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Reposted by Ana Castro-Castellon, DPhil (Oxon)

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · Jan 26

In the forests of Southern Madagascar, three frog species were discovered in 2019 that represent the very lower limit of vertebrate size: < 9 mm long.

The genus was named "Mini", and the three species are:
Mini mum
Mini ature
Mini scule

(scientists are nerds, okay?)

A scientific figure from a paper, showing the frogs ventral and dorsal surfaces and one on a fingernail.

Original text:
"(a-c) ZSM 861/2014, holotype, in (a) anterolateral view on a thumbnail, (b) dorsolateral view on a leaf, (c) ventral view. (d, e) ZSM 862/2014, paratype, in (d) ventral view, and (e) lateral view on a thumbnail. (f, g) ZMB 83194, paratype, in (f) dorsolateral view, and (g) ventral view."

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Reposted by Ana Castro-Castellon, DPhil (Oxon)

Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · Jan 30

'This week, Wolfe and collaborators published new work directly linking rising temperatures to bird declines. Their research, published in Science Advances, tracked birds living in the forest understory at the BDFFP against detailed climate data.' 1/2

In the most untouched, pristine parts of the Amazon, birds are dying. Scientists may finally know why

Populations have been falling for decades, even in tracts of forest undamaged by humans. Experts have spent two decades trying to understand what is going on

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Ana Castro-Castellon, DPhil (Oxon)

Pablo Gómez Barreiro @pagomba.bsky.social · Feb 19

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

‘The last plant left’: can Rapa Nui’s extinct tree be resurrected?

Seeds from the last toromiro, unique to remote Easter Island, were taken away in the 1960s. Now, after a crucial discovery gave hope for its survival, it is making a return

www.theguardian.com

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Ana Castro-Castellon, DPhil (Oxon) @acastrocastellon.bsky.social · Aug 2

Thrilled to Lead: “Exhausted lives: The bitter juice of the cane never tasted”. Exploring human and environmental exhaustion in Caribbean Nevis during rum production 17th & 18th centuries.
Thanks to @hellobrigstow.bsky.social

Projects description: www.bristol.ac.uk/brigstow/res...

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Reposted by Ana Castro-Castellon, DPhil (Oxon)

Brigstow Institute @hellobrigstow.bsky.social · Aug 1

We are delighted to announce that we have awarded 5 brilliant projects connections funding around the theme of ‘Postcolonial natural history collections and museum and archive practices’.

Find out more: www.bristol.ac.uk/brigstow/new...

2025: Postcolonial natural history collections and museum and archive practices conne | Brigstow Institute | University of Bristol

www.bristol.ac.uk

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Reposted by Ana Castro-Castellon, DPhil (Oxon)

Elizabeth Hilborn @elizabee.bsky.social · Aug 2

Hundreds of monarch butterflies died in a winter 2024 event. Investigation implicated multiple pyrethroid insecticides:
tinyurl.com/3h3y7wuf

From The Guardian:
"Combinations of pesticides can have a synergistic effect that makes them even more toxic.
The solution...less pesticides."
🧪🌍🦋

Monarch butterflies’ mass die-off in 2024 caused by pesticide exposure – study

New peer-reviewed research found an average of seven pesticides in each of 10 butterflies tested

www.theguardian.com

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Ana Castro-Castellon, DPhil (Oxon) @acastrocastellon.bsky.social · Jul 12

This study evidences the role of allelochemicals and reinforces that Nature-based solutions, such as floating wetlands, could be beneficial for managing blooms.

Full article: Hormesis and antagonism in low-dose Phalaris allelochemicals during Microcystis control www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Hormesis and antagonism in low-dose Phalaris allelochemicals during Microcystis control

Aquatic ecosystems face significant challenges globally from cyanobacterial blooms. Phalaris arundinacea (reed canary grass) is used in artificial wetlands and found in natural wetlands. We investi...

www.tandfonline.com

Ana Castro-Castellon, DPhil (Oxon) @acastrocastellon.bsky.social · Jul 10

This week I helped setting up the mesocosm experiment for the @ercrefresh.bsky.social programme lead by @pennyjohnes.bsky.social with @jameslmcdonald.bsky.social and Charly Briddon. The landscape was a dream.

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Reposted by Ana Castro-Castellon, DPhil (Oxon)

Frank Burdon @fburdon.bsky.social · Dec 16

Interesting food web interaction across ecosystem boundaries: stream decapods feeding on inputs of terrestrial fruit in neotropical forest catchments

Linking Neotropical riparian and stream food webs: nocturnal foraging behavior and facilitation among decapods in response to added palm fruit - Hydrobiologia

Freshwater macroinvertebrates can connect tropical forests and stream food webs by consuming both terrestrially and aquatically produced foods, but direct observations of nocturnal feeding behavior in...

link.springer.com

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Reposted by Ana Castro-Castellon, DPhil (Oxon)

Frank Burdon @fburdon.bsky.social · Apr 12

Aquatic-terrestrial food webs are inextricably linked through reciprocal exchanges of subsidies. New synthesis explores their benefits as limiting resources that increase consumer fitness and ecosystem production, but also their dark side by vectoring contaminants, often in human-impacted watersheds

Integrating the Bright and Dark Sides of Aquatic Resource Subsidies—A Synthesis

You have to enable JavaScript in your browser's settings in order to use the eReader.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Reposted by Ana Castro-Castellon, DPhil (Oxon)

Penny Johnes @pennyjohnes.bsky.social · Jun 23

Our @ukri.org QUANTUM national sampling programme is now well underway. Thanks to @acastrocastellon.bsky.social for help with the SW England sites, Sydney Enns and @victoriahussey.bsky.social for prepping the kit, and my husband who helped with the Welsh sites - great cow poo sampling skills! 🧪🐄🐑🐂

Beef cattle, and a very aggressive bull guarding his herd.

Start of Day 3, in the headquarters of the Tywi catchment before heading over to the Usk. Days 1 and 2 sampled the Cleddau (W and E), Nyfer, Taf, Teifi and Aeron catchments!

A sprightly cow during our sampling trip to the W Cleddau. Shout out to the West Wales Nutrient Management Partnership who put us in touch with the farmers, and the farmer who gave us permission to visit their farms.

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Reposted by Ana Castro-Castellon, DPhil (Oxon)

Penny Johnes @pennyjohnes.bsky.social · Jun 25

When livestock have direct access to watercourses, the risk of ecotoxin, pathogen, organic matter and nutrient pollution increases to 100%. Our
@ukri.org QUANTUM programme sampling found some culprits today..... @acastrocastellon.bsky.social @victoriahussey.bsky.social 🧪🐄🐂

An idyllic scene, but hidden within is ecosystem damage as cattle urine and dung are directly voided into the stream or onto the stream margins.

A contaminated site. Water flows from her to the river and out to coastal bathing waters. Contaminants include ecotoxins, pathogens, organic matter and nutrients.

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Ana Castro-Castellon, DPhil (Oxon) @acastrocastellon.bsky.social · May 29

A moment of rest at the purest picnic style before last sampling in this field for the QUANTUM freshwater project. @pennyjohnes.bsky.social

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Ana Castro-Castellon, DPhil (Oxon) @acastrocastellon.bsky.social · May 27

An image says it all! Coring the field: the tools, the people, the technique.

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Reposted by Ana Castro-Castellon, DPhil (Oxon)

Penny Johnes @pennyjohnes.bsky.social · May 27

We had warm sunny weather when we wanted rain for our experiments and now, when we want dry weather to for soil coring and site decommissioning, we had very heavy rain all day. Even so, 62 coring sites surveyed in and cored for our NERC QUANTUM ecotoxin, pathogen, organic and nutrient analyses! 🧪

Prof Andy Binley, Lancaster University with Tony Healey, technical manager at the University of Bristol, surveying in the soil coring sites with the help of Prof Penny Johnes

So course extracted ready for ecotoxin pathogen organic geochemistry and nutrient analysis at the universities of Bath, Bangor and Bristol respectively. 62 corling sites across our control strips and our two slurry amended treatment strips.

Dr Ana Castro-Castellon with Prof Penny Johnes, midway through coring and both of us thoroughly soaking wet but still cheerful!

Dr. Victoria Hussey, Sydney Enns and Dr James McDonald at the start of coring. Six sites into the 62 at 10 am and everyone was already soaked.

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Reposted by Ana Castro-Castellon, DPhil (Oxon)

Cabot Institute for the Environment @cabot-institute.bsky.social · May 21

New research reveals mountain glaciers across the globe will not recover for centuries – even if human intervention cools the planet back to the 1.5°C limit, having exceeded it. bristol.ac.uk/cabot/news/2...

Glaciers will take centuries to recover even if global warming is reversed, scientists warn

New research reveals mountain glaciers across the globe will not recover for centuries – even if human intervention cools the planet back to the 1.5°C limit, having exceeded it.

bristol.ac.uk

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Reposted by Ana Castro-Castellon, DPhil (Oxon)

Dr Ailish Craig @ailishcraig.bsky.social · May 21

One for the climate scientist! 🌐

📃 In our latest paper we provide an overview of the climate projections used in the National Communications of the 16 countries in the SADC region.

Find the full table in the paper: lnkd.in/e-kT9ngA

Table showing the climate projections that feature in the National Communications of each SADC countries. Columns include type of projections, timeframe, scenarios, number of models used, model names and year of document.

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Reposted by Ana Castro-Castellon, DPhil (Oxon)

Rage Against the Miocene @organiccarbon.bsky.social · May 19

The CERES and BACC peatland research team (@bristoluni.bsky.social and @exeter.ac.uk) sampled the stunning Cors Caron in western Wales last week. Fantastic peat coring to the lake clays 8.5 m below us. Records of past climate change and home to fascinating bacteria and archaea!

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Reposted by Ana Castro-Castellon, DPhil (Oxon)

Rage Against the Miocene @organiccarbon.bsky.social · May 19

Cors Caron is one of the UK's best preserved raised peat bogs (although it also has suffered extensive use and is only a remnant of its past glory). Its surface is a beautiful mosaic of plant life that both responds to and engineers the ecosystem.

A brown and golden field of reeds and cotton grass, the latter creating soft puffs of white that adorn the peatland landscape. In the backgound, green hills rise above the bog, now fields but probably once covered by blanket bogs.

View of peat vegetation from above. On the peat surface are patches of ruddy red and green Sphagnum and crusts of lichen (reindeer lichen?). Popping through them are tufts of cotton grass.

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Reposted by Ana Castro-Castellon, DPhil (Oxon)

Rob Acton-Campbell @robcrewshole.bsky.social · May 22

Late Light is a wonderful book, should be an interesting talk.

Cabot Institute for the Environment @cabot-institute.bsky.social · May 22

Join Michael Malay @bristoluni.bsky.social online as he talks about his @wainwrightprize.bsky.social winning book, Late Light. More info and registration in link:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/an-evening...

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Ana Castro-Castellon, DPhil (Oxon) @acastrocastellon.bsky.social · May 24

Research field work has its perks, one gets to be supervised by livestock! Here marking the plots and core sampling points with @pennyjohnes.bsky.social lead of @QUANTUM freshwater and REFRESH projects. James McDonald assisting today.

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Ana Castro-Castellon, DPhil (Oxon) @acastrocastellon.bsky.social · May 16

There is so much work invested on this experiment that seeing it running is a joy!

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Ana Castro-Castellon, DPhil (Oxon) @acastrocastellon.bsky.social · May 16

Than you Penny, great to be part of your great team!

Penny Johnes @pennyjohnes.bsky.social · May 14

Doing great science requires a great team. Introducing Dr Ana Castro-Castellon, PDRA on the NERC QUANTUM project, freshwater ecology and chemistry specialist with field electronics skills. Pictured after getting all 45 motors working on our stream isotope experiment. Great to work with you, Ana! 🧪🪛🛠️

Prof Penny Johnes and Dr Ana Castro-Castellon of the NEEC QUANTUM project. Great to have these skills in the team Ana!

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Reposted by Ana Castro-Castellon, DPhil (Oxon)

Penny Johnes @pennyjohnes.bsky.social · May 2

Great day setting up a pilot stream warming experiment for our upcoming NERC QUANTUM isotope experiment with our newest recruit, Dr James McDonald who has just joined our NERC funded ERC Advanced Grant REFRESH team. Knowledge transfer at its best!🧪

Professor Penny Johnes in the experimental stream site for the QUANTUM programme.

Dr Ana Castro-Castellon, QUANTUM PDRA with Dr James McDonald, REFRESH Specialist Research Technician, installing mesocosms in our freshly cleaned frames in the stream.

The final pilot study. With jars raised out of the stream at various Heights to test the appropriate stream depth at which we can achieve a 2.3 degree C warming effect in the mesocosms. Results will inform our final installation for our second and final isotope dosing experiment at the site. Results from the November experiment have been very promising and we look forward to comparing them with the May experiment, and comparing the ambient mesocosm results with those from the warmed jars.

Installing the temperature and light sensors, together with the paddle to stir the jars to ambient stream flow velocities

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Reposted by Ana Castro-Castellon, DPhil (Oxon)

Penny Johnes @pennyjohnes.bsky.social · May 8

Nearly all our NERC QUANTUM postdocs and techs on site today to finalise our warming experiment design, and set up Chemcatchers and maintain fish and invert populations in our field ecotox exposure experiments. Universities of Bristol, Exeter and Bath #multidisciplinary #collaboration #fun-science

Penny Johnes (PI, NERC QUANTUM and ERC REFRESH via UKRI) with Ana Castro-Castellon and Sydney Enns (University of Bristol, QUANTUM), James McDonald (University of Bristol, ERC REFRESH), Tolulope Lawrence (University of Bath, QUANTUM), and Anke Lange and Simona Frustaci (University of Exeter, QUANTUM).

Setting up the Chemcatchers under expert guidance from Tolu.

Simona and Tolu with Chemcatchers deployed

Chemcatcher, showing internal SPE membranes.

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