Evert de Froe

In this article, we present the case for Generalized Linear Latent Variable Models (GLLVMs) as a go-to choice of statistical method for any community ecologist wanting to tackle a range of present-day ecological research questions. GLLVMs bring tools and capabilities from classic (mixed-effects) regression models to multivariate community analysis, providing a number of novel ways to tailor models specifically to one’s study questions and data properties not available when using non-model-based multivariate methods. In order to facilitate further adoption of these methods by community ecologists, we provide 1) a practitioner-focused and practical overview of the advantages the GLLVM framework brings to the table when addressing different core ecological questions, 2) a number of concrete suggestions for how GLLVMs best can be incorporated into the analytical workflow of community ecologists, and 3) two illustrative worked examples of this workflow in action on real-world data.

Nice! A Practitioner’s Guide to Latent Variable Modelling for Community Ecology doi.org/10.32942/X2K... #ecopubs

A first predictive mechanistic model of cold-water coral biomass and respiration based on physiology, hydrodynamics, and organic matter transport Abstract. Cold-water corals form complex three-dimensional structures on the seafloor, providing habitat for numerous species, and act as a carbon cycling hotspot in the deep-sea. The distribution of ...

Last chapter from my PhD-thesis is finally published! We developed a mechanistic model that predicts the spatial distribution of cold-water corals in the deep sea. Quick resupply of food towards cold-water corals on the seafloor is crucial for CWC to grow.

os.copernicus.org/articles/22/...

Climate change drives uneven shifts in tree diversity across Amazon and Andes The tropical forests of the Amazon and Andes are some of the most biodiverse places on the planet, but across both regions, changes in climate and landscape conditions are driving a shift in the…

Over four decades, tree richness across the Andes and Amazon has shifted unevenly. Some regions are losing species while others, like the northern Andes, are gaining.

Researchers say precipitation and forest fragmentation drive the trend, and limiting deforestation could help protect diversity.

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://...

Een zij-aan-zij vergelijking van twee websites voor het plannen van een afspraak. Links Datumprikker, dat visueel erg rommelig is doordat de pagina gevuld is met grote reclamebanners en pop-ups. Rechts het nieuwe alternatief Prikkert: een strak, wit en overzichtelijk ontwerp zonder enige reclame, waarbij direct de lijst met voorgestelde datums en beschikbaarheid centraal staat.

Ik was de pop-ups, reclames en trackers van Datumprikker helemaal zat, dus bouwde ik zelf een alternatief. Altijd gratis, geen reclame, geen account, geen tracking. En open source, zodat dat ook zo blijft. Plan je volgende etentje, vergadering of borrel eens met Prikkert.nl!

Smoothed trend 1992-2025 of most Dutch butterflies from Dutch Butterfly Monitoring transects. The color indicates the linear trend over the whole period. Each line starts at a value of 100. The black dot gives the 2025 index value.

MPAs only partly offset decades of human impacts on tropical reefs

Protecting more while continuing business as usual will just slow the decline 🐟📉 !

Check our latest paper in @natecoevo.nature.com with @uflandrin.bsky.social on 2800+ reefs & ~1700 🐠 species

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

🌐🧪🌍🦤🦑

This is worth reposting on #InternationalWomensDay

This iceberg was once the biggest in the world. Now it has just weeks left - BBC News A23a was once twice the size of Greater London but now its 40-year journey is coming to an end.

Lovely story on the BBC about iceberg a23a, which has given us decades of fun but is now nearing its end…

Really enjoyed talking with Mark Poynting about this one-time behemoth.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/resourc...

Zeeland ligt dwars: provincie wil geen staalslakken, ministerie wel Zeeuwse gemeenten lijken niet meer met staalslakken te willen werken, terwijl het ministerie dat wel wil.

Zeeland ligt dwars: provincie wil geen staalslakken, ministerie wel.
‘Vanaf 2027 heeft Rijkswaterstaat op zeven plaatsen in de Ooster- en Westerschelde stortingen gepland waarvoor mogelijk staalslakken gebruikt kunnen worden.’
www.omroepzeeland.nl/nieuws/18249...

#seabirds

If you work on restoration, this is an opportunity to shape future approaches to restoring our oceans.
🔵ICES Workshop to Identify Indicators to Track Nature Restoration Across the Greater North Sea Basin
🗓️20-22 April
📍Copenhagen & online
🔔Register by 31 March www.ices.dk/community/gr...

Pterocoma pennata, a comatulid ("feather star") from the Jurassic of Germany

Ginkgoites huttoni, a ginkgo from the Jurassic of England.

Cymatophlebia longialata, a dragonfly from the Jurassic of Germany

Pterodactylus antiquus, a pterosaur from the Jurassic of Germany.

Look at all these beautiful flattened Jurassic friends! ⛏️🤓 All from the Paläontologisches Museum München public exhibit -names in alt-text #fossil #paleontology #paleobotany

Hoe komt een graag geziene tuingast in het verdomhoekje terecht? Norbert Peeters kijkt met andere ogen naar invasieve exoten Norbert Peeters | botanisch filosoof: ‘Kolonisten’, ‘invasievelingen.’ Zo worden planten genoemd als ze zich vestigen in een nieuw gebied. De opvattingen van biologen daarover zijn in de loop der jare...

"Hoe komt een graag geziene tuingast in het verdomhoekje terecht? Norbert Peeters kijkt met andere ogen naar invasieve exoten": www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2026/...

#SchorrenEnSlikken | Docu over de #Verzilting van Schouwen-Duiveland en het tekort aan zoet water: www.omroepzeeland.nl/tv/afleverin... @omroepzeeland.nl 💧Mede door klimaatverandering en zeespiegelstijging. Met o.a. estuarien ecoloog @jimvanbelzen.bsky.social. Terug te zien tot 4 mrt.

The workflow illustrates a step-by-step process for conducting causal analyses. Arrows indicate the typical flow of an analysis. Two possible pathways are shown: causal discovery approaches (blue), which aim to identify the existence of causal relationships when pre-existing knowledge is low, and causal inference approaches (yellow), which aim to quantify the direction and magnitude of causal effects when pre-existing knowledge is high. The gray feedback loop on the right highlights the iterative refinement of causal analyses based on assessments of the plausibility of causal assumptions.

So, y'all have heard me going on about #causalinference in #ecology a lot. Now our big synthetic guide "Best practices for moving from correlation to causation in ecological research" is out! Led by Hannah Correia & Paul Ferraro, it's a great walk-through for all! 🌍🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Rare study showing that #microplastics in #benthic sediments affect the relationship with 🦪Macomona liliana & impair the deep-burrowing behaviour of 🪱Macroclymenella stewartensis, likely influencing key ecosystem functions such as benthic O2 fluxes & nitrogen cycling.
www.int-res.com/abstracts/me...

Why the Shape of Continents Mattered Across 500 Million Years of Climate Change New fossil evidence shows how geography influenced who survived Earth’s climate shifts

Extinction isn’t random.

Range size matters. Temperature tolerance matters. Climate change matters.

But there’s another piece we’ve long suspected: geography.

For 500 million years, the shape of continents helped shape survival.
🧪 #SciComm
buff.ly/rPvvUEM

The American Naturalist classic cover

Banerjee et al. propose that the underlying structure of positive feedbacks in an ecosystem may determine the tipping-evasion mechanism relevant to that particular system.

Available now ahead of print!
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

Locations with nutrient data around Greenland 1920-2020

Nutrient data and key water mass endmembers for Greenland's coastal seas (1920-2020)

RV Sanna sailing in Disko Bay

Icebergs in Disko Bay

Xin noted that when probing ice-ocean interactions around #Greenland, we usually focus on 1 cruise or 1 region. He took the initiative to analyze all available data. Two years later, he presents a comprehensive synthesis of nutrients in time and space🌊
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

its amazing how chatgpt knows everything about subjects I know nothing about, but is wrong like 40% of the time in things im an expert on. not going to think about this any further

Figure 2: Three-dimensional model rendering from CT data for MOR 1627. (A) Left lateral view of entire skull with close-up (D) of the embedded tooth. (B) Dorsal view of entire skull with close-up (E) of the embedded tooth. (C) Anterior view of entire skull with close-up (F) of the embedded tooth. Dashed lines indicate the specimen midline. (Wyenberg-Henzler & Scannella, 2026)

New behavioral #paleontology paper out today about tyrannosaur predation! The authors (Wyenberg-Henzler & Scannella) contend that the find is "consistent with a bite inflicted during an attempt to control the struggling Edmontosaurus or deliver a killing blow followed by carcass consumption". Nice!

Mapping tipping risks from Antarctic ice basins under global warming - Nature Climate Change Climate change threatens the future of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Here the authors show that individual drainage basins have different thresholds and loss patterns, suggesting the need to consider the d...

Antarctica isn’t one big tipping point.

New research maps 18 separate ice basins, each with its own threshold. Some in West Antarctica may tip at just ~1–2C warming (i.e close to today’s levels).

Cross the line, and you commit to m’s of sea-level rise over centuries

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

Porpoises ‘buzz’ less when boats are nearby Harbour porpoises “buzz” less when boats and ships and nearby – suggesting a drop in feeding and socialising, new research shows. Scientists used underwater microphones in a narrow strait called the L...

Porpoises 'buzz' less when boats and ships are nearby.

Researchers studying a narrow strait called the Little Belt in Denmark found buzzes reduced by up to 45% during the busiest vessel traffic periods.

@uniexecec.bsky.social @exetergses.bsky.social @exetermarine.bsky.social

Hydrostatic pressure induces strong leakage of dissolved organic matter from “marine snow” particles Particles sinking into the deep ocean come under pressure and leak dissolved organic matter, which affects marine carbon cycling.

Not all marine snow—oceanic dandruff made of fecal flakes, dead phytoplankton, and more—makes it to the seafloor.

Researchers in #ScienceAdvances describe the deep-sea squeeze that causes carbon from these particles to leak into seawater before reaching the ocean’s bottom. https://scim.ag/3Zh1kCU

📢 Save the date!

The 59th European Marine Biology Symposium ( #EMBS59 ) will take place 7–10 July 2026 in Peniche, Portugal 🇵🇹

🌊 Hosted by ESTM (Polytechnic of Leiria) & MARE
📍 Coastal campus overlooking the Berlengas UNESCO Biosphere Reserve 🙌

More here👇
www.embs-symposium.com

🤔Looking to make your #code more #reproducible? Check out our new and improved guide to Reproducible Code! 🧪🌍️

Find it here👇️
buff.ly/10TeNok

@nhcooper123.bsky.social
@britishecologicalsociety.org

We are seeking a 3+ year postdoc in ocean modelling, to work on an exciting project investigating underwater tsunamis in Antarctica.

More about the project here: www.polomints.ac.uk
Read more about the post here: lnkd.in/eBjndZPv

Please share and help connect us with the best candidates!

We are proud to unveil the world’s longest underwater timelapse, starting May 1st 2023 and running 1,000 days through January 28, 2026. This 10fps period covers summer 2023’s coral bleaching mortality event, but then recovering and growing through ‘24 & ‘25 into ‘26 #coralcitycamera

New genera, species and occurrences of Goniasteridae (Valvatida, Asteroidea) from New Caledonia | Megataxa

CRAZY diversity of sea stars fr NEW CALEDONIA! I describe 28 NEW SPECIES,3 NEW GENERA! #echinoday #goniasteridae #openaccess. My thanks to colleagues at the @MNHN.fr in Paris! for my many visits in order to complete this research! Will share some of my favorites herein! mapress.com/mt/article/v...