Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Merin Reji Chacko

Fletcher Halliday @fletcher-h.bsky.social · 22d

Preprint alert!
The epidemiology of wild–crop interfaces: Integrating ecology, evolution, and management through modeling - www.cabidigitallibrary.org/doi/abs/10.3...

The epidemiology of wild-crop interfaces: integrating ecology, evolution, and management through modeling. | agriRxiv

www.cabidigitallibrary.org

5 7

Reposted by Merin Reji Chacko

Grant Hamilton 🐨 @ecologygrant.bsky.social · Aug 12

Conservation postdoc in Brisbane, Australia 🧪

Diana Fisher @dianafisher1080.bsky.social · Aug 12

Thee-year full time postdoc positions in Brisbane, Australia. Conservation metrics, Nature Positive. Deadline 21st August jobs.smartrecruiters.com/GriffithUniv...

Research Fellow Grade 1

Company Description: Every institution values excellence. What matters most is why. Griffith was created to be a different type of university. You’ll find we’re about leading research, academic excel...

jobs.smartrecruiters.com

7 6

Reposted by Merin Reji Chacko

Fletcher Halliday @fletcher-h.bsky.social · Aug 1

Come join me at Oregon State! We’re hiring a new assistant professor in population and disease dynamics of cereal pathogens. Our department is dynamic and fun, our building is newly renovated, and Oregon is wonderful! jobs.oregonstate.edu/postings/171...

Assistant Professor: Population and Disease Dynamics of Cereal Pathogens

The Department of Botany & Plant Pathology invites applications for a full-time (1.00 FTE), 9-month, tenure track Assistant Professor: Population and Disease Dynamics of Cereal Pathogens position.We a...

jobs.oregonstate.edu

12 11

Reposted by Merin Reji Chacko

Gates Dupont @gates.bsky.social · Jul 31

🚨 First PhD chapter is out! My work thus far, with @andy2dobson.bsky.social

We found that formerly common species have declined the fastest, on average.

📄 North American bird declines are driven by reductions in common species | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

North American bird declines are driven by reductions in common species

Declines in North American birds are driven not by rare species vanishing but by sharp losses among formerly common species.

www.science.org

3 87 160

Merin Reji Chacko @merinrejichacko.bsky.social · Jul 29

If you’re curious about how we collected the data 👉

Check out our data paper for full details on the experiment, including individual-level trait data for nearly 6,000 pollinators, including #bees, #hoverflies, #wasps, & #beetles across 24 home gardens in #Zurich.

📂 ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

Example data from the data paper, which shows hourly visitation rates for multiple species across our 4 phytometer plants, across the entire flowering periods for the phytometers.

2 3

Merin Reji Chacko @merinrejichacko.bsky.social · Jul 29

Huge thanks to David Frey, who I co-led this project with, and to Matthias Albrecht, Jaboury Ghazoul, and of course Marco Moretti, for being the best co-authors one could ask for! My first real dive into #FunctionalTraits and #Urban #Pollinators and boy, what a way to start! 🌿🐝

1 3

Merin Reji Chacko @merinrejichacko.bsky.social · Jul 29

🏵️ Preprint alert! 🐝

In an #urban garden experiment along independent #densification🏙️ × local garden floral richness🌷 gradients, floral richness maintains #pollination success under densification, but only for plants with higher floral specificity.

🔎 doi.org/10.22541/au....

#Traits #Pollinators

No one-size-fits-all: trait-dependent effects of local plant diversity on pollinators and pollination service in a densifying city

The densification of urban landscapes reshuffles plant--pollinator interactions and affects the provisioning of pollination services. Improving local-scale habitat quality, e.g. planting more flowers ...

doi.org

1 3 7

Reposted by Merin Reji Chacko

Dr. Solomon David @solomonrdavid.bsky.social · Jul 10

JOIN US!!!

@garlab.bsky.social is looking for a PhD and MS student to join our team studying ecology & conservation of gars, bowfin, and other non-game native fishes beginning Spring 2026!

Posting & more info coming soon. Please DM or email [email protected] with CV if interested!

5 88 170

Merin Reji Chacko @merinrejichacko.bsky.social · Jul 24

Spotted this swallowtail caterpillar munching on wild carrot by the Limmat River in #Zürich. A quiet reminder that urban #biodiversity is not to be underestimated!🌿🐛

#UrbanEcology #PlantInsectInteractions #TrophicInteractions

A swallowtail caterpillar (I think?) munching on wild carrot by the Limmat River in Zürich.

Reposted by Merin Reji Chacko

Esme Ashe-Jepson @esme-ashe.bsky.social · Jul 22

New Masters launching! 🤩 A 2 year program in Germany and Norway, all courses held in English. Amazing opportunity to learn about some of the most critical challenges the natural world is facing from leading scientists working in this field 🌍🌱

MERGE - Master of Global Change Ecology @merge-master.bsky.social · Jul 21

We’re excited to launch our Double Degree Master’s in Global Change Ecology – a unique collaboration between the University of Würzburg (Germany) and the University of Bergen (Norway)! Passionate about biodiversity🐛, ecosystems🗻, and today’s urgent environmental challenges🌍? This program is for you!

3 3

Reposted by Merin Reji Chacko

WSL Umweltforschung @wslresearch.bsky.social · Jul 17

☘️🐛🐦‍⬛ When common species disappear, food webs can become unstable. This has far-reaching consequences, especially when wetland species are affected: www.wsl.ch/en/news/if-s...

#speciesextinction #foodwebs #wetlands #biodiversity
@merinrejichacko.bsky.social @loicpellissier.bsky.social

If species disappear, this can have far-reaching consequences

The loss of common species can destabilise entire ecosystems – with far-reaching consequences for humans and nature.

www.wsl.ch

1 7

Reposted by Merin Reji Chacko

WSL Umweltforschung @wslresearch.bsky.social · Jul 17

☘️🐛🐦‍⬛Sterben häufige Arten aus, können Nahrungsnetze instabil werden. Insbesondere wenn Feuchtgebietsarten betroffen sind, hat dies weitreichende Folgen: www.wsl.ch/de/news/vers...

#Artensterben #Nahrungsnetze #Feuchtgebiete #Biodiversität
@merinrejichacko.bsky.social @loicpellissier.bsky.social

Verschwinden Arten, kann das weitreichende Folgen haben

Der Verlust häufig vorkommender Arten kann ganze Ökosysteme instabil machen – mit weitreichenden Folgen für Mensch und Natur.

www.wsl.ch

4 7

Reposted by Merin Reji Chacko

Ming Tommy Tang @tommytang.bsky.social · Jul 12

5 papers all computational biologists should read 🧵

1. A Quick Guide to Organizing Computational Biology Projects
journals.plos.org/ploscompbio...

3 16 55

Reposted by Merin Reji Chacko

Prof Friederike Otto @frediotto.bsky.social · Jul 9

About 1500 of the approx. 2300 people that will have lost their lives across 12 European cities last week would still live, if it wasn't for our burning of oil, coal and gas. If we care about the right to life, we need to stop burning fossil fuels. www.imperial.ac.uk/grantham/pub...

bar chart showing deaths associate with extreme heat with and without climate change in 12 European cities

7 230 400

Reposted by Merin Reji Chacko

Center for Theoretical Study @cts.cuni.cz · Jul 7

🌍 New in Science: Consistent energy–diversity relationships in terrestrial vertebrates
Co-authored by @elbohdalkova.bsky.social & David Storch from @cts.cuni.cz
📌 Temperature drives richness in ectotherms (metabolic theory) and has indirect effects in endotherms
🔗 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Consistent energy-diversity relationships in terrestrial vertebrates

Ecologists have long proposed that environments providing more energy can support more species, yet empirical evidence frequently contradicts this expectation. We argue that such inconsistencies resul...

www.science.org

3 4

Reposted by Merin Reji Chacko

George Hodgson @ghodgson.bsky.social · Jul 9

Very excited to announce that our latest feral cattle paper “Strategic third-party interventions in feral ungulate affiliation” is out today in @royalsociety.org Proceedings of the Royal Society B royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... by myself, Kate Flay, Tania Perroux & @amcell.bsky.social

Photograph of a brown feral cattle grooming the back of another cow, with a pink and grey tongue sticking out of her mouth

2 8 27

Merin Reji Chacko @merinrejichacko.bsky.social · Jul 9

Martin Gossner, Hsi-Cheng Ho, Alain Joss, Fadri Campell, Willem Ellis, Pascal Kipf, Andjeljko Petrović, Vincent Prié, Željko Tomanović and Nik Zimmerli, as well as everyone @ele-ethwsl.bsky.social

We did it!!😎

@wslresearch.bsky.social @wslbiodiversity.bsky.social @usyseth.bsky.social

6/6

2

Merin Reji Chacko @merinrejichacko.bsky.social · Jul 9

The trophiCH database took >3 years to compile & I didn't do it alone. A huge thanks to @camilleethz.bsky.social @florianaltermatt.bsky.social @joancasanelles.bsky.social @vboussange.bsky.social @fabian-fopp.bsky.social @felixneff.bsky.social @loicpellissier.bsky.social Martin Brändle,

5/6

1 5

Merin Reji Chacko @merinrejichacko.bsky.social · Jul 9

Here, by combining trophiCH with #eDNA based sampling of #biodiversity, @kperrelet.bsky.social et al* show that #urbanisation decouples and simplifies aquatic-terrestrial #foodwebs. doi.org/10.22541/au....

* @laurenmcook.bsky.social, myself😁, @florianaltermatt.bsky.social & Marco Moretti

4/6

Urbanization drives the decoupling, simplification, and homogenization of aquatic and terrestrial food webs

Aquatic and terrestrial communities often co-occur at close distance, enabling biotic interactions across ecosystem boundaries. While such interactions in natural habitats contribute to complex, coupl...

doi.org

1 2 6

Merin Reji Chacko @merinrejichacko.bsky.social · Jul 9

Just last week, we published the results of our investigation into the robustness of regional multi-habitat food webs under various #extinction scenarios. We did this by combining trophiCH with long-term occurrence data. bsky.app/profile/meri...

3/6

Merin Reji Chacko @merinrejichacko.bsky.social · Jul 3

🚨 Hot off the press! We show that species loss from key habitats (like wetlands) accelerates secondary extinction in regional multi-habitat food webs. Also, we show the importance of common species to regional food web robustness. doi.org/10.1038/s420...
#Ecology #FoodWebs #Biodiversity #Metaweb

Species loss in key habitats accelerates regional food web disruption - Communications Biology

Simulating extinctions across regional food webs reveals that losing species from one habitat— especially wetlands—can cascade to others, accelerating multi-habitat food web collapse, highlighting the...

doi.org

1 1

Merin Reji Chacko @merinrejichacko.bsky.social · Jul 9

This empirically based #metaweb paves the way for data-driven studies of real-world food webs across space and time. By integrating the metaweb with local species assemblages knowledge, we can gain insights into broad patterns of food web structure across spatial scales.

How, you ask? Read on!

2/6

1 1 1

Merin Reji Chacko @merinrejichacko.bsky.social · Jul 9

Thrilled to announce the publication of the trophiCH database: a multi-trophic, species-level #metaweb for #Switzerland🇨🇭

Out now in #ScientificData 📃 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Want to explore the dataset? 🔍 webapps.wsl.ch/trophiCH/

#OpenData #Ecology #FoodWebs 🌐

1/6

1 15 53

Reposted by Merin Reji Chacko

Joan Casanelles Abella @joancasanelles.bsky.social · Jul 8

After almost 4 years of intermittent work, our perspective on biodiversity modelling in urban ecosystems is finally out in @natcities.nature.com

👉🏻 www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Biodiversity modeling to manage urban ecosystems for people and nature - Nature Cities

Cities are home to many species, so managing urban ecosystems accordingly is important. This Perspective argues for better integration of widely used biodiversity modeling frameworks and tools into ur...

www.nature.com

1 4 6

Reposted by Merin Reji Chacko

Global Ecology 🌐 @global-ecology.bsky.social · Jul 8

🌐 Global Ecology Digest #26, June 30-July 08, 42 posts!

✨For the lazy (yes we are!) & friends who don't like social media but might benefit from this feed, here’s a DIGEST crafted with 💚 for you to share

👉 globalecologybs.github.io/feeddigest.g...

DM if you want to receive the link weekly

🌍🦤🦑🪴🍁🧪

bluesky Global Ecology Feed Digest #26

Curated digest of the bluesky Global Ecology feed on biodiversity, ecosystems & conservation at large scales. Terrestrial, freswater & marine realms.

globalecologybs.github.io

3 8

Merin Reji Chacko @merinrejichacko.bsky.social · Jul 3

My eternal gratitude to @camilleethz.bsky.social
@florianaltermatt.bsky.social, Victor Boussange, Martin Brändle, @consecol.bsky.social, Martin Gossner, Hsi-Cheng Ho, Alain Joss, @felixneff.bsky.social & @loicpellissier.bsky.social for making chapter 2 of my PhD a reality! @ele-ethwsl.bsky.social

1 4