Joseph Tobias
@josephtobias.bsky.social
Birds, biodiversity, evolutionary biology, macroecology, conservation biology, ecosystem science, sustainable development, world birding, and other stuff. He/him
More at http://www.tobiaslab.net
More at http://www.tobiaslab.net
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!
Worth a look!
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...
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
November 18, 2025 at 9:21 PM
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!
Worth a look!
Wutt!? New ecosystem service just dropped.
Birds are fungi dispersers! And, even better, tapaculos are truffle dispersers!
My week is complete.
Birds are fungi dispersers! And, even better, tapaculos are truffle dispersers!
My week is complete.
November 14, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Wutt!? New ecosystem service just dropped.
Birds are fungi dispersers! And, even better, tapaculos are truffle dispersers!
My week is complete.
Birds are fungi dispersers! And, even better, tapaculos are truffle dispersers!
My week is complete.
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
November 14, 2025 at 6:38 PM
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
Reposted by Joseph Tobias
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/...
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
November 12, 2025 at 8:46 PM
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/...
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/...
Absolute scenes in Yunnan when this happened today
October 31, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Absolute scenes in Yunnan when this happened today
Reposted by Joseph Tobias
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
shorturl.at/AD0Yb
October 29, 2025 at 6:18 PM
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
shorturl.at/AD0Yb
Reposted by Joseph Tobias
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
October 30, 2025 at 7:02 AM
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
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.
Big thanks to Profs Cris Banks-Leite and Gavin Thomas for examining.
October 18, 2025 at 10:58 AM
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.
Big thanks to Profs Cris Banks-Leite and Gavin Thomas for examining.
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. 🌐🌎
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. 🌐🌎
October 14, 2025 at 4:20 PM
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. 🌐🌎
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. 🌐🌎
Reposted by Joseph Tobias
Looking forward to this! I will be helping @josephtobias.bsky.social lead discussions on what preregistration could look like for macroecology - join us on Wednesday 📝🌍
🚨 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/
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
October 13, 2025 at 8:27 AM
Looking forward to this! I will be helping @josephtobias.bsky.social lead discussions on what preregistration could look like for macroecology - join us on Wednesday 📝🌍
Reposted by Joseph Tobias
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.
September 5, 2025 at 3:20 PM
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.
Reposted by Joseph Tobias
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....
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
September 5, 2025 at 3:59 PM
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....
doi.org/10.1002/fee....
Colonial superorganisms breaking basic biological rules again. 🐜🧪
September 3, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Colonial superorganisms breaking basic biological rules again. 🐜🧪
🚨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...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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...
#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
August 28, 2025 at 12:56 PM
🚨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...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Joseph Tobias
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
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
August 13, 2025 at 3:35 PM
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
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
Reposted by Joseph Tobias
🥳 New paper out in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society!
Manakin’s moving melody: the interplay between courtship dance display and vocalization as a predictor of hybridization in manakins (Aves: Pipridae)
academic.oup.com/biolinnean/a...
#ornithology
Manakin’s moving melody: the interplay between courtship dance display and vocalization as a predictor of hybridization in manakins (Aves: Pipridae)
academic.oup.com/biolinnean/a...
#ornithology
August 13, 2025 at 8:18 AM
🥳 New paper out in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society!
Manakin’s moving melody: the interplay between courtship dance display and vocalization as a predictor of hybridization in manakins (Aves: Pipridae)
academic.oup.com/biolinnean/a...
#ornithology
Manakin’s moving melody: the interplay between courtship dance display and vocalization as a predictor of hybridization in manakins (Aves: Pipridae)
academic.oup.com/biolinnean/a...
#ornithology
Well done, @kerrys189.bsky.social, and a much deserved ‘no corrections’. A really excellent thesis and it was a pleasure being involved. Best of luck with next steps!
Super happy that @kerrys189.bsky.social passed her viva with no corrections!! 🥳🥳🥳
Congratulations, Dr. Stewart!!
The EcCo lab will miss you, but we know you are off to do amazing things
Thanks to the excellent examiners @alexpigot.bsky.social & @vlboult.bsky.social
Congratulations, Dr. Stewart!!
The EcCo lab will miss you, but we know you are off to do amazing things
Thanks to the excellent examiners @alexpigot.bsky.social & @vlboult.bsky.social
August 9, 2025 at 11:06 AM
Well done, @kerrys189.bsky.social, and a much deserved ‘no corrections’. A really excellent thesis and it was a pleasure being involved. Best of luck with next steps!
Reposted by Joseph Tobias
We should come to terms with the fact that forest, shrubland, grassland, and wetland ecosystems cannot offset fossil fuel CO₂ emissions.
But we should still protect and restore them for biodiversity and other ecosystem benefits.
But we should still protect and restore them for biodiversity and other ecosystem benefits.
Limited carbon sequestration potential from global ecosystem restoration - Nature Geoscience
The maximum carbon sequestration potential from global terrestrial ecosystem restoration efforts until 2100 is 96.9 Gt, which is equivalent to 3.7–12.0% of anthropogenic emissions until then, accordin...
www.nature.com
July 31, 2025 at 5:52 PM
We should come to terms with the fact that forest, shrubland, grassland, and wetland ecosystems cannot offset fossil fuel CO₂ emissions.
But we should still protect and restore them for biodiversity and other ecosystem benefits.
But we should still protect and restore them for biodiversity and other ecosystem benefits.
Reposted by Joseph Tobias
🫠. A tree came out today with 9,072 bird species, all placements based on actual DNA. It looks like they used eBird 2022 taxonomy; 10,096 were recognized back then. That means these folks just dropped (molecularly well informed) knowledge on 83% of the world's birds.
www.cell.com/current-biol...
www.cell.com/current-biol...
A new time tree of birds reveals the interplay between dispersal, geographic range size, and diversification
Flight may affect the dispersal and evolution of birds. Using a new evolutionary tree,
Claramunt et al. find that efficient fliers have broader geographic ranges, and speciation
reduces range size, bu...
www.cell.com
July 31, 2025 at 4:14 AM
🫠. A tree came out today with 9,072 bird species, all placements based on actual DNA. It looks like they used eBird 2022 taxonomy; 10,096 were recognized back then. That means these folks just dropped (molecularly well informed) knowledge on 83% of the world's birds.
www.cell.com/current-biol...
www.cell.com/current-biol...
Beautiful thread by my brilliant colleague, Silu Wang, outlining the special issue she has just released (with Anne Yoder). She highlights some of the wider themes inspiring our article (in same issue) about rethinking the boundaries and targets of biodiversity conservation.
July 31, 2025 at 7:44 AM
Beautiful thread by my brilliant colleague, Silu Wang, outlining the special issue she has just released (with Anne Yoder). She highlights some of the wider themes inspiring our article (in same issue) about rethinking the boundaries and targets of biodiversity conservation.
🕊️🙏
Birds are dinosaurs who shrugged off a couple apocalypses. Some eat bone marrow. Some drink nectar. They outswim fish in the sea. They smile politely at gravity’s demands.
I am grateful to see them. I am grateful to feed them. I am grateful to know them.
I am grateful to see them. I am grateful to feed them. I am grateful to know them.
July 30, 2025 at 5:23 PM
🕊️🙏
🚨 The New Age of global bird phylogenies continues!
Hot on the heels of the fantastic updated tree created by @eliotmiller.bsky.social and others, we use a different approach to generate a near-comprehensive timetree of >9000 bird species. 1/3
www.cell.com/current-biol...
🧪🌐🪶
Hot on the heels of the fantastic updated tree created by @eliotmiller.bsky.social and others, we use a different approach to generate a near-comprehensive timetree of >9000 bird species. 1/3
www.cell.com/current-biol...
🧪🌐🪶
A new time tree of birds reveals the interplay between dispersal, geographic range size, and diversification
Flight may affect the dispersal and evolution of birds. Using a new evolutionary tree,
Claramunt et al. find that efficient fliers have broader geographic ranges, and speciation
reduces range size, bu...
www.cell.com
July 30, 2025 at 3:43 PM
🚨 The New Age of global bird phylogenies continues!
Hot on the heels of the fantastic updated tree created by @eliotmiller.bsky.social and others, we use a different approach to generate a near-comprehensive timetree of >9000 bird species. 1/3
www.cell.com/current-biol...
🧪🌐🪶
Hot on the heels of the fantastic updated tree created by @eliotmiller.bsky.social and others, we use a different approach to generate a near-comprehensive timetree of >9000 bird species. 1/3
www.cell.com/current-biol...
🧪🌐🪶
Reposted by Joseph Tobias
I’m recruiting graduate students to join my lab at the University of New Orleans starting in January or September 2026!
If you're at #Evol2025 and curious about my research, come to my talk on Saturday at 11:30 AM in Macroevolution & Diversification II.
Contact me if interested.
claramuntlab.org
If you're at #Evol2025 and curious about my research, come to my talk on Saturday at 11:30 AM in Macroevolution & Diversification II.
Contact me if interested.
claramuntlab.org
June 20, 2025 at 3:59 AM
I’m recruiting graduate students to join my lab at the University of New Orleans starting in January or September 2026!
If you're at #Evol2025 and curious about my research, come to my talk on Saturday at 11:30 AM in Macroevolution & Diversification II.
Contact me if interested.
claramuntlab.org
If you're at #Evol2025 and curious about my research, come to my talk on Saturday at 11:30 AM in Macroevolution & Diversification II.
Contact me if interested.
claramuntlab.org
Reposted by Joseph Tobias
Fantastic paper from an amazing team:
Genomics of Neotropical biodiversity indicators: Two butterfly radiations with rampant chromosomal rearrangements and hybridization
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Genomics of Neotropical biodiversity indicators: Two butterfly radiations with rampant chromosomal rearrangements and hybridization
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Genomics of Neotropical biodiversity indicators: Two butterfly radiations with rampant chromosomal rearrangements and hybridization | PNAS
A central question in evolutionary biology is what drives the diversification of lineages.
Rapid, recent radiations are ideal systems for this ques...
www.pnas.org
July 30, 2025 at 10:14 AM
Fantastic paper from an amazing team:
Genomics of Neotropical biodiversity indicators: Two butterfly radiations with rampant chromosomal rearrangements and hybridization
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Genomics of Neotropical biodiversity indicators: Two butterfly radiations with rampant chromosomal rearrangements and hybridization
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Reposted by Joseph Tobias
Forests can’t regrow if seeds can’t move.
New research shows 60% of tropical regrowth zones have lost the animals that once carried seeds there.
No dispersers, no recovery.
Rewilding isn’t optional: it’s the missing link in climate and restoration plans. 🌱🐦⬛ 🦜
🧪 #SciComm
New research shows 60% of tropical regrowth zones have lost the animals that once carried seeds there.
No dispersers, no recovery.
Rewilding isn’t optional: it’s the missing link in climate and restoration plans. 🌱🐦⬛ 🦜
🧪 #SciComm
What Happens to a Forest When the Birds Are Gone?
New research reveals how missing seed dispersers are quietly limiting tropical forest recovery When I left academia to work in conservation, I landed in an organization...
buff.ly
July 29, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Forests can’t regrow if seeds can’t move.
New research shows 60% of tropical regrowth zones have lost the animals that once carried seeds there.
No dispersers, no recovery.
Rewilding isn’t optional: it’s the missing link in climate and restoration plans. 🌱🐦⬛ 🦜
🧪 #SciComm
New research shows 60% of tropical regrowth zones have lost the animals that once carried seeds there.
No dispersers, no recovery.
Rewilding isn’t optional: it’s the missing link in climate and restoration plans. 🌱🐦⬛ 🦜
🧪 #SciComm