Zhenyuan Liu

Community trajectories towards a restoration target (increase in zooplankton community diversity and abundance to regain ecosystem function, facilitated by invasive fish removal), where functional and taxonomic composition recover at different rates: In the disturbance phase, non-native fish introductions reduce the functional diversity of zooplankton communities; during active restoration, fish are removed from lakes, allowing communities to recover functions associated with naturally fishless systems; the assisted or unassisted recovery phase is characterized by the initial reassembly of functional structure via plasticity and dispersal followed by taxonomic recovery through additional dispersal. Traits are shown as univariate for illustrative purposes but can encompass multiple traits in practice.

Our review of #trait - based approaches to ecological restoration is finally out in @esajournals.bsky.social *Ecological Applications*, highlighting the value of functional traits for creating system-general restoration strategies. 🌐 🧮➕📏 urldefense.com/v3/__http://...

🗓️Next Tuesday our seminar speaker is Jonathan Levine (Princeton) speaking on:

⭐Rapid evolution and species coexistence: from theory to empirical evidence in an orchard fly system⭐

Times: www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/f... (NB Europe time shift⏰🌍)
Open Zoom link: iite.info/seminar/
See you there!

CLIMEX Match Climate Composite Match Index (CMI) overlaid with Tipuana tipu distribution location records, projected globally. Insets show the native range, part of South America, part of southern Africa, southwest Australia, and an area of eastern Australia with high levels of cultivation and/or naturalisation. Areas with an orange-red colour (CMI 0.8–1) had high CMI values. Areas with a blue colour (CMI 0.6–0.8) had a climate with moderate CMI values. Records of T. tipu are shown as open circles. Pink circles represent records of plants within the native range. All other colours represent plant records in the non-native range, with purple representing cultivated plant records, yellow representing non-cultivated plant records, green representing records with both cultivated and non-cultivated plants and brown representing plant records where the cultivation status was indeterminate.

The interplay between climatic niche and spatial distribution can inform the management of non-native invasive species. Our findings reveal that the invasion risk for species with small geographic ranges may be greater than assumed.
Read more (OA): doi.org/10.1016/j.ec...
#bioinvasions 🌐🌏🧪

What I wish I knew: 33 thoughts for early career researchers Thirty three reflections I wish someone had shared with me early in my research career.

What I wish I knew: 33 thoughts for early career researchers
Reflections I wish someone had shared with me early in my research career.

predirections.substack.com/p/what-i-wis...

Want to join a global 🌎 initiative to test the thermal limits of 🐟 using standardised approach? Led by @patricepottier.bsky.social, we are planning a globally distributed experiment to collect data on fish embryonic heat tolerance 🌡️. Make this experiment global!

🔗: www.thermalecologyalliance.org

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...

Really nice study

Big effort, exciting results - our paper on the constraints of thermal limits in tropical insects is now out in @nature.com! 🦋🐝🪰🪲🦗
@ecoresearchzoo3.bsky.social
@biologie-uniwue.bsky.social
@uni-wuerzburg.de

The winner of the special pensoft prize, Saijing Liu at TIBS 2026 with the editor in chief of the open access journal Frontiers of Biogeography - Robert J. Whittaker

The winner of our special prize at @tibsaarhus2026.bsky.social is Saijing Liu for her poster, “Do mountains have a common diversification history?”
🎉She won a free publication in the open-access journal Frontiers of #Biogeography!

biogeography.pensoft.net/news/1074

@biogeography.bsky.social

5 Minute Papers on AI for the Planet Learn about how AI can be used to protect biodiversity, fight climate change, and just better understand our planet through 5-minute explainers covering academic papers on AI for the Planet. AI is not...

I just released the 10th episode of my YouTube series on how AI is used to help the planet. These first 10 papers cover a range of topics (conservation, energy, forecasting...) & methods (multi-modal, time series, uncertainty...) So in <1 hr you can get a wide overview of the field! #ccai #mlsky 🤖 📈

In case you are looking for a leading role in a fieldwork campaign to sample 240 perialpine and alpine lakes in Switzerland over multiple years... @eawag.bsky.social's Department of Aquatic Ecology is offering a postdoctoral position in Aquatic Ecology (m/f/d) 80-100%. More info in the link below.

A postdoc position in Biogeography and Macroecology is available at Palacky University, Czech Republic, with an application deadline of March 15, 2026. For details, contact prof. Vladimir Remes at vladimir.remes@upol.cz. More info: https://vladremes.github.io #postdoc

Map of Europe showing the sampling sites (and the geographical gaps) present in our database. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.176229

Map of Europe showing the sampling sites (and the geographical gaps) present in our database. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06400-1

Map of Europe showing the sampling sites (and the geographical gaps) present in our database. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03445-3

DATA CALL - DEADLINE APPROACHING

We want to add new sites to our European longtime series database of freshwater biodiversity
(see doi.org/10.1038/s415...)

To contribute check the link with all the details of the data call
www.senckenberg.de/en/call-for-...

Thank you very much!
#freshwaterecology

Cool paper alert. Was trying to model the thermal performance curves of several farmed seaweed species and ran across this awesome, theoretical unifying paper: “A universal thermal performance curve arises in biology and ecology” www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Extreme weather is transforming the world’s rivers. We need new ways to protect them Rivers support billions of people but are among the least protected parts of nature. A major review shows what needs to be done as climate change accelerates.

When extreme events happen together or in sequence, their impacts can be catastrophic for people and river biodiversity. Whether that’s a flood following a drought, a drought and heatwave operating in unison, or a flood falling on saturated ground, the impacts of these compound events can multiply.

A few more days left to apply for our postdoc position on insect community ecology.

Biodiversity on the Brink: Ecological Rhythms & Human Urgency - Jonathan Tonkin | Rapid Response #20 Biodiversity underpins life on Earth as we know it—ecologist Jonthan Tonkin lays it all out, including his research on freshwater biodiversity and climate extremes.

I had the chance to join @jessedamiani.bsky.social for a Substack Live conversation last week. We covered a lot of ground — from ecological rhythms to extreme events. We talked rivers, a bit about my back story, and even the importance of finding joy.

YouTube link: youtu.be/sTv7L4xfeVY?...

Revisiting Europe's temperate forests: Palaeoecological evidence for an herbivory-driven woodland-grassland mosaic biome Understanding the pre-Homo sapiens baseline of the temperate forest biome is crucial for interpreting present-day biodiversity patterns, ecosystem fun…

Super honoured to have contributed to this epic piece of work, lead masterfully by @szymon-czyzewski.bsky.social.

We review multiple lines of palaeoecological evidence to reassess vegetation structure over the last 23 million years:

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Postdoc position: biotic interactions in explaining species distribution patterns at Leibniz-Institut für Gewässerökologie und Binnenfischerei (IGB) im Forschungsverbund Berlin e.V. We're looking for: Postdoc position: biotic interactions in explaining species distribution patterns (Full or Part Time) • Müggelseedamm 301, 12587 Berlin, Deutschland

📢 We’re hiring a #Postdoc! Join IGB in #Berlin to study how biotic interactions shape freshwater species distribution patterns. Work on modeling biodiversity patterns across river catchments within the Collaborative Research Center 1439 RESIST. Apply now: karriere-igb.softgarden.io/job/61685812...

Front cover of the European Butterfly Red List, showing Polyommatus humedasae. The report can be downloaded at https://www.bc-europe.eu/webpage.php?name=red-list-butterflies-2025

The new European Butterfly Red List is published today, with worrying findings. Over 1/4 (28%) of Europe’s 442 species are threatened with extinction or are close to being so. The situation is far worse for our 148 endemic species, 40% are now threatened or nearly so www.bc-europe.eu/webpage.php?...

Advances in the Biogeography of Neotropical Mammals Recent computational and methodological advances in phylogenetics and bioinformatics, along with the increasing availability of evolutionary and ecological data, have produced deeper insights into the...

What do we know about mammal biodiversity patterns in the American tropics? Find out in the new book chapter by @liomys.mx and yours truly 👇

link.springer.com/rwe/10.1007/...

The whole book is a gem for those interested in the study of mammals of one of the world's most diverse regions!

New EiC for Ecography: Christine Meynard | Ecography New EiC for Ecography: Christine Meynard | Ecography

Please welcome our new EiC: Christine Meynard! vist.ly/495uz

The making of novel ecosystems: A process‐based framework for measurement, analysis and application Ecological novelty is emerging rapidly due to global change drivers such as climate shifts, species introductions, defaunation, and land-use transformation. These changes challenge how we assess, ...

🌍In a new @econovoau.bsky.social paper in Methods in Ecology & Evolution, led by @mattkerr.bsky.social, we present a process-based framework linking compositional, functional, abiotic & social dimensions of novel ecosystem trajectories♨️🌿 besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

📣New PhD studentship 📣

We're advertising a fully funded PhD studentship in the 'Cultural ecosystem services of dry riverbeds in rural landscapes'. To view the project, please see www.keele.ac.uk/surf/current... Deadline is the 23rd March 2026. Open to UK and international students.

Linking Community‐Climate Disequilibrium to Ecosystem Function When turnover in species composition lags behind the pace of climate change, community-climate disequilibrium increases. We, for the first time, explicitly link this disequilibrium to ecosystem funct...

Species shift their ranges in response to climate change, but many can't keep up. The resulting "community-climate disequilibrium" can impair ecosystem function and cause counterintuitive dynamics, like short-term gain but long-term loss onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Space‐use by feral cattle and horses shapes vegetation structure in a trophic rewilding area Feral cattle (Bos taurus) and horses (Equus ferus caballus) are commonly introduced to European rewilding areas to halt vegetation succession and to conserve light-demanding species. Yet, we still do....

We studied a long-term trophic #rewilding project where #horses 🐎 & #cattle🐂 live year-round under near-wild conditions. Their space use shapes #vegetation structure🌿& modulates #drought sensitivity, w/ clear differences bt horses & cattle 🐎🐂🌿♨️➡️ esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Beetles have taken me a long way!

A general rule on the organization of biodiversity in Earth’s biogeographical regions - Nature Ecology & Evolution Ecological assemblages may be spatially organized by both context dependency and general processes. Here the authors find general patterns in the organization of regional biodiversity in biogeographic...

New paper! led by Ruben Bernardo-Madrid "A general rule on the organization of biodiversity in Earth’s biogeographical regions" in NEE @natureportfolio.nature.com

Read it here: doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Abstract submission for the international biogeography society meeting in Aarhus (January 2026) is now open. I hope to see a lot of people there! 🌐🧪
conferences.au.dk/tibs-aarhus-...

Increased ERC funding for top global researchers moving to Europe now confirmed The European Research Council (ERC) decision to increase its support for leading researchers moving to Europe has today been formally adopted. On top of its standard grants, the ERC offers additional ...

erc.europa.eu/news-events/...