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ÉPICBiodiversity
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We are the laboratoire d'Écologie Prédictive et Interprétable pour la Crise de la Biodiversité.

🌐 https://epic-biodiversity.org
But this hides one of the most fascinating differences across the Global North/Global South divide: the role of stakeholders and experts in this research is different. This difference is not only about whether categories intervene as stakeholders or experts, but also whether they intervene at all.
January 21, 2026 at 4:01 PM
At the global scale, looking at the use of socio-ecological indicators for decision-making seems to remain a rich country game.
January 21, 2026 at 4:01 PM
Second, stated v. revealed preferences differ, and economic data are still largely dominating the body of evidence mobilized for these papers.
January 21, 2026 at 4:01 PM
First, we have never, collectively, published as much on socio-ecological indicators and decision making. But a lot of these publications still use the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment as their reference framework, with even the UN SDG struggling to catch up.
January 21, 2026 at 4:01 PM
New paper and blog post by the one and only @crcruzr.bsky.social - are socio-ecological indicators ready to provide guidance for concrete biodiversity action?

epic-biodiversity.org/blog/2026/01...

The answer is: partially, but there are all sorts of interesting lessons for the future. 🧪🌎
Has socio-ecological research provided tools that can help policy? | ÉPICBiodiversity
epic-biodiversity.org
January 21, 2026 at 4:01 PM
🧪🌎 Only 12% of Colombia's Tropical Dry Forest is located within protected areas, which puts over 750 species of plants, birds, and mammals at risk of habitat loss.

Read more about our most recent paper, where we also tie this trend to national-level biodiversity commitments.
Are we there yet? Ongoing habitat loss in Colombia’s Tropical Dry Forests | ÉPICBiodiversity
epic-biodiversity.org
January 14, 2026 at 1:11 PM
Last week, during the lab meeting, we adopted a position statement (and lab rules) on the use of generative AI.

epic-biodiversity.org/generative-ai/

In a nutshell: "The use of GenAI is disallowed-by-default", but we also go to great length to justify why.
Use of generative artificial intelligence | ÉPICBiodiversity
epic-biodiversity.org
January 12, 2026 at 12:53 PM
🧪 New @mdcatchen.bsky.social preprint!

Here's how we can decide where to look for wildlife disease, based on combinations of biodiversity, uncertainty, and prevalence data. This is a really cool paper, that is pushing the boundaries of what we can do with sampling and monitoring techniques.
Effective sampling of wildlife disease from biodiversity data | ÉPICBiodiversity
epic-biodiversity.org
December 15, 2025 at 3:05 PM
We have added support for ESRI administrative areas to our species distribution #JuliaLang package — a lot more stable than GADM (although limited to level 1 divisions).

📗 Read more: poisotlab.github.io/SpeciesDistr...
December 11, 2025 at 2:17 PM
The impulse to use generative AI as a tool for computational ecology is just another form of statistical machismo (and will destroy the world).

We're a little more nuanced in the actual article, and encourage all ecologists to think about the possible footprint of _every_ computation.

🧪
AI and the carbon footprint of ecological research | ÉPICBiodiversity
epic-biodiversity.org
November 28, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Today we'll be at the #OneHealth symposium of @umontreal-en.bsky.social - @ctrlalttim.com will moderate a panel on biodiversity and health, and @francisbanville.bsky.social will talk about the alignment between indicators for biodiversity and the OHHLEP action tracks, part of our @geobon.org work.
November 14, 2025 at 5:16 PM
This work is the output of the excellent Honors thesis from Ariane Bussières-Fournel, and for now, you can read all about it in @ecoevorxiv.bsky.social -- ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
Climate change increases the distribution of reservoirs of the Raccoon Rabies Virus in Quebec
ecoevorxiv.org
November 7, 2025 at 7:31 PM
This is because, although both species respond to, more or less, the same climatic variables, they respond to them differently. The potential to see their responses to climate change becoming decoupled is real!
November 7, 2025 at 7:31 PM
Habitat becomes increasingly polarized in its suitability to either reservoir, with raccoons benefiting the most from more pessimistic scenarios: the places in which we expect the two reservoirs are different over time, and different under the four scenarios.
November 7, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Long-story short, both species will gain potential habitat in the North, and this does not really slow down unless we manage to stick to SSP2-RCP4.5. Even SSP1-RCP2.6 is a fairly dramatic increase in potential habitat. Most densely inhabited areas in Québec are reached by 2100.
November 7, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Climate change may dramatically increase the range of raccoons and skunks in Québec. Good news? Nope. They are two reservoirs of the raccoon rabies virus. In a recent preprint, we discuss how this might play out over the next 80 years. 🧪🧵
Reservoirs on the move: where might raccoon rabies end up under climate change? | ÉPICBiodiversity
epic-biodiversity.org
November 7, 2025 at 7:26 PM
👋 Bonjour hi!

We've built a whole new website, and @ctrlalttim.com has thoughts about the long-term dynamics of research groups to share.

epic-biodiversity.org/blog/2025/11...
Bonjour hi! | ÉPICBiodiversity
epic-biodiversity.org
November 5, 2025 at 2:20 PM