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Ravi Ranjan

@raviranjan.bsky.social
813 followers 479 following 15 posts

Postdoc at UT Austin | Theoretical ecology, physiology and community ecology, British TV & huskies. Not necessarily in that order. Views my own. www.raviranjan.net

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Reposted by Ravi Ranjan
Chuliang Song @clsong.com · 10/09/2026
A wonderful review by Stefano on 100 years of Lotka–Volterra models. Don’t miss the incredibly detailed Supplement, truly the “War and Peace” of LV models. I really wish it had existed when I was a grad student! doi.org/10.1146/annu...
doi.org
One Hundred Years of Lotka–Volterra Models
Over the past century, the generalized Lotka–Volterra (GLV) model has grown from a mathematical curiosity to a cornerstone of theoretical ecology. Here we celebrate the enduring legacy of Lotka and Vo...
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Colin Kremer @quant-ecology.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
“Cool” new NSF postdoc position available in my lab at UConn, studying our unique Arctic phytoplankton collection and the interactive effects of temperature, light, and photoperiod. 3 years of funding, detailed job ad here: s.uconn.edu/q1o0itl62l.
Picture of centric Arctic diatom
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Caroline Farrior @cfarrior.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Spread the word! My lab group is hosting a workshop tomorrow at #ESA2026: Ecological Theory for Everyone: A practical introduction to engaging with theory in your own research for those with little or no theoretical experience 1:30pm, Room 254B events.rdmobile.com/Sessions/Det...
A collage of theory figures: Trees searching for light, chaos from logistic growth, evolutionary analyses, stabilizing coexistence, and collective movement.
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Mridul K. Thomas @mridulkthomas.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
A Shiny app to calculate and evaluate Bayesian optimal experimental designs, for common nonlinear functions in biology. Mathematical optimisation leads to some unintuitive designs! Play with priors, true values, and measurement error. See how these shape the optimal design and how well it performs.
Screenshot of the app linked at the quoted post. This image shows the function selection, some inputs (sample size, design space, custom design specification) and some outputs (calculated D-optimal and uniform designs)Screenshot of the app linked at the quoted post. This image shows some additional inputs (true values and priors) and outputs (violin plots and summary of CRPS values across 50 simulations for design evaluation).
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Mridul K. Thomas @mridulkthomas.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
A Shiny app to simulate data and fit a Bayesian nonlinear regression for several common functions in biology. This is intended to get a feel for Bayesian nonlinear regression and how much different experimental designs matter based on your assumptions.
Screenshot of the app linked at the quoted post. This image shows the function selection, parameter entry, model fit visualisation, and MCMC chains. Screenshot of the app linked at the quoted post. This image shows the posteriors and model evaluation using a 'strictly proper scoring rule', the Continuous Ranked Probability Score.
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Mridul K. Thomas @mridulkthomas.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
A Shiny app to help understand why some treatment levels matter more than others for common nonlinear functions in biology. I found that this helped me develop better intuition about experimental design. bsky.app/profile/mrid...
Screenshot of Shiny app to explore parameter sensitivity for common nonlinear functions in biology. Access the app through the link in the quoted thread.
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Mridul K. Thomas @mridulkthomas.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
A Shiny app to visualise and define Bayesian priors for common nonlinear functions in biology: growth responses to nutrients, light, temperature, and toxins. Lognormal priors are often a good choice but are horribly unintuitive. So I made this to visualise them and the curves that arise from them.
Screenshot of Shiny app linked to in the quoted thread.
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Ravi Ranjan @raviranjan.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
New preprint!🚨 @mridulkthomas.bsky.social and I used Bayesian optimal design to develop more efficient designs that were better at parameter estimation for common experiments like Monod nutrient curve. Mridul explains it really well in thread below. Preprint is here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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Helmut Hillebrand @hillebr1.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
More than a year ago researchers from @hifmb.de and @icbm-uol.bsky.social started to write about different perspectives on marine biodiversity change from natural and social science perspectives. This morphed into a review paper that was published online today link.springer.com/article/10.1... 🧪
link.springer.com
Towards a broader perspective on marine biodiversity change - Marine Biodiversity
Biodiversity decline jeopardizes the foundation of natural ecosystems and human well-being, a concern that prompted major global agreements aiming to bend the curve towards a net positive biodiversity...
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Changing Ocean Biological Systems working group @scor-cobs.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
The COBS working group is offering an experimental design workshop before Ocean Sciences in Glasgow in Feb 2026! 🌊 Join us for a day of learning about designing and analysing multiple stressor experiments without getting multiply stressed out. forms.office.com/Pages/Respon...
Date and time: 9:00–15:30, Sunday, February 8, 2026

Location: University of Glasgow, room details TBA

Title of the event: Designing multiple driver experiments

Conveners: Sinéad Collins, University of Edinburgh, Simin Gao, University of Edinburgh, Paul Renaud, Akvaplan-niva

Description: The MEDDLE resources were developed to help researchers design and carry out tractable and comparable multiple driver experiments. In this workshop, participants will learn how to use these resources to design multiple driver experiments. While the concepts and methods discussed can apply to many systems, examples used during the workshop will focus on manipulative experiments rather than observational data. 

The workshop is geared mainly towards PhD students, postdocs, and ECRs new to multiple driver research, and focuses heavily on the rationale of different experimental designs, and analysis strategies for multiple driver experiments. A basic working knowledge of statistics is needed (regression analysis), and statistical analysis examples will use R. Participants should bring a laptop with R and R studio installed. 

Topics include:
•	Defining a research question
•	Identifying relevant drivers
•	Identifying biological traits and responses
•	Experimental designs for multiple driver experiments
•	Statistical analysis plans

Hosted by the SCOR project “Changing Ocean Biological Systems”, this free workshop will be led by  Sinéad Collins, University of Edinburgh (UK), Simin Gao, University of  Edinburgh (UK), Paul Renaud, Akvaplan-niva (Norway). Spaces are limited. If you would like to attend, contact Sinéad Collins (s.collins@ed.ac.uk) by January 15, 2026 to register your interest. Limited to 24 people, so please register early!

Please include a brief (<150 words) statement outlining (a) your experience carrying out Ocean acidification or multiple driver experiments (if any) and (b) how you plan to incorporate multiple driver experiments into your work
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Mridul K. Thomas @mridulkthomas.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
How do temperature and resources interact to shape both population and community growth rates? We have a model that makes predictions at both levels! And we test them with experimental data from the lab & field. This one has been gestating for years and we're rather proud of it. Give it a read.
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Colin Kremer @quant-ecology.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
Ecologists recognize the importance of integrating across scales, yet our models often target specific scales. Our new paper presents models of population growth that scale up to explain community-level patterns, including interactions of temperature, light & nutrients. doi.org/10.1002/ecm....
3D figure showing how a family of unimodal, species-level thermal performance curves are collectively bounded by an exponential function across species, uniting predictions of growth rate at population and community levels. From Fig. S4.
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Sebastian Schreiber @sebastianschreiber.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
Join us for an @smtpb.bsky.social workshop on Modern Coexistence Theory. We'll cover mathematical foundations, the theory of partitioning, and data-based applications. Featuring @swatipatel.bsky.social, Nick Kortessis, & Lauren Shoemaker. Zoom link here: smtpb.org/event-6426026
Poster announcing the workshop.
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Mridul K. Thomas @mridulkthomas.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
Our experimental design workshop had ~40 participants from >15 countries! @raviranjan.bsky.social and I focused on refining ideas, estimating parameters precisely, leverage in linear & nonlinear regression, and using simulations to compare designs. Presentation & R scripts in next post:
youtube.com
Limnoseries: How to Design Better Experiments
YouTube video by GLEONetwork
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Lennart Bach @bachlennart.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
1/n This study led by @aaronferderer.bsky.social tested how 5 diatom species respond to broad ranges of seawater carbonate conditions. Goal was to determine carbonate chemistry niches and to inform Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE) and Ocean Acidification (OA) 🌊 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Carbonate chemistry fitness landscapes inform diatom resilience to future perturbations
Diatom growth rates are determined by concentrations of CO2 and H+ across broad carbonate chemistry landscapes.
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Daniel Padfield @padpadpadpad.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
I have an MRC-funded PhD project available (www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...) on how warming will change the problem of AMR. Join a small and friendly group (padpadpadpad.netlify.app/about) in (sometimes) sunny Cornwall. 🧪🦠 #microsky Please share the ad below with anyone who may be interested.
A teal flyer for a PhD opportunity to investigate how warming may change antimicrobial resistance. The project will use experiments on Klebsiella bacteria to answer questions about how temperature affects their response to antibiotics, plasmid transfer, and fitness costs. The research involves microbiology lab work, bioinformatics, and mathematical modeling. The flyer includes contact details for Dr. Daniel Padfield and the logos of the sponsoring institutions.
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Mridul K. Thomas @mridulkthomas.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
@raviranjan.bsky.social & I are teaching a free online workshop with on experimental design for environmental scientists on the 23rd. We'll focus on using simulations to evaluate how well different experimental designs help achieve your goals. Please sign up & share! forms.gle/MZTxeQs4UpMr...
Poster for 90 minute workshop on HOW TO DESIGN BETTER EXPERIMENTS, by Mridul Thomas & Ravi Ranjan. 

Details: September 23rd 16:00 CEST ; 14:00 UTC

Description: 

Experimental designs can make or break an experiment. A good experiment has a clear goal and efficiently uses experimental resources to achieve that goal. In this workshop, we will review what experiments are for, basic and advanced principles of designing experiments, and how to use simulations to evaluate designs before actually doing the
experiment. We’ll do a moderate amount of coding in R and so experience with this would be helpful but is not required. We intend to have small-group discussions to help participants develop their own experiments, and encourage participants to think of a specific question they would like to answer with an experiment.
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Caroline Farrior @cfarrior.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
We find stable coexistence of Rüger's tropical tree demographic strategies (slow, fast, short-lived breeders, and long-lived pioneers) in a model with just competition for light and stochastic small-scale disturbances. Great work, Damla Cinoğlu! besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Small disturbances and subsequent competition for light can maintain a diversity of demographic strategies in a neotropical forest: Results from model–data integration
You have to enable JavaScript in your browser's settings in order to use the eReader.
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The Company of Biologists @biologists.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
The Company of Biologists Workshop: Why Are Cells the Size They Are? Thank you to Workshop organisers Dustin Marshall and Craig White. #Workshop #Biology #CellBiology #Cells #Community #Collaboration #Research #Researchers #Academia #Academics
Workshop attendees standing on the steps in front of the event venue. The individuals are dressed in casual to semi-formal attire.

Image text: Why Are Cells the Size They Are?
Buxted Park, East Sussex, UK
13-16 July 2025
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Mridul K. Thomas @mridulkthomas.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
A couple of forthcoming workshops on experimental design and data analysis, taught by @christinamcgraw.bsky.social, Peter Dillingham, @sineadcollins.bsky.social, Sam Dupont, and me.
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Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
Get the word out far and wide. New opportunity from the Simons Foundation in the Eco-Evo space. 2026 Simons Graduate Fellowship in Ecology and Evolution Awards, due July 31, 2025, only for incoming PhD students who plan to start their PhDs in Fall 2026. www.simonsfoundation.org/grant/simons...
simonsfoundation.org
Simons Graduate Fellowships in Ecology and Evolution
The purpose of these awards is to provide support for students entering U.S.-based Ph.D. programs with a plan to perform research in ecology and evolution. While we will consider all projects in ecolo...
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Helmut Hillebrand @hillebr1.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
@icbm-uol.bsky.social offers a fully funded professorship in theoretical oceanography. Join a great team of physicists, chemists, and biologists working on the marine environment. Oldenburg is a truly livable city and connected to a range of marine institutes in NW Germany uol.de/en/job/w2-pr...
uol.de
Professorship in Theoretical Physical Oceanography // University of Oldenburg
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Jonas Wickman @jonaswickman.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
No more competing consumers than there are resources can coexist in equilibrium, but have you ever wondered how many consumers actually evolve as resource diversity increases? In our new paper, @chrisklausmeier.bsky.social and I investigate. (1/3) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
The effects of trade-off shape and dimensionality on eco-evolutionary dynamics in resource competition
Organisms invariably experience trade-offs in their capacities for interacting with their environments. In resource competition, this often means that…
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Nikhil Garg @nkgarg.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
*Please repost* @sjgreenwood.bsky.social and I just launched a new personalized feed (*please pin*) that we hope will become a "must use" for #academicsky. The feed shows posts about papers filtered by *your* follower network. It's become my default Bluesky experience bsky.app/profile/pape...
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ᐯIᑕTOᖇ ᑎIᘔET, ᗰᗪ @nizet.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
(it’s a fig tree)
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Jeff Conner @jeffreykconner.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
Kellogg Biological Station is searching for a new Director! KBS is unique in its ability to integrate lab and field research, as well as integrating fundamental research in ecology and evolution with applications to environmental problems. Questions to me or the search chairs. Please apply!
careers.msu.edu
Institute/Center Director-Management - Hickory Corners, Michigan, United States
Position Summary Questions regarding this position may be directed to the Search Committee Co-Chairs, Dr. Richard Kobe (kobe@msu.edu) and Dr. Andrea Case (caseand4@msu.edu). The position will remain o...
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Christine Sprunger @sprunger.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
The W.K. Kellogg Biological Station is looking for a new director! careers.msu.edu/jobs/institu...
careers.msu.edu
Institute/Center Director-Management - Hickory Corners, Michigan, United States
Position Summary Michigan State University seeks a resident Director for the W. K. Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) to provide leadership and promote a creative environment that fosters innovation and...
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Elena Litchman @elenalitchman.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
I am looking for a PhD student to start in fall of 2025 at MSU. Potential topics include trait-based approaches to plankton community resilience, temperature effects on communities, harmful algal blooms and many others. Please get in touch if interested. More info: www.kl-lab.group.
kl-lab.group
Klausmeier-Litchman Lab
Welcome to the Klausmeier-Litchman lab! We study empirical and theoretical community ecology, biodiversity and climate change, focusing on phytoplankton, other microbes and general theory. We use obse...
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Caroline Farrior @cfarrior.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
UT Austin Cluster Hire: Assistant/Associate/Full Professor in Advances in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science for Environmental Systems apply.interfolio.com/158908 Deadline: January 6, 2025
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Changing Ocean Biological Systems working group @scor-cobs.bsky.social · 12/11/2024
We've written papers/guides about how to improve experimental design so that we learn more from experiments. We also teach workshops and build tools based on these principles. 🌊 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Experimental strategies to assess the biological ramifications of multiple drivers of global ocean change—A review
Marine life is controlled by multiple physical and chemical drivers and by diverse ecological processes. Many of these oceanic properties are being altered by climate change and other anthropogenic p...
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Mridul K. Thomas @mridulkthomas.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
A starter pack of people working on thermal biology or metabolic theory. Presently a very short list, but I know y'all are out there - please tell me if you'd like to be added! (Or if you'd like to be taken off) go.bsky.app/nHLZbD
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Chris Moore @mutualismecology.bsky.social · 08/11/2024
I don't, but Oliver Pearson created "a mechanical model for the study of population dynamics" (www.jstor.org/stable/1933324) that "resembles a metamerically elongated pinball machine." So, a scientific pinball machine, but not Waddington's . . .
"Essentially the model consists of a long inclined plane into which a large number of holes has been drilled and down which balls are permitted to roll. It resembles a metamerically elongated pinball machine (Figure 1). As long as it remains on the surface, the ball represents a living animal; when it falls through a hole it represents
a dead animal. Balls that "survive" long enough are permitted to "reproduce," thereby contributing to the maintenance of the population. Numerous embellishments, however, are necessary before the model becomes rewardingly analogous to a wild
population, and these will be described below."
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Mridul K. Thomas @mridulkthomas.bsky.social · 20/08/2024
Do you do multiple driver/stressor experiments? 🌊 🧪 @raviranjan.bsky.social and I wrote a paper a few months ago to help you make them even better. annualreviews.org/content/jour... (OPEN ACCESS) (1/n)
annualreviews.org
Designing More Informative Multiple-Driver Experiments | Annual Reviews
For decades, multiple-driver/stressor research has examined interactions among drivers that will undergo large changes in the future: temperature, pH, nutrients, oxygen, pathogens, and more. However, ...
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Ravi Ranjan @raviranjan.bsky.social · 09/08/2024
This is an amazing program for students applying to EEB PhD programs in the US. If you can help with the PhD app process, please consider signing up as a mentor. If you are applying for PhDs, sign up as a mentee and get some feedback on your application. Reposts are greatly appreciated too.
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Joelyn de Lima @joelyndelima.bsky.social · 03/05/2024
Can teaching assistants help us build inclusive classrooms? Well yes! They not only consider it part of their role, but also feel confident about their abilities to do so. Short 🧵 about our new paper on work done with Siara Isaac & Helena Kovax at EPFL. doi.org/10.1080/0304...
doi.org
Teaching assistants’ contributions to creating inclusive and equitable learning spaces in engineering
Sustainable engineering education requires us to address discrimination and inequity of experience, thereby contributing to a renewal of the engineering profession that reflects a rich diversity of...
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Jonas Wickman @jonaswickman.bsky.social · 15/02/2024
Delighted to announce our new paper in Science. @chrisklausmeier.bsky.social, @elenalitchman.bsky.social, and I show how power-law scaling at the micro (individual) level is translated by eco-evolutionary dynamics into power-law scaling at the macro (food-web) level. 1/5
science.org
Eco-evolutionary emergence of macroecological scaling in plankton communities
Eco-evolutionary dynamics informed by allometric scaling can predict large-scale patterns across planktonic food webs.
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Chris Klausmeier @chrisklausmeier.bsky.social · 15/12/2023
We will run a weekly online seminar on resource competition theory and related ecological theories next semester (from the week of January 8 to the week of April 15, time noon-1:30PM Eastern, day TBD).
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Chuliang Song @clsong.com · 14/12/2023
Below are some of the best theory papers I read this year. Each one expands on an original idea, bringing it to full fruition and addressing long-standing questions in our field.
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