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Keith C Hamer

@keithchamer.bsky.social
337 followers 224 following 3 posts

Ecologist and seabird biologist, now happily retired

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Reposted by Keith C Hamer
Alberta Claw @albertonykus.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
New review of what we know and don't know about the evolutionary history of birds and their close fossil relatives! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... 🪶🧪 (📷Benito & @lizzysteell.bsky.social)
Diagram showing the evolutionary relationships and geologic ages of birds and closely related bird-like dinosaurs.
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Natasha Gillies @tashgillies.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
New paper in @animalecology.bsky.social!📝http://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.70350 Coordination is thought to be key to the success of biparental care, but we don’t know how this varies with species’ ecology 🍃 We explore: how important is partner coordination & does this depend on environment? 🏞️
https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.70350
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Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Such an impressive compilation of data from tracked birds across (most of) the global range and diversity of Whimbrel in this new collaborative paper in Ibis: look at the map - so many major transoceanic movements onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
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Marie-Morgane Rouyer @mariemrouyer.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
🚨 New paper in @consletters.bsky.social, one of the main outputs of my #PhD ! 🥳 You can read it here 👉 doi.org/10.1111/con4... Summary below
Paper presentation - Highly mobile seabirds reveal areas of conservation importance across the Atlantic Ocean
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British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU) @bou.org.uk · 03/09/2026
NEW on #theBOUblog from Lucy McRobert We Just Want to Go Birding: Everyday sexism in birding and the nature sector adds up bou.org.uk/blog-mcro... #ornithology 🪶
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Dr Simon Goodman @phoca-sapiens.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Just out: Supplementary feeding of wild birds on farmland can be an important transmission risk for severe avian parasites such as Trichomonas gallinae, suggesting a rethink is needed on how this conservation practice is managed 🪱🧪🌍🐦 doi.org/10.1111/mec.... @molecology.bsky.social
doi.org
Multiple Strains of <fi>Trichomonas gallinae</fi> are Widespread in Reservoir Hosts and Environmental Resources in <fc>UK</fc> Farmland
Understanding transmission routes of parasites and pathogens is critical for the development of control measures and mitigation of impacts on host populations. Trichomonas gallinae is a widespread pa...
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Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Summary of 2026 summer 🔥 from @metoffice.gov.uk. Summer runs 1/6-31/8, so omits late May '26 heatwave, possibly even more anomalous in statistical terms. We have a new preprint led by @davididiaquez.bsky.social which analyses effects on growth & survival of Wytham tits 🧵⬇️ bsky.app/profile/davi...
Temperature fluctuations in Wytham Woods between 15 May and June 15 for 2023-2026. Orange and green lines represent mean hourly temperatures from 218 temperature loggers in 2026 (orange) and 2023-2025 (green). The grey line and ribbon represent the mean daily temperature ± mean daily temperature range from the Central England Temperature dataset (CET; 1772-2025)
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Cab Davidson @gnomeicide.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Tuna used to be plentiful in the north sea. But no, you're not misremembering, there are no traditional recipes on the east coast. We didn't used to eat it. We just killed it. Sad thread on why. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
First bluefin tuna caught and landed in Yorkshire since 1960s
A crew from Whitby lands two of the migratory species weighing over 300kg each in as many days.
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Dr Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Big new @adriftlab.bsky.social paper - we show for the first time that plastics affects seabirds at the POPULATION level. Plastic ingested as a chick reduces recruitment of birds to the breeding population. And the story is pretty grim. 🧵 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
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Andrew Barnes @barnesecodiv.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Our paper has just been published in the latest issue of @nature.com! We analysed 318 food webs spanning marine, freshwater & soil ecosystems worldwide & found that ecosystem functioning increases consistently with biodiversity across multiple trophic levels. 🌐🧪🕷️🦠🍄🌿 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Food web complexity underlies biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning - Nature
Analyses of the relationship between taxon richness and multi-trophic ecosystem functioning across marine, lake, stream and soil ecosystems show that food web complexity underlies biodiversity effects...
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Dr Katrina Siddiqi-Davies @katrina-siddiqi.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Excited to publish the last paper from my PhD which explores how light can constrain chick provisioning behaviour in Manx shearwaters Thanks so much to all my co-authors and to everyone who helped support this manuscript! #seabird #science #research royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article...
royalsocietypublishing.org
Day length may impose an ecological constraint on chick provisioning behaviour in a high-latitude seabird
Abstract. Variation in daylight hours may shape light-dependent behaviours both across seasons and among latitudinally distinct breeding colonies. We inves
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Sarah Dalrymple @sarahdalgulls.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
there's more Hen Harriers breeding in the Orkney Islands than the whole of England
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All Our Yesterdays @allouryesterdays.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
August 9, 1955 – Canadian physicist Gilbert Plass submits his paper allouryesterdays.info/2024/08/08/a...
Screen grab of Plass "Carbon Dioxide Theory of Climatic Change"
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Liam U. Taylor @liamtaylor.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
who built the AviList (www.avilist.org) taxonomy explorer? It's very good.
avilist.org
Home
AviList is a collaborative global effort to produce a single current consensus taxonomy for the birds of the world, along with key information on taxonomy and nomenclature. The checklist is free for d...
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Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Next year is the centenary of the publication of Elton's Animal Ecology - excellent idea for a Special Issue of @animalecology.bsky.social animalecologyinfocus.com/2026/06/30/2...
animalecologyinfocus.com
Celebrating 100 years since the publication of Charles Elton’s Animal Ecology
Reflections from our Executive Editor, Dr Nate Sanders Image of Charles Elton. Credit: Wikimedia Commons Nearly 100 years ago, a 27-year-old Charles Elton published Animal Ecology, a foundational b…
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Claire Tsui @clairetsui.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
I did a thing :D First chapter of my PhD out now! 🌱 (first paper ever 🥳) Traits are historically hypothesized to age synchronously, but it is no longer the case. We quantified asynchronous ageing in Seychelles warblers and reviewed potential reasons for why this may be.
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Jason Matthiopoulos @jasonmatth.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Just out! Spatial epidemiology of Avian flu in seabird populations. #HPAI, #Bayesian, #Conservation, #Panzootic, #Gannets, @jwejeglinski.bsky.social @heyjoode.bsky.social , @sbohvm.gla.ac.uk @rspb.bsky.social @au.dk @heriotwattuni.bsky.social besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Between‐species contagion drives HPAI transmission and mass mortality in seabirds
Modelling the unprecedented avian panzootic caused by High-Pathogenicity Avian Influenza (HPAI) across the Northeast Atlantic gannet breeding metapopulation, we estimated 28% (95% CI: 21%–34%) HPAI-r...
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Seabird Ecology Lab @seabirdecology.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
🌊 Big news from Macaronesia! We successfully equipped 18 Manx Shearwaters with GPS/GSM transmitters on La Palma. Early tracking is already revealing new breeding areas, key foraging hotspots and potential marine KBAs. 👇
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Rob Thomas @robthomasbirds.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Very sorry to hear this news - we need more people in the world like Bill Montevecchi.
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Keith C Hamer @keithchamer.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
I couldn’t agree more
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Christopher Pollock @tonyauk.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
New paper! We simulated foraging trips of Northern gannets at Bass Rock to decipher what information individuals use to keep returning to the same foraging patches. Memory was the strongest driver, but it wasn't the whole story. 🧵👇 doi.org/10.1186/s404... 1/5
Figure showing Northern gannet foraging tracks, movement states, and prey distribution. (A) Map of GPS-tracked foraging trips from Bass Rock (black triangle) overlaid in grey, with representative tracks from three individuals highlighted (orange, green, and purple). Semi-transparent polygons indicate each individual's core foraging utilisation distributions, illustrating differences in individual foraging site fidelity and overlap (overlap values shown in the legend). (B) Example foraging trip classified into behavioural states: outbound travel (yellow), foraging (red), inbound travel (blue), and resting (light blue), with arrows indicating travel direction. (C) Enlarged view of a foraging segment showing tortuous movement characteristic of area-restricted search. (D) Spatial map of simulated prey density, with darker purple indicating higher prey availability.
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Andy Lee, PhD @andylee.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
In our Viewpoint (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...) we synthesize the gametic definition (outlined by Janicke et al below) and other definitions of sex (e.g., multivariate definition). We contend that is NO consensus on “biological sex” (maybe a consensus isn’t actually necessary…)
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
There is No Consensus on Biological Sex
At this critical moment when misinformation about sex is being applied to policy globally, scientific clarification on the definition of biological sex is valuable. Here, we evaluate the primary appr...
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Royal Society Publishing @royalsocietypublishing.org · 22/06/2026
New research from #ProcB: Energetic flexibility as a hidden axis of life-history trade-offs: experimental evidence from a long-lived seabird doi.org/10.1098/rspb... | #Ecology
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Jude Lane @heyjooode.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
This study was made possible by long-term monitoring. These long-term datasets are vital for understanding how events like an HPAI outbreak affect seabird populations - not just immediately, but over decades. 🐦📈📉 #avianflu #seabirds
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Holly English @hollyenglish.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Such a cool paper. I wonder what other natural history observations are hiding in historical artworks? 🌍🦇
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Julia Rothacher @juliarothacher.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Fresh off the press @animalecology.bsky.social 📃 Compared to many other taxa #spiders do not profit from forest heterogenization, as gap cutting reduces important habitat in the canopy! 🍁🌳🕸🕷 ➡️ doi.org/10.1111/1365... @ecoresearchzoo3.bsky.social @cofeuniwue.bsky.social @betafor.bsky.social
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Joanna Masel @joannamasel.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Our new paper doi.org/10.1098/rspb... on long-term genetic threats to small populations finds that "mutational meltdown" (bad mutations fixing) is less of a problem than "mutational drought" (too few good new mutations) @wmawass.bsky.social @uliseshmc.bsky.social @jeremyjberg.bsky.social 1/5
doi.org
Extinction vortices are driven more by a shortage of beneficial mutations than by deleterious mutation accumulation
Abstract. Habitat loss contributes to extinction risk in multiple ways. Genetically, small populations can face an ‘extinction vortex’—a positive feedback
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Scottish Wildlife Trust @scotwildlife.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
This greater black backed gull was spotted on our Handa Island Wildlife Reserve, regurgitating a whole guillemot egg! 🥚 Huge thanks to our volunteer, Manisha Parmar, for capturing the video. #Wildlife #BirdingScotland
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Admirable Women @admirablewomen.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717) was a pioneering naturalist, entomologist & scientific illustrator whose meticulous artwork & observations: 🦋 Revolutionized the study of insects 🐜 Laid early groundwork for #ecology 🐞 Permanently changed how we understand insect life It's #InsectWeek #WomenInSTEM
A side-by-side image of the German-Dutch naturalist Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717), celebrated for her groundbreaking contributions to entomology and ecology. On the left, a formal historical oil portrait depicts Merian as a young woman from the chest up against a dark, minimalist backdrop. Facing forward with a slight turn to the right, she maintains a calm, serious expression. She wears a black dress accented by a wide, sheer white lace collar draped over her shoulders, a dark jeweled brooch, a double-strand pearl necklace, and large teardrop pearl earrings. Her brown curly hair is partially covered by a black fabric head cap. On the right is a vibrant book cover titled "Maria Sibylla Merian's Metamorphosis." The cream-colored cover features her detailed scientific illustrations, including a large blue and brown butterfly, a yellow butterfly, a lizard, caterpillars, a large blue passionflower, and assorted foliage, showcasing her legacy of documenting insect life cycles and host plants.
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Raptor Persecution UK @raptorpersuk.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
149 Hen Harriers confirmed 'missing' or illegally killed in UK since 2018 - most of them on or close to grouse moors. New blog ⬇️ #RaptorResearch #WildlifeCrime 🌍 raptorpersecutionuk.org/2026/06/24/1...
raptorpersecutionuk.org
149 Hen Harriers confirmed ‘missing’ or illegally killed in UK since 2018, most of them on or close to grouse moors
For anyone who still wants to pretend that the grouse shooting industry isn’t responsible for the systematic extermination of Hen Harriers on grouse moors across the UK, here’s the latest catalogue…
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Jason Newton @jasonisotopes.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
(1/3) UK-based ecologists interested in #stableisotopeecology applications to the @isotopesuk.bsky.social — now is a good time to start shaping your ideas. Next application deadline: 7 October 2026. More info: www.isotopesuk.org/apply.html (Panel B)
Linnet in sunflower field
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Journal of Animal Ecology @animalecology.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
25 years, 4 colonies across the Arctic: satellite snowmelt data & nest monitoring show that earlier snowmelt advances hatching in little auks — but fitness consequences are mixed. Will earlier breeding help in future? 📝 paper: buff.ly/G49YbQW 🎙️ podcast: buff.ly/LPMOT9w 🧊 blog: buff.ly/lMPDKkD
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Paul Dolman @pauldolman.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Illegal persecution of White-tailed Eagles at this intensity in grouse moors will at least greatly slow, and could jeopardise establishing a wild population in England. Which seems the keepers’ aim. Licensing with landowner culpability is overdue. #ornithology #WTE
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Shikhara Bhat @shikharabhat.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Really excited to share that one part of my PhD research is now publicly accessible on preprint servers! Here is a thread explaining our (@kokkonut.bsky.social and I) work on ageing and stochastic damage/failure accumulation, available as a preprint at www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
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Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
A long account in @lrb.co.uk by Stefan Collini of the causes of what feels like a death spiral for UK Universities. Recent estimates are that UK HE contributes >£130Bn annually to the UK economy, resulting in >750 000 jobs across all regions of the UK lordslibrary.parliament.uk/higher-educa...
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Jude Lane @heyjooode.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Our new research shows that HPAI increased Northern Gannet mortality by a factor of ~6 and ~4 at two of the world’s largest colonies. We predict this impact will take almost two decades to recover from. #biologicalconservation #seabirds #hpai Full paper: doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2026.111887
Adult gannet (left) with colour ring on it's leg left inscribed with a unique code, and it's fully grown chick (right)
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Steve Portugal @sjportugal.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Congrats first author Caroline Brighton; our new paper is out in @royalsocietypublishing.org Interface. All about bird collisions with anthropogenic objects. You can read it here: royalsocietypublishing.org/rsif/article...
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Benjamin Dupuis @bendps.org · 07/05/2026
If you missed our latest paper in @animalecology.bsky.social, we just published a blog post in @birdlifemarine.bsky.social to summarize its main findings! 🐧
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Bertille Mohring @bertillemohring.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
📃New paper in Ecology letters 🐦 I’m delighted to share the publication of the first paper from my #postdoc with @samanthacpatrick.bsky.social looking at life-history trade-offs and #senescence in black-browed #albatrosses from Kerguelen and Bird Island doi.org/10.1111/ele.70384
doi.org
Environmental Variability Shapes Life‐History Trade‐Offs Within and Between Populations of a Long‐Lived Seabird
Life-history theory predicts a trade-off between allocation of resources to reproduction or self-maintenance, yet how environmental variability shapes this trade-off remains poorly understood. We sho...
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Yorkshire Wildlife Trust @yorkswildlife.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
🦋 When nature loses diversity, we all lose. Some butterflies are coping better than others, but our State of Yorkshire’s Nature evidence is clear: rare and specialist species are most at risk. Protecting diverse habitats is the key to a nature‑rich Yorkshire. www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c75kk7p41npo
bbc.co.uk
Butterfly numbers are dropping but here are five species you may see more of
A warming climate has helped some to flourish, researchers say, but the outlook is troubling.
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Dugdale Research Group @hannahdugdale.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Congratulations @euantheyoung.bsky.social for winning the NLSEB Prize 2025 @nlseb.bsky.social for the paper that you can find a thread about 👇
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Anne Ausems (she/her) @anneausems.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
‼️🚨New Paper Alert! 🚨‼️ Using a decades-long dataset on puffins in the Faroe Islands, we show a change in population age structure and relate the increase in older birds/decrease in cohort sizes to (pre-)hatch year food availability. doi.org/10.1002/wlb3... @kasiawojczulanis.bsky.social
doi.org
Variation in food availability affects the population age structure of Atlantic puffins Fratercula arctica in the Faroe Islands
Across their entire Atlantic breeding range, Atlantic puffins Fratercula arctica have experienced decreases in food availability, often leading to population declines. The species is one of the most ....
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Graham Appleton @wadertales.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
It was wonderful to be involved in the work of the BOU for nine years. If you have ever thought of volunteering to be on a BOU committee or to act as an Associate Editor, go for it! Lovely people, working together for #ornithology and ornithologists.
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Keith C Hamer @keithchamer.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Well said @jengill.bsky.social and many congratulations @wadertales.bsky.social. Excellent news and very richly deserved
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Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Interesting paper on the cumulative effects of climate change on multiple demographic parameters in Superb Fairy-wrens. I can't remember a paper using 'presage' in the title, but I heartily approve www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Many small climate change impacts presage rapid population extinction in a common iconic bird - Nature Communications
Widespread declines in common species raise concerns, but links to extinction risk and climate change remain unclear. Here, the authors show that many small climate change effects can accumulate to dr...
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Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
This is pretty cool - selecting on generation time to get independent estimates of two processes underpinning mutation rates
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Manuela Rodrigues @manuelasrodrigues.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
New paper in IBIS: We used GPS-ACC tags to explore the unknown post-fledging phase of Eurasian Spoonbills born in Portuguese wetlands. Should they stay in their lovely natal wetland, or leave to explore new areas? 🇵🇹🧭🐥 doi.org/10.1111/ibi.... @rochafonso.bsky.social @joseaalves.bsky.social
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World Seabird Union @worldseabirdunion.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
Researchers from the University of York and Liverpool are pioneering miniature, state-of-the-art sensors to unravel how seabirds, such as the Manx shearwater, navigate remarkable distances. This research may lead to innovative navigation systems independent of satellites. bit.ly/4sA2ZAm
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Jack Hatfield @jackhhatfield.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
What is resilience for a landscape? Check out our (with Charles Cunningham, @hannalp.bsky.social, Lauren Barnes, Chris Thomas and @janehillyork.bsky.social ) new paper now out in @peopleandnature.bsky.social Early View @anthropocenebio.bsky.social doi.org/10.1002/pan3...
doi.org
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Morten Frederiksen @seabirdmortenf.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
Thrilled to be part of this! Excellent work by @tashgillies.bsky.social and many others
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