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Opwall Science @opwallscience.bsky.social · 5d

Great new paper by Richard Bodmer et al. examining the ecology of River dolphins at fish aggregations in Amazonian Peru. It found that Pink dolphins formed feeding aggregations in both small and large rivers, while Grey dolphin aggregations largely occurred in large rivers; tinyurl.com/ezxjtmaa

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Opwall Science @opwallscience.bsky.social · 14d

Nice review by @thereremouse.bsky.social et al. of a new harp design that was extensively field-tested by the Croatia bat team in our Krka National Park field site this summer:

Dr Morgan Hughes @thereremouse.bsky.social · 14d

Our @opwall.bsky.social bat survey team in Croatia had the opportunity this summer to really put some Hunbat carbon fibre harp traps through their paces. Here's our review in @insideecology.bsky.social magazine. #bats #fieldwork #research #chiroptera #harptraps 🦇

Inside Ecology @insideecology.bsky.social · 15d

Making light work of bat trapping – the Hunbat Harp Trap review #nature #wildlife #biodiversity #ecology #habitats #conservation #climatechange #bats insideecology.com/2025/09/23/m...

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Opwall Science @opwallscience.bsky.social · 20d

An extremely strong month for the Utila marine research team! Congratulations to @jamesboon.bsky.social, @salkeith.bsky.social et al. on another great paper, this one examining how reef structure influences fish anti-predation behaviour!

Sal Keith (she/her) @salkeith.bsky.social · 23d

Field of view affects damselfish anti-predator responses BUT other metrics of structural complexity do not. Implications for how we measure structure & predict its effects academic.oup.com/beheco/advan...
@jamesboon.bsky.social is on fire today! @lec-reefs.bsky.social @envisiondtp.bsky.social

Site-level variation in field of view is associated with altered anti-predator responses in farming damselfish

The structure of a habitat affects how animals respond to predators. By recording the anti-predator behaviour of reef fish at sites with different levels o

academic.oup.com

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Opwall Science @opwallscience.bsky.social · 21d

Great new open-access by @jamesboon.bsky.social, @salkeith.bsky.social, et al. showing high taxonomic and functional turnovers in the deep reef fish communities off Utlia, Honduras - a very interesting finding given deeper reefs have often been assumed to be more stable than shallower reefs!

Sal Keith (she/her) @salkeith.bsky.social · 23d

New PAPER shows greater depths NOT correlated with more stable communities on Caribbean reefs, contrary to expectations. Led by @jamesboon.bsky.social link.springer.com/article/10.1... @lec-reefs.bsky.social @envisiondtp.bsky.social @opwallscience.bsky.social

Deeper Caribbean reef fish communities show greater taxonomic and functional change in dominance structure over a nine-year period - Coral Reefs

Fish communities at greater depths on a reef are thought to be less affected by disturbances that more strongly impact shallower areas. As a result, these deeper communities might be expected to show ...

link.springer.com

Opwall Science @opwallscience.bsky.social · Sep 3

New paper by Catherine Sheppard et al. examining aggressive behaviour in damselfish in the coral reefs of Honduras. Results showed predicting aggressive responses can be complex, extending beyond simply whether the subject of the aggression is a “neighbour” or a “stranger”: tinyurl.com/mr3vhef9

Familiarity mediated by body size predicts intraspecific aggression in farming damselfishes - Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology

Abstract Aggressive territoriality can have significant benefits for resource acquisition yet is a costly behaviour. Selection should therefore favour mechanisms that allow individuals to modify their...

tinyurl.com

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Reposted by Opwall Science

Erica McAlister @flygirlnhm.bsky.social · Jul 11

The most gorgeous of larvae

These are immature Simuliidae - black flies. They sucker on to a fast-flowing river bottom & filter feed. They have beautiful cephalic fans which are filtering fans

@opwallscience.bsky.social @opwall.bsky.social #Honduras

#FlyFriday

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Reposted by Opwall Science

Erica McAlister @flygirlnhm.bsky.social · Jun 27

Check out the most badass of larva - this is an immature lacewing

How cool is nature - from the cloud forests of Honduras @opwall.bsky.social @opwallscience.bsky.social

#NationalInsectWeek @royentsoc.bsky.social

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Reposted by Opwall Science

Erica McAlister @flygirlnhm.bsky.social · Jun 27

For #Flyfriday & #NationalInsectWeek, Check out this golden boy

Eliozeta helluo (Fabrioius, 1805) is found across Europe, scattered parts of Russia, China, the Middle east, Korea, Japan & Mongolia!

This one was found in Romania, collected on an @opwall.bsky.social @opwallscience.bsky.social trip

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Opwall Science @opwallscience.bsky.social · May 14

Congratulations to @thereremouse.bsky.social et al. for their fantastic new paper provided a much-needed update to the terrestrial mammal inventory for Krka National Park, Croatia! Great output that should be highly useful for Park managers! Open access too so please take a look!

Dr Morgan Hughes @thereremouse.bsky.social · May 14

Our latest paper from the Croatian @opwall.bsky.social science team: Updated checklist of the terrestrial #mammals of Krka National Park!

You can read the open access manuscript here: publikace.nm.cz/en/file/7b9f...

A screenshot of our manuscript, with two camera trap photos: a badger and a wild boar.

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Opwall Science @opwallscience.bsky.social · May 9

Thanks! Glad its a useful overview; good to get a summary of all our core methods published in one place!

Opwall Science @opwallscience.bsky.social · May 8

New blog post out; our "fieldwork dictionary" summarizing the main survey methodologies used at our terrestrial and marine fieldwork sites: www.opwall.com/article/the-...

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Opwall Science @opwallscience.bsky.social · Apr 29

Was great to work on this collaboration with the IUCN (Simon Valle) and University of Birmingham (Tom Matthews and @david-peartree.bsky.social)

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Opwall Science @opwallscience.bsky.social · Apr 29

New paper out highlighting the threat tropical storms pose to global island biodiversity. It shows the Caribbean especially has many species likely to be at risk of extinction from storms, and identifies 60 'high-risk' species that could be wiped by a single future storm event: shorturl.at/EAqOS

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Opwall Science @opwallscience.bsky.social · Apr 18

New open-access paper by Asela Buenfil-Rojas et al. describing a method to extract RNA from Morelet's Crocodile scuts (partly based on samples obtained from our Calakmul site), just out in MethodsX - shorturl.at/PXBFO

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Opwall Science @opwallscience.bsky.social · Apr 15

Great new blog post by Glenn Shiach discussing the recent taxonomic spider discoveries from our research site in the dry forests of Madagascar: www.opwall.com/article/scie...

Operation Wallacea | New Spider Species Descriptions in Madagascar

Some incredible work in Madagascar has led to the identification of 5 new species to science this year!

www.opwall.com

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Opwall Science @opwallscience.bsky.social · Apr 14

New paper by Rodney Roundtree et al. examining the acoustical ecology of dolphins and fish in the Pacaya-Samiria Reserve, Peru. They document distinct dolphin sounds seemingly used in different situations, and show a correlation between dolphin & fish acoustical activity: shorturl.at/gxerkhttps:/...

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Opwall Science @opwallscience.bsky.social · Mar 26

New Opwall blog post introducing Andrew and Annika at RARElab, who we hope to be collaborating with on many interesting things in the near future! www.opwall.com/article/rare...

Operation Wallacea | RARElab: A new Opwall collaboration

RARElab: A new Opwall collaboration towards Rediscovering and Protecting Lost and Understudied Species

www.opwall.com

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Opwall Science @opwallscience.bsky.social · Mar 25

Indeed - very much an amazing place!

Opwall Science @opwallscience.bsky.social · Mar 25

Amazing species to be found in the cloud forests of Honduras!

Erica McAlister @flygirlnhm.bsky.social · Mar 25

Todays best animal goes to this baby cranefly - yep this is a Tipulidae larvae & it was found in the streams high up in the Honduran cloud forests

How cool is nature?!?!?

@opwallscience.bsky.social

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Opwall Science @opwallscience.bsky.social · Mar 2

Frederico Barosso - our new Research and Education officer - giving a great overview of his thermal ecology research in a new blogpost here: www.opwall.com/article/test...

Operation Wallacea | Testing methods to study reptile thermal ecology

Fred describes his PhD research in Mexico with Opwall where he was testing new methods to study reptile thermal ecology!

www.opwall.com

Opwall Science @opwallscience.bsky.social · Feb 27

New paper by Hrvoje Čižmek et al. on the ecology of the Critically Endangered Noble Pen Shell off Miljet, Croatia. Results show the population to be dominated by older individuals, making it vulnerable to the mass mortality events posing a particular risk to the species: www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/17...

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Opwall Science @opwallscience.bsky.social · Feb 21

New paper showing patterns in neotropical monitoring programs (incorporating relevant Opwall sites). Results indicate spatial and taxonomic bias in these programs, and crucially that many span <10 years in duration, meaning they may not pick up important ecological trends shorturl.at/alx37

Bias in neotropical and reef biodiversity monitoring programs may prevent detecting changes in species diversity through time

Biodiversity monitoring networks are essential to quantify changes in biodiversity over time. Despite the importance of monitoring, studies using thes…

shorturl.at

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Opwall Science @opwallscience.bsky.social · Feb 15

New book chapter preprint out on @authorea.com led by @jonathancazabonne.bsky.social. A massive piece of work using a wide range of data sources (including from Honduras) to provide an extremely thorough overview of the knowledge gaps that impede research into poorly-studied taxa.

Jonathan Cazabonne @jonathancazabonne.bsky.social · Feb 15

📣New book chapter preprint: We explored knowledge gaps for #Laboulbeniomycetes, a clade of understudied #microfungi, and introduced a new #shortfall named after Roland Thaxter.

Big thanks to the coauthors! @tommartin2024.bsky.social @dhaelewa.bsky.social

#TeamLaboul @teamlaboul.bsky.social

Knowledge gaps explored for Laboulbeniomycetes, a clade of understudied microfungi, including a new shortfall related to a lack of taxonomic expertise

Despite escalating efforts to document and understand biodiversity, gaps in knowledge persist due to the inherent complexity of biological systems and the sheer scale of global biodiversity. Such know...

www.authorea.com

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Opwall Science @opwallscience.bsky.social · Feb 12

Great to see samples collected by @flygirlnhm.bsky.social at our @kneppwilding.bsky.social project being used as comparative data to support this super-interesting project on demographic patterns in Hoverfly migration!

Erica McAlister @flygirlnhm.bsky.social · Feb 12

Some of the individuals used in this research were collected at @kneppwilding.bsky.social during the @opwallscience.bsky.social field course.

Another great example of migration research aided by collaboration

Dr Will Leo Hawkes @willleohawkes.bsky.social · Feb 12

Female hoverflies are WAY better than males at migrating!

At the beginning of their 1000km+ migrations in Denmark the sex ratios are 50:50, but by the time they get to Spain it is 90% female!

On flight sims females flew 9x further and have better immunity and lifespan!

@flygirlnhm.bsky.social

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Opwall Science @opwallscience.bsky.social · Feb 11

Fantastic Diptera collection being collated by @flygirlnhm.bsky.social at the @nhm-london.bsky.social from our project at @kneppwilding.bsky.social!

Erica McAlister @flygirlnhm.bsky.social · Feb 11

Identified ✔️
Barcoded and databased ✔️
Incorporated into the @nhm-london.bsky.social collection ✔️

And all that data gets put on the portal for ALL to use

Thanks @opwallscience.bsky.social and @kneppwilding.bsky.social - great Diptering

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