despite growing interest, empi...

Last, but not least: How do biogeography and plant diversity interact in the quartz islands of South Africa? Different types of biodiversity (taxonomic, phylogenetic, functional) may respond very differently: doi.org/10.21425/fob...

The role of the climate niche in repeated abrupt tree declines and ecotone dynamics in the Appalachian Mountains during the Holocene Forests in eastern North American did not achieve a stable composition during the Holocene. Both prolonged and abrupt shifts in the distributions of tree species were common. Studying the dynamics inv...

Next in our Frontiers roundup: Using Appalachian pollen records, Shuman et al. explore how the tree communities of the Holocene were formed by interactions between climate variation and species climate niches: doi.org/10.21425/fob...

And lastly, a reminder: February's Funk Biogeography Seminar takes place this Wednesday (2/25) at 1:00PM UTC! There's still time to register here:

Rising atmospheric CO2 reduces nitrogen availability in boreal forests - Nature Nitrogen isotope tree-ring chronologies show that rising atmospheric CO2 has reduced nitrogen availability in boreal forests in Sweden, suggesting that elevated atmospheric CO2 is causing oligotrophic...

I am really excited to share our new paper, published today in Nature. We show that rising atmospheric CO2 is linked to decling nutrient availability in boreal forest, with implications for the future carbon sink. Kudos to lead author @kelleyrbassett.bsky.social.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Postdoctoral position in Forest Genetics at @uni-freiburg.de with a focus on local adaptation and/or stress reaction of trees. The position combines research and teaching (4 SWS), and offers the opportunity to develop an independent research profile (4+ years).

Diverging responses of taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic plant diversity to biogeographic parameters in arid habitat islands of southern Africa Habitat islands conceptually bridge true islands and habitat patches, adding new perspectives to island biogeographic principles that shape community assembly processes. Despite growing interest, empi...

Diverging responses of taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic plant diversity to biogeographic parameters in arid habitat islands of southern Africa biogeography.pensoft.net/articles.php...

new work on quartz habitat islands in Southern Africa

Schematic overview of the potential and observed processes and outcomes of open-land conversion to agroforests.

Open‐land‐derived agroforestry and effects of abandonment of management of the main crop on ecosystem services and woody plant diversity

📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
by Fonzaghi et al.

Summary also available in Português

@WileyPlantSci

The global island species–area relationship for plants | PNAS The island species−area relationship (ISAR) is known to be near-ubiquitous, but its properties across the fullest span of island areas globally and...

The global island species–area relationship for plants | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Our latest effort to understand ISARs for plants globally!

A translucent image of two hands holding a smartphone superimposed on an image of a savannah with large herbivores. Text reads, 'The Future of Education in Africa'.

Linking to images and #AI-based identification tools—The only way for Flora projects to survive

#ThomasReview by Susanne S. Renner

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

#PlantScience #LatestIssue

Important new approaches in biogeography and evolutionary diversification, especially for species-rich ecosystems with high levels of sympatry. Check out the preprint ⬇️

February's Funk Biogeography seminar is on the horizon! This month's speaker is Juan Pablo Quimbayo, who will talk about the role of traits in shaping marine biodiversity. Learn more and register here: www.biogeography.org/news/news/fe...

This month's Funk lecture from @biogeography.bsky.social will be given by Juan Pablo Quimbayo. Sign up soon!

LinneSys: Systematics Research Fund LinneSys: Systematics Research Fund The Councils of The Linnean Society of London and The Systematics Association jointly administer this fund for the benefit of systematics research. The Fund has …

The 2026 LinneSys call is open!

Looking for a small grant for systematics work? Check us out! systass.org/linnesys/

All you need is to be a member of the @systassn.bsky.social or the @linneansociety.bsky.social

Caveat, legally, we cannot fund anyone in a country listed here: tinyurl.com/wemwtfrz

🚨3 Lectureships in Biology 🚨

Come join us in Bristol @bristolbiosci.bsky.social!

We are looking for new collegues working across a broad spectum of topics in biology, including ecology & environmental change. Get in touch if you have Qs!

Apply here by 8 March: www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find/de...

On March 3rd @ 5pm CET, we are re-starting the Integration of speciation seminar series! The first 3 sessions feature talks by *Early-Career Researchers*, and include a Q&A with an established PI about their career path.

Sign up to get the link: speciation-network.pages.ist.ac.at/seminar-seri...

A beautiful book cover featuring an illustration of Nasturtium and the title Atlas of Botany

I’m immeasurably chuffed to have been able to contribute a chapter to this beautiful book, the Atlas of Botany, a collaboration between @thebotanics.bsky.social and DK. Available for pre-order now! rbgeshop.org/products/pre...
#botany #popularscience 🌐🌏

No evidence for the niche breadth – range size hypothesis in big plant genera

🌿🌍 Join us to learn about the newly published “No evidence for the niche breadth – range size hypothesis in big plant genera” in @annbot.bsky.social by Ludwig Baldaszti and co-authors. (1/9)

👉 doi.org/qnrq

@baldasztil.bsky.social
@caroaceae.bsky.social
@petermoonlight.bsky.social

#PlantScience

Global biogeography of zoantharians indicates a weak genetic differentiation between the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific oceans, and distinct communities in tropical and temperate provinces Biogeographic patterns for marine fishes and scleractinian stony corals are well-established, but it is still unclear whether these patterns apply to the understudied marine invertebrates. Here we inv...

Two new papers to start your week! First, big distributions and little genetic divergence in the global biogeography of zoantharians: biogeography.pensoft.net/article/1742...

🔥 Postdoctoral Opportunity | Fire, Seeds & the Cerrado 🌱
The Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology (UNESP, Brazil) is offering a postdoc position to study how fire regimes and climate warming shape seed traits and germination in Cerrado species.
👉 Learn more: tinyurl.com/hf9yd98f
#Ecology #Traits

A reminder that the next Funk lecture will take place this Wednesday! We will be hosting @comecology.bsky.social, so you do not want to miss it 😀

New deadline: February 4th
Still time to apply!
www.liverpool.ac.uk/courses/expl...

Fish species composition reflects geomorphology in the Western Amazon, the Earth's vertebrate biodiversity hotspot Fishes of the Western Amazon exhibit the greatest diversity of any continental vertebrate fauna on Earth. Hypotheses to explain diversity patterns have focused on various ecological and evolutionary p...

How are fish species distributions associated with geomorphology in the Western Amazon? The first 2026 Frontiers of Biogeography article is out now: doi.org/10.21425/fob...

Small-island effect is detected for both native and non-native seed plants in the largest archipelago of China The small-island effect (SIE) describes a particular form of species–area relationship where species richness on small islands is independent of island area or relates to area in a different way than ...

Small-island effect is detected for both native and non-native seed plants in the largest archipelago of China - and shown for both species richness and phylogenetic diversity -https://biogeography.pensoft.net/articles.php?id=168932

Chemical properties of foliar metabolomes represent a key axis of functional trait variation in forests of the tropical Andes Abstract. Plants interact with their environment through diverse specialized metabolites that protect them from abiotic stressors, like drought or radiatio

Happy to share this paper from the Madidi Metabolomics Project, led by Sierra Chadwick & Brian Sedio, and made possible by the Madidi Project, Herbario Nacional de Bolivia, Missouri Botanical Garden @mobotgarden.bsky.social and WashU @livingearthcollab.bsky.social 🌴 ⛰️

doi.org/10.1098/rspb...