Category: Ecology

Ecology, Methods papers

No training necessary: Shark tracking simplified

Post provide Chinmay Keshava Lalgudi. Drone imagery offers an efficient way to gather data on mobile animals. Drones are used for population surveys, creating 3D models of habitat, and even studying how animals move and behave in their environment. While collecting this data is relatively easy, manually annotating it is painstaking and slow. Analysing drone imagery can often mean spending hours in front of a … Continue reading No training necessary: Shark tracking simplified

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Ecology

Catching Biodiversity in the Wind: How a Simple Dust Cloth Revolutionizes Airborne eDNA Monitoring

Post provided by Meng Yao Biodiversity is disappearing at an alarming rate worldwide. To protect it, we first need to monitor it—but tracking species traditionally requires significant time, expertise, and often expensive equipment. What if we could detect the presence of plants and animals just by sampling the air around us? As the principal investigator of the molecular ecology and biodiversity laboratory at Peking University, … Continue reading Catching Biodiversity in the Wind: How a Simple Dust Cloth Revolutionizes Airborne eDNA Monitoring

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Ecology

False Causes, Meet Attractor Dimension

Post provided by Yair Daon Who am I? I’m Yair Daon, a mathematician-turned-epidemiologist at Bar-Ilan University’s Faculty of Medicine. Most days I stare at time-series curves that claim one thing “drives” another. When those claims are wrong, public-health decisions can drift off course. Our new Methods in Ecology & Evolution paper introduces a fast way to shout “no!” before that happens. A two-minute primer for … Continue reading False Causes, Meet Attractor Dimension

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Conservation and management, Ecology

Practical tools to advance Image-Based bio-logging in marine ecosystems

Post provided by Marianna Chimienti My name is Dr Marianna Chimienti, and I am a lecturer in Marine Top Predator Ecology at the School of Ocean Sciences at Bangor University (UK). I’m fascinated by animal movements. My main research focuses on understanding how, where, when, and why animals move, using bio-logging technology (devices attached to animals that can record location, depth, acceleration, orientation, environmental conditions, … Continue reading Practical tools to advance Image-Based bio-logging in marine ecosystems

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Ecology

Charting the Unheard: A Primer for Analysing Toothed Whale Vocal Repertoires

Post provided by Maia Austen Introduction: Why toothed whale voices matter I’m a PhD candidate in the ONDAS Lab at the University of Vermont, advised by Dr. Laura May-Collado. My PhD looks to utilize machine learning analysis to better understand how and why dolphins communicate with each other. Toothed whales – like dolphins and belugas – are among the most acoustically sophisticated animals on Earth. … Continue reading Charting the Unheard: A Primer for Analysing Toothed Whale Vocal Repertoires

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Ecology

Predictability or pondering prediction

Post provided by Marieke Wesselkamp At the beginning of this project, we often found ourselves contemplating on the evolution of various environmental systems – some vast and global, others local. These were, for example, the trajectory of elephant populations in the Southern African Kruger national park over the next decades, the change in plant species composition on the roof the neighbour’s garage over the months, … Continue reading Predictability or pondering prediction

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Ecology, Statistical methods

Simple, intuitive tool for population management decision-making

Post provided by Izzy McCabe Predictions of insect populations from phenology models and sampling can help growers manage pests and beneficial insects on their farms. Phenology models relate accumulated heat units after winter to pest development and thereby inform timing of control actions, while sampling relies on regular on-site data collection (daily, weekly, etc.) to measure pest population densities and estimate potential damage. A drawback … Continue reading Simple, intuitive tool for population management decision-making

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Ecology

Improved order selection method for hidden Markov models: a case study with movement data.

Post provided by Fanny Dupont. About the first author My PhD focuses on animal movement and the impact of vessels on Arctic marine mammals (lab website). Specifically, I develop statistical tools to analyse narwhal (Monodon monoceros) behaviour and assess the effects of increased shipping on marine ecosystems. I am co-supervised by Dr. Marie Auger-Méthé (University of British Columbia) and Dr. Marianne Marcoux (Fisheries and Oceans … Continue reading Improved order selection method for hidden Markov models: a case study with movement data.

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Ecology, Methods papers, Practical Tools

Capturing diversity below the species level using HyRAD : a nuclear-DNA enrichment-based capture method (HyRAD) applied to environmental DNA.

Post provided by Stéphanie Manel. Why use HyRAD for eDNA capture? Traditional population genetics approaches require sampling tissue from individuals, which is problematic in aquatic environments where specimen collection is often challenging. Filtering water allows researchers to collect environmental DNA (eDNA), genetic material shed by organisms into their surroundings. Unlike approaches targeting a single DNA barcode, HyRAD allows for the capture of multiple nuclear DNA … Continue reading Capturing diversity below the species level using HyRAD : a nuclear-DNA enrichment-based capture method (HyRAD) applied to environmental DNA.

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Conservation and management, Ecology, Field Methods

The Ground Beneath Their Feet: Listening in on Africa’s wildlife using seismic sensors

Post provided by René Steinmann Hi, I’m a geophysicist by training, but I’ve recently shifted my focus from studying the solid Earth to some of its living inhabitants. I now work at the intersection of geophysics, wildlife biology, and machine learning. My recent research brings together these seemingly distant worlds in a project that’s all about listening—not to singing birds, but to the subtle vibrations … Continue reading The Ground Beneath Their Feet: Listening in on Africa’s wildlife using seismic sensors

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