Joseph A. Tobias | Lightnews

Joseph Tobias @josephtobias.bsky.social · 2h

Although the title misses the point by a long way. It's not the "safety net for birds" that is at stake here, but the "safety net provided by birds" - the resilience of ecological functions supporting the whole ecosystem.

As touched on here: www.imperial.ac.uk/news/article...

Global bird study reveals declining ecosystem resilience

Human-driven changes to landscapes worldwide are ‘thinning out’ the ecological services supplied by wild birds, eroding the functions tha...

www.imperial.ac.uk

Joseph Tobias @josephtobias.bsky.social · 2h

A useful News & Views accompanying the article - www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Land-use changes threaten the safety net for birds

Alterations in land use are found to leave bird communities with fewer backup species for key ecological roles, making ecosystems vulnerable to further species loss.

www.nature.com

Andy Purvis @andypurvisnhm.bsky.social · 4h

Land-use change undermines the stability of avian functional diversity - new #OA @nature.com paper with @patrickawalkden.bsky.social @josephtobias.bsky.social, combining #PredictsProject with #Avonet doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Land-use change undermines the stability of avian functional diversity - Nature

Large-scale analyses of bird species traits reveal that land-use change reduces resilience of key ecological functions more than previously thought.

doi.org

Joseph Tobias @josephtobias.bsky.social · 5d

This was an amazing workshop bringing together a wide range of perspectives. Thanks to the funders and everyone involved. Looking forward to next steps! 🌿🪶🌐

Matthias Schleuning @mschleuning.bsky.social · 5d

Our @sgn.one workshop organized together with @josephtobias.bsky.social and Susanne Fritz was enlightening, fun and will surely lead to many future interactions and outputs on how plant/animal traits translate into functions. Thanks to all for your excellent ideas and very respectful discussions! 🌐

All the happy participants of the traits workshop in the garden of the venue at Bad Homburg

Matthias Schleuning @mschleuning.bsky.social · 5d

Our @sgn.one workshop organized together with @josephtobias.bsky.social and Susanne Fritz was enlightening, fun and will surely lead to many future interactions and outputs on how plant/animal traits translate into functions. Thanks to all for your excellent ideas and very respectful discussions! 🌐

Joseph Tobias @josephtobias.bsky.social · 8d

@mschleuning.bsky.social kicks off our workshop linking plant and animal traits to ecosystem-level processes, in Frankfurt today. 🪶🍁🌐

Joseph Tobias @josephtobias.bsky.social · 8d

PhD up for grabs in applied ecology focusing on species traits and ecological processes, supervised by @jmbecologist.bsky.social @orlyrazgour.bsky.social, Ben Woodcock, and me.
Worth a look!

James Bullock @jmbecologist.bsky.social · 8d

PhD opportunity!

Focusing on ecological processes offers an adaptive approach to conservation at a time of rapid environmental change

But how do we measure & conserve these processes?

This PhD will explore the use of species traits to assess ecosystem condition
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

www.findaphd.com

James Bullock @jmbecologist.bsky.social · 8d

PhD opportunity!

Focusing on ecological processes offers an adaptive approach to conservation at a time of rapid environmental change

But how do we measure & conserve these processes?

This PhD will explore the use of species traits to assess ecosystem condition
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

www.findaphd.com

Joseph Tobias @josephtobias.bsky.social · 12d

A complex beak design on that thing. Would love to see it

Joseph Tobias @josephtobias.bsky.social · 12d

Wutt!? New ecosystem service just dropped.

Birds are fungi dispersers! And, even better, tapaculos are truffle dispersers!

My week is complete.

Orlando Acevedo-Charry @oacevedocharry.bsky.social · 12d

#ornithology

Wait, birds as truffle dispersers? What a cool research!

www.cell.com/current-biol...

Discovering the role of Patagonian birds in the dispersal of truffles and other mycorrhizal fungi

Caiafa et al. explore the role of Patagonian birds in the dispersal of mycorrhizal fungi. Metagenomic analyses of fecal samples show that birds consume a wide diversity of truffles and other mycorrhiz...

www.cell.com

Joseph Tobias @josephtobias.bsky.social · 12d

One of the highlights of a short trip to Yunnan last week – the Spot-breasted Parrotbill: an icon for functional morphologists, an insectivore with the 'wrong' beak (stubby like a seed-eater) which nonetheless makes ecophysical sense because it uses bite-force to snip through grass/bamboo stems

Orlando Acevedo-Charry @oacevedocharry.bsky.social · 12d

#ornithology

Wait, birds as truffle dispersers? What a cool research!

www.cell.com/current-biol...

Discovering the role of Patagonian birds in the dispersal of truffles and other mycorrhizal fungi

Caiafa et al. explore the role of Patagonian birds in the dispersal of mycorrhizal fungi. Metagenomic analyses of fecal samples show that birds consume a wide diversity of truffles and other mycorrhiz...

www.cell.com

Samuel Jones @seijones.bsky.social · 14d

Check out our new paper in @royalsociety.org testing mechanisms behind elevational range restriction in tropical montane songbirds! ⛰️🦜🌳

Backstory: when i first visited Central America in the early 2010's i was struck with elevational ranges of birds..

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Testing the thermal physiology, habitat and competition hypotheses for elevational range limits in four tropical songbirds | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Restricted elevational ranges are common across tropical montane species, but the mechanisms generating and maintaining these patterns remain poorly resolved. A long-standing hypothesis is that specia...

royalsocietypublishing.org

Joseph Tobias @josephtobias.bsky.social · 26d

Absolute scenes in Yunnan when this happened today

Imma Oliveras Menor @ioliverasmenor.bsky.social · 28d

New study from Ty Loft’s PhD thesis. We used an energetic approach to quantify, acr sub-Saharan Africa, how mammal- and bird-mediated ecosystem functions have changed. We found that overall trophic energy flows have decreased by more than one-third, but this change varies across biomes and land uses

Energy flows reveal declining ecosystem functions by animals across Africa - Nature

An ecosystem energetics approach, quantifying trophic energy flows across species, offers a unified framework for linking animal biodiversity loss to changes in ecosystem function and Earth system pro...

www.nature.com

Luca Santini @lsantinieco.bsky.social · 28d

Our new @nature.com shows that energy flows mediated by mammals and birds across sub-Saharan Africa have declined by >30% unevenly across functional groups, with major consequences ecosystem functions
shorturl.at/AD0Yb

Joseph Tobias @josephtobias.bsky.social · Oct 18

A long and busy week ended on a high yesterday. So proud of Dr @jyang19.bsky.social for sailing through her PhD viva, the final step of a long journey in my lab from a Silwood masters degree to a doctorate. 💪

Big thanks to Profs Cris Banks-Leite and Gavin Thomas for examining.

A photograph of Dr Jingyi Yang fresh out of her viva, flanked by me (supervisor) and 2 examiners (Prof Cris Banks-Leite and Prof Gavin Thomas)

Joseph Tobias @josephtobias.bsky.social · Oct 16

Wish I’d been there for that part! Boo to online vivas. Congrats to Dan - great thesis - and lots of luck with next steps 🪶

Joseph Tobias @josephtobias.bsky.social · Oct 14

A heads-up for anyone interested in research quality, repeatability & transparency: I'm leading a 2-hour session at 10 am UK-time tomorrow, in conjunction with others.
Hopefully this can form the basis of a guidelines paper, so we're hoping you can join online to guide us in the right direction. 🌐🌎

Image showing the text summary for a planned unconference at the 5th SORTEE conference, Oct 2025

SORTEE @sortee.bsky.social · Oct 13

🚨 SORTEE’s conference #SORTEE2025 is fast approaching

This year, we have opted once again for a format that facilitates lively exchanges of ideas & which has led to wonderful outcomes. Some examples: www.sortee.org/past/
There is still time to join us - register at sortee.org/upcoming/

Past events

Past events by Society for Open, Reliable, and Transparent Ecology and Evolutionary biology (SORTEE)

www.sortee.org

Joseph Tobias @josephtobias.bsky.social · Sep 19

Good memories. My second attempt, and such a relief!

tony pancake @bingbongromcom.bsky.social · Sep 5

We have a new paper developing methods for looking at bird-fire macroecology. What’s most fascinating to me is that the magnitude *and* direction of fire effects can vary enormously across a species range. Stationarity is dead!! Long live non-stationarity!!

doi.org/10.1002/fee....

Evaluating macroecological fire impacts on bird populations

Fire regimes are context-dependent, as are the ways that animals respond. However, most information on animal responses to fire comes from short-term local field studies, which are hard to extrapolat....

doi.org

Wayne Maddison @waynemaddison.bsky.social · Sep 5

Confused writing is usually a symptom of confused thinking. As we struggle to clarify writing, we clarify our thoughts. AI writing aids rob us of that struggle, leaving clean-looking text and thoughts still confused for lack of inspection. Writing is not just a product; it is a diagnostic tool.

Joseph Tobias @josephtobias.bsky.social · Sep 3

Colonial superorganisms breaking basic biological rules again. 🐜🧪

Matthew Cobb @matthewcobb.bsky.social · Sep 3

Amazing! Full article here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

‘Almost unimaginable’: these ants are different species but share a mother

Ant queens of one species clone ants of another to create hybrid workers that do their bidding.

www.nature.com

Matthew Cobb @matthewcobb.bsky.social · Sep 3

Amazing! Full article here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

‘Almost unimaginable’: these ants are different species but share a mother

Ant queens of one species clone ants of another to create hybrid workers that do their bidding.

www.nature.com

Joseph Tobias @josephtobias.bsky.social · Aug 29

Perfect. If you can just tick the box in the Behaviors section called "Foraging or eating" that works fine!

Joseph Tobias @josephtobias.bsky.social · Aug 29

Great shot. Will you be uploading to eBird? Would be useful for our dietary analysis

Joseph Tobias @josephtobias.bsky.social · Aug 28

🚨New paper led by @adrianaalzate.bsky.social showing that in most plant and animal groups the age of a species predicts its geographical range size, although the relationship is strongly mediated by dispersal ability and occurrence on islands 🧪🌐🪶

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

iDiv Biodiversity Research @idiv-research.bsky.social · Aug 27

A new @natcomms.nature.com study led by iDiv alumna @adrianaalzate.bsky.social @naturalis.bsky.social uncovered that across >26,000 species evolutionary age is positively linked to range size, except in marine mammals.

#Biodiversity #Evolution #iDivResearch
www.idiv.de/older-specie...

Older species tend to have large ranges – unless they live on islands

New Nature Communication publications sheds light on how ecological, evolutionary, and geographical processes can simultaneously shape species’ vulnerability to extinction.

www.idiv.de

iDiv Biodiversity Research @idiv-research.bsky.social · Aug 27

A new @natcomms.nature.com study led by iDiv alumna @adrianaalzate.bsky.social @naturalis.bsky.social uncovered that across >26,000 species evolutionary age is positively linked to range size, except in marine mammals.

#Biodiversity #Evolution #iDivResearch
www.idiv.de/older-specie...

Older species tend to have large ranges – unless they live on islands

New Nature Communication publications sheds light on how ecological, evolutionary, and geographical processes can simultaneously shape species’ vulnerability to extinction.

www.idiv.de

Jarome Ali 🇹🇹 🏳️‍🌈 @jarome.bsky.social · Aug 13

Pick an idiom: "more than meets the eye", "beauty more than skin [feather] deep" etc.

In work led by Rosalyn Price-Waldman, we describe a hidden (and ignored!) black or white layer found below the visible surface of bird feathers which helps make bird colours so striking!

🧪 🪶 #colsci

Songbirds play optical tricks to make their feather colors ‘pop’

Concealed black or white bands on feathers boost the vibrancy of bird plumage

www.science.org

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