iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Thank you for your kind words, glad you enjoyed it! Exciting then, Yes let's talk soon! Looking forward to chatting

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🔗https://seanpangecology.wordpress.com/2026/06/24/e4-award-2nd-place-the-story-behind-my-demographic-niche-concept-and-why-species-persist/

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I wrote a short blog about where the idea came from, how it evolved, and why revisiting Maguire's overlooked work from 1973 became the catalyst for developing the Demographic Niche Concept. If you're interested in the story behind the science see below!

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The idea didn't begin with a dataset or a model. It began with the feeling that ecological niche concept and demography were asking the same fundamental question—why species persist in some places but not others—but from different perspectives. That disconnect fascinated me.

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Sean Pang @seh-pang.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

What if we're thinking about the ecological niche... incompletely? That question stayed with me for more than five years. It eventually became the foundation of the Demographic Niche Concept—and, ultimately, my Marie Curie project.

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🏅Delighted that our paper introducing the Demographic Niche Concept has been recognised 🥈for @ecography.bsky.social's E4 Award! The niche as composed of multiple demographic niches, of survival, growth, and reproduction~ Short Video Abstract explaining the idea youtu.be/AthZF6v06ho

youtu.be

E4 award runner-up: the demographic niche concept for understanding range-wide population dynamics

YouTube video by Ecography

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Sean Pang @seh-pang.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Excited to get Name Cards for the first time! Looking forward to sharing them at #ATBC2026 China! Interested in species distributions, demography, climate change impacts, or tropical forests? Come say hi! Excited to discuss collaborations, student projects, and new ideas. See you there!

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Sean Pang @seh-pang.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

How did a City boy from Singapore come to love the many wonders of nature? So much that he dedicated his life's career to unraveling it? Well, its thanks to people like Sir David Attenborough, who among many others, brought the world to me. Happy 100th boss!

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It also raises a broader question… How often do we infer ecological patterns without fully accounting for the demographic processes that generate them? How much will these inferred patterns change when we consider the Demographic Niche Concept?

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This builds on a long lineage—from Hutchinson’s niche hypervolume to Maguire’s demographic perspective and Grubb’s regeneration niche—but brings these ideas together into a unified framework.

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In that sense, the niche is a demographic construct. Defined by the conditions under which combinations of vital rates can sustain population persistence (non-negative population growth rates).

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Crucially, these vital rates don’t vary independently. Trade-offs, covariation, and shared environmental drivers mean that their combined effects on population dynamics are inherently non-additive. *but demography seldom examines these covariation along env gradients

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This means the ecological niche is not directly observed, but arises from the interaction of demographic processes (survival, reproduction, development), rather than any single response. *we neglect this when we only look at presence-absence or population abundance or trends!

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The shift here is recognising that the niche is not a primitive property of organisms, but an emergent product of multiple vital rates—each responding differently across environments and through time.

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The niche concept explains where species can persist—but not always why. Integrating old, near forgotten ideas with modern demography, the Demographic Niche Concept provides a process-based foundation for understanding niches and distributions. nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Jens-Christian Svenning @jcsvenning.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Reposted by Sean Pang

Excited to see @seh-pang.bsky.social new @ecography.bsky.social paper out: a timely formalisation of the demographic niche concept, linking niche theory with vital rates to better understand range-wide population dynamics and #globalchange responses 🌿♨️🌍 #speciesdistributions #demography #ecology

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Exciting piece as part of @ecography.bsky.social E4 Review Awards! Look out for the other excellent reviews there!

Super grateful to my collaborators that helped sharpen my ideas and bring them to fruition. @erolafenollosa.bsky.social Cory Merow, Antoine Guisan @ecospat-ch.bsky.social @jcsvenning.bsky.social @robsalgo.bsky.social @salgoteam.bsky.social

This builds on long-standing ideas (e.g. Maguire 1973) and recent demographic modelling work, but aims to provide a unified conceptual framework.

The key idea: different vital rates respond differently to the same environment, and their overlap determines whether populations persist (log λ ≥ 0). This helps explain mismatches between occurrence-based models and demographic performance.

Richard K Broughton @richardkbroughton.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

📜New Paper📜@ecography.bsky.social Species distributions aren’t just about where species occur, but how survival, reproduction and development vary across environments. We formalise the Demographic Niche Concept to link niche theory and demography. nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

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Reposted by Sean Pang

Very telling from the birdfood industry. Despite new RSPB/BTO advice on birdfeeding based on a solid scientific review, and RSPB taking a ££ hit themselves, EVERY major birdfood company is attacking/rejecting the guidance, claiming to know better, putting their incomes over conservation. Shameful.

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Sean Pang @seh-pang.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

Random life thoughts: It is hard to appreciate another man's struggles if you only see his fortunes. It is easy to be jealous of that one success I see, but how willing am I to brave the 100 failures before it?

Nicola Rennie @nrennie.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Reposted by Sean Pang

I've recently made some changes to the gallery of all my data visualisations 📊 Most examples now have links to the underlying source code! If you see something you like, you can see how it was made 🤩 #DataViz #RStats

Screenshot of data visualisation gallery

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Reposted by Sean Pang

Anya Auerbach @aauerbach.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

I love when new versions of the Eukaryotic tree come out, just casually reorganizing our understanding of the diversity of life. I may study birds but showing students how incredibly animal/vertebrate-centric our understanding of biodiversity is has to be one of my absolute favorite things.

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Reposted by Sean Pang

Jens-Christian Svenning @jcsvenning.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

New Science Advances paper: 60 years of change across European plant communities reveals a widespread shift toward denser vegetation, with increasing shade tolerance across habitats. Proud to co-author this important work🍃 #ecology www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

science.org

Sixty years of plant community change in Europe indicate a shift toward nutrient-richer and denser vegetation

Bioindication reveals a 60-year shift toward denser, more productive vegetation, but a weak thermophilization signal.

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Reposted by Sean Pang

IPBES @ipbes.net · 02/03/2026

The new IPBES #BizBiodiversity Assessment Report makes clear: business transparency is essential to maintain trust. 📢 Access the full media kit, including the Summary for Policymakers (SPM), multilingual press releases, and various multimedia assets at this link: bit.ly/IPBES12Media

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Sean Pang @seh-pang.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Good morning #BES2025! Curious about demographic niches? Decomposing the vital rates that make up a species niche? Head down to poster B14.26 later today to find out more! Let's chat science! @britishecologicalsociety.org

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Sean Pang @seh-pang.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

Remembering #JaneGoodall and her life's dedication to understanding primates, conservation, and reaching out to the next generation of nature lovers. There's always a bit of sadness, in hearing about the passing of great figures, but more important is that we remember their work.

Sean Pang @seh-pang.bsky.social · 13/09/2025

Even when the sky is falling, there will be a hole for you to squeeze through #AcademicLife #lifequotes

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Reposted by Sean Pang

Tobias Kuemmerle @tkuemmerle.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

So sad to read this 😢 As someone working in 🇦🇷 for 10+ years I know that Argentine colleagues always had to face difficult and often unpredictable conditions. But the Milei government is dismantling Argentina's scientific system with unprecedented aggression - www.nature.com/articles/d41...

nature.com

‘There will be nothing left’: researchers fear collapse of science in Argentina

One year into Javier Milei’s presidency, scientists are exiting the country in the face of big budget cuts.

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An important but often overlooked aspect of rewilding or any restoration science is that IT TAKES TIME for nature to come back! We may remove the farm and even seed the land, but what if the little mice, katydid, spider, or bird is 200 km away? Conservation needs to be active!

Exciting work done by @erolafenollosa.bsky.social as part of her #MSCA with @robsalgo.bsky.social @salgoteam.bsky.social, also with Natalie Briscoe and Antoine Guisan @ecospat-ch.bsky.social! It was a pleasure to have worked on this piece with everyone!

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📌Essential reading for: Ecologists modeling invasive species, Conservation biologists investigating global change impacts, Anyone building models beyond correlative SDMs! 📚The advantages, risks, data requirements, and modelling pitfalls, all compiled neatly for your viewing!

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