Sixty years of plant community change in Europe indicate a shift toward nutrient-richer and denser vegetation Bioindication reveals a 60-year shift toward denser, more productive vegetation, but a weak thermophilization signal.

New Science Advances paper: 60 years of change across European plant communities reveals a widespread shift toward denser vegetation, with increasing shade tolerance across habitats. Proud to co-author this important work🍃 #ecology www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

"(sin estudiar evolución en la enseñanza obligatoria) se convierte en prescindible el marco conceptual que da sentido a toda la biología".

"no es una cuestión (sólo) académica, es una herramienta de ciudadanía critica", "con consecuencias culturales"

Un artículo de lectura muy recomendada.

Faunal exploitation at the elephant hunting site of Lehringen, Germany, 125,000 years ago - Scientific Reports Scientific Reports - Faunal exploitation at the elephant hunting site of Lehringen, Germany, 125,000 years ago

🚨 #PaperAlert!
#Neanderthals were elephant gourmets, but also not picky eaters!
Our new study at Lehringen (~125 ka) shows evidence of elephant butchery associated with a wooden spear, alongside the exploitation of bears, beavers, and ungulates.
Flexible hunters with everything on the menu 🐘🍽️
🦣🏺🧪

Just to clarify, all of them are co-supervised with other researchers at different institutions: U of Birmingham, U of Basque Country, U of Girona & Creaf. Fir whole-group meetings, we have to do it online so it felt super nice to met in person. And even better to do it outside.

First time all my PhD students met in person! It was the perfect excuse to spent the day in Montseny Natural Park and setting camera traps for the wildcat monitoring project. A great day of fieldwork and teamwork! Marina, Natàlia, Ignasi, Nerea, Maria, I am very proud of all your hard work 💪🏻

Indigenous knowledge confirms what scientists observe: Large birds are disappearing Indigenous knowledge confirms a trend scientists have observed- large bird populations are declining faster than small birds.

Indigenous knowledge confirms what scientists observe: Large birds are disappearing 🦜🦚🦉 #defaunation #birds

Wolves kill—and ravens remember where Do ravens follow wolves to feed on their kills? For decades, biologists assumed they did. Ravens are often seen flying with wolves, following their tracks, or gathering quickly at fresh carcasses A t...

Wolves kill—and ravens remember where | EurekAlert! www.eurekalert.org/news-release... #raven #wolves #scavengers

Please repost! We are looking for two field technicians to work on our deer mouse project in the Colorado Rockies this spring-fall. Learn about physiology, ecology, and evolution, all in one project! Not to mention that you get to be in the ⛰️. Reach out if you have any questions.

New paper! 🚨

Nice collaboration with @predator-smarts.bsky.social and other colleagues on the role of predatory-prey interactions in shaping animals cognition 🧠

#cognition #brain #animals #macroevolution

The political effects of X's feed algorithm https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10098-2 Received: 16 December 2024 Accepted: 4 January 2026 Published online: 18 February 2026 Open access • Check for updates Germain Gauthier,5, Roland Hodler?5, Philine Widmer35 & Ekaterina Zhuravskaya3,4,5 m Feed algorithms are widely suspected to influence political attitudes. However, previous evidence from switching off the algorithm on Meta platforms found no political effects'. Here we present results from a 2023 field experiment on Elon Musk's platform X shedding light on this puzzle. We assigned active US-based users randomly to either an algorithmic or a chronological feed for 7 weeks, measuring political attitudes and online behaviour. Switching from a chronological to an algorithmic feed increased engagement and shifted political opinion towards more conservative positions, particularly regarding policy priorities, perceptions of criminal investigations into Donald Trump and views on the war in Ukraine. In contrast, switching from the algorithmic to the chronological feed had no comparable effects. Neither switching the algorithm on nor switching it off significantly affected affective polarization or self-reported partisanship. To investigate the mechanism, we analysed users' feed content and behaviour. We found that the algorithm promotes conservative content and demotes posts by traditional media. Exposure to algorithmic content leads users to follow conservative political activist accounts, which they continue to follow even after switching off the algorithm, helping explain the asymmetry in effects. These results suggest that initial exposure to X's algorithm has persistent effects on users' current political attitudes and account-following behaviour, even in the absence of a detectable effect on partisanship.

A new paper shows that less than 2 months of exposure to Twitter’s algorithmic feed significantly shifts people’s political views to the right.

Moving from chronological feed to the algorithmic feed also increases engagement.

This is one of the most concerning papers I’ve read in awhile.

Halting predicted vertebrate declines requires tackling multiple drivers of biodiversity loss Global vertebrate populations decline faster in the presence of multiple threats compared to single threats.

🚨Paper alert🚨
Very happy to see our paper published in @science.org #ScienceAdv.

Very greatful to have worked with such a great team @duncanobrien.bsky.social #tomJohnson @robinfreeman.bsky.social #ValentinaMarconi #LouiseMcRae @expecocons.bsky.social

👇Check the main findings below!

OTD 217 year ago, Charles #Darwin was born. Not only one of the most brilliant scientists and thinkers, but an inspiration on the power of knowledge and intellectual bravery. Values that are now more important to cherish than ever. Happy #DarwinDay!!!

It's MSCA results day. Congrats to all the successful applicants! Commiserations to those (including those I supported) who didn't make the cut. It was so competitive this year, even more than usual (>96.8% cut-off!). Be proud of your work and treat yourself to consolation cake/beverage/walk.

@hoyporhoy.bsky.social, la anguila europea es una especie En Peligro Crítico de Extinción, la misma categoría de amenaza que tenía el lince ibérico en su peor momento. El lince, en recuperación, pasó a En Peligro y ahora se considera Vulnerable
El peor momento de la anguila es ahora. Y empeorando

So now it seems birds are not animals anymore? 🧐

A fun fact, the initial idea from this came during the conference dinner of @biogeography.bsky.social in Prague 2024. The results where presented two years later at @tibsaarhus2026.bsky.social, and the paper was published online on the exact day of the conference dinner!

📷 Søren talk at TIBS 2026

🔎 Major findings:

🐦 The unrecorded avian extinctions seem to had a lower PD compared to the recorded extinctions.

🏝️ Why? A disproportionate number of unrecorded extinctions are predicted to have been from islands in the eastern Pacific, which tend to have lower PD compared to other regions.

Quantifying the unrecorded loss of avian phylogenetic diversity Humans have drastically reduced avian diversity, with the majority of extinctions occurring on islands. Previous studies have quantified various aspects of this decline, including both taxonomic and ...

🚨 New paper out in @ecography.bsky.social ! 📝

Led by Dr. Søren Faurby, we built upon the estimated unrecorded bird extinctions by @r-cooke.bsky.social et al. 2023 and try to estimate the corresponding unrecorded loss of phylogenetic diversity. 🦤🧬

Check the full paper here:
doi.org/10.1002/ecog...

It was an amazing week in Aarhus for @tibsaarhus2026.bsky.social, attending so many great talks and catching up with colleagues and collaborators. A big congrats to the local organizers! Long live to @biogeography.bsky.social 🌍🌐

This database was initiated by @josephtobias.bsky.social @alexpigot.bsky.social @mhcneateclegg.bsky.social @sheardcat.bsky.social whom I am grateful to have invited me to join the project and lead the paper.

#Birds #Macroecology #FunctionalTraits #Niche #OpenData

We hope this dataset will spur macroecology & macroevolution research to move beyond simplified diets to behaviour-aware niches, opening new doors for understanding ecosystem roles, trait evolution, and vulnerability to global change.

New paper out! 🐦📊

We realease AVONICHE, a global dataset with detailed information on the proportional use of 32 foraging niches, combining dietary categories with the behaviours and substrates used to access resources.

Openly access the paper and data in GEB: doi.org/10.1111/geb....

@ferransayol.bsky.social presents exciting results on the loss of functional diversity of birds on islands via extinctions. Check out their amazing Avotrex database on extinct birds and their traits datadryad.org/dataset/doi:... #TIBS2026

Point of no returns: researchers are crossing a threshold in the fight for funding With so little money to go round, the costs of competing for grants can exceed what the grants are worth. When that happens, nobody wins.

Point of no return: academic #funding is at a tipping point. When the effort and money spent applying for grants equals or exceeds the funding awarded, the system stops serving science and starts draining it. Time to rethink how we fund #research.
🧪🌐🌍
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

First day in Aarhus, joining the @tibsaarhus2026.bsky.social biennal conference of TIBS @biogeography.bsky.social. Very nice to meet many colleagues and collaborators, looking forward to three days of talks on spatial patterns of biodiversity 🦏🐅🐊🐟🦆🦀🐙🌲🌴🌹🌻🍄
#science #conferences #biogeography

Best breeding season for Kakapo since 1977 New data from New Zealand’s conservation authorities show one of the world’s rarest parrots, Kakapo, has produced a record number of chicks in 2025-26 – its best season since 1977 and a major conservation success story.

Kakapo, the world's only flightless parrot, has enjoyed its most productive breeding season since 1977:

Congratulations Tim!

An illustration of people writing on papers, with text: Academic writing was a struggle—until I formed a peer group with other graduate students

"Having someone beside me changed everything. It was a means to ensure accountability." #ScienceWorkingLife https://scim.ag/4rFa7LM

OTD 166 years ago (1859), Charles #Darwin published the first edition of "On the Origin of Species", the beginning of modern biology and one of the most fundamental books in human history.

darwin-online.org.uk/contents.htm...

Excited to start the workshop on the potential link between animal and plant traits to ecosystem functioning, taking place in Frankfurt, Germany. 🇩🇪🌳🐦‍⬛🦌🌎
#science #biodiversity #ecosystems #resilience