Here's what happens when you give salmon cocaine It turns out that salmon exposed to cocaine through water pollution do a lot of swimming—which may not be a good thing

It turns out that salmon exposed to cocaine through water pollution do a lot of swimming—which may not be a good thing

Cocaine pollution in rivers and lakes may disrupt behaviour of salmon, study finds Fish swam further and dispersed more widely after exposure to environmental levels of drug and main metabolite Traces of cocaine that pollute rivers and lakes may accumulate in the brains of salmon and disrupt their behaviour, according to researchers who warn of unknown consequences for fish populations. Juvenile Atlantic salmon that were artificially exposed to the drug and its main breakdown product swam further and dispersed more widely across a lake, suggesting the substances can affect where the fish go, what they eat and how vulnerable they are to predators. Continue reading...

Cocaine pollution in rivers and lakes may disrupt behaviour of salmon, study finds

Super happy to see our new paper out in
@currentbiology.bsky.social
today! We found that cocaine pollution affects salmon movement and space use in the wild!

Big congrats to the team for this huge effort!
@michaelgbertram.bsky.social

Find the paper here: tinyurl.com/cocaine-fish

Interesting work showing that mtDNA copy number is associated with flight performance! This got me thinking about the idea that mitochondrial bioenergetics and mtDNA variation may influence state–behaviour feedbacks - something we explored in our recent TREE paper (tinyurl.com/mtDNA-behaviour).

Final reminder: registration closes tomorrow (Thursday, 17:00 UK time) with more info to follow. It should be a fun and slightly different way to connect with others interested in fish behaviour!

🔥 We'll soon be advertising a 2-year Postdoctoral Research Fellow position at UCL, focusing on insect single-cell mitochondrial genomics. 🔥
More details coming soon. Feel free to get in touch in this sounds fun or share with anyone who might be interested.

Neuroactive Pollution Disrupts Cognition in Fish by Causing Sex-Specific Effects on Spatial Learning Cognition underpins how animals perceive, navigate, and respond to their environment, yet these fundamental processes are increasingly threatened by environmental pollutants. Neuroactive pharmaceutica...

Can fish think clearly in polluted waters? Common antidepressant found in waterways impairs learning in fish… but only in males!
Go check it out at: doi.org/10.1021/acs....
🐟 🧠 💊
Huge thanks to the epic team💙 @Elly Moore @bbmwong.bsky.social @michaelgbertram.bsky.social @jake-m-martin.bsky.social

I'm excited to announce that the @sortee.bsky.social Guidelines for Data and Code Quality Control in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology are now published in Peer Community Journal peercommunityjournal.org/articles/10....

The SORTEE guidelines for data and code quality control in ecology and evolutionary biology are now published in the Peer Community Journal!

🔗 peercommunityjournal.org/articles/10....

Now recommended on @peercommunityin.bsky.social!

ecology.peercommunityin.org/articles/rec...

Cool to be a small part of this project led by @mjw-marine.bsky.social on non-lethal tools for accurate sex identification in European eels.

Check out the paper below!

Our new paper in @globalchangebio.bsky.social: artificial light at night creates an ecological trap for wild reef fish. Settlement ↑ under artificial light (up to 8× higher), but survival ~50% lower due to predation, disrupted settlement timing, and altered metabolic rhythms: doi.org/10.1111/gcb....

Sorry to hear Bob. Hope you’re doing ok.

Are Behavioral Ecotoxicity Endpoints Relevant at the Population Level? Evidence-Based Insights for Environmental Protection A substantial body of evidence exists demonstrating that exposure to environmental contaminants can alter animal behavior. Moreover, methodological and technological advancements, as well as increasin...

New paper led by @michaelgbertram.bsky.social!

Environmental pollutants can alter animal behaviour, but behaviour is rarely used in risk assessments. We outline how behaviour is key for population outcomes, and why it should be taken seriously in chemical regulation.

Link: tinyurl.com/behav-ecotox

It’s great to see our systematic map highted by @envevidence.bsky.social as the most read article of 2025! It was a huge amount of work, so I am glad people are seeing it. We highlighted some major gaps and issues within the field, as well as practical ways to move forward
#pollution #ecotoxicology

The Thermal Ecology Alliance is approaching 1000 members! Join here: www.thermalecologyalliance.org/participation

Congrats @rhieastment.bsky.social!

Please help us classify all fish species by their social systems 🙏! Any and all observations or general knowledge are useful. Log them at shoalbase.org, the form takes about a minute to fill in 😀.

Anthropogenic change and the loss of behavioural diversity Abstract. Behavioural diversity is an important but understudied facet of biodiversity that enables wildlife populations to cope with rapidly changing envi

Paper by @bbmwong.bsky.social and co out today in
@royalsociety.org on how anthropogenic change reduces behavioral diversity.
Part of our (@michaelgbertram.bsky.social @marleetucker.bsky.social) Special Feature: Wildlife behavior and movement ecology in a human-dominated world
tinyurl.com/behav-div

New article out today in Qvintensen magazine on pharmaceuticals in the environment 💊🌍

Fun to write with @jackmanera.bsky.social @jack-brand.bsky.social & Mirjam Amcoff

Free to read (in Swedish): statistikframjandet.se/wp-content/u...

ABL:AOC 2025 Session 5 Talk 2 / Jack Brand Pharmaceutical pollution alters river-to-sea migration success in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)

It was great to present the results of our research on how pharmaceutical pollutants can affect salmon migration at the recent @animalbehaviour.live conference!

You can watch it on Youtube here: tinyurl.com/48p7v95d

Such an amazing long term project!

Temporal Increases in Mercury Concentrations are Associated with Increased Risk of Death by Infectious Disease in Harbour Porpoises (Phocoena Phocoena) Trace elements, particularly heavy metals like mercury, pose significant risks to marine ecosystems due to their toxic and bioaccumulative properties. Concentrations in some marine species show concer...

📣New paper out today!

We’ve found concentrations of mercury in UK-harbour porpoises is increasing. 📈🐬

We also found concentrations of mercury were associated with an increased risk of dying from infectious disease.☠️

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Loggers attached to birds can affect foraging behaviour Loggers have become a central part of research on seabirds and other groups of animals over the past 20 years. In seabird research, loggers provide very useful documentation of diving behaviour…

#biologging #research is booming - but do #loggers actually impact the birds? Yes, they do - depending on the mass and attachment location. If you work with biologging, you should read our latest publication seapop.no/en/2025/11/l...
@ninanatureresearch.bsky.social #seabirds

My lab at Indiana University is searching for a *postdoc* and *technician* to contribute to our work studying the evolution of social behavior using fruit flies as a model system. Details below, feel free to email me with any questions! More info on our research: saltzlab.com

Effect of hyperoxia (150% air saturation) on warming tolerance in 14 aquatic ectotherms from across the globe. Left: Forest plot showing effect sizes (model estimates ± 95% confidence intervals) for the effect of hyperoxia on warming tolerance. Black symbols are the fast warming (0.3°C min−1) trials, blue symbols are the slow warming (1°C h−1) trials, and yellow symbols are for a net combined effect with random effects for subgroups of the 24 experiments. The effects were considered statistically significant where the 95% confidence interval does not cross the red vertical line. Right: Approximate geographical distributions for the 10 species of fish (top) and four species of decapod crustaceans (bottom) used in the laboratory experiments to assess the effects of hyperoxia on upper thermal tolerance.

Oxygen supersaturation is proposed to buffer against #HeatStress in water-breathing animals. @graham-raby.bsky.social @jutfelt.bsky.social &co re-examine this question in diverse #aquatic #ectotherms, showing that #hyperoxia has minimal impact on thermal tolerance @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/43hzMQa

I am recruting a #postdoc for a project investigating the evolution of avian heat tolerance in @erc.europa.eu project #HotLife. Fieldwork over broad latitudinal gradients, common-garden experiments, and more. Read more and apply👇
shorturl.at/WA1Qa

Would appreciate a re-post!

@evoldir.bsky.social

POSITIONS default description

I am looking for a postdoc to work in our long-term system of food-caching mountain chickadees in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The expected start is April 2026. Please see details here: chickadeecognition.com/positions
If interested and qualified, please contact me directly (email on the website).

Excited to share our latest paper in Behavioral Ecology! 🐟 🦐 🚤
doi.org/10.1093/behe...

Fieldwork on the Great Barrier Reef revealed species-specific responses to noise pollution from different boat engines.

@jake-m-martin.bsky.social
@bbmwong.bsky.social

Check out new paper led by @jackmanera.bsky.social on impacts of noise pollution. @monashscience.bsky.social @monashbiol.bsky.social #BobWongLab