๐ข DON'T FORGET TO REGISTER....
....for #BOU2026 Birds and people
31 March - 2 April 2026 | University of Nottingham & Zoom & Bluesky
Places are selling out fast, so check out the programme and book your place today!
Early-bird deadline: 16 Feb
bou.org.uk/event/bir...
#ornithology ๐ชถ
Mittel: negative genetic covariance of lamb survival and adult size explains why feral ๐ do not evolve larger size despite clear advantages for adults, higher survival of larger lambs. Cost of growing large leads to missing fraction? Highly relevant for wild ungulates ๐งช
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Diagram showing experimental design of an overwintering temperature assay in lizards. We implemented a cool winter, a warm winter, and a treatment where the temp fluctuated between these two.
New paper out now in @jexpbiol.bsky.social! Led by star PhD student @miaryras.bsky.social, we tested the effects of winter warming (a constant increase as well as fluctuating temps - see pic) on common wall lizard behaviour and physiology.
journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...
New paper from PhD student @ellmartin.bsky.social provides compelling experimental evidence that urbanization drives local adaptation, life history divergence and eco-evo feedbacks on a diverse community. Congrats Ella! ๐๐ #urbanecology #urbanevolution #evoeco
Excited to kick off my project โTo Feed or Not to Feed Wild Birdsโ, funded by @wildanimalinitv.bsky.social
Weโre setting up nestboxes and feeders in 40 private gardens in Innsbruck to study how bird feeding affects nestling welfare.
Stay tuned to see if our backyard treats really help birds!
Thrilled to share our Perspective published in ๐๐ข๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐๐ช๐ต๐ช๐ฆ๐ด: ๐๐ฒ๐ด๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ ๐ฒ๐ณ๐ณ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐๐ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐น๐ถ๐ด๐ถ๐ผ๐ป, #๐ฝ๐ผ๐น๐ถ๐๐ถ๐ฐ๐ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ #๐๐ฎ๐ฟ ๐ผ๐ป #๐๐ฟ๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ฒ๐๐ผ๐น๐๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ ๐ฏ๐ถ๐ผ๐น๐ผ๐ด๐.
It also elevates Eastern European perspectives - underrepresented in #urban #evolution narratives.
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Sharing on behalf of my colleague Marcel Eens:
Post-doc position on #UrbanBirds at University of Antwerp:
6-10 month position with intention of submitting fellowship application (extends postdoc by 3 years if successful).
Deadline Aug 28. www.uantwerpen.be/en/jobs/vaca...
๐
Interested in working on the evolution of genetic architecture ๐งฌ of complex traits using linked-read sequencing of thousands of common lizards ๐ฆ from a wild population and common garden experiment?
#evolution #genetics
Well, I have a PhD offer for you ๐
devillemereuil.legtux.org/erc-funded-p...
Condon Lighthouse
Maud Lewis
c. 1958
Yes sure! Iโll send you an email
Huge thank you @aeastephens.bsky.socialโฌ for initiating the TrendsTalk series 'Disability in ecology and evolution' in T.R.E.E. providing visibility for disabled researchers in #Ecology & #Evolution to make our field more #inclusive www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...
Big thanks to my exemplary #UrbanTit collaborators. It has been such a pleasure!
@annecharmantier.bsky.social @denisreale.bsky.social @clairebranston.bsky.social @pcapi.bsky.social @dingemanselab.bsky.social @senarjc.bsky.social & others not on BlueSky. Also @spibirds.bsky.social ๐
Figures showing predictions and model estimates for how urbanization affects variation of adult tarsus length, nestling tarsus length, and lay date in great tits and blue tits at different population levels.
We find that urbanization increases phenotypic variation within subpopulations by 11% on average (local spatial scales), and some evidence that urbanization also increases differentiation between subpopulations (larger landscape scales).
Visual representation of tested hypotheses showing how urbanization can affect phenotypic variation at different population levels.
Last paper from my PhD at #EcolLett: dx.doi.org/10.1111/ele....
Using long-term data from European tit populations, we test three hypotheses to determine how urbanization affects phenotypic variation at different population levels.
#UrbanTitCollab #DiverCity #SPIBirds
Laura and Dhanya working in the lab to extract DNA from samples.
Thanks to my fab co-authors and to @nikaudet.bsky.social for organizing the Genetics of Animal Cognition special issue: link.springer.com/collections/...
GWAS results showing significant SNPs associated with the number of errors made during the inhibitory control task.
Using #quantgen, #commongarden, and #GWAS approaches, we find that urban and forest great tits do not differ (phenotypically or genetically) in their cognitive abilities related to inhibitory control, but show that cognitive variation may have a genetic basis.
Figure showing cognitive task administered to wild great tits in the field.
We have a new paper out on the genetic vs. environmental drivers of cognition along an urban gradient: doi.org/10.1007/s100...
@lauragervais.bsky.social @dhanyabharath.bsky.social @annecharmantier.bsky.social @denisreale.bsky.social
#inhibitorycontrol #greattits #animalcognition
Looking for a PhD project on sexual selection? Join us at UZH!
Application deadline: 9 June 2025.
jobs.uzh.ch/job-vacancie...
Our paper on disentangling assortative mating and indirect genetic effects in empirical datasets has just been accepted in @jevbio.bsky.social ! It has been a long process (5 years in the making!) and I am very proud of the result ๐ฅณ
academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-...
Our project, led by Sanllorente, is out at Insect Conservation & Diversity:
"A systematic review and meta-analysis on urban arthropod diversity" (doi.org/10.1111/icad...)
We performed a meta-analysis of means & variances, and explored how methods matter when studying urbanisation. Check it out!
๐ฆ New paper out in @funecology.bsky.social! ๐ฆ
Using the Orange-tip butterfly in the UK๐ฆ, we test a key assumption of many speciesโ distribution models (SDMs): that climate effects on speciesโ distributions are equivalent over space๐ versus timeโฐ
doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.70005
๐งต๐
Our latest research, led by Vaishnavi Purushotham, on breeding time plasticity in great tits has just been published in Oikos! ๐ฆ๐ฟ We explored how temperature and conspecific density interact to shape breeding timing and success. Check it out! ๐ nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
This experiment was a huge undertaking and wouldnโt have been possible without help from co-authors, the Montpellier Zoo staff, and the CEFE tit team. ๐
There is further support that evolution has driven smaller urban body size in Dutch great tit populations. See another recent common garden to F3 led by @babimt.bsky.social currently in press at Evolution Letters. (preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...)
Table 1 synthesizes an impressive 77 common garden experiments with urban organisms showing that urban divergences can be driven by both genetic and plastic change; a conclusion that aligns with our studyโs results.
Figures comparing phenotypic measurements between urban and forest tits in both common garden and wild contexts
We find trait-specific evidence of urban evolution where genetic change likely drives urban divergence in body size and stress, while behavioural divergences are more strongly driven by plasticity.
Visual representation of common garden procedure.
Our common garden experiment with urban and forest great tits is out early view in Evolution! doi.org/10.1093/evol... @denisreale.bsky.social @annecharmantier.bsky.social
