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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto

@pedrobd.bsky.social
507 followers 358 following 361 posts

Biologist, molecular ecologist🧑‍🔬 , eDNA nerd 🧬, birder 🐦, coin collector 🪙, insect enjoyer 🐜, Brazilian mineiro, and more. Currently a Postdoc in the Kelly Lab at UW.

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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Have you met an eDNA skeptic? 🧬 I seem to encounter them often as grant reviewers 📜. So we assembled a team of social scientists and eDNA scientists and dug deeper into what is actually behind that skepticism.
doi.org
Embracing Environmental <fc>DNA</fc> (<fc>eDNA</fc>): Trust, Skepticism, and Competence in an Emerging Method
Trust in eDNA is fundamentally relational. Survey results show that experience increases perceived validity and usefulness while transforming skepticism into more nuanced evaluation, highlighting the...
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Abstracts for the Global #eDNA conference at due this Friday! Get yours in, y`all! Early bird registrations also go until the end of July. Come on up!
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
Birding yesterday at forest edge: Me: "Oh, no... oh, no. It's an Enpid...It is small... small haeaded... greyish. Not a Western then. I guess let's check the length of the wing relative to the..." Bird: "Peer!!" Me: "Oh, Hammond. Thanks fing God" Learning the flycatcher calls gives back :)
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
I maintain that every Canadian I’ve ever met has been incredibly nice. This one🪿, however, hissed at me from a nest under a bridge I couldn’t even reach, so it has been excluded from the dataset. #birdingwhilecommuting
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Yay! Another mainstream‑media article covering a scientific study! 😀 Nay! Another article that doesn’t cite the paper, doesn’t link it, and doesn’t even say which study it’s talking about. 🫠 How is this still not standard practice?!
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Y'all, my review paper has been under review for 6 months. It will be born obsolete.💀 Please say yes if you get it for peer review. Meanwhile I have reviewed 6 papers already this year. I am doing my half. Yes, it sucks we have to do it for free and then pay to publish among so much else. But plz?
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
This weekend I witnessed Wilson's Phalarope famous whirlpool feeding!! Spin spin spin! Roadside #birding ftw
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Here at #SFS2026 in Spokane! Looking forward to meeting people and catching up with others! Come on down to my three talks on -eDNA haplotypes -Caddisflies and GMOs -Land-water monitoring with eDNA from the air and water
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
I will be giving three (!!!) talks at SFS in a couple of weeks. It sounded like a great idea 3 months ago. Sadly though they put my #haplotype talk at the same time as other very cool #eDNA session. Lame.
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
This remains to be the best comic ever made. Just had another one of these moments today. @mrlovenstein.bsky.social
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
I cannot post my slides on Canvas because *checks 📝* that DECREASES the accessibility score of my class on canvas. That is because the canvas software has a hard time reading slides and assigns it 0 accessibility. The only solution is to not post them. The world is backwards in 1 additional way 🙃
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Reposted by Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto
Rafael Marcondes @rafamarcondes.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
As the end of the semester approaches and I feel overwhelmed even with my exceptionally light class load, I'm reminded of the old saying, "Work inevitable expands to occupy the entirety of the time allotted to it"
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Reposted by Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto
Scott P. Egan @scottpegan.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
What is “#pseudopersistence”? It refers to contaminants like pharmaceuticals or pesticides with short environmental half lives that are continuously observed in ecosystems due to constant replacement from a source. In this case, Cry proteins leach year round from GE crops & detritus. (2/3)
media.tenor.com
rows of corn plants growing in a field on a sunny day
ALT: rows of corn plants growing in a field on a sunny day
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Reposted by Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto
Scott P. Egan @scottpegan.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
New paper led by #RiceUniversity undergrad Ethan Bull & former PhD student @pedrobd.bsky.social in collaboration with @notredamescience.bsky.social assessing the role of a pseudopersistant contaminant, Cry1Ab leaching from GE crops, on aquatic caddisflies. @entsocamerica.bsky.social (1/3)
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Transgenic crops release Cry proteins into streams. But what does that mean for aquatic insects?🌱💧🐛 We measured and barcoded 1,800+ caddisflies across 25 streams. Environmental factors like temperature, land use explained most patterns. Cry1Ab had limited impact. academic.oup.com/ee/article/5...
academic.oup.com
Assessing morphological, developmental, and genetic responses of Hydropsychid caddisflies to Cry1Ab exposure
Abstract. Transgenic crops expressing Cry proteins are widely cultivated to reduce crop damage from insect pests. However, Cry proteins can leach from tran
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
Nothing like spending several hours running an alternative statistical method/ different mathematical approach only to find the exact same answer.✖️ Yes, I should be happy. But it feels a bit like wasted time lol
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Am I allowed to complain if the journal sat on my paper for 3 months and rejected it without sending it to reviewers because the editor felt like it? Name and shame? The journal is Biological Reviews.
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Our eDNA survey has a US defaultism problem. 🌎 We started getting mysterious "Country" responses like "Jefferson" and "Maricopa." Turns out people read "Country" and thought "County" which... only makes sense if you assume everyone is American. We did this to ourselves.🤣
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 07/03/2026
Me when I look at my old classes / presentation slides that I proudly presented to a room full of scientists / students at some point
media.tenor.com
a man in a red suit and tie is wearing sunglasses and a red jacket .
ALT: a man in a red suit and tie is wearing sunglasses and a red jacket .
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Being In an interdisciplinary field, it is easy to feel dumb because you are a "jack of all trades, master of none" But that feel is greatly improved when you learn this sentence is often misquoted. The full version is: "jack of all trades, master of none, but often better than a master of one"🎃
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Whales in a bottle of water? Yes… through eDNA. 🌊🐋 Nice feature on our research and the UW eDNA Collaborative by the Packard Foundation. @ednacollab.bsky.social Learn more here: www.packard.org/insights/gra... www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0H8... #eDNA #scicom #science #outreach
youtube.com
eDNA is Changing the Way We See the Ocean
YouTube video by The Packard Foundation
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
🧬 My haplotype paper is out! We show that deviations between within-sample and population-level haplotype frequencies can be used to estimate how many individuals contributed to an eDNA sample. No tissue references needed, just metabarcoding data and some population genetics. #eDNA #PopGen
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Estimating Organism Abundance Using Within‐Sample Haplotype Frequencies of eDNA Data
Environmental DNA (eDNA) provides powerful insights into species presence and community composition but remains limited in its capacity to infer species abundance or population structure. Here, we sh...
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
Imagine the great quotes we would get if Darwin had to code!
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
The blue throat and the display of the Brandt's cormorants are pretty amazing. #birding
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
My high school math teacher was great but convinced I should not become a biologist because "my math intuition would be wasted!" I just got a paper accepted with 10 equations plus more in the supplement 💀. Pretty sure he would be happy but relieved they are printed and not in my handwriting 😄✍️📄
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Reposted by Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto
Naiara Rodriguez-Ezpeleta @naiarare.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
New paper by Cristina Claver (@azti.bsky.social), published in @icesmarine.bsky.social JMS. We combine #eDNA and acoustic-trawl data in a Bayesian joint model to estimate biomass of the European anchovy in the Bay of Biscay. From the potential of eDNA to operational use 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/ices...
doi.org
Integrating eDNA and acoustic-trawl data to provide small pelagic biomass estimates for fish stock assessment
Abstract. Accurate abundance estimates of fisheries resources are essential for sustainable fisheries management. In response to the growing need for devel
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Reposted by Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto
Kush Paliwal @kushpal.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
Big milestone today: My first PhD paper is officially out! We took a deep dive into eDNA transport dynamics in flowing waters. Check out the full study in ES&T. pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....
pubs.acs.org
Laboratory Study on Fate and Transport of Water-Borne eDNA: A Tale of Tempered Tails and Parafluvial Processes
Environmental DNA (eDNA) has emerged as a powerful marker for assessing species presence in flowing waters; however, estimating the spatial and temporal origins of these signals remains a challenge. T...
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
Me when I see a juvenile gull in the Pacific Northwest on an impatient day: NOPE ~confidently logs Gull sp. on eBird~ Me on a patient day: stares at juvenile gull for 10 minutes “Yeah… that’s definitely a Gull sp.” ✔️ eBird submitted #birding
media.tenor.com
a white seagull with a yellow beak is standing on a green roof with failarmy written on the bottom
ALT: a white seagull with a yellow beak is standing on a green roof with failarmy written on the bottom
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
We are on! Air 🌬️ Sea spray 💦 Surface 🌊 3000 m deep ⚓ ~1 million DNA molecules/hour sequenced live in the middle of the Pacific Ocean! Shout out to Aden and Rhonda,l who can extract DNA, PCR, and library prep without getting seasick ⛵️ From sample to data in less than 48 hrs. #eDNA #nanopore #UW
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
Sea cowboys are at it again! A cast every 4 hours for our Shenanigans. #eDNA #CRESST Cruise
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
Gotta stay organized! #eDNA
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
Sunrise CTD cast!! This one went right inside the Toto caldera, which is an underwater volcano 🌋! We found the volcano did have a plume (meaning it is activelly erupting) - I got to see scientists cheering to a live feed of data when the plume appeared. NASA landing style 🚀👩‍🚀 #Cruise #Volcano
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
We call this trick "we forgot to pack a heatblock and now we have to improvise with a hotplate and sand". It is walnut shell sand. Smells nice.
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
Our first #CRESST CTD cast is out! A CTD is a rosette sampler full of sensors and water bottles. We can monitor sensors live and trigger the closure of each bottle from aboard as it comes back up through the water column (deep to shalow). We don't have much time, so this cast was only to 200m.
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
The Cruise is delayed one more day because the chemicals did not arrive. What do a group of bored scientists do? Come up with a new experiment, of course! #eDNA #rain
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
After a 7 day delay, we are finally on board of the RV Thomas G. Thompson! Getting ready for 14 days of #eDNA data collection and lab work going from #Philippines towards #Guam It is a data deficient area, so I will also be making the first ever pelagic bird surveys of this region.🐦‍⬛🐦 #unqualified
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
Getting ready to sequence #eDNA 🧬 while in a rocking boat! #CRESST Cruise
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
This was cool to watch! 🦇🦇🦇🦇🦎 But I have a feeling this monitor Lizard is not trying hard enough lol #hunting #wildlife
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
I was recently humbled by the presence of the type specimen of the first bird ever. The #Archeopteryx is truly a magical thing. This object here defines what a bird🐓 is.
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
Marion, idk who you are, but you are very funny.
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
We put this out as a preprint so the community can help pressure-test it. If we missed your work, misinterpreted something, or if you have data that alters any conclusion, please tell us. This only gets better with more eyes on it! #eDNA #Molecularecology #Ecology
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
Wouldn’t it be kind of wild if someone actually pulled everything we know about what happens to eDNA between shedding and detection? Decay, transport, microbes, temperature, rivers, oceans, all of it?! We did that. 📄 Preprint link: www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-8... 🧬🔍🌊 #eDNA #MolecularEcology
researchsquare.com
Fate and transport of environmental DNA: mapping the knowns and unknowns
The use of environmental DNA (eDNA) in routine biomonitoring is transforming our ability to detect and quantify aquatic species. However, translating these indirect molecular detections into ecologica...
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
There is a list of modern issues that have to be outlawed/regulated by ALL countries around the world ASAP, but people are too busy discussing non-issues. This is somewhere at the top of that list.
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
Packing for the #CRESST research cruise and preparing a manifest was not easy. The neat part is we will have a full #eDNA workflow going in the ship itself - sampling, extraction, PCR, sequencing, and bioinformatics! Our hopes are resting on many ways to tie things down 🪢 and seasickness pills!
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
Cool study, but the projections are🤪. -They predict fewer birds than we already have. -The Bayesian model goes off the rails. -Including prokaryotes is questionable as "species" hardly applies. Any species-count model that doesn`t have # of active taxonomists as a factor will be just broken.
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Every time I have to write "°C" I just google "degrees celsius" and copy the ° symbol. Same for μ! . Sure, I can insert symbols, but it feels faster! I can`t be the only one, right?
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 29/11/2025
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild: -Maned wolf (lobo-guará) -Banded cotinga (crejoá) -Dwarf tinamou (carapé) -Whooping crane -Orca Cerrado + Atlantic Forest (where I grew up in the ecotone), plus Texas from my PhD years, and Washington now. Do google them if you have to :)
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
Save the date for a Global #eDNA 🧬 conference! More details to come soon.
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
Apparently bats 🦇 have never evolved to become flightless, while birds 🐓 have done it over 150 times and insects many others as well. Old news for many, but someone just told me that and now I have been thinking about it for a long time.
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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
This tiny thing is a fully functional thermocycler for up to 16 tubes.🤯 🧬 We will pair it with a MinION sequencer, an e-Gel and a tiny centrifuge for a field deployable eDNA lab that fits inside a suitcase. #eDNA
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