Sycamore seedlings are taking over our local park (in Belfast) this year. Anyone else noticing?

Lots of opportunities for collaboration, grant applications and education. The current holder of the post got an academic position halfway through, that's saying something. Portal for applications not open yet, but please spread the word and don't hesitate to contact me for info.

#Job opportunity! We are looking for a post-doc with experience in quantitative #ecology, preferably with modelling plant dynamics at large scale, to work 2 years with the fantastic @climatecocentre.bsky.social at @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social .

This was a special celebration as I've known Will since I first arrived at the QUB School of Biological Sciences 9 years ago - not everyday that we can accompany someone through three study cycles. And our collaboration doesn't end there but that's for another time!

Huge congratulations to @willhancock-evans.bsky.social who passed the huge milestone of the PhD viva, after 3 years of investigating urban tree effects on biodiversity and ecosystem services with my supervision.

Best practices for moving from correlation to causation in ecological research - Nature Communications Different scientific traditions offer seemingly disparate approaches to inferring causal relationships in ecological systems. This Perspective unifies the causal assumptions and methods from...

Excited to share our new paper in @natcomms.nature.com We synthesize causal discovery & inference approaches across traditions (regression adjustment, quasi-expts, SEMs, Granger causality, convergent cross-mapping, and more) into a unified workflow for ecologists. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

That moment when you teach biology students about indigenous-led conservation and one of them comes see you after the lecture to ask how to get involved 😍
Teaching really gives a soul to academic life.

Full day! BBC Ulster talk show to discuss the validity of the concept of "toxic masculinity", then tonight going deeper in the content in front of a full room as part of the @niscifest.bsky.social. In between, great discussion of the use of geoprofiling in #biodiversityconservation by PhD student

🚀 The 2026 NI Science Festival programme is LIVE + on sale! We’re back 11–22 Feb with big ideas, bold talks, family favourites, late-night labs, and all kinds of curious chaos.

Huge shoutout to Hundred Studio for our brand new website!

Programme link below nisciencefestival.com/events/

Gore-Tex factory in the US polluting water with pfas, impacting local communities.

In the space of two minutes he confused Greenland and Iceland four times by my count.
bsky.app/profile/atru...

The UK Government has just released a report that, if taken seriously, should transform how we think about climate, nature and security

🚨 Its main conclusion is stark: global ecosystem degradation and collapse is a national emergency 🚨

➡️ www.naturebasedsolutionsinitiative.org/news/nationa...

🚨 new podcast episode!
🦫 this episode explores the story behind the paper, "habitat heterogeneity and food availability in beaver-engineered streams foster bat richness, activity and feeding".
🎙️ listen to the full episode here: buff.ly/AbdBmjW

Common #birds have higher abundances in croplands with lower #pesticide purchases #ProcB #OpenAccess #Ecology royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

Wiki | Anti-Authoritarian Toolkit | D-HUB Read the volumes of the Anti-Authoritarian Toolkit, a free digital toolkit to fight back against authoritarianism.

CAMPAIGNING RESOURCE ALERT: The Anti- Authoritarian Toolkit is your guide to digital resistance brought to you from D-HUB. There is so much information here from digital comms to narrative and storytelling tactics and innovative movement building. https://wiki.antiauthoritariantoolkit.org/en

The wealth of 3,000+ billionaires ≃ that of ½ of humanity: 4.1 billion
"The superrich are increasingly controlling the means of communication, incl. both traditional & newer forms of media.
Governments are making wrong choices to pander to the elite & defend wealth while repressing people’s rights…"

RSPB 'shuts down' X account in 'foreseeable future' update The charity felt it had no choice but to protect its supporters and volunteers

Good news - I suspect many other respectable organisations will follow soon....
www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news...

A Eurasian lynx reclines leisurely on a moss-covered rock, surrounded by a forest of tall trees.

Slovenia is smaller and more densely populated than Scotland. But despite its small size and relatively populous countryside, it's home to nearly 1,000 brown bears, over 120 wolves and a growing population of around 50 reintroduced lynx.

Fantastic, thanks!

As the climate data for 2025 continues to be released, it's time to update various data visualisations.

First - the global climate stripes for 1850-2025. A third darkest red stripe is added.

The last 11 years have been the warmest 11 years on record. A sequence that is unlikely to be broken soon.

A graph showing daily temperature anomalies since the 1940s

Not a single day in 2025 was cooler than the 1991-2020 average, on a global scale. @copernicusecmwf.bsky.social

RSPB asks for evidence of burning on peatlands across the UK RSPB press release: RSPB ASKS FOR EVIDENCE OF BURNING ON PEATLANDS The RSPB is asking members of the public to report incidents of moorland burning on peatlands using their burning reporting app or…

Find out how you can help 🔽

raptorpersecutionuk.org/2026/01/15/r...

Do you have a piece explaining how a boycott of palm oil would unravel? Industry switching to more area-demanding oils maybe?

Denmark’s plan for a greener country offers ideas worth Ireland’s attention Carbon tax on farming and taking land out of agricultural production among bold moves by the Danes

If Denmark can get farmers to agree to dropping their nitrates derogation, adopting a carbon tax on meat, government promotion of plant-based diets and rewilding a fifth of the country - why can't Ireland?

www.irishtimes.com/science/2026...

Quantifying architectural uniqueness of Scots pine trees using terrestrial laser scanning: toward individual tree fingerprinting Abstract. Tree architecture reflects a hierarchical growth pattern shaped by the interplay between genetics and the environment. Environmental variation le

Do trees have fingerprints? This cool new study uses terrestrial LiDAR to capture features of stems and branches that might allow timber to be identified and tracked from forest to lumberyard. 🧪🌲🌳 academic.oup.com/forestry/art...

I warmly recommend this stunning book by @lesliebarnardbooth.bsky.social as a present to awake an interest in nature and trees in particular. Considering using it as textbook in #forestecology

A comic called Animals with Misleading Names. There's an electric eel labeled "not an eel". There's a mountain goat labeled "not a goat." There's a maned wolf labeled "not a wolf." There's a king cobra labeled "not a cobra. Also, snakes are typically self-governing." There's a peacock mantis shrimp labeled "Not a peacock. Not a mantis. Also, not a shrimp." There's a horny toad labeled "Not a toad. Only thinks of you as a friend." There's a mayfly labeled "active through the spring and summer." There's an eastern kingbird labeled "found in the west. Many birds do not recognize its authority."

Animals with misleading names. I'm seeing this go around as part of a viral tumblr thread so I thought I'd reshare it.

Photo of the coastline of Rota by Asch Nighthawk with inset photo by Lauren Helton of two people banding a Mariana Kingfisher and inset of bander handling a Mariana Fruit-dove for photo documentaion by Kristin Attinger.

🪶🌎🧪 WE'RE HIRING!!! Want to band fabulous birds on a far-flung island in the Western Pacific? We need to fill this position ASAP. More information here: birdpop.org/docs/jobs/Ro...