Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Lucie Zinger @luciezinger.bsky.social · 29d

Thrilled to see our latest paper on rainwash #eDNA to be featured in @mongabay.com. A huge thank you to Liz Kimbrough for this nice coverage. We appreciate you highlighting our work! news.mongabay.com/2025/09/rain...

Rainwater reveals the hidden life of rainforest canopies, study shows

In the rainforest, much of life dwells in the tree canopy. But getting up there to study it isn’t easy. By the time a human has clumsily lumbered up from the ground, most of the critters have scattere...

news.mongabay.com

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Lucie Zinger @luciezinger.bsky.social · Sep 8

Thanks for sharing :-)

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International Biodiversity @ibioconsultants.com · Aug 26

Great to see more innovation with eDNA this time looking at rainwater in tropical forests for greater insights 🌍

#TropicalEcology #TropicalForests #eDNA

phys.org/news/2025-08...

DNA from rainwater provides a window into tropical canopy biodiversity

Tropical rainforests still represent a treasure trove of undiscovered species. While many species of plants, animals, and insects have been identified over the years, some parts of these tropical ecos...

phys.org

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Lucie Zinger @luciezinger.bsky.social · Aug 17

Thanks for sharing!

Lucie Zinger @luciezinger.bsky.social · Aug 13

Thanks to the @ofbiodiversite.bsky.social , the labex CEBA, and the labex TULIP for fundings and to our institutions @cnrsecologie.bsky.social , Ecole normale supérieure, @inrae-france.bsky.social , @ird-fr.bsky.social , @mnhn.fr, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, @umontpellier.bsky.social

Lucie Zinger @luciezinger.bsky.social · Aug 13

Our paper on using #eDNA from rainwater to study hidden biodiversity in #tropical #forest #canopies is now out in Science Advances! This method is a major step forward for the study and #conservation of this inaccessible compartiment. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Photo: J. Raynaud

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Florian Altermatt @florianaltermatt.bsky.social · Jul 4

Apply now: #PhD #position “Advancing environmental DNA (#eDNA) approaches to future-proof #environmental #monitoring of #aquatic #ecosystems” 🧬 🔎 🦐 🧪 🐟 (4 years position)

➡️ apply.refline.ch/673277/1268/...

Thanks for sharing to suitable candidates! @eawag.bsky.social

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Reposted by Lucie Zinger

Moler @envdna.bsky.social · Jun 15

An isothermal workflow for low-cost and PCR-free field-based community metabarcoding

#eDNA #environmentalDNA

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

An isothermal workflow for low‐cost and PCR‐free field‐based community metabarcoding

DNA metabarcoding has revolutionized our ability to monitor ecosystems. However, the method is still rarely used in developing countries where resources are limited and fieldwork is challenging. ...

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Reposted by Lucie Zinger

Bettina Thalinger @bettinathal.bsky.social · Jun 10

🚨 Out now in #EnvironmentalDNA led by #MiwaTakahashi: Results of a huge, global effort to facilitate the publication of raw and processed #eDNA data & ensure that dataset we are currently generating, adhere to the #FAIR principles & won't be lost. @gbif.org, #ENA,
doi.org/10.1002/edn3...

A Metadata Checklist and Data Formatting Guidelines to Make eDNA FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable)

Environmental DNA (eDNA) has emerged as a transformative tool for biodiversity monitoring and species detection, yet inconsistent metadata practices hinder data interoperability and reuse. To address...

doi.org

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Reposted by Lucie Zinger

Antoine Zalc @antoinezalc.bsky.social · May 5

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eDNAqua-Plan Project @ednaquaplan.bsky.social · Apr 17

The failure to correctly identify species using #eDNA may be biological rather than methodological. Find out how mitogenomics sequences can address this challenge.

👉 bit.ly/3vKxTh9

#DNA #genomics #Data #Observation #Science #Research

Creating, curating and evaluating a mitogenomic reference database to improve regional species identification using environmental DNA

Species detection using eDNA is revolutionizing global capacity to monitor biodiversity. However, the lack of regional, vouchered, genomic sequence information—especially sequence information that in...

bit.ly

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Reposted by Lucie Zinger

debpaul.bsky.social @debpaul.bsky.social · Apr 15

📢 #eDNA? @tdwg.org @gbif.org #SPNHC #idigbio @dissco.bsky.social @prairieresearch.bsky.social join #TWT2025 TaxonWorks Together: connecting eDNA to vouchers, inventories, provenance, scaling, identifiers, fieldwork, standards, AI & collections. Need new connections? 🪡https://together.taxonworks.org/

screenshot describing the eDNA session at TaxonWorks Together 2025 (May 6 - 8) to talk about connecting eDNA data for more use and discoverability. https://together.taxonworks.org/

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Reposted by Lucie Zinger

Jens-Christian Svenning @jcsvenning.bsky.social · Apr 14

🌿 Our new study in @natplants.nature.com: Most European temperate forest plants are associated with semi-open, herbivore-shaped habitats—not closed-canopy #forests 🐎🌳🔆🌸 Highlights the need for trophic #rewilding in #conservation & need to avoid uniform dense #reforestation🌿
📄 doi.org/10.1038/s414...

Temperate forest plants are associated with heterogeneous semi-open canopy conditions shaped by large herbivores - Nature Plants

Temperate forest plants favour heterogeneous semi-open woodlands associated with high herbivore densities, rather than uniform closed-canopy forests. Herbivore loss is therefore a probable driver of e...

doi.org

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Reposted by Lucie Zinger

Juan Pierella Karlusich @jjpk.bsky.social · Apr 11

Patterns and drivers of diatom diversity andabundance in the global ocean rdcu.be/ehlG4

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Reposted by Lucie Zinger

Florian Altermatt @florianaltermatt.bsky.social · Mar 26

Our study ‘The #global #human impact on #biodiversity’ is out in @nature.com: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🌍🌐🐟🌿🪲

Unprecedented synthesis of >2000 studies led by @francoiskeck.bsky.social shows humans are not only shrinking species numbers—but reshaping entire communities across the planet.
🧵1/5

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IPBES @ipbes.net · Mar 27

Biodiversity Media Grants 2025 – approaching deadline! 🌍🧪

@earthjournalism.bsky.social is offering grants (up to €12k) to media organizations from low- or middle-income countries to boost #biodiversity reporting.

Deadline: 📅 March 30, 2025

🔗Apply 👉 loom.ly/oll1WRE

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Reposted by Lucie Zinger

Erin Hahn (she/her) @erinhahn.bsky.social · Mar 7

🚀 Preprint alert! 🚀

#AirDNA – game changer or hot air?

Fresh from last year’s @sednasociety.bsky.social Airborne #eDNA workshop, we’ve distilled the latest research, key challenges, and a roadmap to turn this emerging tool into real-world solutions.

Check it out! 👇
🔗 doi.org/10.32942/X2S...

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Lucie Zinger @luciezinger.bsky.social · Feb 28

Happy to share the preprint of our work on rain #eDNA to study tropical forest biodiversity 🌧️🧬🌴

bioRxiv Ecology @biorxiv-ecology.bsky.social · Feb 28

Rainwash eDNA to monitor tropical rainforest biodiversity https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.26.640397v1

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AquaEcOmics @aquaecomics.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · Feb 24

Have a look at our final program #aquaecomics2025 #omics #edna #metabarcoding #metagenomics

https://aquaecomics.symposium.inrae.fr/program2

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Reposted by Lucie Zinger

Methods in Ecology and Evolution @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social · Feb 18

Sign up to our next MEE live now! Join Abby Keller for this free online workshop, to find out more about eDNAjoint, new eDNA modelling tool 🧬 🌎 🧪

📆 19th March, 4pm GMT

Find more information and register here 👇

https://buff.ly/4k2hjO8

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Reposted by Lucie Zinger

American Naturaliﬆ / ASN 🐌 @asn-amnat.bsky.social · Feb 11

Special Feature available ahead of print! Stark et al. revisit assumptions in the metabolic theory of ecology that explains macroecological patterns in biological rates from individuals to ecosystems through fundamental constraints on metabolism. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

Toward a More Dynamic Metabolic Theory of Ecology to Predict Climate Change Effects on Biological Systems | The American Naturalist

Abstract The metabolic theory of ecology (MTE) aims to link biophysical constraints on individual metabolic rates to the emergence of patterns at the population and ecosystem scales. Because MTE links...

www.journals.uchicago.edu

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Reposted by Lucie Zinger

Ricard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social · Feb 12

What separates life from death? Mary Shelley once wrote: "To understand life, we first need to understand death". In this movie, we see how a single-celled organism dies. The same matter in both pictures. It is not the same state or the same integrated complexity. youtube.com/watch?v=4bj6...

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American Naturaliﬆ / ASN 🐌 @asn-amnat.bsky.social · Feb 13

"Pollen Wars: Explosive Pollination Removes Pollen Deposited from Previously Visited Flowers"
Anderson et al. find that explosive pollination may confer a pre-pollination, male-competition advantage to plants.
Summary & analysis by Andrea Romero: www.amnat.org/an/newpapers...

deposited pollen exploding out of a flower when pollinated again

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Reposted by Lucie Zinger

Reindert Nijland @reindertn.bsky.social · Feb 11

Super happy our paper on #eDNA #metabarcoding of North Sea fish using @nanoporetech.com sequencing is finally published in Molecular Ecology Resources: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The Long and the Short of It: Nanopore‐Based eDNA Metabarcoding of Marine Vertebrates Works; Sensitivity and Species‐Level Assignment Depend on Amplicon Lengths

To monitor the effect of nature restoration projects in North Sea ecosystems, accurate and intensive biodiversity assessments are vital. DNA-based techniques and especially environmental (e)DNA metab....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Reposted by Lucie Zinger

Franciska de Vries 🟥 @frantecol.bsky.social · Feb 11

On #InternationalDayofWomenandGirlsinScience let me remind you that we are NOWHERE NEAR parity. A few examples.

1. Women are credited less in science than men.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Women are credited less in science than men - Nature

The difference between the number of men and women listed as authors on scientific papers and inventors on patents is at least partly attributable to unacknowledged contributions by women scientists.

www.nature.com

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