Beavers boost bats! Beaver ponds had higher bat richness (4→5 spp/night), 1.6× activity, and 2.3× feeding vs. controls. Structural changes (standing deadwood, more heterogeneous canopy) and more prey help explain why:
Journal of Animal Ecology:
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Reproduction in ants 🐜 just keeps blowing my mind 🤯

But this here is the crown for sure... for now.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

(go also check out obligate chimerism, social chromosomes, clonal production of females and males, and much more...)

Pretty much.

BEHOLD! One of Earth's greatest lineages of life: the lil wiggle arm guys, Meteora.

These single-celled critters, originally found in deep-sea sediments, are SO DIFFERENT from other lifeforms on Earth that they're likely in their own kingdom (as in, the Animal Kingdom, the Plant Kingdom etc). 🧪🌿

Black-headed Gulls (Chroicocephalus ridibundus) don't just return to the same roost site every night, but also to specific daytime sites like a park or a river stretch, often over multiple years. They appear to specialise in familiar foraging habitats in winter
#Switzerland #Biodiversity #Basel

In our 2021 national roost count, we recorded 39,000 individuals, more than the 32,000 counted in the regular waterbird census. This means Switzerland hosts around 1.5% of the Western European winter population of this species

#Ornithology #CitizenScience #Gulls

10+ Years of Black-headed Gull Research: Ring-reading in a youth birding group evolved into Switzerland’s first nationwide, coordinated roost count, involving many volunteers

Both studies are now published in the Ornithologischer Beobachter, available here: www.researchgate.net/profile/Vale...
🌍

Thanks to everybody who chimed in!

I arrived at the conclusion that (1) there's a lot of interesting stuff about interactions and (2) the figure I was looking for does not exist.

So, I made it myself! Here's a simple illustration of how to control for confounding in interactions:>

Glad to share this recently published article in @animalecology.bsky.social led by Nick Corline on how "(wood frog) #tadpole aggregations create biogeochemical hotspots in (geographically isolated) #wetland ecosystems": besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

💧🧪🌎🐸 #DelmarvaDisco

🚨 Stat tips 🚨

Are you aware of the regression to the mean #RTM effect?

This artefact is often overlooked in #ecology & especially in biodiversity resurveys 🌳🍄🦔🦅🦎🦋🐝🐞 It basically shows up each time you investigate changes between 2 time events: t2 vs t1

Let me unfold it for you 🧵

When #greatwhitesharks disappear: This was the best place on Earth to see great whites - and then they vanished.

A new study based on two decades of data shows what happens in an ocean #ecosystem without great white #sharks.
🌍🦑🐋

🚨New paper alert🚨

Exploring urban #aquatic & #terrestrial biodiversity with #eDNA 🧬

❗ #Urbanization weakens land–water linkages
❗ Aquatic & terrestrial communities follow distinct drivers 🐞🦟
❗ Adapted primers for aquatic & terrestrial invertebrates 🧬

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

more on researchgate:
www.researchgate.net/publication/...

Further, while observing Black-headed Gull at roosts before and after the count, we counted even higher numbers of birds during spring migration. My hypothesis: These #gulls rest in lake-rich Switzerland (here: #Zurich) a final time before migrating back to the breeding colonies in NE-Europe 🌍

New #research! Trying to find the true winter abundance of #Black-headedGulls in Switzerland, we organised a national count - at the overnight roosts! With this method, we recorded with 39'000 gulls about 20 % more than during the traditional (diurnal) water bird counts

Aquatic-terrestrial researchers coming together for the #systemlink seminar 🌊🌱 Amazing talks ranging from leaflitter, beavers, urbanisation, to ecosystem size effects. Thanks a lot for the amazing talks @vmoser.bsky.social, @kperrelet.bsky.social, @LukeIreland, @ema-giacomuzzo.bsky.social

1/ I'm constantly amazed at the naivety of so much of conservation science (& other mission-driven disciplines)

As if all we have to do is generate the evidence and society's leaders will use it to do what's needed

As if there's no-one trying to make sure that doesn't happen

Rolf Holderegger has been Director of WSL for 100 days. In this interview, he talks about tight finances, WSL's new strategy and why he wants to promote the practical implementation of #research results. www.wsl.ch/en/news/we-w... @sciena_ch @ETH_Rat

I can also highly, highly recommend this beautiful video by @distrustful-dinos.bsky.social about Berlin's #urbanwildlife, in particular its #Corvids, during NYE.

Incredible rooftop footage of #birds flying around in a panic, surrounded by exploding fireworks. #ornithology #fireworks #conservation