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Dave Armitage

@darmitage.bsky.social
150 followers 100 following 34 posts

Assistant prof at OIST in 🇯🇵 Community ecology / evolutionary ecology / stats / weird plants Come visit us 🏝️⛵️ www.oist.jp/research/research-units…

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Reposted by Dave Armitage
bioRxiv Ecology @biorxiv-ecology.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Response diversity can stabilize or destabilize community dynamics depending on the number of insensitive species www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…
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Reposted by Dave Armitage
bioRxiv Ecology @biorxiv-ecology.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Connectivity and dispersal mode shape the landscape genetics of a carnivorous pitcher plant-arthropod metacommunity www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…
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Reposted by Dave Armitage
Maria Paniw @paniw.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
🌿 🧪🌎 Niche metrics are a standard method to capture species climatic tolerances in community ecology, but are rarely used in population studies. We combined climatic niche position with IPMs in 2 shrubs and show that small shifts in niche position → big demographic changes! doi.org/10.1111/1365...
doi.org
Climatic niche position predicts population dynamics in Mediterranean shrubs after drought
Climatic conditions closer to the species' climatic niche centroid generally resulted in higher population growth in two Mediterranean shrubs, but demographic responses differed between species and w....
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Dave Armitage @darmitage.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Our lab member Rahel gave a phenomenal thesis defense today! Turns out whether you’re a bat or a monkey, your choice of social circles and winter activities matter for your immune system.
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Reposted by Dave Armitage
PopBio on the Dark Side @pop-bio.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
The next PopBio seminar will be on Thursday 30 July. Chang-Yu Chang (Academia Sinica) @changyuchang.bsky.social will present: "Unravelling the emergent properties of plant-microbe symbiosis and community assembly" Sign up link: forms.gle/v5kRZKAdauG7...
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SMTPB @smtpb.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
The first articles for the new society-owned journal Population Biology Modeling & Theory are underway! We're accepting research articles and beyond - get in touch with us to discuss your ideas for submissions. pbmt.journals.sup.org/index.php/pbmt
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PopBio on the Dark Side @pop-bio.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
The next PopBio seminar will be next Thursday June 25. Masayuki Ushio (HKUST) @ong8181.bsky.social will present: "Understanding cetacean ecology from water samples: Cetacean environmental DNA studies in Hong Kong waters" Sign up link: forms.gle/JR8NkjgBBgwD...
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Dave Armitage @darmitage.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
New preprint led by Sam Ross on a response diversity experiment in freshwater plant communities
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Dave Armitage @darmitage.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
I'm looking for a postdoctoral researcher to join our group in Okinawa, Japan later this year/early next year. Area of research is wide open, and creative/unconventional projects are encouraged. Together, let's make ecology less of a mess! 📈📈📈 www.oist.jp/careers/okin... DM/email any questions!
oist.jp
Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Postdoctoral Scholar, Integrative Community Ecology (Armitage) Unit
A postdoctoral position in ecology is available in David Armitage’s research group at OIST (Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology) in Okinawa, Japan, with a flexible start date, ideally in early...
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Reposted by Dave Armitage
PopBio on the Dark Side @pop-bio.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Join us for the next PopBio seminar this Thursday 28 May! Samay Pande (Indian Institute of Science) @iamsamayp.bsky.social will present a talk titled "Microbial predation as a driver of antibiotic resistance in natural communities" Sign up link: forms.gle/2x8kmq44fpZb...
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Dave Armitage @darmitage.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
New paper where we found that flowers become smaller under simulated warming, messing up bumblebee pollination. Lots of footage of thick bees getting stuck in flowers.
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Warming‐driven shifts in floral traits generate flower–pollinator size mismatch and decrease reproductive output
Reader environment loaded
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Dave Armitage @darmitage.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
Now published! esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
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Reposted by Dave Armitage
PopBio on the Dark Side @pop-bio.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
Join us online Thursday 26th March. Mayumi Seto will present a seminar titled: A reaction-centric perspective on microbial community networks and ecosystem functions Please share widely. Sign up here: forms.gle/3QTsPyuEnE72...
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Dave Armitage @darmitage.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
So proud for Nonno, the first PhD awarded in our lab! おめでとう!
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Reposted by Dave Armitage
PopBio on the Dark Side @pop-bio.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
We are pleased to be back for another year! Join us next Thursday 1pm AEST. Deepa Agashe (NCBS) @deepaagashe.bsky.social will present a seminar titled: Founders, shapers: Colonizing individuals predict trait and population dynamics in new habitats Sign up form below ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️
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Reposted by Dave Armitage
Journal of Ecology @journalofecology.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
🌱 Ignoring spatial heterogeneity biases estimates of competition & leads to incorrect predictions of competitive exclusion instead of species coexistence. 🔍 Read: buff.ly/Wnpb4DO
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Dave Armitage @darmitage.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
Multiple signalling increases both prey response and diversity in a carnivorous pitcher plant - Martin‐Eberhardt - Functional Ecology - Wiley Online Library besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Multiple signalling increases both prey response and diversity in a carnivorous pitcher plant
Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
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Reposted by Dave Armitage
Mark A. Hanson @hansonmark.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing: a 🧵 1/n Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820 Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/... Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below.

1. The four-fold drain
1.1 Money
Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for
whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who
created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis,
which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024
alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit
margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher
(Elsevier) always over 37%.
Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most
consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial
difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor &
Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American
researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The
Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3
billion in that year.A figure detailing the drain on researcher time.

1. The four-fold drain

1.2 Time
The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce,
with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure
1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material
has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs,
grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for
profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time.
The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million
unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of
peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting
widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the
authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many
review demands.
Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of
scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in
‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow
progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to
volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier,
local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with
limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging
with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks
intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision.A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below:

1. The four-fold drain
1.1 Money
Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for
whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who
created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis,
which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024
alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit
margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher
(Elsevier) always over 37%.
Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most
consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial
difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor &
Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American
researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The
Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3
billion in that year.The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised
scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers
first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour
resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.
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Reposted by Dave Armitage
Sebastian Schreiber @sebastianschreiber.bsky.social · 07/12/2025
Looking forward to the Modern Coexistence Theory workshop tomorrow. Please repost :)
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Reposted by Dave Armitage
PopBio on the Dark Side @pop-bio.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
Join us this Thursday, Hiromi Uno (Tohoku University) will give our last seminar for the year: Insects, shrimps and fishes; river animal migrations and their ecological consequences Sign up to this google form to receive the zoom link and future seminar announcements forms.gle/H6YgMuAgDWYS...
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Reposted by Dave Armitage
ESA Journals @esajournals.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
A 🆕 Contribution in the ESA Bulletin: Thinking about grad school? Here are 15 questions that can help you find the right lab fit — and avoid surprises along the way 📄Fifteen Questions to Ask Before Attending Graduate School doi.org/10.1002/bes2...
doi.org
Fifteen Questions to Ask Before Attending Graduate School
Click on the article title to read more.
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Reposted by Dave Armitage
Journal of Ecology @journalofecology.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
🌿 As well as strong research studies, Journal of Ecology also publishes Reviews & Mini-Reviews that promote discussion & offer new ideas & directions in plant ecology! 🌷 You can read all of our high-quality reviews on our website 👇 buff.ly/tki7aJ2
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Reposted by Dave Armitage
Chikae Tatsumi @chikaetatsumi.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
Finally settled in at OIST! Welcomed a wonderfully helpful lab technician and equally helpful administrative staff members, two enthusiastic rotation students (one of whom joined our unit as our first PhD student, yaaay!), a motivated internship student, and even a NEW BABY!!🙌✨
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Reposted by Dave Armitage
Simone Pigolotti @simonepigolotti.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
Independent researcher fellowships (non-tenure track) at OIST, with a focus on broadly defined theory www.oist.jp/research/bur...
oist.jp
Buribushi Fellowship
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Reposted by Dave Armitage
Journal of Ecology @journalofecology.bsky.social · 26/10/2025
🏔️ Using a novel source of abundance data, we forecast population spread across landscapes. Our results suggest that biotic processes likely play a critical, but often underappreciated role in driving range shifts over decadal time-scales🌏 📖 Read the article: buff.ly/Mf7sRRn
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Reposted by Dave Armitage
PopBio on the Dark Side @pop-bio.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
Meghna Krishnadas will present the next PopBio seminar: The relative and interactive roles of abiotic and biotic drivers on demographic responses of plants Join us online, Thursday Oct 30 1pm AEST. Sign up to our mailing list to receive the zoom link: forms.gle/u7B1fyzRAwar...
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Dave Armitage @darmitage.bsky.social · 18/10/2025
New preprint on reciprocal nutrient exchange between pitcher plants and their prey. Enjoy this video of wasps having a blast inside pitcher leaves 🍭🐝
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Dave Armitage @darmitage.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
Having too much fun making 3D scans of pitcher plants
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Dave Armitage @darmitage.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
Major congrats to our lab’s first PhD recipient, Nonno Hasegawa. Her work on the population genetics of Darlingtonia will help us better manage and protect the objectively coolest plant on earth
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Dave Armitage @darmitage.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
Full article: Leaf litter capture in the carnivorous pitcher plant, Sarracenia purpurea: a preliminary study www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
Leaf litter capture in the carnivorous pitcher plant, Sarracenia purpurea: a preliminary study
Diet breadth is a key life-history trait influencing range size, evolutionary trajectories, and ecosystem functioning. While diet breadth studies have traditionally been confined to animals, carniv...
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Dave Armitage @darmitage.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
Linking Individual Performance to Density‐Dependent Population Dynamics to Understand Temperature‐Mediated Genotype Coexistence - Bruijning - 2025 - Ecology Letters - Wiley Online Library onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Linking Individual Performance to Density‐Dependent Population Dynamics to Understand Temperature‐Mediated Genotype Coexistence
We use a demographic model to explicitly connect individual performance to population-level dynamics, parameterised using experimental data on competing Daphnia genotypes from two latitudes. We show ....
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Reposted by Dave Armitage
PopBio on the Dark Side @pop-bio.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
I-Ching Chen will present the next PopBio seminar: Revisiting the Vulnerability of Mountain Biota under Rapid Warming Join us online, Thursday Sep 25 1pm AEST. These seminars are open to all so please share widely. Sign up to our mailing list to receive the zoom link: forms.gle/kb6aHitUsL5f...
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Dave Armitage @darmitage.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
Please consider applying to our open faculty position call that includes Ecology! apply.interfolio.com/172075
apply.interfolio.com
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
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Reposted by Dave Armitage
bioRxiv Ecology @biorxiv-ecology.bsky.social · 24/08/2025
Dynamic connectivities of plant metacommunities at a millennial time-scale: the Beringia testbed www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/202…
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Reposted by Dave Armitage
Journal of Ecology @journalofecology.bsky.social · 20/08/2025
⏰Time is running out to submit your proposal for our cross-journal Special Feature Novel communities in response to global change! 🌏 Proposal submissions close 31 August👉 buff.ly/2av5bBh
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Reposted by Dave Armitage
OIST (Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology) @oistedu.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
Understanding plant-microbe symbiosis is essential in tackling global challenges like food security and ecosystem restoration. In ISME Journal, OIST researchers describe the unique symbiosis between T. azollae cyanobacteria and Azolla ferns: www.oist.jp/news-center/...
oist.jp
Fern leaf pockets hide secrets of plant-microbe symbiosis
Comparison of symbiotic bacteria to free-living relatives shows the genomic effects of host adaptation.
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Ecological Research @ecologicalresearch.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
#OpenAccess #SuzukiAward Temporal beta-diversity patterns are highly dependent on fundamental parameters of neutral dynamics Ryosuke Nakadai, the recipient of the 9th Young Scholar Award of The Ecological Society of Japan doi.org/10.1111/1440... community composition/ demography
Temporal beta diversity describes changes in community composition over time, yet its fundamental properties under neutral dynamics remain unclear. Using simulations, we demonstrate that temporal distance-decay patterns exhibit upper limits and are strongly influenced by four key parameters: the fundamental biodiversity number, local community size, mortality rate, and immigration rate. These findings highlight key differences between temporal and spatial beta diversity, emphasizing the need to account for species pool properties in macroecological studies.
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Dave Armitage @darmitage.bsky.social · 17/08/2025
Pleasantly surprised how my first attempt at scanning pitcher plant leaves turned out. Considering 3D printing it to wear as a bonnet
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Filip Husnik @filiphusnik.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
New visiting programs at OIST for experimentalists and domestic visitors! Application deadline: Sep 15, 2025. www.oist.jp/visiting-pro...
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Dave Armitage @darmitage.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
👏👏👏
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Dave Armitage @darmitage.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
Our paper on the Azolla leaf pocket microbiome is out! A very fun project to work on that I hope helps us understand the evolution of nitrogen fixation mutualisms by looking at one of the most extreme examples academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc...
academic.oup.com
Adaptive pangenomic remodeling in the Azolla cyanobiont amid a transient microbiome
Abstract. Plants fix nitrogen in concert with diverse microbial symbionts, often recruiting them from the surrounding environment each generation. Vertical
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bes-quantitativegroup @bes-quantitative.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
📆 Workshop Opportunity 📆 The ANdinA workshop aims to bridge the gap between modelling and applied ecology to advance ecological predictions in real-world systems. Nerín, Spain 8-12 June 2026 More info: andinaspain2026.com
andinaspain2026.com
Improving predictions in ecology
Can complex problems get away with simple solutions?
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Reposted by Dave Armitage
PopBio on the Dark Side @pop-bio.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
Save the dates! We have an excellent line up of speakers for the next three months (last Thursday of each month). These online seminars are open to all and the time of day is set for attendees in the Asia-Pacific. Sign up to this google form to receive announcements: forms.gle/2vn885K3uLC1...
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Reposted by Dave Armitage
Journal of Ecology @journalofecology.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
🌳 Terrestrial laser scanning was used to show that lianas reduce tree individual height, which negatively affect tree carbon stocks and biomass growth 🌲👉 buff.ly/PWqgwvy
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Reposted by Dave Armitage
Journal of Ecology @journalofecology.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
Epiphytic moss coexistence links to macroclimatic niches at forest scales, shifting to species relatedness at moss pad levels. Positive interactions dominate across scales, especially at moss pads, suggesting they may be more crucial for bryophyte coexistence than competition. 👉 buff.ly/D8JD1ex
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Dave Armitage @darmitage.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
Good time to remind my fellow scientists that Nature Communications has increased their APC to USD$7000 for a projected annual siphoning off the shrinking global scientific budget of around $55000000. Please consider submitting your work to almost any other journal.
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Reposted by Dave Armitage
Journal of Ecology @journalofecology.bsky.social · 08/07/2025
🔍 How do common & uncommon plants coexist? This study extends the Equilibrium Theory of Island Biogeography, showing island area & isolation shape trait strategies. Common species thrive via high ITV; uncommon ones face extinction risks. 🏝️ 👉 buff.ly/VHC5tQ5
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British Ecological Society @britishecologicalsociety.org · 08/07/2025
Which of these forests do you think has the highest level of biodiversity? Research published today in @peopleandnature.bsky.social finds that people’s intuitive perception of biodiversity through visual and audio cues is remarkably accurate.
Forest 1. Credit Kevin RozarioForest 2. Kevin RozarioForest 3. Kevin Rozario
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Reposted by Dave Armitage
American Naturalist / ASN 🐌 @asn-amnat.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
Ong et al. explore how landscapes of fear emerge from consumer-resource interactions in patchy landscapes, producing dynamic landscape-scale halo patterns than may signal critical transitions to alternative stable states. Now open access ahead of print! www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
journals.uchicago.edu
Seeing Halos: Spatial and Consumer-Resource Constraints to Landscapes of Fear | The American Naturalist: Vol 205, No 6
Abstract Vegetation-free space, or “halos,” surrounding habitat patches are visually striking spatial phenomena observed in various ecosystems. These halos are linked to the landscape of fear hypothes...
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