Major update to BioTIME 2.0, world’s largest biodiversity time-series database BioTIME 2.0 is the largest biodiversity time-series database on the planet and gives unprecedented insight into global biodiversity.

BioTIME 2.0 - the largest biodiversity time-series database - now spans 12 million records from 553,000 locations, tracking ecosystem changes since 1874! 📊

www.idiv.de/major-update...

@uniofstandrews.bsky.social @idiv-research.bsky.social @erc.europa.eu @jon-chase03.bsky.social

While 'flashy' papers are great, analyses are ephemeral. It's the data, its preservation and organization that will persist. Honored to be involved with this amazing team on what I think are some of the most important biodiversity data out there. BioTime v 2.0.

You have my support!!

It's the 'replicability' part that worries me more, as we all know how many seemingly arbitrary choices can dramatically influence outcomes.

100% agreed. And these people are absolutely phenomenal, doing the hard (often thankless) work to ensure the next level of reproducibility.

I like the idea. A lot. But to be honest, I would be very afraid of the outcome.

Species turnover does not rescue biodiversity in fragmented landscapes - Nature An analysis of habitat fragmentation using a dataset of more than 4,000 species worldwide shows that fragmentation reduces biodiversity at all scales, and that increases in β diversity do not compensa...

What a wonderful paper!!
Really clear results and extremely important research!!
I will use it in my classes

Congrats Thiago Gonçalves-Souza @natejsanders.bsky.social @jon-chase03.bsky.social @nickhaddad.bsky.social

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

Species turnover does not rescue biodiversity in fragmented landscapes - Nature An analysis of habitat fragmentation using a dataset of more than 4,000 species worldwide shows that fragmentation reduces biodiversity at all scales, and that increases in β diversity do not compensa...

Our paper led by Thiago Gonçalves-Souza is out. Habitat fragmentation and habitat loss reduce biodiversity. @natejsanders.bsky.social

Results from 37 studies distributed worldwide, on plants and animals, comparing continuous and fragmented landscapes.

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

Thanks Rob, for writing such a great News & Views about our paper! A huge honor (or I guess I should write honour given your new position) to have your thoughts!

Habitat amount modulates biodiversity responses to fragmentation - Nature Ecology & Evolution How biodiversity responds to habitat fragmentation per se is debated. Here the authors combine metacommunity simulations with reanalysis of empirical metacommunities to show that the amount of habitat...

Is fragmentation bad or good for biodiversity? Yes!

We use a classical competition-colonization metacommunity model to show that fragmentation can increase or decrease diversity depending on the total amount of habitat in the landscape. 🧪

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

This week, embattled UCLA EEB Professor Priyanga Amarasekare faces additional disciplinary hearings. She offers a thorough defense of herself--and transparency on the history of charges & outcomes in her cases--here: pamarasekare.org

And the Restoration Cake symbolizes Emma’s great work synthesizing restoration data!

After 6 years of postdoc-ing with us at iDiv, the Synthesis group says goodbye to Emma Ladouceur. She had such an incredible influence on us all, scientifically and personally. We will miss her, but wish her well and onto bigger and better things at the University of Prince Edward Island!

“I may yet be crushed, but I have put up a ferocious fight and I hope that my efforts make it easier for others who come after me to stand up to authoritarian University administrations.”

“A harassment verdict, no matter how flawed, would permanently destroy my reputation and force me out of academia, and I have to try my utmost to prevent it.”

“At this juncture, publicly responding to the charges against me is the only way I can protect myself.”

For those following the ongoing saga of Priyanga Amarasekare—a major update. She speaks out, addressing all charges! This would make for a dramatic novel or Netflix series. But no, it’s the life of our brilliant and deeply caring colleague and friend.

www.pamarasekare.org

Uh, I really wanna know what this is!

Congrats to all!

But super pleased to see the early career list has Melissa Guzman, whom I was privileged to help nominate (and work with; she’s a 🌟) and Diogo Provete, who is spending the next year at IDiv in my research group, on a Humboldt foundation sabbatical!

www.esa.org/blog/2024/04...

The state of academic publishing in 3 graphs, 6 trends, and 4 thoughts Eleven years ago I shared a fairly heavily researched summary of the state of academic publishing. I mostly argued that OA (aka author pays) was a red herring and that we should really pay attention t...

🧪🌎 super important post from Brian McGill.

➡️We know academic publishing is broken;

➡️We know for profit publishers are driving us to a breaking point;

➡️We know we’re publishing too much;

➡️We are complicit!

dynamicecology.wordpress.com/2024/04/29/t...

Higher trophic levels and species with poorer dispersal traits are more susceptible to habitat loss on island fragments <em>Ecology</em> is a leading journal publishing original research and synthesis papers on all aspects of ecology, with particular emphasis on cutting-edge research and new concepts.

Congrats to Zhonghan Wang for leading this great study in Ecology looking at habitat fragmentation effects on the Thousand Island Lake islands across multiple trophic levels. Was great having him visit iDiv on a CAS scholarship from China.

doi.org/10.1002/ecy....

Nice new modern take on the old pseudoreplication problem (here discussed much more accurately as subsampling) in experimental design. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

The publish-or-perish culture in academia has catalysed the development of an unethical publishing system. This system is characterised by the proliferation of journals and publishers unaffiliated with learned societies or universities— that maintain extremely large revenues and profit margins diverting funds away from the academic community. Early career researchers (ECRs) are particularly vulnerable to the consequences of this publishing system because of intersecting factors, including pressure to pursue high impact publications, rising publication costs and job insecurity. Moving towards a more ethical system requires that scientists advocate for structural change by making career choices that come with risks, many of which disproportionately impact ECRs. We illuminate major issues facing ECRs in Ecology and Evolution under the current publishing system, and propose a portfolio of actions to promote systemic change that can be implemented by ECRs and established researchers.

As director of CESAB, I'm incredibly proud to share the latest article of our postdocs today in Ecology Letters. 👏

They call for a more ethical academic publishing landscape but also ask to not let only the Early Career Researchers pay the price of this paradigm shift !

doi.org/10.1111/ele....

🧪🌍

Just to say the editor (*ahem*) also was nervous about this. But I’m glad they got the message out there in an appropriate venue. Still have no idea where the publishing landscape is going to take us.

UCLA Punished a Prominent Scientist for ‘Destructive and Harmful Conduct.’ She Says It’s ‘Unjust Persecution.’ Priyanga Amarasekare was suspended and later put on involuntary leave for breaching the Faculty Code of Conduct. She hopes that speaking out will help clear her name.

"Amarasekare knows she could get in trouble for talking about any of this, especially to a reporter. But she said she’s tired of feeling muzzled by confidentiality rules and wants to restore her reputation."

www.chronicle.com/article/ucla...

Was a pleasure to be there! What a great group of colleagues and wonderful science!

🚨New paper! Is homogenization really that more common than differentiation? - not really, our latest work shows that one pattern can be as common as the other.

Another great work and collaboration led by this amazing team👇

Synthesis reveals approximately balanced biotic differentiation and homogenization Homogenization is most common at large temporal and spatial scales but is balanced by differentiation at smaller scales.

The lack of evidence for declining local diversity through time must be because everything is homogenizing, leading to larger-scale losses.

Right?!

Nope, says our analysis of 500+ meta-communities through time just published in Science Advances

🧪🌎🐟🌳🦋 🐦🦌

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

So it seems that UCLA, on top of punishing a POC professor for speaking out against racism, has also done nothing against professors for engaging in racist behavior

Calls sDiv is the synthesis centre of iDiv

We have a new call for 'Synthesis' projects at iDiv. Looking forward to more great 'community-driven' synthesis work happening here. Feel free to reach out with questions, etc.

www.idiv.de/en/sdiv/calls