Tommy McDermott

Tromsø is amazing.

+1

That’s a wrap for Trex Ecology’s efishing 2025. Kit disinfected and drying in the Hebridean sunshine. I’m looking forward to not seeing a net for a while!

Strongholds for Pacific salmon: A proactive conservation strategy for ecosystem health, food security, biodiversity, and climate resilience ABSTRACT. Nested within the linked global crises of biodiversity loss and climate change are threats to cultural and ecological keystones such as Pacific s

“Wild salmon can rally public support for ecosystem protection and link place-based conservation efforts to global biodiversity and climate benefits..”

True of our salmonids too!

academic.oup.com/fisheries/ad...

How Canada's buck-toothed national emblem could help fight wildfires | CBC News New research out of the western U.S. suggests dams and ponds built by beavers can slow floods, store water and even create green firebreaks in wildfire-prone landscapes.

'The findings add weight to a growing body of evidence that beavers may be acting as ecosystem engineers, reshaping waterways in ways that benefit not just their own survival, but that of entire landscapes.'

New contribution to the #JFB Special Issue on telemetry: Advances in telemetry approaches and technologies applied to fish ecology and management #AcousticTelemetry #FishTracking #MarineResearch doi.org/10.1111/jfb.15790

We’re looking to hire a seasonal field assistant at Trex Ecology. Job description is attached and get in touch if you have any questions! Please share too!

Researchers identify five steps to successful nature restoration Many European ecosystems—whether it's forests, rivers, fields, or meadows—are in poor condition. Despite all conservation efforts, biodiversity continues to decline. However, experts are hopeful that ...

Researchers identify five steps to successful nature restoration - the need for policy coherence & adequate financial support to make Nature Restoration happen is clear yet the Commission have proposed an MFF/CAP that seem to deliver neither
www.google.com/amp/s/phys.o...

Yeah, apart from the History of England podcast - I’m nearly done

Is it hot right now in the UK?

New interactive website allowing anyone to explore live temperatures hour-by-hour across the UK, and whether they are cool, warm or hot relative to normal.

istheukhotrightnow.com

Built by @roostweather.bsky.social.

NFU publishes response to Land Use Framework consultation The NFU has warned that farmers’ ability to continue producing food for the nation could be put at risk by the new Land Use Framework, further putting the government’s commitment to treat food securit...

NFU says Land Use Framework “needs to give food production same priority as delivering environmental targets”

Great - so instead of devoting 70% of English land to intensive agriculture & just 3% for nature, can we now make it 50-50?

Or, y’know, just meet 30x30

www.nfuonline.com/updates-and-...

a black and white bird is standing in the grass ALT: a black and white bird is standing in the grass

Since we’re in a golden age of new Star Wars tv shows, I’ll again pitch “David Attenborough style nature documentaries but of fictional Star Wars creatures.”

No empire. No Jedi. Like, what the Jedi would watch on tv to relax after a stressful mission.

The size of this beast!!🤯

Leave it to Beaver: How Nature’s Engineers are Helping Us Mitigate Disasters The history of the West has always been defined by water. Long before settlers arrived, Indigenous peoples designed complex water management systems to cultivate the arid land. In the 19th and 20th ce...

"Beavers are truly an agent of disturbance: they are in that river corridor...disturbing it + making a whole variety of...habitat...they're really building that complex food web from the bottom up."

@emilyfairfax.bsky.social on beavers, biodiversity, wildfire & drought:

westgov.org/news/article...

Amazing! 22 years since my one and only voyage.

People are struggling to fill roles over here! Come to a Scotland.

It’s not only rivers that flow!! Amazing day in the Angus Munros.

Spring is coming and wild shopping trolleys are returning upriver to spawn before dying. 🎶It's the circle of life🎶

Well that was a “tyring” day….
Mapping fish habitats on the Western Isles. I love working on these rivers!

What this guy says…

Global declines in ocean primary production underestimated by climate models The following study developed a model ranking system to reduce the uncertainties associated with future projections of ocean productivity. Declines are much more likely than presently predicted, but e...

Global declines in ocean primary production underestimated by climate models communities.springernature.com/posts/global... 🌊

This is definitely one of the best parts of my job - marking up potential restorations options at scale. That joyous bit before all the barriers (pun intended) to fixing our rivers are forced onto such programmes

We figured out how to measure streamflow from timelapse images taken by an inexpensive, off-the-shelf trail camera, thus making hydrologic monitoring something pretty much any one can do, any where. usgs.gov/apps/ecoshed...

Our last paper on the behavioural ecology of the Arctic charr is out in Animal Behaviour. Here, we led an investigation on the development of a behavioural trait (boldness) in relation to environmental complexity, in five Arctic charr ecotypes.

doi.org/10.1016/j.an...

This is a good read

Go work with Ross doing cool fish things!

Government overturns Tory measure and bans emergency use of bee-killing pesticide Emergency use of Cruiser SB, a neonicotinoid pesticide highly toxic to bees, to be outlawed in UK in line with EU

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Modelled marine migrations of Atlantic salmon post-smolts from Irish and Scottish rivers vary interannually with local currents and salinity Abstract. Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) populations have suffered declines across their range in recent decades, largely attributed to decreasing marine su

A really interesting read ..

Modelled marine migrations of Atlantic salmon post-smolts from Irish and Scottish rivers vary interannually with local currents and salinity, ICES Journal of Marine Science, 2024;, fsae185, doi.org/10.1093/ices...

bee on flower

UK Gov has announced intention to bring forward "complete ban on bee-killing pesticides". This is great news & requires a big thank you to our campaigners!

But as @craigbennett3.bsky.social says"it must not be undermined by granting emergency use of neoicotinoids" wildlifetrusts.org/news/deadly-...

Frederic Clements collecting data with his wife Edith (nee Schwartz) who was a distinguished botanist in her own right and the first woman awarded a PhD by the University of Nebraska. Photo from https://ahcwyo.org/2011/09/28/clements-papers-document-the-history-of-ecology/

In ecological theory this assumption dates back to the ecologist Clements who proposed that there is a 'climax' state that the vegetation in any particular location will reach. Most ecologists now reject this simplification but it nevertheless persists. 2/6 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederi...