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Kirsty MacLeod

@kjmacleod.bsky.social
2.9K followers 2.9K following 236 posts

Behavioural and evolutionary ecologist, lecturer in Bangor 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 - sociality, life history, stress, thermal ecology, mostly in reptiles macleodlab.weebly.com

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Reposted by Kirsty MacLeod
David Berger @dbergerbiol.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
PhD-position ALERT! Interested in the genomics of local adaptation and the evolution of niche breadth? 🪲🧬🪲🧬🪲🧬🪲🧬🪲🧬 Come join me and @gmkov.bsky.social at @animecol-uu.bsky.social, Uppsala University, by applying here: uu.varbi.com/en/what:job/... Deadline 1st of November!
uu.varbi.com
PhD-student in Evolutionary and Ecological Genetics
Do you want to conduct frontier research in an outstanding environment within evolutionary biology at Sweden’s largest faculty of science and technology? The Department of Ecology and Genetics at Up
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Lindsey Swierk @lindseyswierk.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
🦎*Please share!*🦎 Review begins Oct 5. The Swierk Lab is recruiting 1-2 PhD students for Fall 27 / Spr 28 to study Neotropical anole 1) body coloration and visual signals or 2) predator avoidance, diving, and respiration. Please contact only by email. Details here: drive.google.com/file/d/1TGmC...
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Jeremy Van Cleve @vancleve.theoretical.bio · 29/09/2026
My group is recruiting a Ph.D student for Fall 2027! We're a friendly group of mathematically-minded and computationally-inspired biologists studying topics including social evolution, host-pathogen interactions, genetics, and demography. See vancleve.theoretical.bio for more info!
vancleve.theoretical.bio
van cleve research group
Van Cleve Research Group – theoretical evolution & ecology at the University of Kentucky
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Behaviour, Ecology & Physiology at Bangor University @beps-bangor.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Two BEPs keynotes at WEEN this year! @alexvgeorgiev.bsky.social @svenjatidau.bsky.social 👏
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Society for the Study of Evolution @sse-evolution.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Applications are now open for the International Travel Stipends to attend the 2027 Evolution meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico! Funds cover registration, travel, meals, and lodging. Submit your application by November 1st! www.evolutionsociety.org/content/soci... @evolmtg.bsky.social
The San Juan coastline. Text: Evolution 2027, San Juan, Puerto Rico, June 25-29. Society for the Study of Evolution International Travel Stipends, Deadline: November 1.
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Dana Goldstein @danagoldstein.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Most American students are already using A.I. to generate writing. I took a step back to ask: What does cognitive science tell us about what writing *does* for us? Is there a way to teach and learn alongside this technology without degrading skills? www.nytimes.com/2026/08/17/u...
nytimes.com
What Do Students Lose When They Stop Writing? (Gift Article)
Educators are worried that many students can no longer write essays without A.I. And it’s costing more than just grammar skills.
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Journal of Experimental Biology @jexpbiol.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
. @biologists.bsky.social is offering 20 funded places for ECRs from the Global South to attend the Integrative Ecological Neurobiology in Changing Environments Workshop in Argentina, 1-5 August 2027 Application deadline: 6 Nov 2026 Don't miss out! 🔁 www.biologists.com/workshops/au...
Workshop
Integrative Ecological Neurobiology in Changing Environments
Organisers: Martin Berón de Astrada, Sebastián Eduardo Sabatini, Martín Tresguerres, Maria Soledad Yusseppone
Early-career reserachers apply for funded places
1-5 August 2027
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Dr Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
New paper in @bou.org.uk's Ibis: there is still no comprehensive database of bird type specimens. Many major collections have no published type catalogue at all. Where they exist, they're often print-only, partial, or decades out of date. 🧵
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Brian J. Enquist @bjenquist.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Please pass along: I’m recruiting PhD students to join our Macroecology Lab. We study physical ecology, macroecology, and biodiversity — spanning scaling, trait-based ecology, theory, comparative biology & ecoinformatics. Several avenues for funding. Please reach out if interested 🧪🌐🌾
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SEBiology @sebiology.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
⏰ Final days to submit your session proposal for #SEBconference Glasgow 2027! The deadline is THIS WEEK: 1 October. Don't miss your chance to shape the scientific programme! Submit now: www.sebiology.org/resource/fin... Please share widely
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Jente Ottenburghs | Avian Hybrids @jenteo.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
✍ New blog post! How to Have More Fun in Academia jenteottenburghs.wordpress.com/2026/09/28/h... A few lessons for enjoying academic life. (1) Find your fun-factor (2) Collaborate with nice people (3) Find joy in the small things (4) Don't take yourself too seriously
jenteottenburghs.wordpress.com
How to Have More Fun in Academia
Four lessons for enjoying academic life
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Robin Hayward 🌳 🏳️‍⚧️ @canopyrobin.com · 25/09/2026
We're publishing new guidance to support trans people who do fieldwork (any work outside the office)! Now we need your help to get them seen so please share! inclusivefieldwork.leeds.ac.uk/trans/
a cartoon of three fieldworkers. One has a small trans flag. The logos of the university of leeds, research england, and canopy robin are shown, as well as the URL: InclusiveFieldwork (dot) Leeds (dot) AC (dot) UK (slash) trans
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beetle moses @beetlemoses.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Three panel comic. Panel 1: a horseshoe crab watches as a variety of prehistoric creatures swim towards an ethereal light. An ammonite calls back to the crab, “come on, horseshoe crab! We’re all evolving!” Panel 2: the horseshoe crab stays in position and replies, “nahh that’s crazy” Panel 3: the horseshoe crab is superimposed in front of a future premonition: a rather miserable-looking human slouched in the glow of a desktop computer. The horshoe crab swims away and says, “good luck tho”
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Wolfgang Wüster @wolfgangwuster.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
theconversation.com/a-new-venomo... In response to some overblown press reports on venom in the #smoothsnake, here’s a summary of the evidence. Most importantly, the smooth snake is entirely harmless to humans. Venomous ≠ dangerous! 🐍 #herps #herpetology #venom
theconversation.com
A new venomous British snake? Why there’s no need to panic
Why the smooth snake is in far more need of protection than humans.
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Kirsty MacLeod @kjmacleod.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Congratulations @juliajones.bsky.social!
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primatesocietygb.bsky.social @primatesocietygb.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
The Wales Ecology & Evolution Network is advertising its annual WEEN conference, featuring PSGB's own @alexvgeorgiev.bsky.social as a Keynote speaker! Don't miss your chance to register!
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Kirsty MacLeod @kjmacleod.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Trying to decide what materials get the best results for intaglio printing on the cheap… as a scientist this obviously requires an experiment! #sciart #printmaking
Printmaking equipment on a cutting mat - small identical plates cut from different types of tetrapak on different quality papers
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Nicolas Bekka @nicolasbekka.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
New paper out in @animalecology.bsky.social ! 🔥🕺💃🔥 Across 6 European cities, great tits breeding in more impervious territories had paler carotenoid-based yellow plumage! 🐦‍⬛🏙️ doi.org/10.1111/1365... Huge thanks to all co-authors and everyone involved in long-term monitoring who made this possible!
Adult great tit held in the hand during field monitoring, with its yellow breast plumage clearly visible. A small pink field label is attached beside the bird.Three-panel figure showing the relationship between great tit carotenoid chroma and impervious surface cover. Panel A shows individual observations from six European cities with a negative fitted trend. Panel B shows 1,000 bootstrap fits, nearly all with negative slopes. Panel C shows leave-one-city-out estimates, with the relationship remaining negative regardless of which city is removed.
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ASAB @asab.org · 24/09/2026
One week left until a lot of important deadlines ⌛️
OCT 1 2026 Deadlines

-Winter Meeting Attendance, Accessibility and Childcare Grants 
-Research Grants
-Interdisciplinary Workshop Grants 
-Undergraduate Research Grants*
-Education Grants*
-Public Engagement Grants*
-EDIA Award Nominations 

*Multiple rounds per year
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Kirsty MacLeod @kjmacleod.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
…. wow
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Hanna Kokko @kokkonut.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
There is still time to apply! I'll start reading the applications this Friday.
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Natalie Cooper @nhcooper123.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Our update to the BES Data Management Guide is now live! assets.britishecologicalsociety.org/2026/09/2110... Huge thanks to the incredibly talented ECRs who contributed sections. It's an excellent resource that I've already used with my PhD students. ❤️
Cover image of the Data Management guide. Blue cover with a puffin on it! Also features the BES logo, Better Science Guides and our mission Through science we can.
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Dr. Kathleen M. Munley @thefishiedoc.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I am recruiting 1-2 graduate students (M.S. or Ph.D. track) to join my lab at @psychualberta.bsky.social in Fall 2027! Please share widely, and if you are interested in endocrinology, animal behavior, neuroscience, and/or seasonal biology, I would love to chat! 🐟🧠🧬🍂
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Kirsty MacLeod @kjmacleod.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Life uhhh finds a way meme dusting itself off yet again ✌️
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heerens.bsky.social @heerens.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
👀📄 Happy to share a major effort, by +50 (early) career scientists, arguing that todays academia is holding back scientific creativity and the development/pursuit of high risk and bold ideas! Those particularly burdend? Early-career researchers!
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Ammon Perkes @alltheperkes.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
🐟🚨 Fish paper alert! 🚨🐟 You might already know that individuals are unique, even when they’re genetically identical clones raised in identical environments. But what about groups? Groups of clones are distinct from birth, but (unlike individuals) those differences do not predict later behavior!
authors.elsevier.com
Group-level phenotypes are idiosyncratic yet unpredictable over development in a clonal fish
Behavioral differences among groups can have profound impacts on individual fitness,1 yet how group-level phenotypes arise and change during developme…
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Jeremy Yoder says no war @jbyoder.org · 20/09/2026
Okay this jogged loose something I've had half-written for a while now: Despite decades of effort, scientists have still not found a substitute for reading the paper denimandtweed.jbyoder.org/2026/09/desp...
denimandtweed.jbyoder.org
Despite decades of effort, scientists have still not found a substitute for reading the paper
Science is difficult, but not for the reason you think. It’s not that conceiving a research program is difficult. It’s not that planning and performing an experiment or observational st…
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Markus Eichhorn @markuseichhorn.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
The other brutal constraint on ECRs is time. If you don't land a post-doctoral fellowship on the first cycle then your chances of still being in the pool for the next call drop considerably.
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Kirsty MacLeod @kjmacleod.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
😵‍💫
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Journal of Animal Ecology @animalecology.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
🚨 we're recruiting another Senior Editor! 📝 find out more about the role and responsibilities here: buff.ly/3FBD8s3 ⏳️ the deadline for applications is 15 October 2026 📩 get in touch if you have any questions - admin@journalofanimalecology.org
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Stephen Montgomery @ebablab.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Are you a #NewPI in Ecology & Evolution? Would you like to meet with peers to chat about work, the future and life as a new PI? 🍪☕️ Then I have the form for you! 📋 Help us gauge interest in a new network/event by filling in this short survey: forms.cloud.microsoft/e/K4wUiuLuFn Please RT! 🙏
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Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
The pet trade puts reptiles and amphibians at risk: close legal gaps now
Patchy legislation means that animals are routinely taken from their natural habitats and sold in other countries. Fresh national and international measures could help to stop this exploitation.
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Frontiers in Social Evolution Seminar FINE @fine-seminar.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Tomorrow, the next FINE season starts!
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Erin Siracusa @erinsiracusa.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Why do some animals have many social partners while others invest in a few strong relationships? Our new @royalsocietypublishing.org paper suggests the answer may be: it depends on the weather ☀️🌧️ 🐑 tinyurl.com/mry3mtpf
Soay sheep grazing on the island of Hirta, St Kilda, with dramatic misty cliffs and rough seas in the background
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✰ @erikforrestjackson.com · 12/09/2026
Men will give AI more rights than women rather than go to therapy
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Maria Akopyan, PhD @akopyan.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
📣 I'm recruiting PhD students to join the Akopyan Lab at Rice University! If you're passionate about evolutionary genomics, I'd love to hear from you. Details: akopyanlab.org/opportunities Please share widely! 🙏
akopyanlab.org
Opportunities
We are recruiting PhD students in Evolutionary Genomics for Fall 2027 at Rice University!  Projects in the lab include investigating the causes and consequences of recombination rate variation, the...
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Richard Merrill @dickmerrill.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Very excited to see this multi-faceted* study, led by Shane Wright and representing years of work on visual evolution and perception in Heliconius as part of our ERC Starting Grant, released into the world! 🦋*pun very much intended www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
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Ailie McWhinnie @ailiemcwhinnie.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
🎶 Hey scientists, don't make it bad, take a sad title, and make it better 🎶 You could Come Together with 3200 others making use of Beatles song titles and lyrics to liven up their papers Check out my story from Yesterday on the phenomenon @science.org www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
Need Help! writing a paper title? All you need is the Beatles
At least 3200 scientific publications refer to the Fab Four’s music—by far the most of any top-selling artist
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Dan Baldassarre @evornithology.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Real 1s know
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Andreas Nord @cyanistesnord.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Interested in animals and temperature? 🗻🏜🐦🦭 Join the Third Lund Thermal Biology Symposium 27-29 Oct. Talks range social sciences and medicine to evolutionary biology and physiology. Workshop in conservation physiology on 30 Oct. All free. Travel grants. Register 👇 www.biology.lu.se/lundthermal2026
biology.lu.se
Animal health, reproduction and survival in the age of humans 27–29 October 2026
Lund University.
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Ellen O. Martinson @waspvenom.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
The Martinson lab is looking for new PhD students! We have so much cool data and need help making sense of it all! If interested please contact me!
Flyer for position in Plant Genome Manipulation by Insects "We are looking for new members of our team to work on the molecular mechanisms behind gall induction. A gall is an abnormal growth on a plant that is induced by another organism (i.e., bacteria, fungi, mites, insects). Insect-induced galls are the most complex type, creating structures and pigments not seen in the normal development of the host plant. The insect evades host defenses and co-opts control of plant development redirecting resources away from the plant to create a structure comprised of multiple tissues that both provide nutrition to the insect’s offspring as well as protects them from harm. While some progress has been made in individual systems, we still do not understand how any insect induces a gall to form or whether the mechanisms behind this complex manipulation are conserved across galling species. The Martinson lab works in three independent galling systems to try to understand molecular toolkit used to hijack plant development is shared across distantly related gall-inducing insects or whether each lineage has evolved its own unique suite of effectors and signaling strategies. " If interested email emartinson@unm.edu.
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Ira Zibbu @coolscootre.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
www.nature.com/articles/s41... fork found in kitchen
nature.com
How contemporary academic structures constrain scientific creativity and hold back early-career researchers - Nature Human Behaviour
In this Perspective, Haubrock et al. argue that today’s scientific structures constrain creativity and that strategic conformity is a rational response. They discuss how this holds back early-career researchers from reaching their full potential as scientists.
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Christos C. Ioannou @ccioannou.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Just as the summer conference season ends, time to get your www.asab.org/conference-g... in for Winter 2026! ***DEADLINE 1ST OCTOBER*** asabpsgbwinter.github.io//2026/ @asab.org @asabpsgb2026.bsky.social Don't forget childcare grants and accessibility grants too: open to all career stages!
A Hanuman langur holding a baby.
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Dr Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Monday!!
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Kirsty MacLeod @kjmacleod.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Fantastic places to work and live!
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Kathleen Kay @kathleenmkay.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
This is an amazing book and a great way to introduce undergrads to stats and R
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Daniel Bolnick @danielbolnick.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Men are more likely to accept invitations to review a paper in Ecology and Evolution when the *editor* inviting them is male. Women’s response rate is unaffected onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
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ASAB @asab.org · 04/09/2026
Had a great time at #ECBB2026? Don’t worry, there are more conferences coming! There’s #ASABWinter2026 (@asabpsgb2026.bsky.social, full but can still join online), #ASABSpring2027 (@asab-meetings.bsky.social) in Portsmouth & #Behaviour2027 (@behaviour2027.bsky.social) in Vienna Make sure to follow!
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Kirsty MacLeod @kjmacleod.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
I didn’t make it to #ECBB26 in the end but my excellent Masters student Keya Matthew is there with her poster! She’s looking at links between genetic ancestry and inbreeding in an invasive lizard population & thermoreg behaviour/performance 🦎🧬 Say hi if you see her!
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Daniel Bolnick @danielbolnick.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
I would be thrilled to support someone interested in applying to a NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology (www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...), reach out if interested. The RFP is focused on AI, & we have some datasets & projects suited to this studying evolution of multilayer biological networks
nsf.gov
Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in Biology (PRFB)
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