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Rob Puschendorf

@rpuschen.bsky.social
64 followers 63 following 16 posts

Tropical biologist interested in conservation

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Reposted by Rob Puschendorf
Zeke Hausfather @zekehausfather.com · 22/09/2026
I have a new piece out in Nature today on the record-breaking 2026/2027 El Niño, what impacts we should expect, and how governments can prepare. The Niño3.4 region is currently running more than 1C hotter than any prior event on record, and we remain months away from the peak www.nature.com/artic...
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Rod Page @rdmpage.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Jobs galore at @nhm-london.bsky.social @dissco.bsky.social - jobs.nhm.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai... - jobs.nhm.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai... - jobs.nhm.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai... - jobs.nhm.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai... - jobs.nhm.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai... including Heads of Digitisation and Technical Innovation
jobs.nhm.ac.uk
DiSSCo UK Digitiser:South Kensington
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🍁 Alex Smith 🍁 @alexsmithants.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
🧪 🪲🐜🐛🦟🦗🐞🦋 How many insect species & why it matters. An interview with @jonathanmccrea.bsky.social on RTE Ireland’s #Futureproof about that very topic via our recent @pnas.org paper about old estimates that need to be raised! doi.org/10.1073/pnas... (@ 15 min) podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/f...

Collage of three images associated with the paper : top on is a strangler fig in ACG rainforest, bottom left is a Malaise trap in ACG cloud forest and bottom right is an ACG microgasteine wasp
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🍁 Alex Smith 🍁 @alexsmithants.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
🧪🧵 🪰 🐜🪲🐞🦗🐛🦋🪳🦟 Only 3.6% of species we recovered were linked to formal names and so we used DNA barcode derived ‘BINs’ as species proxies. doi.org/10.1139/gen-... @gdfcf.bsky.social @rpuschen.bsky.social
image of a staphylinid beetle with a staphylinid DNA barcode behind itimage of a micrograstrine wasp with a microgastrine wasp dna barcode behind it
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🍁 Alex Smith 🍁 @alexsmithants.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
🧪🧵 🪰 🐜🪲🐞🦗🐛🦋🪳🦟 After nearly 4 million records, we found extremely high turnover. Most species were exclusive to a single region & each life zone harbors unique assemblages, strongly associated with temperature and precipitation doi.org/10.1139/gen-... @gdfcf.bsky.social @rpuschen.bsky.social
Figure S9. A comparison of betadiversity decay when calculated as Bray Curtis (A, C, E) dissimilarity where points are coloured by the difference in mean annual temperature (A), precipitation (C) or elevation (E) from the 28 Costa Rican locations. Irrespective of index, the sites that are farther apart geographically and by some combination of annual temperature, precipitation or elevation are the most dissimilar. Figure S6. Non-metric multidimensional scaling ordination (NMDS) based on the Bray–Curtis coefficient of community dissimilarity calculated from the 28 localities by 152 891 BIN incidence matrix of Costa Rica insects. Two of the significant vectors here (mean temperature, mean annual precipitation) were derived from the 30 arc-second (1km) resolution of future bioclimatic variables from the ACCESS-ESM1-5 climate model under the SSP5-8.5 emissions scenario for the 2021-2040 period in WorldClim version 2.1. Consensus tree of localities derived from 100 bootstrap replicates, using UPGMA based on Jaccard’s distance.,
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🍁 Alex Smith 🍁 @alexsmithants.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
🧪🧵 🪰 🐜🪲🐞🦗🐛🦋🪳🦟 Were there patterns in what groups we found? 🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰A LOT OF FLIES 🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰 (and also loads of Hymenoptera, Coleoptera and Hemiptera). doi.org/10.1139/gen-... @gdfcf.bsky.social @rpuschen.bsky.social
Figure S2. Frequency of BINs for most Orders and Families collected across in 28 localities from 2017 to 2023, using Malaise traps.Figure S2. Frequency of BINs for most Orders and Families collected across in 28 localities from 2017 to 2023, using Malaise traps.image of the parasitoid tachind fly Santarosamyia woodrum (female paratype) from Part of: Fleming AJ, Smith MA, Hallwachs W, Janzen D (2025) A new genus and a new species in the tribe Eryciini (Diptera, Tachinidae) from Area de Conservación Guanacaste in north-western Costa Rica. Biodiversity Data Journal 13: e161853. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.13.e161853
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🍁 Alex Smith 🍁 @alexsmithants.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
🧪🧵 🪰 🐜🪲🐞🦗🐛🦋🪳🦟 Nearly 4 million records and 152 891 species. That’s a lot! (and there’s more to be found!) doi.org/10.1139/gen-... @gdfcf.bsky.social @rpuschen.bsky.social
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🍁 Alex Smith 🍁 @alexsmithants.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
🧪🧵 🪰 🐜🪲🐞🦗🐛🦋🪳🦟 Thanks to all co-authors, in particular José A. Hernández Ugalde from CONAGEBio, & all associated with ACG & GDFCF – the hybrid association formed to aid with the development, protection, & sustainability of ACG. doi.org/10.1139/gen-... @gdfcf.bsky.social @rpuschen.bsky.social
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🍁 Alex Smith 🍁 @alexsmithants.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
🧪 🪰 🐜🪲🐞🦗🐛🦋🪳🦟 All the data is available here: doi.org/10.5683/SP3/... @gdfcf.bsky.social @rpuschen.bsky.social 🧵 end.
Image from ACG forests at ~1000m on Volcan Cacao - home to incredible insect diversity
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🍁 Alex Smith 🍁 @alexsmithants.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
🧪 🪰 🐜🪲🐞🦗🐛🦋🪳🦟 We analysed 3.78 million DNA barcodes from 152,891 Costa Rican insect species. Our results reveal limited community overlap across ecosystems, suggesting unique species assemblages in each life zone. doi.org/10.1139/gen-... @gdfcf.bsky.social @rpuschen.bsky.social 🧵
collage of from top left going clockwise: microgastrine wasp with DNA barcode, Malaise trap at 1300 on Volcan Cacao, forest at 1500m on Volcan Cacao, three ACG volcanos, map of the predicted spatial distribution of insect diversity patterns across mainland Costa Rica. Each color represents one of the seven mainland distribution patterns delineated here. Central image of GDFCF associated people working on the paper. 
Collage of authors: Clockwise from top left: Jenny Phillips, Roberto Fernandez, Jose Ugalde, Alex Smith, Jose Fernandez Triana, Mike Sharkey, Dan Janzen, Winnie Hallwachs, Rob Puschendorf and Ronald Zuniga
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🍁 Alex Smith 🍁 @alexsmithants.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
🧪🧵 🪰 🐜🪲🐞🦗🐛🦋🪳🦟 Most samples emerged from Malaise traps in national biodiversity initiative, BioAlfa. We analysed these Malaise traps across Costa Rica sampled between 2017 and 2023. doi.org/10.1139/gen-... @gdfcf.bsky.social @rpuschen.bsky.social
 Janzen and Hallwachs 2019 article about bialfa, https://journal.lib.uoguelph.ca/index.php/ibol/article/download/5526/5454, Image of Malaise trap at 1300m on Volcan Cacao, ACGimages of malaise traps and forest at 1500m in cloud forest (top) and 8 m elevation in tropical dry forest (bottom)image of insects in Malaise trap head at 8m elevation in tropical dry forest.
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Prof. Eliot Jacobson @climatecasino.net · 05/08/2026
Breaking News! Code: Bonkers! El Nino continues to spike towards an all-time record high anomaly, with the Nino 3.4 sea surface temperature more than 2.6°C above the 1991-2020 baseline as of August 4th, and more than 1.0C° above the previous August 4th record set in 1997.
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Extreme Temperatures Around the World @extremetemps.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
MOST EXTREME DAY IN EUROPEAN HISTORY Thousands of records have been shattered with the hugest margins ever seen in European history from West to East. There has never been anything like this, not even last June. Wait for many updates later.
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Prof. Eliot Jacobson @climatecasino.net · 04/08/2026
Breaking News! Code Bonkers! As of August 3rd, Nino 3.4 has crossed 2.5°C above the 1991-2020 baseline. The Climate Casino predicted August 1st for this crossing and now has a lot of fake-bets to pay out. Was the fix in? Next up, 3.0°C by August 21st.
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Prof. Eliot Jacobson @climatecasino.net · 01/08/2026
Breaking News! Code: Bonkers! As of July 31st, Nino 3.4 sea-surface temperatures are now 2.48°C above the 1991-2020 baseline and more than 1.15°C above the previous daily high. The Climate Casino took the "Over" on 2.5°C by August 1st. Stay tuned!
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Extreme Temperatures Around the World @extremetemps.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
EXCEPTIONAL HEAT IN INDONESIA We are witnessing something beyond imagination: All Oceania and SE Asia are smashing ever record over and over again,only to be rebroken one day later. Today 36.2C Bengkulu rebroke the August record set yesterday. Will it hold for over 1 day ?
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Abilu Tangwa. @abilutangwa.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Every single second, the world hands $6,000 to the fossil fuel industry in subsidies. That’s $5 TRILLION every year. Renewables? Barely a fraction of that. We are literally paying to cook our own planet. When does this madness stop? 🌍💸 #ClimateCrisis #FossilFuels
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Extreme Temperatures Around the World @extremetemps.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
SOUTH AMERICA RECORD HEAT Record heat everywhere ,specially at night ECUADOR had its hottest August night in history with a Min of 25.9C at Manta and also 25.2C at Guayaquil. Expect records all 31 days of the month,because The Strong ENSO+ influence.
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Christopher Cartwright @chriscartwright.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Highest temperatures 02.08.2026 part 1 51.6 Iran 50 Kuwait 49 Iraq KSA 48 47 Oman UAE 46 🇺🇸 Qatar 45 Algeria Egypt Morocco 44 Israel Pakistan 43 Jordan Turkmenistan China Uzbekistan Kazakhstan Syria 42 Bahrain Yemen South Korea Djibouti Tajikistan Turkey Mauritania #ClimateCrisis
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The Marine Biological Association @thembauk.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
This is why we look to the plankton 👀 🌊 The Continuous Plankton Recorder Survey has been tracking plankton populations over decades, giving us the vital long-term data needed to understand change and inform global ocean policy. Find out more - www.cprsurvey.org
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Xav Harrison @xavh.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Just under 2 weeks left to apply for this NERC-funded postdoc to study AMR transmission dynamics in migratory birds.
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Schmidt Ocean Institute @schmidtocean.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
The #DeepWonders team, led by @divaamon.bsky.social, encountered this curious grenadier fr the genus Coryphaenoides at 1,900m — 2.3 times as deep as the height of the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Also known as rattails, most are smaller; this individual was nearly 1m long.
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Guanacaste Dry Forest Conservation Fund @gdfcf.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
This isn't just a paper about insects. It's a demonstration of what decades of biodiversity inventory, conservation, and scientific collaboration can achieve. Congratulations to Dan & Winnie, the parataxonomists, and all the authors on this remarkable PNAS publication. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
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Rob Puschendorf @rpuschen.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
www.scientificamerican.com/article/amer...
scientificamerican.com
America’s compact between science and politics is broken, and we’re all going to pay
How did we get here?
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The Royal Society @royalsociety.org · 01/06/2026
Professor Lars Chittka FRS is elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. His work has transformed our understanding of animal intelligence by demonstrating that bees, despite their tiny brains, exhibit advanced cognitive abilities such as counting, attention and others. #RSFellows bit.ly/49xJuRy
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Rob Puschendorf @rpuschen.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
Entire NSF science advisory board fired by Trump administration www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
Entire NSF science advisory board fired by Trump administration
Members of the National Science Board, which the US Congress founded in 1950, were given no explanation for their termination.
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Rob Puschendorf @rpuschen.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
Paul R. Ehrlich, Who Alarmed the World With ‘The Population Bomb,’ Dies at 93 www.nytimes.com/2026/03/15/b...
nytimes.com
Paul R. Ehrlich, Who Alarmed the World With ‘The Population Bomb,’ Dies at 93
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Dezene Huber 🍁 🌻 @dezene.me · 24/12/2025
‘tis the season to be aware of Christmas beetle decline. “Researchers point to several possible causes including drought, climate change and the loss of eucalypt forest and woodland habitats, which are essential for the beetles’ survival.” 🪲 🪳 🌏 www.northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au/council/news...
northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au
Where have the Christmas beetles gone?
Christmas beetles, once the glittering party crashers of Australian summers, are vanishing.
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🍁 Alex Smith 🍁 @alexsmithants.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
I’m going to LOVE adding this next part of the story to #ZOO2700 in January!
media.tenor.com
a man in a tie is sitting at a desk with his arms crossed and a laptop on it .
Alt: a man in a tie is sitting at a desk with his arms crossed and a laptop on it opens the lap top to begin typing
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Jonathan Drury @jonathanpdrury.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
Looking for a PhD opportunity? I'm hoping to recruit someone to my group at Durham University to work on a project combining fieldwork and labwork to study speciation in rubyspot damselflies: iapetus.ac.uk/studentships... Get in touch if you want to chat!
The Durham cathedralA male smoky rubyspot damselfly
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School of Biological & Marine Sciences, University of Plymouth @plymbiomarsci.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
The University of Plymouth is #recruiting a Technical Specialist (Skipper) to support teaching & research at our Marine Station Operate the 14m Falcon Spirit and small-craft fleet, ensuring safe, high-quality marine operations. hrservices.plymouth.ac.uk/tlive_webrec... #MaritimeJobs #MarineScience
hrservices.plymouth.ac.uk
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Prof Martin Attrill @martinattrill.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
I really can’t fathom why COP30 didn’t deliver what was needed 🤔 (from @privateeyenews.bsky.social)
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School of Biological & Marine Sciences, University of Plymouth @plymbiomarsci.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
We’re recruiting a Professor of Marine Technology & Autonomy at the @plymuni.bsky.social, to help drive and expand our new cross-disciplinary research centre, #CMAST, the Centre for Marine Autonomy, Maritime Cyber-Security and Technology. #AcademicJob hrservices.plymouth.ac.uk/tlive_webrec...
hrservices.plymouth.ac.uk
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Yawako @yawaguchi.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
I’ve released a tool to sketch and edit phylogenetic trees! yawak.jp/PhyloWeaver/ Load a Newick file and intuitively add/remove/resize branches. Useful for quick conceptual trees, extracting subtrees, or turning ideas into Newick.
yawak.jp
PhyloWeaver – Interactive phylogenetic tree editor
Edit and visualize phylogenetic trees directly in your browser. PhyloWeaver lets you interactively rearrange tree topologies and export high-quality figures for publications and presentations.
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Schmidt Ocean Institute @schmidtocean.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
Skating into the weekend . . . like a cartilaginous fish! Related to sharks w/wings for hovering & flying over the seafloor & a long, whiplike tail for steering. We see them during ROV dives, burrowed into the sediment, utterly still until they can ambush their next meal. 235m #Taleof2Canyons
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C. Chen @ Jamsteeeec @squamiferum.bsky.social · 11/10/2025
[New Paper] Two shrimp species, Rimicaris loihi and R. cambonae, live side by side at hydrothermal vents — yet remain genetically distinct. Our genomic data and decadal sampling reveal insights on their demography and speciation! Out now in Molecular Ecology, OPEN ACCESS: doi.org/10.1111/mec....
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Zack Steel 🪶🦇🌲🔥 @zacksteel.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
New research from our lab documents important drought impacts on desert bird communities in the SW United States 🌎🐦 25 years of bird data across the Mojave & Sonoran deserts, show drought drives clear declines in bird abundance & species richness. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 1/3
sciencedirect.com
Increased drought drives avian community declines in the warm deserts of the United States
The frequencies, intensities, and durations of extreme weather are increasing under climate change, furthering biodiversity loss. In the Southwestern …
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University of Exeter's Environment and Sustainability Institute @uniofexeteresi.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
New PhD Studentship Opportunity! Work with @exeter.ac.uk and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) on this exciting project. The programme offers 4-year fully-funded PhD studentships to support Black British researchers. @uniexecec.bsky.social @cornwall.exeter.ac.uk @sarahenelms.bsky.social
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Louise Firth @louisefirth.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
We are advertising a 28-mo postdoc on hybrid #ecoengineering in #saltmarshes @ University College Cork, @ucc.ie 🇮🇪🇪🇺. Ref no 087274. EU & @marineinst.bsky.social funded BLUESHORES Project. State date: 1st Sept 2025. Salary: €45,847–€52,339. 🌱🌊🦀🐌 See link: universityvacancies.com/university-c...
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
When warnings of Insectageddon were issued a few years ago, there was widespread denial. Less so now. It's devastating. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
‘Half the tree of life’: ecologists’ horror as nature reserves are emptied of insects
A new point in history has been reached, entomologists say, as climate-led species’ collapse moves up the food chain even in supposedly protected regions free of pesticides
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Schmidt Ocean Institute @schmidtocean.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
A sea star, despite a friendly-sounding name, is a carnivore that envelops prey—expelling a cardiac stomach from the center of its body to engulf & dissolve its meal into a gastric soup. Read full caption & @echinoblog.bsky.social paper on sea star predation here: www.instagram.com/reel/DKcp9OB...
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School of Biological & Marine Sciences, University of Plymouth @plymbiomarsci.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
Dr Thomas Murphy, @plymuni.bsky.social has written for @uk.theconversation.com about the most effective and sustainable ways to meet the growing demand for more forests.🍁🌍 theconversation.com/how-to-creat...
theconversation.com
How to create a thriving forest, not box-checking ‘tree cover’
The UK is set to plant 20 million trees to form a new ‘national forest’ in the west of England.
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🍁 Alex Smith 🍁 @alexsmithants.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
🧪🪲🐞🗺️ 📢 a neat news piece from @respublications.bsky.social #RESEcolEnt about the @alexandreloureiro.bsky.social led global #meta-analysis of #elevation & #biodiversity for #beetle #Coleoptera families. www.royensoc.co.uk/news/do-beet... Read the paper here: doi.org/10.1111/een....
royensoc.co.uk
Do beetle families show a common pattern of taxon or phylogenetic diversity across elevation? - Journal Highlight - Royal Entomological Society
Do beetle families show a common pattern of taxon or phylogenetic diversity across elevation?  First published: 16 April 2025 A recent review article by Alexandre M. M. C. Loureiro and M. Alex Smith i...
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Rob Puschendorf @rpuschen.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
What an honour, thank you 👍❤️👍❤️
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Rob Puschendorf @rpuschen.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
Mangrove Comeback: Restoring West Africa’s Coast Our new paper shows how hydrological repair and invasive grass removal successfully restored degraded mangrove communities in Benin achieving 90% survival over 2 years onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #mangroves #restoration #climateaction
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Rob Puschendorf @rpuschen.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
What an honour, thank you 👍❤️👍❤️
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Rob Puschendorf @rpuschen.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
#home, for a bit
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Rob Puschendorf @rpuschen.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
peerj.com/blog/post/11...
peerj.com
Article Spotlight: Future climate-driven habitat loss and range shift of the Critically Endangered whitefin swellshark Cephaloscyllium albipinnum | PeerJ Blog
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Kerry 🦈 @okerrybrown.bsky.social · 02/03/2025
From undergraduate thesis to published paper 📑 🦈 “Future climate-driven habitat loss and range shift of the Critically Endangered whitefin swellshark (Cephaloscyllium albipinnum)” 🔗 doi.org/10.7717/peer... #climatechange #sharks #UniversityofPlymouth #SharkResearch #SharkConservation #JCU
doi.org
Future climate-driven habitat loss and range shift of the Critically Endangered whitefin swellshark (Cephaloscyllium albipinnum)
Climate change is driving many species to shift their geographical ranges poleward to maintain their environmental niche. However, for endemic species with restricted ranges, like the Critically Endan...
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