iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Lily Leahy

Science Magazine @science.org · 05/10/2026

A recent analysis in Science of more than 116,000 bird songs has revealed that the astonishing variety of passerine birdsong is built from just eight basic acoustic motifs, like trills, whistles, and harmonic notes. Learn more on #WorldAnimalDay: scim.ag/3SziyeL

A phylogenetic distribution and trait correlates of acoustic motifs in passerine birds. Hedline reads: The global biogeography of passerine songs

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Lily Leahy @lilyleahy.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Had a wonderful 3 months in Germany for the International Excellence Fellowship @kit.edu hosted by Thomas Van de Kamp. Adding Australasian ants to www.antscan.info project: micro-CT scans of ants for trait ecology and evolution research. The synchrotron was super cool and a lovely team to work with!

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IUSSI-Congress @uissi-social.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

The first half of the #IUSSI26 was buzzing! So much science, discussion, debates, and ideas exchange - but the most important friendly chats and coffees while brewing new collaboration. This event turned out to be a great celebration of science and international collaboration 🐝🐜👏

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Lily Leahy @lilyleahy.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Great to be at IUSSI Freiburg! Tom Bishop presenting our work led by Sophie Mallett using rapid thermal phenotyping to compare thermal traits across ant species at scale @uissi-social.bsky.social @tbish.bsky.social paper here: doi.org/10.1016/j.jt...

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Sabhrina Aninta @sagitaninta.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

"Drawing on an analysis of over 100000 articles in ecology-related disciplines [...], we show that the shift to pay-to-publish OA has already reduced participation by researchers from many middle-income countries." nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Payment‐based open access is biasing scientific participation from the Global South in ecology

Opening access to the products of scientific research is widely considered a key step toward both fairness and better science worldwide. Since the 1990s, different forms of open access (OA) to journa...

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🍁 Alex Smith 🍁 @alexsmithants.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

🧪🧵 🪰 🐜🪲🐞🦗🐛🦋🪳🦟 How many species of insect are there? A seemingly simple question, but one that has been 'bugging' scientists for years. Our work out today suggests that there are millions more than we had previously expected. doi.org/10.1073/pnas... @gdfcf.bsky.social

This photo was taken in Area de Conservacion Guanacaste

This microgastrine wasp was named by co-author Jose Fernandez-Triana in honour of Costa Rican parataxonomist Roberto Espinoza in recognition of his contribution to understanding the plant biology of ACG. The species is Snellenius robertoespinozai. The image is Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) so can reused provided the original author (Jose Fernandez-Triana) and the source are properly cited. The source is: Fernandez-Triana JL, Whitfield JB, Smith MA, Kula RR, Hallwachs W, Janzen DH (2015) Revision of the genera Microplitis and Snellenius (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Microgastrinae) from Area de Conservacion Guanacaste, Costa Rica, with a key to all species previously described from Mesoamerica. Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift 62(2): 137-201. https://doi.org/10.3897/dez.62.5276

image of a Malaise trap in Area de Conservacion Guanacaste

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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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Kim L. Holzmann @kimholzmann.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Big effort, exciting results - our paper on the constraints of thermal limits in tropical insects is now out in @nature.com! 🦋🐝🪰🪲🦗 @ecoresearchzoo3.bsky.social @biologie-uniwue.bsky.social @uni-wuerzburg.de

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Benjamin Freeman @benjaminfreeman.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

tropical lowland birds aren't doing well -- this is an excellent article on what's happening featuring a slew of fantastic research projects www.science.org/content/arti...

science.org

Birds are vanishing from tropical forests. Is another ‘silent spring’ coming?

As mysterious bird declines crop up in the Amazon and beyond, scientists suspect climate change may be to blame

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Reposted by Lily Leahy

Andrew Miskelly @anero.id · 01/02/2026

Here's how the records stacked up during the recent heatwave over central and southern Australia. All-month maximum temperature records at individual stations with 25+ year histories are highlighted.

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Lily Leahy @lilyleahy.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

⚠️I saw an ancient ant⚠️ @hanrisk.bsky.social's epic field and lab survival study of ants! We found worker lifespans varied 23-394 days and were predicted by body size but not phylogeny🐜 Congrats Hannah on the 1st PhD chapter out! See more @royalsocietypublishing.org #ProcB: doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

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Dr Hannah Riskas @hanrisk.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

Our new paper is officially out in Proceedings B! 🐜 It’s the first chapter from my PhD thesis, where we combined field mark-recapture with lab survival assays. Huge thank you and congrats to my co-authors, Kirk Stodola, Lily Leahy, Ian J. Wright, and Heloise Gibb. doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

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Evolution Letters @evolletters.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

Why has live birth evolved repeatedly in lizards? A mechanistic model linking behavior, thermal physiology, and life history shows cold climates favor viviparity, providing causal support for the classic cold-climate hypothesis. Image credit: Wikimedia academic.oup.com/evlett/advan...

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ESA Plant-Soil Ecology @esaplantsoilecol.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

Analysing the metabolic rate of tiny organisms (ants) at a macro-geographical scale Fascinating work by @lilyleahy.bsky.social ! #ESA2025

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Professor Euan Ritchie FAMS @euanritchie.bsky.social · 23/11/2025

Looking forward to joining @pattfinnerty.bsky.social @hollykirk.bsky.social, Dr Samantha Lloyd, Dr Perpetua Turner, @dieterhochuli.bsky.social & Dr Katherine Moseby, on today's #ESA2025 panel: 'The Ups, Downs, and Sideways of an Ecology Career' 2pm, Regattas. Come along! @ecolsocaus.bsky.social

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Holly Kirk @hollykirk.bsky.social · 23/11/2025

Tiahni Adamson's keynote is speaking to how cultural capability can be deepened in ecological orgs. @ecolsocaus.bsky.social #ESA2025 Begin by looking at this paper link.springer.com/article/10.1... which looks at how western and Traditional knowledge overlaps but also does not!

Venn diagram of how Indigenous land management intersects with western principles.

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Tommaso Jucker @tommaso-jucker.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

Only a pre-print for now, but after 4 years of hard work I couldn't resist sharing this! The Global Canopy Atlas: analysis-ready maps of 3D structure for the world's woody ecosystems 📜: doi.org/10.1101/2025... Huge team effort led by the brilliant Fabian Fischer!

Global distribution of forest landscapes covered by airborne LiDAR

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Lily Leahy @lilyleahy.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

Hot off the press: Metabolic traits are shaped by phylogenetic conservatism and environment, not just body size Our article in PNAS explores several controversies in metabolic theory in a macroscale study of 🐜 #aridity #temp #SMR #DGC 📸:François Brassard www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2501541122

Myrmecia ant carrying an Isopod, photo: François Brassard

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Society for Conservation Biology Oceania @scboceania.org · 03/06/2025

The critically endangered possum species, thought to be isolated to Victoria, has been found in Kosciuszko national park, at least 250km away from the nearest sighting. #ConservationOptimism www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

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Rudolf Meier @rudolf-meier.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

The top 10 flying insect clades rule the skies—but defy the rules. Weak or inverted latitudinal diversity gradients leave biogeographers puzzled. Entomologists? Mildly amused. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Olivia Bates @okbates.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

🚨🐜!!! Check out our new paper where we investigate the impact of a soil level (SoilTemp) dataset on niche shifts of introduced ant species globally — using soil temperatures often lessens the extent of niche shifts between native and introduced ranges! 🐜 🐜 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

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Dave Klinges @thenaturedave.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

My final PhD chapter published in FEE (Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment): re-mapping Köppen-Geiger climate zones, but now using microclimate! Very excited to have this one out: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

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Science Friday @scifri.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

There have been at least 20 mass resignations from scientific journals since 2023. Dr. Andrea Taylor and Ivan Oransky join us to discuss what is behind these resignations and what they mean for scientific publishing.

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Why Editors At Scientific Journals Are Resigning En Masse

Publishers want to put out more papers with less editorial staff, all while charging scientists more to publish. Editors have had enough.

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Michael Kearney @ecophys.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

Please circulate: Postdoc position on responses of Australian mammal pests to climate change. Part of my ARC Laureate Fellowship research. Lots of hands-on fieldwork. Learn about biophysical models. Remote locations. Collaboration with #EcologicalHorizons and #AWC jobs.unimelb.edu.au/en/job/91880...

jobs.unimelb.edu.au

Details : Research Fellow in Mammalian Movement Ecology and Energetics : The University of Melbourne

Careers at The University of Melbourne

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Dr Rosemary Hohnen @rhohnen.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

New research! Authors examine camera trapping trends in Australia, finding strong taxonomic, geographic, and analytical biases, but also new ways to meet big conservation objectives. Great stuff! Glad to play a very small part. Congrats Tom and WildObs! ⚡️ www.researchgate.net/publication/...

researchgate.net

(PDF) Large-scale and long-term wildlife research and monitoring using camera traps: a continental synthesis

PDF | Camera traps are widely used in wildlife research and monitoring, so it is imperative to understand their strengths, limitations, and potential... | Find, read and cite all the research you need...

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Baptiste Wijas @bapswijas.bsky.social · 26/12/2024

Little Christmas surprise: check out our new paper out in @newphyt.bsky.social, we investigated nutrient release dynamics in wood. Takeaways: what is known from leaf litter does not apply to wood! Time to consider wood and their decomposers different to those of leaf litter. doi.org/10.1111/nph....

doi.org

Faster than expected: release of nitrogen and phosphorus from decomposing woody litter

Deadwood represents globally important carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) pools. Current wood nutrient dynamics models are extensions of those developed for leaf litter decomposition. Howe.....

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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences @pnas.org · 27/12/2024

Researchers challenged longhorn crazy ants and humans with the same task: maneuvering a T-shaped object through two consecutive open doorways. Single humans always outperformed single ants, but ant groups could beat human groups. In PNAS: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

A group of longhorn crazy ants (top) and a group of people (bottom) tackling scaled versions of the same geometrical maneuvering puzzle.

CREDIT: Ofer Feinerman

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Gabby Palomo, PhD @gabspalomo.bsky.social · 26/12/2024

Ok people. I’m drawing silhouettes this afternoon. If you have a paper coming up and you are in need of a #silhouette please let me know and I will have it ready today. As always I upload all my silhouettes to phylopic.org I also have tutorials on how to put a silhouette in a plot in R.

phylopic.org

PhyloPic

PhyloPic is an open database of free silhouette images of animals, plants, and other life forms, available for reuse under Creative Commons licenses. Download silhouettes for use in educational materi...

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Baptiste Wijas @bapswijas.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

Great time talking about the role of our little Australian critters #termites, in the carbon cycle and the insights we can gain from studying them! #ESAus24

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Baptiste Wijas @bapswijas.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

Great work thinking about applying trait economic spectrum to the world’s little social insects by @lilyleahy.bsky.social #ESAus24

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