New preprint! Here, we use a multi-year survey of >4,200 random plots across ~1100 km of Pacific coast to show that habitat patch availability (suitability, size, connectivity, temporal stability) declines towards and beyond the range limit of a coastal dune endemic: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Book cover for Reproducible Code guide. The cover has a red background with a large yellow-bodied black-headed stag beetle.
Excited to launch the new improved Reproducible Code guide from @britishecologicalsociety.org @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social FREE online here! www.britishecologicalsociety.org//wp-content/... Amazing work by some very talented ECRs. We hope it’s useful!
🚨New paper!🚨 Models predict trees like beech will migrate north as climate warms, but rarely consider tree reproduction. Jessie shows these “refuges” are exactly where climate warming will disrupt seed production the most. They may not be such great climate refuges after all.
doi.org/10.1111/ele....
I am happy to share my first publication is out in the scientific world. Based on my undergraduate honours biology thesis research at Queen’s University (2024), we explore how urbanization and host-plant gardens impact the occupation of its specialist herbivores. You can check it out here! 🌿🐛
Drawing of a researcher looking out thoughtfully at mountains, grasslands and intertidal study systems
New paper out today in Ecology Letters! In this synthesis we dive into the equilibrium assumption in ecology - why it's everywhere in ecological theory, the evidence for it in nature, when meeting the assumption is important, how to achieve it in empirical research, and more! tinyurl.com/yh6kyysm
Thanks Tess!!! :)
Check out our paper here! 🐛
Huge shout-out to the co-lead on this project Rishona @rishonavemulapalli.bsky.social! This work arose from her undergraduate honours research work, and she was pivotal to the survey design, data collection, analysis, and writing. 🌱🐛 super proud of her and our team!
Taken at face value, our results point to the importance of ecological gardening. Gardening appears to be an effective form of habitat provisioning (for at least some species, including the monarch butterfly) that ought to be considered in urban areas.
Surprisingly, we found no negative effect of urbanization on the occupancy of milkweed patches for any of the herbivores. Instead, many of them became more common with urbanization - and high-quality garden habitat seemed largely responsible for this increasing occupancy.
Published now with @rishonavemulapalli.bsky.social! We investigated how urbanization might inhibit species interactions between common milkweed and specialized herbivores, and how milkweed in garden habitat might ameliorate these negative effects.
resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Great to meet you too, looking forward to chatting more! Safe travels back!
Congrats Jalene!! 🌲
I'm very proud to receive the 2025 Robert P. McIntosh Award from the @ecologicalsociety.bsky.social Vegetation Section at #ESA2025 with an amazing group of colleagues, for our paper on Community #MastSeeding. 🥳
Paper: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Award info: esa.org/vegetation/a...
#ESA2025! We would love to fill this up with signatures. Let's show support to the folks at NSF. Find it Wednesday morning at the spot below, and it'll be at the NSF funding session at 10-11:30am.
If you’re at ESA @ecologicalsociety.bsky.social 2025 in Baltimore, come check out my talk about population dynamics and the geographic range limits of a coastal dune plant! Tomorrow (Wednesday) at 8:45am in Hilton 5!
OOS 05 - Beyond Budburst–Connecting Phenological Transitions Among Tissues and Times in Woody Plants Monday, August 11 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM EDT Hilton Key 8 Session Type: Organized Oral Session
Presentations OOS 05-01 - Seasonal underground phenology of ectomycorrhizal fungi varies by group and host tree traits Monday, August 11, 2025 at 3:30 PM – 3:45 PM EDT Presenting Author - Nicholas Medina OOS 05-02 - Genetic structure across a poplar hybrid zone will cause variation in phenological responses to a warming climate Monday, August 11, 2025 at 3:45 PM – 4:00 PM EDT Presenting Author - Alayna Mead
OOS 05-03 - Aridity decouples carbon assimilation and growth in temperate deciduous oaks Monday, August 11, 2025 at 4:00 PM – 4:15 PM EDT Presenting Author - Mukund Palat Rao OOS 05-04 - Cold hardiness connects bud development in the summer and fall with budbreak in the spring Monday, August 11, 2025 at 4:15 PM – 4:30 PM EDT Presenting Author - Al Kovaleski
OOS 05-05 - Phenology of tree reproduction; environmental cues and vetos Monday, August 11, 2025 at 4:30 PM – 4:45 PM EDT Presenting Author - Jalene LaMontagne OOS 05-06 - Macrophenology: expanding the taxonomic and geographic scope of phenology research using volunteer- and network-collected observations Monday, August 11, 2025 at 4:45 PM – 5:00 PM EDT Presenting Author - Amanda Gallinat
I'm giving a talk on Monday at #ESA2025, in the OOS about #phenology "Beyond Budburst" (3:30-5:00pm), organized by Luke McCormack & Christy Rollinson. There's a great list of speakers. I'm presenting at 4:30pm.
Room: Hilton Key 8
🚨 NOTE: Individual talk times within the session were updated today!
Undertook a side-quest during fieldwork to search out an alpine sorrel population in the Lewis Hills on the west coast of Newfoundland! One of the coolest and most beautiful overnight trips I’ve ever done.
This map ⬇️ is from a challenge I designed that encourages people to go out and observe the major group of taxa 🐟🍄🐍🪲🦫🪻 that is unusually under-represented in their county 🇨🇦
Mammals on the Margins: Identifying the Drivers and Limitations of Range Expansion
🔗 buff.ly/Dhmwwng
@rolandkays.com
Thanks Takuji! 🍃
Evidence That Metapopulation Dynamics Maintain a Species' Range Limit https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40326375/
Wind-swept sand dunes with a large thicket of trees on the right.
Two researchers walking across sand into the trees.
A researcher walking across the beach.
A large thicket of trees and shrubs standing starkly against the wind-swept sand devoid of vegetation.
In all, this suggests that variation in patch dynamics (particularly inter-patch dispersal/establishment) may be responsible for dwindling occupancy towards the range limit, supporting the metapopulation hypothesis in this system.
If you've made it to the end, here's some bonus dune pics: (9/9)
Lastly, we found measured occupancy of plots declined towards the range limit - as we would expect (left). Further, this decline in occupancy is closely matched by the decline predicted by incorporating our estimated rates of colonization and extinction into a metapopulation model (right). (8/9)
Interestingly, each of these variables (suitable plot area, local abundance, and initial plot abundance) each exhibited variation towards the range limit in a manner that is consistent with declining colonization rates/increasing extinction rates. (7/9)
Extinction, however, was more likely when there was little suitable habitat at the plot and when the initial plot abundance was smaller (in other words, smaller subpopulations were more likely to go extinct). (6/9)
Second, we found the likelihood of colonization and extinction were predicted by habitat and population structure. Colonization was greater at plots with more suitable habitat and that had greater local abundance (i.e., abundance of nearby plots), possibly due to higher propagule pressure. (5/9)
First, we found that the likelihood of patch colonization declined substantially towards the species' northern range limit, while extinction of occupied patches increased non-significantly - changes that we might expect from the metapopulation hypothesis for range limits. (4/9)
A small plant (Camissoniopsis cheiranthifolia) with fuzzy leaves and a lone yellow flower growing in the sand.
A researcher hiking through the wind-swept coastal dunes in Oregon.
To test this hypothesis, we looked at coastal dune endemic Camissoniopsis cheiranthifolia, and hiked the northern ~900 km of the species' distribution to visit several thousand plots across a multi-year survey. At each, we measured patch occupancy and abundance of this short-lived perennial. (3/9)
