Nathan Senner
@drgodwit.bsky.social
390 followers 400 following 47 posts
Mass Audubon Bertrand Chair for Ornithology in Dept. Environmental Conservation at UMass Amherst. Fan of all things godwits. Oh, and other birds, and ecology, and evolution, and just cool science generally.
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Reposted by Nathan Senner
catieivy.bsky.social
Do you like songbirds? Are you concerned about how wildfire smoke may impact their physiology?

I'm searching for graduate students who are interested in looking at the effect of wildfire smoke on songbird physiology! Come join my lab @usaskartsci.bsky.social!

research-groups.usask.ca/ivy-lab/
The Ivy Lab! - Welcome to the Ivy Lab!
research-groups.usask.ca
Reposted by Nathan Senner
katrinaphillips.bsky.social
The 2026 Gulf Conference will be here in Mobile, AL from May 4-7

Open to coastal scientists & stakeholders in government, academia, non-profit, and private sectors to discuss current Gulf research and help plan for the future of the Gulf.

Abstracts due Nov 7

gulfofamericaalliance.org/gulfcon2026
Satellite image of the Gulf of Mexico
Reposted by Nathan Senner
jonlambert.bsky.social
In many parts of rural Africa, babies bop around on mom's back during the daytime, where they're exposed to malaria. Treating those baby wraps with permethrin cuts that risk drastically.

"It was a level of effect that was beyond even our wildest expectations."

www.npr.org/sections/goa...
Babies take a lesson from soldiers in the war against malaria
Inspired by a military strategy to ward off disease-carrying mosquitoes, researchers see if the technique will help cut malaria infections in little ones.
www.npr.org
Reposted by Nathan Senner
phypapers.bsky.social
No Consistent Effect of Migration on Speciation Rates in Two Avian Superfamilies: A Check on the Robustness of Trait-Dependent Diversification Methods https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41042249/
Reposted by Nathan Senner
elisesaysallaz.bsky.social
Very happy to share our new paper published in Current Biology !

We show that the “big bad wolf” actually fears humans for good reason.
It’s the first-ever playback experiment on wild wolves in Europe 🇵🇱🌲.
mripas.bsky.social
Our new article shows: The 'big bad wolf' fears us. Would you have thought? authors.elsevier.com/c/1lt5E3QW8S...
Photo by Rafał Kowalczyk. @currentbiology.bsky.social
@kathikasper.bsky.social
Reposted by Nathan Senner
instbirdpop.bsky.social
🪶 If you are able, you donate here: birdpop.org/pages/do...
We lost roughly $1 million in funding without warning. Projects cancelled included all of our bird monitoring work for the National Park Service & projects w/ the Bureau of Land Management on Gunnison's Sage-Grouse, Pinyon Jays & more. 1/4
Graphic with the following text followed by The Institute for Bird Populations logo: Emergency Appeal: Federal Funding Cut
Last week 9 of our federal grants were abruptly cancelled without cause.
If you can make a donation today, it will have a big impact.
Thank you for your support, The Institute for Bird Populations
Reposted by Nathan Senner
jasondovemark.bsky.social
If conservationists work from a compromised baseline, our notions of abundance, scarcity, and ecological wellbeing will keep getting defined downward:
"The researchers show that using the 1970s as a baseline tends to normalize an already severely degraded state."
phys.org/news/2025-10...
Bird conservation threatened by shifting baseline syndrome
New research shows that populations of dozens of waterbird and seabird species have been declining for much longer than previously thought in Europe. The article "Shifting the baseline for waterbird a...
phys.org
Reposted by Nathan Senner
moore-evo-eco.bsky.social
Come work with us! My lab is looking for PhD student(s) to study elevational range shifts among dragonflies in Colorado. Reviewing applications now - apply by Nov 1 at the latest

You could spend your summers here!
Blue Lake in the Indian Peaks Wilderness near Ward, Colorado. A jagged peak towers over a serene alpine lake
Reposted by Nathan Senner
mammalogists.bsky.social
Climate change drives habitat specialization and local extirpation, causing niche reduction in an endemic chipmunk @JenniferKFrey
doi.org/10.1093/jmam...
The Organ Mountains Colorado Chipmunk has been extirpated from > 60% of historical sites due to niche reduction, rather than habitat loss
Reposted by Nathan Senner
jexpbiol.bsky.social
Water anoles take a bubble of air down when they submerge, which they breathe like a tiny scuba tank, and now @lindseyswierk.bsky.social & co reveal that the reptiles may also be using the bubble like a gill, to breathe oxygen directly from the water

journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...
A submerged water anole (Anolis aquaticus) with a bubble of air held on its head. Photo credit: Lindsey Swierk.
Reposted by Nathan Senner
chorlnev.bsky.social
Something to look for in #wader nests. Blue eggs are becoming increasingly common in #ruff clutches @jellybb.bsky.social #IWSG2025 #shorebirds #conservation
Reposted by Nathan Senner
giantmolecular.cloud
It seems the GRFP solicitation is FINALLY released (like 5 minutes ago)! Due dates have also been pushed back, thankfully! 🧪 🔭

www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)
www.nsf.gov
Reposted by Nathan Senner
silasfischer.bsky.social
🐦 Never got around to posting about our paper on Gray Vireo #migration in @wilsonornithsoc.bsky.social (1 of my MS chapters), but better late than never!

We used light-level geolocators to track migration ecology of ♀ and ♂ Gray Vireos from 3 breeding sites in New Mexico and Utah USA… 👇 short🧵 1/
wilsonornithsoc.bsky.social
From the current WJO issue: Migratory connectivity and potential nonbreeding sexual segregation in Gray Vireos (Vireo vicinior). #ornithology doi.org/10.1080/1559...
Illustration depicting the full annual cycle ecology of the Gray Vireo (Vireo vicinior), including the breeding season, migration, and the nonbreeding season (a). Adult female Gray Vireo marked with a light-level geolocator (b). Oneseed juniper (Juniperus monosperma) savanna at Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico, USA (c).
Reposted by Nathan Senner
jasonwilliamsny.bsky.social
Please share with anyone who cares about NSF support for graduate students and take 30 seconds to sign and leave a comment.

The deadline for the 2025 Graduate Research Fellowship Program is about one month away and literally no one can apply. #NSFGRFP

jasonjwilliamsny.github.io/grfp2025/
An Open Letter to U.S. STEM Leadership on the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program
An Open Letter to U.S. STEM Leadership on the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program
jasonjwilliamsny.github.io
drgodwit.bsky.social
They’re not as close to my heart as birds, but one of the things that makes deer mice cool is that we can work with them in the lab and the field. Here we show how important doing both of those things is to accurately characterizing deer mouse trait evolution. Super excited to have this one out!
Reposted by Nathan Senner
jenncoughlan.bsky.social
Late to the party, but I'm so excited about the first paper from our lab: ✨Unique genetic bases of repeated life-history divergence associated with high altitude adaptation in Mimulus perennials ✨

This work was led by the ABSOLUTE ROCKSTAR Hongfei Chen!
Reposted by Nathan Senner
davidhiggins.bsky.social
Did some mandatory gen AI training. Unfortunately, I was given an opportunity to provide feedback.
While the training did the job that was intended, I see it as part of the pernicious normalisation of the use of gen AI in higher education. The case studies imply that the best way to e.g. update course materials is to use gen AI. Why not just use your knowledge and experience? Major ethical issues are passed over e.g. gen AI's training on stolen data and its reliance on exploitative labour practices. Gen AI has many negatives and few positives. It is antithetical to the critical thinking that should be central to working and studying at university. It is inherently unsafe, unethical, and irresponsible. We should be discouraging its use.
Reposted by Nathan Senner
cnilsson.science
Are animals randomly distributed in the air, or is there a structure to where and when we find them? In our new paper we outline factors that shape habitat use in the air, from abiotic structure to biotic interactions. A lot of fun discussions behind this one! 🦅🦋🦇🌬
www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...
Animal niches in the airspace
For flying animals, including many birds, bats, and insects, the air is a crucial arena for a range of behaviors. Technological advances, such as year-round tracking of flight altitudes and expanded u...
www.cell.com
Reposted by Nathan Senner
feipenghuang.bsky.social
This is the fourth Belted Kingfisher that has hit windows on the @umassamherst.bsky.social campus since July 2024… Two classes (Population Ecology and Global Change Ecology) are conducting daily surveys of 21 buildings to document these collisions this semester.