Sign in

Mats Ittonen

@matsittonen.bsky.social
215 followers 239 following 66 posts

Evolutionary ecologist, entomologist, and environmentalist. Macroecology postdoc at the University of Tartu (@macroecologyut.bsky.social)‬, now also meandering into soil ecology. Bird and butterfly watcher. matsittonen.com

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Mats Ittonen
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…
523795
Mats Ittonen @matsittonen.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
The best band in the world has a new album out. After a week of playing it over and over, I can now give my confident (and completely unbiased) assessment: it's great and you should all hear it. Here's the lead single; album available in streaming services and record stores. youtu.be/Kr0xeCPwzMc?...
youtu.be
Keeping Our Heads Above Water
YouTube video by The Jayhawks - Topic
001
Mats Ittonen @matsittonen.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
MSc student Martina Bovolenta led this work, which is a follow-up to a reciprocal transplant experiment (doi.org/10.1073/pnas...), where southern and northern populations differed little in daylength responses; now we know why, as that experiment’s timing matches the latest start date here. (6/6)
doi.org
000
Mats Ittonen @matsittonen.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
So strong selection has led to rapid evolution despite acting only on a small minority of the population. The resulting local adaptation aids range margin populations in the long run, but unfamiliar daylength cues are unlikely to strongly limit climate change-driven insect range expansions. (5/6)
100
Mats Ittonen @matsittonen.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Still, the early-born southern individuals that averted diapause and developed into adults were unable to produce overwintering offspring – for these individuals, adaptation to a southern daylength calendar was strongly maladaptive. (4/6)
100
Mats Ittonen @matsittonen.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Eggs went out on 3 dates 1 week apart. Like in earlier lab work, decisions of northern and southern populations diverged, but now only for the earliest start date. For most individuals, genetic background didn’t matter because later daylengths were short enough to induce dormancy in everyone. (3/6)
A graph showing how among-population differences in entering dormancy depended on when eggs were laid.
100
Mats Ittonen @matsittonen.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Wall brown butterflies from southern- & northern-Swedish populations differ in daylength responses. We reared these populations in field cages near the northern range edge, scoring the decision to enter dormancy or develop into adults. Importantly, we manipulated the start of development. (2/6)
A close up photograph of a lab-reared wall brown caterpillar on a leaf.
100
Mats Ittonen @matsittonen.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
New paper! Insects commonly time dormancy based on daylength, and responses to daylength have evolved in range-expanding populations facing novel daylength calendars. But how crucial is this for expanding species tracking climate niches? Maybe less than you’d think. (1/6) doi.org/10.1098/rspb...
doi.org
Fitness effects of local seasonal adaptation depend on the timing of reproduction in a range-expanding butterfly
Abstract. Local seasonal adaptation across latitudes is ubiquitous, but its fitness consequences are rarely estimated in the field. Using a common-garden f
175
Reposted by Mats Ittonen
David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
This is one of my favorite pieces of footage from space. Remember the early Macs had a motorized floppy drive that would eject the disk?
6854196
Reposted by Mats Ittonen
Jitka Polechová @polejit.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Are you looking for a PhD on the intersection between evolutionary and ecological theory? Join us @univie. Fully funded PhD position in fundamental eco-evolutionary theory, open to international students. Apply by 13.7.2026: ecoevo.owlstown.net/search Reposting appreciated. #evolbio #evoeco #ecology
ecoevo.owlstown.net
Jitka's EcoEvo Lab - Jobs
02140
Mats Ittonen @matsittonen.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Context: Ukraine (full support!) sends masses of drones into Russia, and a few have strayed into neighbouring countries. The Estonian defence forces shot this one down above a lake.
010
Mats Ittonen @matsittonen.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
3st0n14n defence forces replacing the letter õ with 6 (common in slang) in official air threat message is simply beautiful!
110
Mats Ittonen @matsittonen.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
New review: we discuss how the continuous nature of insect diapause induction and termination responses (which are often seen as binary threshold decisions) offers phenological robustness and evolutionary flexibility that can reduce vulnerability to climate change–driven seasonal timing mismatches.
sciencedirect.com
Rethinking diapause timing thresholds in a warming world
Diapause lets insects synchronize their life cycles with seasonal environments, but climate change challenges its effectiveness by reshaping thermal r…
053
Mats Ittonen @matsittonen.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
Apart from this peculiar ceiling, I also happened to see a real kingfisher. Maybe I should start a list for my conference bird sightings... #TIBS2026
020
Mats Ittonen @matsittonen.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
However great #TIBS2026 has been, I can't endure three full days of talks. So I took a few hours off to visit Den gamle byn, and what an impressive museum (or collection of museums) it turned out to be! Go there if you can find the time while in Aarhus!
130
Mats Ittonen @matsittonen.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
The park next to the #TIBS2026 venue offers unexpected birding fun – I'm not used to aggregations of 15 or so moorhens casually hanging around with gulls, mallards and jackdaws.
001
Mats Ittonen @matsittonen.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
Bye bye, Sweden!
000
Mats Ittonen @matsittonen.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
I spent a wonderful family holiday in our beautifully snowy former hometown, Uppsala! Now it's time for work again, but not quite the usual kind of work – #TIBS2026 and Aarhus, here I come!
130
Mats Ittonen @matsittonen.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
...which I think says something essential about being a biologist! (2/2)
010
Mats Ittonen @matsittonen.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
I finally finished reading Walden! In many places a frustrating, but also an interesting, occasionally funny, and often beautiful read. A few favourites of mine: the excited ant war report, the excessively detailed description of different kinds of ice, and this pictured passage... (1/2)
100
Reposted by Mats Ittonen
martinswarren.bsky.social @martinswarren.bsky.social · 11/10/2025
The new European Butterfly Red List is published today, with worrying findings. Over 1/4 (28%) of Europe’s 442 species are threatened with extinction or are close to being so. The situation is far worse for our 148 endemic species, 40% are now threatened or nearly so www.bc-europe.eu/webpage.php?...
Front cover of the European Butterfly Red List, showing Polyommatus humedasae. The report can be downloaded at https://www.bc-europe.eu/webpage.php?name=red-list-butterflies-2025
3178112
Mats Ittonen @matsittonen.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
Web Ecology (The European ecological federation's diamond open access journal) seems like the obvious choice.
010
Reposted by Mats Ittonen
Luonnonsuojeluliitto @luonnonsuojelu.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
Kaivosala on käynnistänyt mediakampanjan, jonka tavoitteena on saada hallitus perumaan maltillisen kaivosveron maltillinen korotus. Luonnonsuojeluliitto antaa hallitukselle ruusuja & kehottaa kaivosteollisuutta keskittymään toimintansa kestävyyden parantamiseen. #kaivokset www.sll.fi/ajankohtaist...
sll.fi
Ei ole niin pientä veronkorotusta, etteikö kaivosala sitä vastaan pullikoisi – kaivosveroa on välttämätöntä korottaa
Kaivostoimijat ovat joukolla nousseet vastustamaan hallituksen esittämää maltillista kaivosveron korotusta valtakunnallisella mediakampanjalla. Vuonna 2024 Suomessa otettiin vuosien vaikuttamistyön…
05814
Reposted by Mats Ittonen
Luonnonsuojeluliitto @luonnonsuojelu.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
Ympäristöpäällikkömme @heiantti.bsky.social kirjoittaa, että kaivosveron korotus on välttämätöntä ja oikein. Se ohjaa kaivosyhtiöitä muuttamaan toimintaansa kestävämmäksi ja jättämään matalapitoisimmat esiintymät rauhaan. Suomen #kaivosvero on korotuksenkin jälkeen matala. www.hs.fi/mielipide/ar...
hs.fi
Lukijan mielipide | Hallitus esitys kaivosverosta ansaitsee kiitoksen
Ilman riittävää kaivosverotusta uhkana on, että myös hyvin matalapitoiset ja heikot mineraaliesiintymät avataan.
05611
Mats Ittonen @matsittonen.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
Finland's main newspaper asks whether the police shouldn't originally have stopped the illegal logging (by the city of Helsinki), instead of carrying the activists away! www.hs.fi/alueet/art-2...
hs.fi
Kommentti | Poliisien olisi ehkä kannattanut jättää vitsit sikseen ja ottaa tieto norosta vakavasti
Käräjäoikeuden päätös saa miettimään, olisiko poliisin kannattanut valvoa vesilain noudattamista eikä varmistaa hakkuiden toteutumista, kirjoittaa HS:n ympäristötoimittaja Heli Saavalainen.
000
Mats Ittonen @matsittonen.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
Remarkable & important Finnish court decision. Activists stopped logging in Helsinki & didn't follow police's orders to leave. The court ruled activists had the right to break the law (disobedience towards police) because they had to; it was the only way to save a legally protected stream habitat!
yle.fi
Helsingin Stansvikin metsän suojelijoille ei niskoittelutuomioita – käräjäoikeus pohti päätöksenteossa Koijärvi-liikettä
Viittä mielenosoittajaa syytettiin niskoittelusta poliisia vastaan Stansvikin metsässä kaksi vuotta sitten.
100
Reposted by Mats Ittonen
Tuomas Kankaanpää @bugwebs.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
Bookmarking for later.
031
Mats Ittonen @matsittonen.bsky.social · 20/09/2025
German minister of culture criticized countries that boycott the Eurovision Song Contest if Israel participates for "cancel culture". The willingness of leading German politicians to approve genocide is quite baffling. I mean, they were supposed to have learned something from their country's past...
000
Mats Ittonen @matsittonen.bsky.social · 14/09/2025
I don't know what to really think of this, but it was an interesting late-night read for sure!
000
Reposted by Mats Ittonen
Kári Tulinius @kattullus.bsky.social · 13/09/2025
News from Finland. A 9-year-old lost an especially good stick he’d had since he was 2. He hung up 20 posters. A few days later it was returned. It had been found by a 2-year-old, who wanted to keep it for herself, but her mother made her return it. She got toys, flowers and candy as a reward.
451890453
Reposted by Mats Ittonen
Peter Gleick @petergleick.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
🚨🚨🚨 In the worst tradition of the McCarthy-era anti-communist House Un-American Activities Committee, the GOP House Oversight Committee has just launch a massive, grotesque, ad hominem, partisan assault on the US National Academy of Sciences. oversight.house.gov/wp-content/u...
oversight.house.gov
10332148
Mats Ittonen @matsittonen.bsky.social · 01/09/2025
It took me some thinking to even understand the somewhat subtle difference in meaning between "none is" and "none are"... And then I realised that my native languages (Finnish & Swedish) both use different word forms (in place of "none") for the two meanings; very practical! 😊
100
Mats Ittonen @matsittonen.bsky.social · 01/09/2025
I would've written "are", and "is" sounds weird. So I had to google what @grammargirl.bsky.social has to say: www.quickanddirtytips.com/articles/non.... Turns out Word (and my instinct) weren't that wrong!
quickanddirtytips.com
‘None Is’ or ‘None Are’?
When you’re thinking about singulars and plurals, you often consider whether you have one or many of something, but the word “none” is tricky because it’s nothing—it’s not one or many of something. Th...
110
Mats Ittonen @matsittonen.bsky.social · 30/08/2025
Pölytysmielessä siitä voisi olla hyötyä, jos vaikka haluaa houkutella kotipuutarhaansa perhosia ja muita hyönteisiä, jotka sitten samalla voivat tulla käyneeksi kukillakin.
020
Mats Ittonen @matsittonen.bsky.social · 30/08/2025
Enpä osaa kuvitella mitään oikeaa haittaa, ellette sitten tehtaile niitä sadoittain samalle alueelle. :) Teoriassa se on pois nälästä ja siten pölytyksestä, mutta käytännön merkitys lienee olematon. Ja kyllä ne perhoset käsittääkseni pärjäävät millä tahansa sokerilitkulla, mitä onnistuvat löytämään.
120
Mats Ittonen @matsittonen.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
Data citation: GBIF.org (26 August 2025) GBIF Occurrence Download doi.org/10.15468/dl..... (3/3)
000
Mats Ittonen @matsittonen.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
Germany is probably hiding millions of observations in paper archives. ;) It's also interesting to see how Lithuania and Estonia are much better covered than Latvia. I wonder if this has something to do with different traditions in ecological research. (2/3)
100
Mats Ittonen @matsittonen.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
Map of areas meeting thresholds for butterfly observation count & species sampling coverage in 2001–2010. I find this fascinating. I expected the good coverage in western and parts of northern Europe, but, knowing little about south-eastern Europe, I didn't expect Serbia to be a data hotspot. (1/3)
140
Mats Ittonen @matsittonen.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
Note to @eseb.bsky.social: I can't change her birthday (anymore), but you could organize the conference a week later. 😉
010
Mats Ittonen @matsittonen.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
Enviously peeking in on all the #ESEB2025 content posted here. I've always wanted to go, but never did because ESEB always overlaps with my daughter's birthday! 🙁Well, I currently don't do much evolution anyway, but this year I was at least lucky to have Matthew Nielsen present our recent paper!
110
Reposted by Mats Ittonen
Richard Fox @richardfoxbc.bsky.social · 14/08/2025
Interesting paper using @ukbms.bsky.social data to examine extreme weather impacts on butterfly populations. Winter heatwaves and periods of high rainfall appear bad for many species. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 🌍
sciencedirect.com
Butterfly abundance changes in England are well associated with extreme climate events
Climate change exerts significant impacts on ecosystems through extreme climate events (ECEs), which are linked to various climate variables and can o…
06935
Reposted by Mats Ittonen
Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 10/08/2025
Barely an hour ago, Palestinian journalist Anas Al-Sharif warned us all: “If this madness doesn’t end, Gaza will be reduced to ruins, its people’s voices silenced, their faces erased — and history will remember you as silent witnesses to a genocide you chose not to stop.” Israel just killed him.
7062804706
Mats Ittonen @matsittonen.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
Oli!
110
Mats Ittonen @matsittonen.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
Major achievement! 😄
010
Mats Ittonen @matsittonen.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
Finns are proudly rule-abiding, but living abroad has taught me that we really could sometimes relax a bit. A popular train route can't be run with longer trains because some platforms are too short. In Sweden, they do use the long trains; you just can't exit from the last few cars – problem solved.
hs.fi
VR | Junat Riihimäeltä Hankoon tulivat tupaten täyteen, osa joutunut matkustamaan seisten
Uusi junayhteys on osoittautunut erittäin suosituksi.
010
Reposted by Mats Ittonen
Mikael A. Manninen @mamanninen.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
Meet the new seal species: Pusa saimensis! yle.fi/a/74-20173801
yle.fi
Saimaa ringed seal recognised as distinct species
The seals native to Lake Saimaa were found to be genetically distinct from other ringed seals, according to a recent study by Finnish and international researchers.
0419
Reposted by Mats Ittonen
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences @pnas.org · 11/07/2025
As the climate warms, species are heading uphill and poleward, but such moves may require evolutionary adaptations. A study of butterflies finds evolution for the timing of life events, but winter cold still limits range expansion. In PNAS: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
A wall brown butterfly (Lasiommata megera). 
CREDIT: Mats Ittonen
0305
Mats Ittonen @matsittonen.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
Fröetablering? 🤔
110
Mats Ittonen @matsittonen.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
Jag har för mig att "Tack" är standard i svenskspråkiga avhandlingar, men jag har nog inte sett många. "Tillkännage" har inte samma tackbetydelse som engelska "acknowledge" har. "Erkännande" (recognition) kan innebära något i den stilen, men jag tycker nog att det skulle låta konstigt.
020
Mats Ittonen @matsittonen.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
Varför inte bara "Tack"?
110