B is displeased by the current job market

UCLA's Most Decorated Ecologist Just Got Fired : Here's the sequence In January of 2025, at the ICTP ICTS winter school at NCBS, Priyanga Amarasekare offered to take me and a few other students out for my birthday. She didn't have to do that.

Insightful summary of an extraordinary person being extraordinarily fired: "you don't silence a woman of color who raised concerns about racism by silencing her...The fingerprints are distributed perfectly across the system." www.linkedin.com/pulse/uclas-...

I've said it before and I'll say it until the heat death of the universe: KEEP YOUR CATS INSIDE. They kill EVERYTHING.

If that's not enough, do it for your own cat's health. Parasites, birds of prey, dogs, coyotes, cars, and other cats are all threats. Save the local ecosystem, save your cat.

A global-scale assessment of zoonotic virus diversity and spillover potential in urban-adapted mammal species Nature Microbiology, Published online: 26 March 2026; doi:10.1038/s41564-026-02311-9Urban-adapted mammals host a wide spectrum of zoonotic viruses, some posing high risks of human infection. These species may act as unmonitored reservoirs for viruses of public health concern.

Out Now! A global-scale assessment of zoonotic virus diversity and spillover potential in urban-adapted mammal species #MicroSky

I absolutely love the complexity and variety of parasite life histories

Academics, what's the longest you've had to wait between a faculty application and getting an invitation to interview?

Interested to read this and understand why acoustic indices are seemingly not useful for biodiversity research

This looks dope

New preprint! We conducted a meta-analysis of experimental studies to show that warmer temperatures drove increased parasitism across myriad host-parasite systems, providing the most convincing evidence for the Warmer, Sicker World Hypothesis yet!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

The macroecology of immunity: predominant influence of climate on invertebrate immune response The immune system is the primary defense against parasites. With the ever-increasing rate of disease, epidemiologic models considering geographic variation in immune responses could prove useful. Des...

New paper alert! Along with members of @bugecology.bsky.social 's lab and other collaborators we found that immune defenses vary with the local environment across large spatial scales, as well as evidence for local adapation to parasite pressure nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Check out this cool paper lead by @hasikadam.bsky.social and including important contributions from undergraduate students in our lab.

Melanization response to parasitism in odonates could be the by-product of dessication resistance adaptation

Maybe it's wishful thinking, but I'm feeling relatively confident about this round of job and faculty applications

Parasite-mediated inbreeding depression in wild red deer Heredity - Parasite-mediated inbreeding depression in wild red deer

New paper alert! In my second first-author paper from my work on the Isle of Rum Red Deer Project @rumdeerresearch.bsky.social we show, for only the second time in a wild population, that parasites mediate inbreeding depression.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Population density drives increased parasitism via greater exposure and reduced resource availability in wild red deer | Parasitology | Cambridge Core Population density drives increased parasitism via greater exposure and reduced resource availability in wild red deer

Thrilled to share my first first-author paper from my work with the Isle of Rum Red Deer Project! @rumdeerresearch.bsky.social

We found that host density acts to increase parasitism through two mechanisms: increased exposure and increased susceptibility.

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Interested in the role of journals in supporting open, credible and diverse research? Come see my talk at #ESEB2025 Tuesday 3-3:30pm, symposium S11, room 122/123.

I will also be taking about our fantastic new data editor guidelines

Population density drives increased parasitism via greater exposure and reduced resource availability in wild red deer | Parasitology | Cambridge Core Population density drives increased parasitism via greater exposure and reduced resource availability in wild red deer

📣 Hot off the press! 🔥🧪

'Population density drives increased parasitism via greater exposure and reduced resource availability in wild red deer @rumdeerresearch.bsky.social'.

Proud to have played a small role on this one with an amazing team led by @hasikadam.bsky.social! 🦌🌱🪱

Read about it here 👇

Laksa is some of the best food ever

This paper began as a project during a PhD course in 2018, and would not have been possible without the hard work by and collaboration with @adamsiepielski.bsky.social , @phylieu.bsky.social , @drilvonen.bsky.social , @tiziana-gobbin.bsky.social , Jukka Suhonen, and Robert Poulin (2/2).

Parasitism as a driver of host diversification - Nature Reviews Biodiversity Parasites and their hosts can have complex ecological interactions and evolutionary histories. This Perspective argues that parasites are a major driver of host speciation and outlines an empirical fr...

It is with SUPREME pleasure that I can finally share my most recently-published paper in @natrevbiodiv.nature.com !

www.nature.com/articles/s44...

We outline a framework for linking the microevolutionary effects of parasites to the macroevolutionary dynamics of their hosts (1/2).

Publishing agreement is signed, and soon a project I've been working on since 2018 will be published!!!!

How many faculty jobs did people apply for before they got their first interview? Asking for a friend....

Thank you!

Annnnnd a desk rejection. Perfect topper to the grant rejection.

Nothing like starting the day with a grant rejection letter

I'm so happy you enjoyed it!

Thank you so much for the amazing artwork!!!

Super excited to give my seminar tomorrow at @uniofaberdeen.bsky.social. If you're around and want to hear about my work on parasites, ecology, and evolution, come on by at 1pm!

Science during the week, video games on the weekend

Anyone else have trouble settling in to the holidays and not thinking about work?

Disease ecologist starter pack -- reply with people/organizations to be added or with related lists/feeds

#diseaseecology

🦠🐀🦠🦇🦠🦭🦠🦆🦠 go.bsky.app/RwAuiNT