Megan Thompson
@meganjthompson.bsky.social
190 followers 230 following 13 posts
NSERC postdoc fellow @ Univ Edinburgh Evolutionary ecology, especially in cities https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=RQV7cXwAAAAJ
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meganjthompson.bsky.social
Last paper from my PhD at #EcolLett: dx.doi.org/10.1111/ele....

Using long-term data from European tit populations, we test three hypotheses to determine how urbanization affects phenotypic variation at different population levels.
#UrbanTitCollab #DiverCity #SPIBirds
Visual representation of tested hypotheses showing how urbanization can affect phenotypic variation at different population levels.
Reposted by Megan Thompson
mszulkin.bsky.social
Thrilled to share our Perspective published in 𝘕𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘊𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴: 𝗟𝗲𝗴𝗮𝗰𝘆 𝗲𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗼𝗻, #𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 #𝘄𝗮𝗿 𝗼𝗻 #𝘂𝗿𝗯𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗯𝗶𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆.

It also elevates Eastern European perspectives - underrepresented in #urban #evolution narratives.

www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Legacy effects of religion, politics and war on urban evolutionary biology - Nature Cities
Cities affect biological evolution, but traditionally researchers focus on the biophysical influence of urban environments. Instead, this Review explores how the social processes of religion, politics...
www.nature.com
meganjthompson.bsky.social
Sharing on behalf of my colleague Marcel Eens:

Post-doc position on #UrbanBirds at University of Antwerp:
6-10 month position with intention of submitting fellowship application (extends postdoc by 3 years if successful).

Deadline Aug 28. www.uantwerpen.be/en/jobs/vaca...
Post-doc position Behavioural ecology in a changing and urbanizing world | University of Antwerp
YUFE vacancies
www.uantwerpen.be
Reposted by Megan Thompson
pdevillemereuil.bsky.social
👋

Interested in working on the evolution of genetic architecture 🧬 of complex traits using linked-read sequencing of thousands of common lizards 🦎 from a wild population and common garden experiment?

#evolution #genetics

Well, I have a PhD offer for you 👇
devillemereuil.legtux.org/erc-funded-p...
ERC-funded PhD position available – Pierre de Villemereuil
devillemereuil.legtux.org
Reposted by Megan Thompson
canadianpaintings.bsky.social
Condon Lighthouse
Maud Lewis
c. 1958
meganjthompson.bsky.social
Yes sure! I’ll send you an email
Reposted by Megan Thompson
meganjthompson.bsky.social
We find that urbanization increases phenotypic variation within subpopulations by 11% on average (local spatial scales), and some evidence that urbanization also increases differentiation between subpopulations (larger landscape scales).
Figures showing predictions and model estimates for how urbanization affects variation of adult tarsus length, nestling tarsus length, and lay date in great tits and blue tits at different population levels.
meganjthompson.bsky.social
Last paper from my PhD at #EcolLett: dx.doi.org/10.1111/ele....

Using long-term data from European tit populations, we test three hypotheses to determine how urbanization affects phenotypic variation at different population levels.
#UrbanTitCollab #DiverCity #SPIBirds
Visual representation of tested hypotheses showing how urbanization can affect phenotypic variation at different population levels.
meganjthompson.bsky.social
Thanks to my fab co-authors and to @nikaudet.bsky.social for organizing the Genetics of Animal Cognition special issue: link.springer.com/collections/...
Laura and Dhanya working in the lab to extract DNA from samples.
meganjthompson.bsky.social
Using #quantgen, #commongarden, and #GWAS approaches, we find that urban and forest great tits do not differ (phenotypically or genetically) in their cognitive abilities related to inhibitory control, but show that cognitive variation may have a genetic basis.
GWAS results showing significant SNPs associated with the number of errors made during the inhibitory control task.
meganjthompson.bsky.social
We have a new paper out on the genetic vs. environmental drivers of cognition along an urban gradient: doi.org/10.1007/s100...

@lauragervais.bsky.social @dhanyabharath.bsky.social @annecharmantier.bsky.social @denisreale.bsky.social

#inhibitorycontrol #greattits #animalcognition
Figure showing cognitive task administered to wild great tits in the field.
Reposted by Megan Thompson
tomratz.bsky.social
Looking for a PhD project on sexual selection? Join us at UZH!

Application deadline: 9 June 2025.

jobs.uzh.ch/job-vacancie...
Reposted by Megan Thompson
asanchez-tojar.bsky.social
Our project, led by Sanllorente, is out at Insect Conservation & Diversity:

"A systematic review and meta-analysis on urban arthropod diversity" (doi.org/10.1111/icad...)

We performed a meta-analysis of means & variances, and explored how methods matter when studying urbanisation. Check it out!
Reposted by Megan Thompson
rebeccalovell.bsky.social
🦋 New paper out in @funecology.bsky.social! 🦋

Using the Orange-tip butterfly in the UK🦋, we test a key assumption of many species’ distribution models (SDMs): that climate effects on species’ distributions are equivalent over space🌍 versus time⏰

doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.70005

🧵👇
Testing space‐for‐time transferability of climate effects on occupancy and abundance
Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
doi.org
meganjthompson.bsky.social
This experiment was a huge undertaking and wouldn’t have been possible without help from co-authors, the Montpellier Zoo staff, and the CEFE tit team. 🙏
meganjthompson.bsky.social
There is further support that evolution has driven smaller urban body size in Dutch great tit populations. See another recent common garden to F3 led by @babimt.bsky.social currently in press at Evolution Letters. (preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...)
meganjthompson.bsky.social
Table 1 synthesizes an impressive 77 common garden experiments with urban organisms showing that urban divergences can be driven by both genetic and plastic change; a conclusion that aligns with our study’s results.
meganjthompson.bsky.social
We find trait-specific evidence of urban evolution where genetic change likely drives urban divergence in body size and stress, while behavioural divergences are more strongly driven by plasticity.
Figures comparing phenotypic measurements between urban and forest tits in both common garden and wild contexts
meganjthompson.bsky.social
Our common garden experiment with urban and forest great tits is out early view in Evolution! doi.org/10.1093/evol... @denisreale.bsky.social @annecharmantier.bsky.social
Visual representation of common garden procedure.