Inlay

New paper out examining fish food web degradation in the Anthropocene. We show the structure of aquatic food webs are changing-- even when species richness doesn’t. These signals are strongly associated with decreases in body size within fish communities. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🌐🐠🐡🦈🐟

🦭 New study reveals overlooked intraspecific variation in prey quality and its influence on predator energy budgets. By identifying key ecological drivers, they emphasize the need to integrate such variability into bioenergetic models. Read the full paper here! ➡️ buff.ly/vecdcwH

What happens when fish communities shift towards smaller species?🐟 Global study led by alumnus @juancarvq.bsky.social shows widespread changes in food webs across marine & freshwater systems. Even where species numbers stayed stable, interactions & body size changed. 🔗 www.idiv.de/smaller-fish...

✨ March Public Lecture - Free & Open to All! ✨ Join the Nova Scotian Institute of Science on Monday, March 2nd for another exciting public lecture! Taking place online via Zoom and in-person at Dalhousie University. @dalhousie.bsky.social

Are warmer oceans good or bad for #fish? 🐟 The answer is a dangerous paradox. Our new paper in @natecoevo.nature.com shows how marine heatwaves may create “fake” fish gains that mask a large-scale crash. Read our findings here: www.nature.com/articles/s41... @mncn-csic.bsky.social #ClimateChange

Honoring James A. Estes, a pioneering ecologist whose research on sea otters in Alaska revealed how predators shape entire ecosystems. His work helped define the concept of trophic cascades and inspired generations of ecologists. Read the PNAS Retrospective: https://ow.ly/leKs50XrKBH

🌊Taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional β-diversity and its components respond distinctly to nutrients and herbivory in algae. New functional β-diversity metrics, outperforming the conventional ones, will benefit the biodiversity field👇 buff.ly/3pfult9

📢New paper! 🐟📚Using fish stomach contents spanning over a century, we reveal long-term diet shifts (from larger bivalves to smaller opportunistic prey) in demersal fish species in the western North Sea. 🔗 Open access in Fish & Fisheries: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

While negative effects of landscape fragmentation on biodiversity are well documented, recent evidence suggests positive or neutral effects may also be common. The mechanisms driving these contrasting outcomes cannot be understood without assessing how species traits influence responses to landscape and patch characteristics. Here, we show that three key elements can enhance predictability of fragmentation effects across scales: (i) the trait distribution of the regional species pool; (ii) the relationship between taxonomic and trait diversity; and (iii) the effects of the landscape matrix on the distribution of species traits. Considering these elements will facilitate the development of generalizable hypotheses on the consequences of fragmentation across diverse taxonomic groups and regions, with broad applicability to ecology and conservation.

Pressures such as pollution, climate change and altered flows threaten streams and rivers worldwide. A global meta-analysis reveals how these key stressors shape riverine biodiversity, and offers valu...

This global meta-analysis of freshwater stressor–response relationships reveals that the biodiversity loss of five riverine organism groups reflects elevated salinity, oxygen depletion and fine sediment accumulation 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...