Nick Haddad

Congratulations to @kbslter.bsky.social graduate student, Rachel Drobnak, has been awarded the MSU Graduate School’s Graduate Award in Science Outreach & Communication for her exemplary efforts to translate and communicate scholarly research to the general public!

www.canr.msu.edu/news/graduat...

Better monitoring to support restoration of EU pollinators The Commission has adopted a new Pollinator Monitoring Scheme to help reverse the decline of pollinator populations by 2030.

The EU has published rules for the Pollinator Monitoring Scheme. Butterflies, moths, bees and hoverflies will all be monitored by every Member State. Target to reverse decline in Pollinators by 2030 and increase pops. A big step in conserving biodiversity environment.ec.europa.eu/news/better-...

Congratulations to @nickhaddad.bsky.social, co-Director of the @kbslter.bsky.social, and Phoebe Zarnetske on the KBS LTER Executive Committee - they are both on @michiganstateu.bsky.social Main Campus today accepting Outstanding Faculty Awards from The College of Natural Science!

I'm excited about the Ecological Society's new Fakhri A. Bazzaz and Steward T.A. Pickett Mentorship Award for Enhancing Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging in Ecology. Nominate your colleagues who have been outstanding mentors! Due Nov. 13 esa.org/about/awards... @ecologicalsociety.bsky.social

Satellites and Drones Are Unlocking Benefits ‘Hidden in Plain Sight’ in Michigan

One farmer saved $7,000 on fertilizer while increasing crop yield & protecting pollinators. Could be so powerful for places it scales well.

Excited to see an idea @nickhaddad.bsky.social was developing at Storymakers 2023 in the headline! www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/c...

Satellites and Drones Are Unlocking Benefits ‘Hidden in Plain Sight’ in Michigan

Millions of currently farmed acres hold opportunities for biodiversity conservation that are hidden in plain sight!

There's a great shoutout to our paper showing that we've lost a quarter of all butterflies in the last two decades www.science.org/doi/full/10....

Opinion | How to Count Butterflies

Great story! Learning to identify butterflies is in reach. Counts by thousands of people make up the best long term data 🦋 And there are practical means to forestall rapid butterfly decline. Thank you @margaretrenkl

Genomic signatures indicate biodiversity loss in an endemic island ant fauna Insect populations have declined worldwide, but the extent and drivers of these declines are debated. Most studies rely on field surveys performed in the past century, leaving gaps in our understandin...

Great paper! Genomic signatures indicate biodiversity loss in an endemic island ant fauna | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Some important messages here. It’s not just rare species that are declining but common ones too, requiring a far more holistic conservation approach

Three decades of declines restructure butterfly communities in the Midwestern United States | PNAS Insects are declining worldwide. These declines have been documented across taxonomic groups and are worrisome given ecosystem services provided by...

More bad news for butterflies. Our new paper led by Wendy Leuenberger shows common species are declining even more rapidly than rare ones. @ZipkinLab

Three decades of declines restructure butterfly communities in the Midwestern United States | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2501340122

The publications collected in this month's LTER Network News really demonstrated the wide range of impactful research the LTER does. Here's the list:

mailchi.mp/lternet/lter...

State of the Butterflies in the United States | Xerces Society A study published in March 2025 showed that we are losing butterflies at a rate of 1.3% per year in the contiguous US. State of the Butterflies in the United States presents a summary of those finding...

This report distills our findings on butterfly decline www.science.org/doi/full/10.... and describes actionable conservation urgently needed for butterfly recovery. @xercessociety.bsky.social

State of the Butterflies in the United States xerces.org/publications...

Lots of people in Kalamazoo!

Honored to become a @aaas.org fellow with @lisaschultemoore.bsky.social and Amy Toth. Prairie strip scientists well represented today! @kbslter.bsky.social

‘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

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

How Climate Change Affects Your Gut Health In a warmer world your digestive system may be taking a serious hit.

How does climate impact our gut microbiomes? As it turns out, there are many ways. KBS researcher Elena Litchman has studied the relationship between climate and our gut microbes. She contributed to a wide-ranging article recently published in Time Magazine.

Read more: time.com/7287156/how-...

Graphs showing 25 years of budgets for the National Institute of Health, NASA, and the NSF. In all cases, the proposed budget for next year is far, far below any year of the previous quarter century.

There are 2 previous historical cases of countries destroying their science and universities, crippling them for decades: Lysenkoism in the USSR and Nazi Germany. The Trump administration will be the 3rd.
It's not just budgets but research, institutions, expertise, and training the next generation.

Though our recent #NSF grant was terminated, the @datanuggets.bsky.social program still continues through support from the @kbslter.bsky.social and other sources! We're searching for future funding opportunities and will continue to help share authentic datasets and science stories with students!

Humans are killing helpful insects in hundreds of ways − simple steps can reduce the harm Insects are often under pressure from several threats at once, from pesticides to habitat loss to pollution.

Humans are killing helpful insects in hundreds of ways − simple steps can reduce the harm
theconversation.com/humans-are-k...

National Academy of Sciences Elects Members and International Members - NAS WASHINGTON — The National Academy of Sciences announced today the election of 120 members and 30 international members in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original res...

Congratulations to my MSU colleagues Phil Robertson @kelloggbiostn.bsky.social @kbslter.bsky.social and Jack Liu on their election to the National Academy of Sciences. Well-deserved recognition of their many contributions to science www.nasonline.org/news/2025-na...

Widespread lack of article accessibility policies among ecology and evolution journals Nature Ecology & Evolution - An analysis of manuscript preparation guidelines across 541 ecology and evolution journals reveals widespread paucity in guidelines intended to make journal...

We are excited to share our new article just out in @natureecoevo.bsky.social 🎉

“Widespread lack of article accessibility policies among ecology and evolution journals” rdcu.be/ejFQH

Congratulations to all this years ESA Fellows and Early Career Fellows, including to my MSU colleague @elenalitchman.bsky.social @kelloggbiostn.bsky.social and my collaborator @fletcherecology.bsky.social So well deserved!

Congrats to all of the new #ESA Fellows & Early Career Fellows including outstanding #MSU colleague @elenalitchman.bsky.social!

Really honored and humbled to be selected as an ESA Fellow.

And congratulations to the other Fellows and Early Career Fellows!

@conservation.cam.ac.uk @camzoology.bsky.social

Congratulations to all of the newly elected members and international members of the National Academy of Sciences!
www.nasonline.org/news/2025-na...

Among them 3 superb #MSU colleagues--Jack Liu, Phil Robertson, and Christoph Benning--as well as former postdoc extraordinaire Valeria Souza (UNAM)!

National Academy of Sciences Elects Members and International Members - NAS WASHINGTON — The National Academy of Sciences announced today the election of 120 members and 30 international members in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original res...

Congratulations to all of the newly elected members of the National Academy of Sciences, including my MSU colleagues (Christoph Benning, Jack Liu, and Phil Robertson), and - especially - Gary Brudvig. I'm proud of you, Dad!

www.nasonline.org/news/2025-na...

Congratulations to @elenalitchman.bsky.social Well deserved!

A well-connected Earth: The science and conservation of organismal movement Global biodiversity targets focus on landscape and seascape connectivity as a foundational component of biodiversity conservation, including networks of connected protected areas. Recent advances allo...

An essential paper, one that will guide conservation and restoration for landscape connectivity at local to global scales. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Species turnover does not rescue biodiversity in fragmented landscapes - Nature An analysis of habitat fragmentation using a dataset of more than 4,000 species worldwide shows that fragmentation reduces biodiversity at all scales, and that increases in β diversity do not compensa...

Importante estudio de Gonçalves-Souza et al:

▪️Muestra que los paisajes fragmentados tienen menor diversidad alfa y gamma
▪️Descarta que la fragmentación aumente la biodiversidad a escala paisaje
▪️Enfatiza la necesidad de restaurar hábitat e incrementar la conectividad

www.nature.com/articles/s41...