How fragmentation shapes elephant genomes:
232 genomes across Africa show deep divergence between savanna & forest elephants, but also gene flow and emerging isolation. Led by @patriciachrzan.bsky.social (Univ. of Copenhagen; visiting at Lund).
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Moss metabolomics at scale.
In #BRYOMOLECULES, >200 axenic bryophyte cultures enable controlled analyses of intrinsic chemistry. Extracts are profiled using LC-MS and chromatography to map metabolomes. >140 samples analysed.
bryomolecules.eu
#PlantScience #Biology #LundUniversity
Soot particles don’t affect all animals the same way.
Susana Garcia Dominguez shows, using controlled exposures and field data, that air pollution impacts birds & bumblebees through time-dependent effects on immunity, oxidative balance and DNA integrity.
🔗 www.lunduniversity.lu.se/lup/publicat...
Can DNA reveal where someone has been?
Eran Elhaik (Lund University) develops AI-based methods combining genetic and microbial data to link people to specific environments, adding a new dimension to forensic analysis.
🔗 www.biologi.lu.se/artikel/ny-d...
#Forensics #Genetics #Bioinformatics #AI
New study about insects active in the cold.
Female resistance, not just mate choice, drives reproductive isolation in Bahamas mosquitofish. In common-garden, no-choice trials, females were more aggressive to males from other populations, reducing fertilisation success and gene flow.
link.springer.com/article/10.1... Photo: Brian Langhans
PhD defence: Ashish Ahlawat
Using transcriptomics + Raman spectroscopy, fungi grown on cellulose show decomposition strategies form a continuum—not strict white vs brown rot. Nitrogen availability shapes responses.
🔗 www.lunduniversity.lu.se/lup/publicat...
Photo: Annabel, Wikimedia Commons
Congrats to Elin Dirlik, who has defended her thesis, Getting It Straight: Dynamic Cue Weighting and Orientation Strategies in Ball-Rolling Dung Beetles.
The work shows how dung beetles dynamically integrate cues such as sun position and wind direction to maintain straight-line orientation.
Open position as an Associate Senior Lecturer/Assistant Professor in Molecular Microbiology at the Department of Biology, Lund University.
Apply before 28 April 2026. More info & application at lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/... Please share.
After 5 years of developing, a new preprint from the lab - introducing our workflow for comparative insect connectomics, aimed at democratizing connectomics. @erc.europa.eu @lundvision.bsky.social @biologylu.bsky.social Read it here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Great cormorants can exceed minimum power speed & adjust flight speeds seasonally, though wind responses are inconsistent & their speed range is narrower than in smaller birds. Physiology and ecology shape flight performance. By A Hedenström, M Klein Heerenbrink & S Åkesson doi.org/10.1242/jeb....
By Karla Iveth Aguilera-Campos, Julie Boisard, Viktor Törnblom, Jon Jerlström-Hultqvist, Ada Behncké-Serra, Elena Aramendia Cotillas, Courtney Weir Stairs - https://doi.org/10.1093/ismejo/wraf171, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=174931819
How do microorganisms survive without oxygen?
In her PhD thesis, Karla Iveth Aguilera Campos studied metabolic interactions between breviate protists and bacteria in anoxic environments, shedding light on microbial cooperation. www.lunduniversity.lu.se/lup/publicat...
Congratulations Karla!
A few species of vertebrates still retain the median eye on top of the head. In this frog, the median eye appears as a small light-blue spot between the regular eyes.
Dan-E Nilsson and colleagues propose that the vertebrate retina evolved by lateralising an ancestral median photoreceptive organ, not as a de novo structure. Bipolar cells may even have dual evolutionary origins.
www.cell.com/current-biol...
(Image: TheAlphaWolf/Wikimedia Commons)
Valentin Gillet defended his PhD on comparative connectomics of the insect central complex. He developed a multiresolution EM pipeline and reconstructed head direction and PFN circuits across species to study conserved and divergent navigation motifs.
🔗 www.lunduniversity.lu.se/lup/publicat...
Sandra Rabow defended her PhD on phytoplankton community dynamics in freshwater systems. Her work examines ecological drivers of Microcystis dominance and species interactions under changing temperature and nutrient regimes.
🔗 www.lunduniversity.lu.se/lup/publicat...
Congrats to @etkayapar.bsky.social who has defended his PhD on integrating sparse and dense genomic datasets to infer robust phylogenies for species-rich moth groups such as Gelechioidea, Geometridae, Noctuidae & Erebidae and advancing phylogenomic methods. lunduniversity.lu.se/lup/publicat...
Not all fungi handle mycelium the same way. New work from @Dimitrious Fluodas & @kaleklett.bsky.social shows species-specific differences in mycelial persistence & turnover under changing nutrient conditions (microfluidics). Relevant for soil carbon processes.
doi.org/10.1111/nph....
An amoeba seen through a microscope. Photo Wikimedia Commons.
In Environmental Pollution, @hanbangzou.bsky.social and colleagues use microfluidic “soil chips” + AI video tracking to monitor soil protists under nanoplastic exposure. Flagellates & ciliates slowed by 24–30% at high concentration; amoebae unaffected. doi.org/10.1016/j.en...
Dan-Eric Nilsson & his colleagues have created virtual animals with AI vision to study evolution in a new way—watching natural selection and adaptation unfold in real time inside simulated worlds. A powerful new tool for evolutionary biology. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
#evolution #AI #biology
Did you know that we're looking for new Associate Editors to join our Editorial Board? 🌍💭
If you'd like to help shape the publishing landscape of the BES journals, find out more below! 👇
britishecologicalsociety.org/content/appl...
Join us in Upsala Sweden for BioSyst EU, 17th–19th August 2026, for a three-day conference celebrating European systematics and biodiversity research at its origin. Systematics and Biodiversity are proud to be an official sponsor!
A call for symposia will be coming soon.. #BioSystEU2026
🚨 PhD offer (please share)
Fascinated by bird migration and movement ecology? 🦜🌍 Join us at @vogelwarte.bsky.social to study annual cycle energetics with multi-sensor loggers in multiple species
Deadline: 20 Feb 2026
Starting: June 2026
Supervision: Martins Briedis & me
Info: tinyurl.com/2dbv9nzh
New postdoc funding opportunity in Sweden! If you're interested in applying for this 'Data-Driven Life Sciences' fellowship, please get in touch, we'd be happy to host and help with the application (and talk options beyond the 2-year position). www.scilifelab.se/data-driven/...
Interested in #NitrogenBiogeochemistry, links to #Carbon & #Phosphorus cycling; the #Organisms involved in #NutrientCycling? Curious about #BorealForests and #Excursions to large-scale field experiments? Then join our session "Nitrogen Biogeochemistry..." at BIOGEOMON www.slu.se/en/about-slu...
Very proud of this new paper from the lab! Work by the magnificent Andrea Adden and many brilliant collaborators illuminate how moth and butterfly brains have evolved in light of different ecologies. Freely available here: rdcu.be/eVR3B; @lundvision.bsky.social @biologylu.bsky.social
My collaborator at University of Copenhagen, Anders Garm, is looking for a 3 year postdoc to work on bioluminescence, neurobiology and ecology of ctenophores. More information here:
candidate.hr-manager.net/ApplicationI...
Tobias Uller shows how a long-stable colour polymorphism in the wall lizard can be rapidly lost.
Analysis of >10,000 individuals across 240 populations reveals how the spread of a large, aggressive morph is linked to the disappearance of other colour variants.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
A small milestone worth celebrating: our Department of Biology, Lund University LinkedIn account has passed 1,000 followers! 🎉 When we published our first post in January 2025, we had no idea what would happen.
Merry X-mas & happy 2026!
Please follow us there:
www.linkedin.com/company/depa...
New technology reveals migratory birds’ stunning precision in flight
“We can now follow a bird’s location throughout the year. How it got there and exactly how long it took,” says Sissel Sjöberg, evolutionary ecologist at Lund University.
👉 read the ful story: www.biology.lu.se/article/new-...
Hur stor är konkurrensen bland pollinatörer?
Ett svensk–irländskt forskarteam visar nu att honungsbin tränger undan humlor även på blomrika ljunghedar. 🐝🐝🐝
Studien publicerades i Proceedins of the Royal Society B:
royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...