Jean-Philippe Lessard

“If you keep your mind too open, your brain falls out”: interview with theoretical ecologist Chuliang Song Welcome to our latest interview with the author of a recent(ish) interesting paper. Today’s interview is with theoretical ecologist Chuliang Song. I asked Chuliang about Song & Levine 202…

Don't miss today's Dynamic Ecology interview with @clsong.com. Jeremy wasn't lying when he wrote "Reading this is going to be way more entertaining and thought-provoking than whatever you were planning to spend the next 15 minutes doing."

dynamicecology.wordpress.com/2026/03/11/i...

Some of my favorite ants for sure. Saw them years ago on a trip to Brunei, Borneo. 🤩

Hexapodcast3 Diversity With Matt Forister (with images) YouTube video by Lee Dyer

If you need a break from bad news, our little unpolished hexapodcast about insects is an ok 25 minute listen. youtu.be/0KKGcgw75gQ?...

Check out this cool paper lead by @hasikadam.bsky.social and including important contributions from undergraduate students in our lab.

Melanization response to parasitism in odonates could be the by-product of dessication resistance adaptation

Rising temperatures pose a threat to tropical insects An assessment of sensitivity to increasing temperature for thousands of insect species in mountainous terrain reveals a risk of insect biodiversity loss in tropical lowlands.

There is also an amazing news article in @nature.com on our recent paper in the same journal.

Rising temperatures pose a threat to tropical insects www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Limited thermal tolerance in tropical insects and its genomic signature - Nature A survey of tropical insect populations and thermal tolerance limits indicates that species from lowland areas have low capacity to survive increased temperatures, and that thermal tolerance is limite...

Looks like a fundamental study and approach ... Limited thermal tolerance in tropical insects and its genomic signature. Insects at high elevations utilize plasticity to cope with rising temperatures, whereas lowland species have limited plastic abilities. www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧪🌐

iDiv and @uni-jena.de are recruiting a Postdoctoral Researcher (f/m/d) in Trait-Based Community Ecology and Modelling.

Highlights:
🔺Full-time (100%, 40 h/week) with the option to reduce to 80%
🔺Fixed-term for 2 years
🔺Salary up to E13 TV‑L

📆 Apply by: 29 March 2026

www.idiv.de/career/job-o...

Interested in being a #journal #reviewer? The Entomological Society of America journals have a new reviewer application site---if you are interested, this allows you to volunteer! New reviewers will be searchable in the portal by editors, who would love your input! app.smartsheet.com/b/form/8aa2e...

Florida turtle ant (Cephalotes varians) Nature Ecology & Evolution - Corrie S. Moreau studies the evolution of extreme armour and gut microbiomes in turtle ants.

How fun! I was invited to write a "Species Spotlight" for Nature Ecology & Evolution @natecoevo.nature.com and I chose my favorite species the Florida turtle ant Cephalotes varians! rdcu.be/e5EZK Including a stunning photo of ants I collected by @alexwild.bsky.social

Best practices for moving from correlation to causation in ecological research - Nature Communications Different scientific traditions offer seemingly disparate approaches to inferring causal relationships in ecological systems. This Perspective unifies the causal assumptions and methods from...

Excited to share our new paper in @natcomms.nature.com We synthesize causal discovery & inference approaches across traditions (regression adjustment, quasi-expts, SEMs, Granger causality, convergent cross-mapping, and more) into a unified workflow for ecologists. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Apply by March 15 for 2026 Undergraduate Research Fellowships at Michigan Field Station | U-M LSA University of Michigan Biological Station (UMBS) The University of Michigan Biological Station is recruiting students from across the country for its undergraduate research fellowship program that runs June 15 – Aug. 7, 2026, and includes mentors, a...

Undergrad students from across the U.S., join us for eight weeks this summer for a fully supported experience conducting field research under the guidance of mentors. Fellows receive a $5,500 stipend and on-campus housing and meals. Apply by March 15: myumi.ch/JPJxw

Apply Today to be a student at the UMich Biological Station! All majors welcome. Scholarships galore. 6 credits in 4 weeks

Spring and Summer Courses: myumi.ch/qZ12Q

Undergraduate Research Fellowships: myumi.ch/Z2E9q

Regression of genes linked to the oral apparatus in myrmecophagous mammals

New @erc.europa.eu funded #ConvergeAnt preprint on using the evolution of pseudogenes to document the parallel regression of oral anatomy in myrmecophagous mammals posted at @biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The ant Odontoponera denticulata is widely distributed across Southeast Asia, where it tends to live in open habitat. Here is the entrance of a colony I encountered on a river bank in Danum Valley, Sabah. The second image shows a forager of the same colony.

Pink flower of common stork's-bill with a tiny male bee, dark in color with many long whitish hairs

I love these striking asymmetries in plant-animal interactions. Here you have one of the most widespread European plants (Erodium cicutarium) visited by Andrena (Avandrena) baldocki, a bee species known only from the southernmost Iberian Peninsula and whose females gather exclusively Erodium pollen

Root‐mycorrhizal foraging strategies shift with forest age more than with nitrogen manipulation Plant nutrient foraging depends on roots and mycorrhizal fungi, which are affected by plant carbon (C) investment and soil nutrient availability. The C supply for root metabolism and associated fungi...

And find Ding et al.'s study of mycorrhizal-tree root relationships here: doi.org/10.1002/ecm....

Cover of the February 2026 issue of Ecological Monographs

The February cover of "Ecological Monographs" gets right to the root! This larch root & its fuzzy fungal partner were photographed as part of a study showing how roots & fungal allies shift their foraging strategies as forests age

Find the issue: esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/15577015...

📢 A new publication from our team is now out in the
@ecologicalsociety.bsky.social BULLETIN!
👉 doi.org/10.1002/bes2...

It shows how community, collaboration, & multilingual science are not extras—they are essential for equity in ecology. 🌎

📢Please share to amplify Latin American voices!

In the ESA Bulletin: A review of the #ESA2024 symposium “Nuestra Comunidad: The Role of Latin American Networks in Supporting Ecologists Throughout Their Careers,” organized by the Latin America and the Caribbean Chapter ⬇️

Editorial Expression of Concern for the Report “Meta-analysis reveals declines in terrestrial but increases in freshwater insect abundances” On 24 April 2020, Science published the Report “Meta-analysis reveals declines in terrestrial but increases in freshwater insect abundances” by R. van Klink et al. (1). The editors have been made awar...

⚠️ Editorial Expression of Concern for the Report : Meta-analysis reveals declines in terrestrial but increases in freshwater insect abundances 🪲 DOI:10.1126/science.aax9931

🔗 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

🌐🧪🌍🦤

Nuestra Comunidad: The Role of Latin American Networks in Supporting Ecologists Throughout Their Careers Click on the article title to read more.

esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

@esalatamcarib.bsky.social

Unbelievable

Interesting work

Tough one.

Wordle 1,675 6/6

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Some empirical evidence that diversifying editorial boards benefit journals via impact on reviewer selection. Nice work @martin-nunez.bsky.social

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/WADIGJ...

New paper out!
Savary, Tannier & Foltête. 2026. The negative impact of urban sprawl on biodiversity: a simulation approach to genetic diversity in European cities. Land.Urb.Plan. doi.org/10.1016/j.la...
Sprawled cities could host less biodiversity than compact ones for the same overall built-up area

Science (all of it) peaked in 2021 An ecologist friend* noticed that the annual number of times he’s been cited grew throughout his career up until 2021, when it peaked. It then declined for a couple of years straight. Then it…

Did all of science peak in 2021 and is yet to recover from the pandemic? Jeremy Fox has a new post about this. I know my own productivity didn’t go up (altho citations did!) even in the 1st year of covid (existential fights for tenure can do that) & I’ve continued to struggle with motivation since.

Proud of @emmamarjakangas.bsky.social for showcasing her insights on seed dispersal vulnerability to global change, a key part of her #EcoNet #MSCA project with me at @econovoau.bsky.social.
Take-home: habitat change main driver of vulnerability, but adaptability is high
📢⏩ doi.org/10.1111/ele....

New paper out! 🐦📊

We realease AVONICHE, a global dataset with detailed information on the proportional use of 32 foraging niches, combining dietary categories with the behaviours and substrates used to access resources.

Openly access the paper and data in GEB: doi.org/10.1111/geb....

Happy to see our analysis on scaling up temperature x nutrient interactions from populations to communities published in Ecological Monographs @esajournals.bsky.social! 📈