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Eric Wood

@laecology.bsky.social
1.5K followers 872 following 31 posts

Ecologist and associate professor at Cal State Los Angeles. AE ProcB. Lab themes: avian & applied ecology, urban ecosystems, urbanism, bird migration, natural history & conservation www.ericmwood.org

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Eric Wood @laecology.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
We have a new paper led by Natasha Khanna-Dang on bird foraging activity in California walnut woodlands across Los Angeles County. The punchline: more native plant diversity = more foraging birds in urban green spaces. doi.org/10.3160/0038... #UrbanEcology #Ornithology #ConservationBiology
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Eric Wood @laecology.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
*New paper in Biological Invasions* Invasive giant reed is hammering riparian birds in Big Bend NP. Butterflies are more buffered by the native vegetation mosaic. Ongoing Arundo control in the park should benefit both taxa as native vegetation recovers. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com
Invasive giant reed shifts riparian habitat mosaics, with stronger effects on birds than butterflies across spatial scales - Biological Invasions
Giant reed (Arundo donax) has invaded biologically diverse riparian ecosystems in warm and arid regions globally, yet its impacts on wildlife are still poorly understood. Resolving the multi-taxa, sca...
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Eric Wood @laecology.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
New paper from my lab! "Native-plant landscaping enhances floral visitation by insects and birds in residential yards," led by Esmeralda Reyes & Noriko Smallwood. If you add some native plants, your yard can be a pollinator powerhouse. See below for details. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
A monarch (Danaus plexippus) on a Narrow Leaf Milkweed (Asclepias fascicularis) in a native landscaped yard in LA (photo credit: Eric Wood)Map of Greater Los Angeles showing 31 residential yard sampling sites. Neighborhoods are shaded by median household income (low, middle, high thirds). Black stars mark paired native and conventional yards; blue triangles mark additional native yards in lower-income areas. An inset shows the study region within California. Two photos below show a representative native-landscaped yard (dense, diverse plantings) and a conventional yard (manicured lawn and ornamentals).
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Eric Wood @laecology.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
If you're in Urbana or Chicago, I will be giving a seminar next week at UIUC. I'll be talking about our work in LA, focused on historical ecology, redlining, and our current urban ecology research. Super psyched to see friends and connect with new colleagues. calendars.illinois.edu/detail/7076/...
calendars.illinois.edu
NRES SEMINAR | Urban history as ecological force: Redlining, legacy effects, & change in urban bird communities
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Richard D. Gregory @richgreg3.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
Rapid butterfly declines across the United States during the 21st century | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Rapid butterfly declines across the United States during the 21st century
Numerous declines have been documented across insect groups, and the potential consequences of insect losses are dire. Butterflies are the most surveyed insect taxa, yet analyses have been limited in ...
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iBartomeus @ibartomeus.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
[new paper] You probably suspected that loss of pollinator diversity consistently reduces reproductive success for wild and cultivated plants, but here we quantify it: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Loss of pollinator diversity consistently reduces reproductive success for wild and cultivated plants
Nature Ecology & Evolution - A meta-analysis finds that decreasing diversity of pollinator species has a negative affect on multiple measures of plant reproductive success, with wild plant...
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Eric Wood @laecology.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
For you SoCal people, if you have not seen this episode of 'Nature' (San Diego - America's Wildest City), you need to. My Ecosystems of California class will be watching it today discussing the awesome ecology, and identifying the plants, & wildlife featured. www.pbs.org/video/san-di...
pbs.org
Nature | San Diego: America’s Wildest City | Season 43 | Episode 3
Experience San Diego, where dazzling biodiversity thrives amidst a transformed urban landscape.
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Kristina Anderson-Teixeira @k-andersonteixeira.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
**FORESTGEO STAFF SCIENTIST POSITION!** We are hiring a Research Ecologist to focus on Central and South American Forest Dynamics, to be based at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Smithsonian staff scientist positions are excellent, as is the ForestGEO team! Come be our colleague!
forestgeo.si.edu
ForestGEO Staff Scientist - Research Ecologist, South & Central American Tropical Forests
The Forest Global Earth Observatory (ForestGEO) is a global network of forest research plots and scientists dedicated to the study of forest function and diversity.
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Andrew Hipp @andrewlhipp.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
I'll be giving a free webinar Thurs, Dec 5, 7 p.m. Central time for the Minnesota Native Plant Society on the topics of #oak reproduction, #species, #hybrids, & #phylogeny / #treeOfLife, from my new book (press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...). Join us, and pls share! us06web.zoom.us/j/6977108818...
Title page from Oak Origins: From Acorns to Species and the Tree of Life, by Andrew L Hipp, illustrated by Rachel D Davis, with forward by Béatrice Chassé. 

Title page features a Hill's oak leaf (Quercus ellipsoidalis) illustrated in pen and ink with watercolor wash by Rachel Davis.

https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/O/bo236998258.html
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Carly Ziter @carlyziter.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
A few years ago, postdoc Gail MacInnis led this great project showing that urban beekeeping doesn't help "save the bees" (and can do more harm than good). peerj.com/articles/146...
peerj.com
Decline in wild bee species richness associated with honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) abundance in an urban ecosystem
The spatial heterogeneity of urban landscapes, relatively low agrochemical use, and species-rich floral communities often support a surprising diversity of wild pollinators in cities. However, the man...
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Eric Wood @laecology.bsky.social · 24/11/2024
@ndevere.bsky.social Hi - we do a bunch of urban pollinator work. Would be happy to network with you and others in the starter pack.
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Eric Wood @laecology.bsky.social · 23/11/2024
As usual, students in my lab have been busy with many projects. One that has taken off recently is our NSF-funded urban food webs project, which generally explores relationships between native/nonnative oaks, insects, and birds right on our LA campus. A fun project with long-term data potential!
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Eric Wood @laecology.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
A flower that mimics aerial leaf litter (e.g., dead leaves trapped in vines, branches etc) tricks an aerial leaf litter specialist beetle into pollinating it. Super crazy and cool pollination syndrome.
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Taal Levi @taaltree.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
The Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University, affiliated with our Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences Department, is hiring an Assistant / Associate Prof. Join us! jobs.oregonstate.edu/postings/161...
jobs.oregonstate.edu
Assistant/Associate Professor: Marine Mammal Biologist
The Marine Mammal Institute invites applications for a part-time (0.75 FTE), 12-month, tenure-track Assistant/Associate Professor position. This position is located in Newport, Oregon.Appointment at t...
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Daniel Swain @weatherwest.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Remarkable view of #BombCyclone west of Oregon & Washington and associated #AtmosphericRiver west of California this PM. Fortunately, the strongest winds will remain well offshore, but very heavy rainfall is likely across portions of northern CA into weekend. #CAwx #ORwx #WAwx
Snapshot from GOES satellite of bomb cyclone and atmospheric river over northeastern Pacific today.
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👑 Nullen, Biscuit Overlord. @nullen80.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Cat "What have you done?"
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Eric Wood @laecology.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
Birding is the best.
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Mason Fidino, PhD @masonfidino.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
If you are interested in #rstats, hierarchical modeling in ecology, and in particular occupancy models, then check out my blog! The one post that gets the most traffic is this one here on how to combine presence-only and detection/non-detection data. 🧪 masonfidino.com/bayesian_int...
masonfidino.com
A gentle introduction to an integrated occupancy model that combines presence-only and detection/non-detection data, and how to fit it in `JAGS`
Species distribution models (SDMs) are useful tools in ecology and conservation biology. As the name implies, SDMs are used to estimate species presence or abundance across geographic space and throug...
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Eric Wood @laecology.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
People are suggesting Bluesky is just an echo chamber. Possibly. But there needs to be a place to network with friends and colleagues and learn about amazing science and ways to improve our planet. That used to be the other site - and it was amazing. That is long gone and now this is where it's at.
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Flavia Montano-Centellas @flamontano.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
🚨Looking for two PhD students to join our lab in Fall' 25🚨 If you know someone that loves/works with Neotropical birds and/or species interactions, and is looking for a PhD please share this with them! (application deadline is January 3rd). More info here --> montanolab.com/join-us/
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Eric Wood @laecology.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
A really interesting critique of the ‘luxury effect’ in urban ecology studies and a discussion on an alternative framework to understand variability in biodiversity within cities.
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Eric Wood @laecology.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Bluesky and fellow #urbanists - I am an ecologist at Cal State Los Angeles. My research is focusing more and more on urbanist issues, e.g., walkability, urban design, etc., and the intersection between benefits for people and biodiversity. I'd love to connect with others thinking of similar things.
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Bluesky @bsky.app · 15/11/2024
💡 Tip: You can set your website as your username on Bluesky! This is one form of self-verification, and we especially encourage official organizations and brands to do this! Examples include @npr.org @react.dev @duolingobrasil.com.br. Here's our guide for how to do this:
bsky.social
How to set your domain as your handle - Bluesky
Using a domain as your handle helps with account identity, verification, and portability. Here's how to set your domain as your handle.
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Cargo Bike NELA @vmsev.bsky.social · 12/11/2024
go.bsky.app/HKhn9FZ just made a starterpack for LA Urbanists. These are accounts that I followed on Twitter that often (but not always) chimed in on LA urbanist issues like housing, bikes, transit, and the environment.
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Eric Wood @laecology.bsky.social · 16/11/2024
youtube.com/watch?v=06eU... This is amazing - a cool surf gang in Pakistan. Send these guys your spare boards and lets get these guys to the Olympics.
youtube.com
YouTube
Share your videos with friends, family, and the world
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Eric Wood @laecology.bsky.social · 16/11/2024
Cool study finding differences in herbivory between island and mainland sites - but no real vertebrate predation effects. We have an oak exclosure experiment going too and are finding strong predation effects related to herbivory patterns. Will be interesting to further compare with this neat study.
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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 15/11/2024
Some amazing crossbill vagrancy going on in North America, White-winged Crossbills arriving on Bermuda over 1000km from the mainland! Worth scrutinising any “Two-barred Crossbills” that turn up near shipping lanes…
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Brooke Jarvis @brookejarvis.bsky.social · 15/11/2024
Today in relatable science: Gulls making a mysterious daily trip that turned out to be to a potato chip factory
A map of flight paths emanating from breeding colony of gulls, with this caption: Early on, LifeWatch noticed something odd. Most gulls were making daily trips to Mouscron, a city on the French border 65 km away. They went to investigate and found the birds bingeing on discarded snacks at the Roger & Roger potato factory.
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Tiziana A. Gelmi Candusso @urbanzoochory.bsky.social · 14/11/2024
I haven’t posted in a while, what have I been up to… well for starters Frontiers finally published our urban coyote connectivity paper after almost a year of being accepted. Bit criminal, but we are happy its out & somehow still relevant considering we submitted in 2022 doi.org/10.1002/fee....
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Dr Jacinta Humphrey @jacintahumphrey.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
Hi folks, I'm new here! I'm an Urban Ecologist based in Melbourne, Australia. I spend most of my time thinking about how to make our suburbs more bird-friendly. 🌳🏠🦜 I'm keen to connect with others interested in #Ecology, #Environmental #Science, #Wildlife #Conservation, and of course #Birds! 😊
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Tiziana A. Gelmi Candusso @urbanzoochory.bsky.social · 14/11/2024
Ahh this place feels nice. No right-wing bots, lots of scientists, feels like the twitter I used to know.
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Mason Fidino, PhD @masonfidino.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
People often try to account for variation in sampling effort by including the number of days surveys were conducted in the detection part of an occupancy model. Occupancy models, however, already deal with this variation in the model itself. Read more about this here! masonfidino.com/camera_days/
masonfidino.com
Please reconsider including the number of sampling days as a covariate when estimating detection probabilities in occupancy models
When you flip a fair coin, the probability that you get heads at least once increases with the number of times you flip the coin. This makes intuitive sense. More chances means you are more likely to ...
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Susan @codesigned.bsky.social · 14/11/2024
Oh yay! One of the Peregrine Falcon chicks has fledged.
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Tharusha Wijewardena 🐢 @turtleecology.bsky.social · 11/11/2024
go.bsky.app/29rs45P We have an Urban Ecology Starter Pack! 🌆
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Eric Wood @laecology.bsky.social · 14/11/2024
Like many of you, I was on X for many years. But this will now be my outlet for discovering cool science and connecting about the environment, birds, cool ecology, and ways to better our cities (and planet). I am just starting to build my community here and appreciate tips on getting going.
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Dan Baldassarre @evornithology.bsky.social · 31/08/2024
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Eric Wood @laecology.bsky.social · 12/02/2024
Just back from an epic week in Brazil working to set up our study looking at the vertical distribution of insects in the Amazon rainforest (and surrounding landuses, including fragmented forest and urban). Loads of cool birds, insects, food, and great times with our Brazilian colleagues.
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Eric Wood @laecology.bsky.social · 11/10/2023
I am happy to share our new monograph on redlining, birds, their habitat, and people in Los Angeles just out in Ornithological Applications (see link - please DM if you're unable to access it) Please see the infographic below (by KAPdesign) for further details. academic.oup.com/condor/advan...
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