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Chris Catano

@chriscatano.bsky.social
2.2K followers 573 following 104 posts

Professor at University of California, Riverside Ecology | Biodiversity | Global Change Biology chcatano.wixsite.com/ecology

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Reposted by Chris Catano
Robert Fletcher @fletcherecology.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
"Conservation biology is a science with a time limit, with the clock ticking faster as the human population continues to increase... I believe future generations will find it blankly incomprehensible that we are deveoting so little money and effort to study these questions." Robert May 1988
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Steve Pennings @stevenpennings.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
The Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER program (gce-lter.marsci.uga.edu) seeks a research technician to assist with studies of coastal ecology. Apply at: www.ugajobsearch.com/postings/507... For questions concerning the position, contact Dr. Steven Pennings – spennings@uh.edu
gce-lter.marsci.uga.edu
Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER
Description of the Georgia Coastal Ecosystems Long Term Ecological Research Program and links to data sets and information about the estuary and salt marsh ecology in coastal Georgia
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Elinor Lichtenberg @dremlichtenberg.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Another PhD opportunity in my lab! Interdisciplinary NSF-funded project developing a new framework and tools for understanding and valuing ecosystem services, with a focus on crop #pollination. Details: cos.unt.edu/biology/lich... 🌐🌎👩🏿‍🔬
cos.unt.edu
Opportunities
Interested in joining the Lichtenberg Lab? See below. The Lichtenberg lab is committed to providing an inclusive and supportive environment to trainees from diverse backgrounds.
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Chris Catano @chriscatano.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Ridiculous
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Chris Catano @chriscatano.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Yeah, UC Riverside does not pay the difference for NSF GRFP recipients either. I have to use my start-up funds to bring my student's pay up to match the other graduate students. It costs me more to have a student with the GRFP, but it is better for the student so 🤷
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Steve Pennings @stevenpennings.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
In experiments, high plant diversity usually leads to high ecosystem function and stability. But in nature, the same factors that determine plant species diversity may also affect stability. This means the results of BEF experiments don't always apply to natural systems. doi.org/10.1002/ecy....
doi.org
A salinity gradient mediates plant diversity–function–stability relationships across a coastal marsh landscape
Ecosystem function and stability are often positively related to species richness in experiments, but in nature, abiotic gradients may over-ride or obscure the effects of richness on function and sta...
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Joe Brennan @biologyjoe87.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
Now out in Ecology Letters 🥳
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Using Modern Coexistence Theory to Understand Community Disassembly
Community disassembly examines how extinctions reshape ecological communities. Here, we introduce the community disassembly graph, which uses invasion growth rates (IGRs) to identify extinction-drive....
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Robert Fletcher @fletcherecology.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Really interesting take on the future of ecology in an AI world. The take home: experiments and long-term studies will have increasing value. @jdrakephd.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
AI, Comparative Advantage, and the Next Decade of Ecological Research
Click on the article title to read more.
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Brian J. Enquist @bjenquist.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Biotic interactions biogeography: A framework for understanding how species interactions shape biodiversity patterns across scales 🧪🌐https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3003813
journals.plos.org
Biotic interactions biogeography: A framework for understanding how species interactions shape biodiversity patterns across scales
Biogeography and ecology have long developed in parallel. This Essay explores how new data on species interactions across large scales now allow their integration, opening fresh insights into how biod...
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Jonathan Tonkin @jdtonkin.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
"We didn't become biodiversity scientists to preside over decay." — Becky Chaplin-Kramer Eight times more papers document biodiversity loss than recovery. We're better at describing what's broken than understanding how to fix it. That needs to change. More here 👇
predirections.substack.com
We're great at documenting decline and surprisingly bad at understanding recovery
Recovery, rewilding, and why we're measuring the wrong things (Nexus Notes #30)
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Trevor Caughlin @trevorcaughlin.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
Collecting wild seed is one of the biggest challenges in restoration ecology. How do you identify reproductive plants across landscapes? We show how drones could provide a solution, predicting flower production of a native shrub: doi.org/10.1016/j.ra... #rangelands #sagebrush ​
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Marcel Cardillo @marcelcardillo.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Really nice memoriam to Robert Ricklefs by Brian McGill: dynamicecology.wordpress.com/2026/06/11/r... Ricklefs got ecologists to think big: about the role of history, biogeography & macroevolution on ecological patterns. More than anyone, his work shaped the course of my career.
dynamicecology.wordpress.com
Robert Ricklefs – in memoriam
Robert Ricklefs, a giant of ecology, passed away on Sunday. It is hard to overstate the extensive impact Bob had on the field. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in the US,…
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Reposted by Chris Catano
Tess Grainger @tessgrainger.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
New paper out today in Ecology Letters! We use Modern Coexistence Theory and Metabolic Theory to get general predictions for the effect of temperature on competition. Led by brilliant postdoc @kaleighedavis.bsky.social and @joeybernhardt.bsky.social, with Po-Ju Ke, Patrick Thompson and Mary O'Connor
dx.doi.org
General Predictions for the Effects of Warming on Competition
We combined two major theories in ecology to investigate whether warming may have general effects on competition for shared resources. We found that species' niche and fitness differences both decrea...
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Chris Catano @chriscatano.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Also, my Plant Ecology class just covered the topics in this paper (and the LDG earlier in the course) so I was pleased to be able to send this to them for some extra fun reading!
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Chris Catano @chriscatano.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
How did you get that shot? From a canopy crane, hillside, or did you climb a tree!
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Chris Catano @chriscatano.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
That is an amazing picture, Jonathan!
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Reposted by Chris Catano
Jonathan Myers @jamyersecology.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Honored to have one of my photos on the cover of @nature.com And thrilled to be part of this #ForestGEO study led by Yuanzhi Li and Chengjin Chu 🌴 🌳 🌐 doi.org/10.1038/s415... Photo caption: Sunrise over a tropical forest near Danum Valley Field Centre, Sabah, Malaysia
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College of Biological Science @uofgcbs.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
As the climate warms, animals are being forced to shift their ranges to survive.🐾 Research led by Kayley Breslin & tessgrainger.bsky.social @integrativebiology.bsky.social using beetles found warmer temperatures can accelerate both movement & population growth. www.uoguelph.ca/cbs/news/202...
Kayley Breslin beetles in plastic cases
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Hakeem Jefferson @hakeemjefferson.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
FWIW, I don’t think the major problem in my field, or related ones, is that people need to move faster & produce more. I read a lot of papers as part of the job, and I’m increasingly convinced we’d benefit from fewer papers and better ones, not more mediocre work produced ever more “efficiently.”
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Chris Klausmeier @chrisklausmeier.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Robert MacArthur's "favorite part of ecology, [is] the part that combines the adventure of field work in varied places with the discipline of making nontrivial theory. It is the part best done by field naturalists, but naturalists who know what science is all about." Describes Brian to a tee!
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Jay T Lennon @jaytlennon.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
"When energy is scarce, evolution selects dormancy" Commentary by Chris Kempes in @pnas.org www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
pnas.org
When energy is scarce, evolution selects dormancy | PNAS
When energy is scarce, evolution selects dormancy
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Tanya Cheeke @tanyacheeke.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Devastating loss of Dr. Adriana Romero-Olivares this week. She was an amazing mycologist, a leader in her field, & my friend & collaborator. This is a tremendous loss for mycology, science, & the world. There is a meal train for her husband & two small children www.mealtrain.com/trains/l3kg64
mealtrain.com
Meal Train for Jovani Catalan (Spouse of Adriana Romero Olivares)
Hi all, Please help out the family of Adriana Romero Olivares. Her husband, Jovani, and kids can be helped with meals over the next weeks as Adriana recovers.
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Chris Catano @chriscatano.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Some of us have gotten older, but not much smarter...
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Dr. Asmeret Asefaw Berhe @aaberhe.com · 29/04/2026
Prof. Adriana Romero-Olivares, UC Riverside, was doing incredible work on how fungi and ecosystems respond to global change. A rising voice, a dynamic scientist and educator, a young mother, wife and daughter gone far too soon. A huge loss. Her family, students and community are in my thoughts.
Prof. Adriana Romero-Olivares
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Joel Sachs @sachslab.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
especially her husband, Dr. Jovani Catalan Dibene, and her two young children. With deepest sympathy, Joel L. Sachs Professor & Chair, Evolution Ecology & Organismal Biology
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Joel Sachs @sachslab.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Dear Colleagues, It is with immense sadness and shock that I share the passing of Dr. Adriana Romero Olivares, a brand-new Assistant Professor in the Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology at UC Riverside. www.mealtrain.com/trains/l3kg64
mealtrain.com
Meal Train for Jovani Catalan (Spouse of Adriana Romero Olivares)
Hi all, Please help out the family of Adriana Romero Olivares. Her husband, Jovani, and kids can be helped with meals over the next weeks as Adriana recovers.
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Reposted by Chris Catano
Joel Sachs @sachslab.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
If you'd like to support her family, you can do so here: www.mealtrain.com/trains/l3kg64
mealtrain.com
Meal Train for Jovani Catalan (Spouse of Adriana Romero Olivares)
Hi all, Please help out the family of Adriana Romero Olivares. Her husband, Jovani, and kids can be helped with meals over the next weeks as Adriana recovers.
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Reposted by Chris Catano
Pete Homyak @petehomyak.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
New exciting work 🧪by Kai Huang and team: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Topography‐Mediated Soil Moisture Controls Forest Hillslope‐Scale NO and N2O Emissions
Conceptual diagram illustrating soil NO and N2O emissions along a temperate forest hillslope. Left panel: Automated soil gas chambers were deployed along a forest hillslope to measure high-resolution...
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John M. Drake @jdrakephd.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
New paper with Victor Felix and Pej Rohani in J. R. Soc. Interface. doi.org/10.1098/rsif...
doi.org
A single autoregressive integrated moving average with exogenous variable outperforms ensembles of autoregressive models for forecasting influenza hospitalizations in the contiguous United States
Abstract. Infectious disease forecasting is important to public health decision-making, particularly for mitigating the burden of seasonal influenza. We pr
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Robert Fletcher @fletcherecology.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
Excited to share a new article from the lab & wonderful co-authors. We argue that habitat fragmentation research needs to be recalibrated to focus on changes over time. We hope that doing so will advance understanding, isolate attribution, and diminish heated debate. www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...
cell.com
Resurrecting habitat fragmentation as a process over time
Habitat loss and fragmentation occur over time. Despite this truism, understanding the effects of habitat fragmentation has, in recent years, predominantly focused on interpreting snapshots of current...
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American Naturalist / ASN 🐌 @asn-amnat.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Antifragility: A Cross-Cutting Concept for Understanding Ecological Responses to Variability by Wickman et al. Available now ahead of print! www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
The American Naturalist classic cover
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Jonathan Tonkin @jdtonkin.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
This fortnight’s Nexus Notes connects models, techno‑optimism, moral courage, Welsh stick chairs (!), and why so many arguments talk past each other. There’s a deeper pattern here about models, responsibility, and perspective. 🔗👇 predirections.substack.com/p/knowing-mo...
predirections.substack.com
Knowing more, understanding less
Models, optimism, moral courage, and the limits of knowing (Nexus Notes #26)
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Chris Catano @chriscatano.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
New paper by Mackenzie Hoogshagen showing how contributions of diet & genetic background shape geographic variation in parasite infection outcomes across monarch butterfly populations - Ecological Entomology - share.google/s9s2Alqm9fQU...
share.google
The contributions of host diet and genetic background to shaping parasite infection outcomes in monarch butterflies across natural populations
We experimentally tested the roles of diet and genetic background in shaping monarch butterfly resistance to its protozoan parasite using monarchs from North America, Puerto Rico and hybrids. We fou.....
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Chris Catano @chriscatano.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
In another experiment, we show how immigration can shift the balance between ecological selection and drift in shaping turnover in gut microbiomes across individual caterpillars and through development. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Experimental Immigration Mediates Ecological Selection and Drift in Monarch Microbiome Assembly
The distribution of biodiversity depends on processes operating across scales, yet multiscale paradigms have struggled to permeate host-microbiome research. By integrating multi-scale ecological theo...
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Chris Catano @chriscatano.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
With a landscape-scale experiment, we show how regional processes (immigration & species pool size) can alter the importance of species sorting and mitigate spatial homogenization of plant communities. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Regional Processes Mediate Ecological Selection and the Distribution of Plant Diversity Across Scales
This experiment quantifies how species pool size and immigration influence plant community assembly in restored grasslands. Our findings reveal that greater immigration (seed arrival) and smaller spe...
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Jonathan Tonkin @jdtonkin.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Petrol hit $3.40/L this week. One shock and the whole system wobbled. We’ve built a society so optimised that it’s become brittle — supply chains, food systems, infrastructure, all running with no slack. Society is optimising for efficiency. Ecosystems optimise for resilience.
predirections.substack.com
We built a fragile society
Modern society has optimised for efficiency at the expense of resilience
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Emily Farrer @emilycfarrer.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Becoming a parent is much worse for women in academia vs men, because women do 5 times (!!!) the amount of childcare than men www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
Motherhood derails women’s academic careers — these data reveal how and why
Mothers in academia take on considerably more childcare-related responsibilities than do fathers.
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Chris Catano @chriscatano.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
I heard many of the warehouses here are empty... is that true?
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Chris Catano @chriscatano.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
Yes, and it's certainly nlt always the best option!
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Chris Catano @chriscatano.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
I've had two flavors of this, buth rare: 1. "I dont believe this, therefore your data are wrong." MS rejected. I successfully appealed the decision (not something I ever considered before this review). 2. "I don't believe this, but find no issues in the study and suggest acceptance."
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Chris Catano @chriscatano.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
Absolutely!
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
The 2026 National Science Foundation budget is $8.75 Billion.
nytimes.com
First 6 Days of Iran War Cost U.S. $11.3 Billion, Pentagon Says
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Chris Catano @chriscatano.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
Nature is THE predatory journal. Not because it publishes junk or operates via unethical practices, but because they know how much they are coveted and price gouge. No society affiliation, just pure corporate greed.
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Matt Bracken @brackenlab.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Our review of #trait - based approaches to ecological restoration is finally out in @esajournals.bsky.social *Ecological Applications*, highlighting the value of functional traits for creating system-general restoration strategies. 🌐 🧮➕📏 urldefense.com/v3/__http://...
Community trajectories towards a restoration target (increase in zooplankton community diversity and abundance to regain ecosystem function, facilitated by invasive fish removal), where functional and taxonomic composition recover at different rates: In the disturbance phase, non-native fish introductions reduce the functional diversity of zooplankton communities; during active restoration, fish are removed from lakes, allowing communities to recover functions associated with naturally fishless systems; the assisted or unassisted recovery phase is characterized by the initial reassembly of functional structure via plasticity and dispersal followed by taxonomic recovery through additional dispersal. Traits are shown as univariate for illustrative purposes but can encompass multiple traits in practice.
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Jonathan Tonkin @jdtonkin.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
If you’re interested in modelling community turnover and/or community uniqueness (i.e. LCBD: local contribution to beta diversity), make sure you check it out. Paper: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Accounting for the Influence of Community Turnover Along Environmental Gradients on Compositional Uniqueness
Compositional uniqueness is commonly quantified using the Local Contribution to Beta Diversity (LCBD), which is typically regressed against environmental predictors. However, LCBD–environment relatio...
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Gabe DuBose @gabe-dubose.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Super happy to share that my article on inferring the dynamics of selective constraints across complex ontogenies is now out in Royal Society Open Science. My experience with RSOS was great, and I’m happy to be part of the movement towards open science! royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article...
royalsocietypublishing.org
Inferring the dynamics of selective constraints across complex ontogenies | Royal Society Open Science | The Royal Society
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Chris Catano @chriscatano.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
That's frustrating!
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Chris Catano @chriscatano.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Eww, gross. That is so fucked up
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Chris Catano @chriscatano.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
Early morning view of Riverside, CA to calm my nerves during this 5-3 powerplay. 🇺🇸 vs 🇨🇦 #GoldMedal #Hockey #Olympics
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Chris Catano @chriscatano.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Beautiful winter morning in Riverside, California.
Snow-capped mountains in Southern California
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