Less than a month left to apply for our summer course!
You are welcome to contact us if you are unsure if the course is for you or have any other questions.
Posts by Matthew Silk
New research from #BiologyLetters: How do infections impact social relationships? royalsocietypublishing.org/rsbl/article... | #Behaviour #Ecology #Evolution #Epidemiology
PLEASE SHARE. PhD Opportunity with me, Ben Raymond and Jan Engelstaedter and Andrew Letten at University of Queensland.
Experimentally testing mechanisms of how temperature may change selection and spread of AMR in E. coli. Coupled with some advanced modelling and sequencing.
๐งช๐ฆ #microsky
Book cover for https://oliviergimenez.github.io/banana-book/
๐ New book out soon !
Iโm excited to share that ๐๐๐ฒ๐๐ฌ๐ข๐๐ง ๐๐ง๐๐ฅ๐ฒ๐ฌ๐ข๐ฌ ๐จ๐ ๐๐๐ฉ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐-๐๐๐๐๐ฉ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ ๐๐๐ญ๐ ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐๐ข๐๐๐๐ง ๐๐๐ซ๐ค๐จ๐ฏ ๐๐จ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฌ: ๐๐ก๐๐จ๐ซ๐ฒ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐ฌ๐ ๐๐ญ๐ฎ๐๐ข๐๐ฌ ๐ข๐ง ๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ is being published by Chapman & Hall / CRC Press
Hope itโs useful to students, researchers, and practitioners
#StatisticalEcology #NIMBLE
Just over a week left to apply for this PhD project (unfortunately UK students only). If you're interested then please get in touch!
Very happy to chat with anyone who might be interested. The broader ideas we'd like to explore are introduced here:
doi.org/10.1098/rstb...
New (competition funded) PhD opportunity with me,
@iaciac.bsky.social and @dralgernon.bsky.social
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Higher-order networks and animal communication. Suited to someone keen on network science theory/computational modeling and keen to adapt this to ecology & evolution.
Huge thanks to Anna, Nina and Nakeya for a truly interdisciplinary team effort. And to the editors and reviewers for helping to make a tricky paper better (a very reassuring #PeerReview experience)!
There are lots of aspects of this paper that I think are very cool (of course!) but a sneaky contribution to the age old debate on how to eat a #CreamTea has to be my favourite! A nod to my time in Cornwall @uniexecec.bsky.social. [photo borrowed from Rodda's dairy who I'm hoping won't mind!]
A new paper in @plos.org Complex Systems from my time at @nimbios.bsky.social with Nina Fefferman.
We set out some ways of classifying rules for social learning and knowledge exchange in higher-order networks.
doi.org/10.1371/jour...
Really great to see this paper out. A fun chance to play with some higher-order network approaches for animal spatial data! Great to make the most of @grf.bsky.social dropping by @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social on sabbatical, and very proud of Ross on his first published paper!!
Male Ring Ouzel near Porlock Weir/Marsh early this afternoon was a fun surprise! Showed super well feeding out in the open from the coast path - much better than this terrible photo suggests! @somersetbirds.bsky.social #UKbirding
โญNew paper!โญ
About generative network modelling - a key approach for understanding network structures.
First half:
We give a general introduction to generative network models
Second half:
We consider their use in animal behaviour research
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Two fully-funded PhD openings in my research group at the University of York.
If youโre excited about viromes, phage biology, Nanopore sequencing, soils and the odd bit of alpine or agricultural field sampling, weโd love to hear from you!
๐ฑ๐ฆ ๐๏ธ
tiny.cc/c4pv001
tiny.cc/e4pv001
๐๐ข Postdoc alert | 3-yr starting early 2026
Please ๐!
Understand how ecosystem stability is changing across space and through time using niche modelling, pinpoint at-risk species/regions, and build tools that drive conservation action๐ฟ๐งญ๐
๐ tinyurl.com/2mafwru3
#Ecology #Jobs #Biodiversity
Another new animal social network paper just out in @asab.org Animal Behaviour: How can we make the most of generative network models in behavioural ecology research?
doi.org/10.1016/j.an...
A lot of fun to help @jbbrask.bsky.social and @drwhale.bsky.social put this together!
doi.org/10.1016/j.an...
And these considerations really do that lie at the heart of making the most huge amount of diverse social network data we now have in wild populations.
Its very exciting to see this paper out in @behavecol.bsky.social. These conversations, expertly led by @delphinedemoor.bsky.social, have really shaped how I now think about working with social network data. Check out Delphine's thread to learn more!
Interested in how life history may shape the gut microbiome of a wild mammal? Keen on getting to work with an iconic long-term study system in Scotland?
Check out this PhD opportunity with me, Josephine Pemberton and @gfalbery.bsky.social
Reach out to chat more!
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Fully funded NERC GW4+ PhD Opportunity - *Understanding The Spread of Antimicrobial Resistance by Migratory Birds*
Supervised by me, @stubearhop.bsky.social (Exeter) & Patricia Brekke (ZSL). Application deadline 8th January. Please get in touch for more info
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
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
alt="Schematic of a graph of a population trajectory for blue tits that is known for half of the x-axis (time) and then forecasted with uncertainty. Above the population trajectory are some weather images (a sun and some rain) they have connections to the population size but the path is unknown. "
PhD advert alert!
Come work with me at Edinburgh.
I'm advertising a PhD on: "Predicting responses of birds to climate change", competition funded through the E5 DTP. Would suit those with an interest in predicting responses to climate change, birds, or both.
e5-dtp.ed.ac.uk/project?item...
The Adaptive Relationships Framework illustrating how broad socioecological pressures shape the social solutions animals use to meet these challenges, and how these lead to social strategies and emergent structures that help them gain access to those solutions.
Social relationships are powerful predictors of fitness across social animals. But *why*?
In our new @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social paper, we outline testable predictions for why relationship quality and quantity adaptively vary across socio-ecological contexts.
tinyurl.com/55dnkeh7
I'm v excited to be recruiting a PhD student to work on badger behaviour and ecology! Starting date is March 2026; see the ad here, or message me for more details: www.gregalbery.me/s/March-2026...
Interested in simulating the kind of data that you might commonly find in evolutionary and ecological studies?
Then we have the R package for you - squidSim!!
Check our new preprint:
ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
Torness this morning 06:07-09:21:
1 arctic skua, 29 manxies, 82 sandwich, 8 arctic, 6 common and 7 commic terns, 59 fulmar, 27 common scoter, 1 velvet scoter, barwit and 3 whimbrel.
Then found this beaut of a house martin expertly photographed by @jarrodhadfield.bsky.social later on.
#BirdingLothian
Looks same as bird in Firth of Forth a few days ago
bsky.app/profile/norm...
๐จJOB alert๐จ Full-time Managing Editor role for @asab.org journal Animal Behaviour. Applicants must have animal #behaviour background; previous editorial experience would be ideal.
Apply by 31st July 2025.
#publishing #editor #job
More details: www.asab.org/opportunities
PLEASE share widely.
been a long time coming, there's now a preprint along with Will Hoppitt describing our new R package for creating, fitting and interpreting bayesian NBDA models (STBayes). www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1.... Documentation is here michaelchimento.github.io/STbayes/inde...