Pablo Garcia-Diaz
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pablo-ecology.bsky.social
Pablo Garcia-Diaz
@pablo-ecology.bsky.social
3.4K followers 1.7K following 400 posts

Ecologist. Ecological modelling, ecosystem services, invasive alien species, and wildlife trade. Often found running models or marvelling at reptiles

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Environmental science 73%
Geography 18%
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pablo-ecology.bsky.social
Pablo Garcia-Diaz @pablo-ecology.bsky.social · May 23
Interested in modelling multiple ecosystem services and their interactions but don't know where to start? Check out our OA new paper! We combined expert knowledge and network analyses to build conceptual system maps and guide data-gathering efforts. 🌎🧪🌐 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Graphical abstract of the paper 'Conceptual system maps to guide research and management of multiple ecosystem services and disservices' showing a map of the Lules river watershed (Tucuman Argentina); two photos of experts working in groups; an arrow indicating that the knowledge derived from experts was encoded into a network; and a network showing the relationships between ecosystem services and disservices and their environmental, social, and economic drivers

Reposted by Pablo García‐Díaz

erleellis.bsky.social
Erle Ellis @erleellis.bsky.social · 9h
Scientific Warnings Don't Work:
Climate Messaging Needs a Rethink @aibsbiology.bsky.social academic.oup.com/bioscience/a...
A Psychological and Linguistic Analysis of “The 2024 State of the Climate Report: Perilous Times on Planet Earth”
Abstract. A traditional goal of science and environmental communication, including climate communication, has been to encourage disinterested or uninformed
academic.oup.com

pablo-ecology.bsky.social
Pablo Garcia-Diaz @pablo-ecology.bsky.social · 12h
Interesting - can you elaborate on what those implications are?

pablo-ecology.bsky.social
Pablo Garcia-Diaz @pablo-ecology.bsky.social · 13h
The making of novel ecosystems: A process-based framework for measurement, analysis and application 🌎🌐🧪 besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social
The making of novel ecosystems: A process‐based framework for measurement, analysis and application
Ecological novelty is emerging rapidly due to global change drivers such as climate shifts, species introductions, defaunation, and land-use transformation. These changes challenge how we assess, ...
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

pablo-ecology.bsky.social
Pablo Garcia-Diaz @pablo-ecology.bsky.social · 2d
Picaflor enano / Slender-tailed woodstar (Microstilbon burmeisteri) in the mountains of NW Argentina #birds #birdingArgentina #Argentina #birdsArgentina
Picaflor enano / Slender-tailed woodstar (Microstilbon burmeisteri) Picaflor enano / Slender-tailed woodstar (Microstilbon burmeisteri) Picaflor enano / Slender-tailed woodstar (Microstilbon burmeisteri) Picaflor enano / Slender-tailed woodstar (Microstilbon burmeisteri)

Reposted by Anthony Ricciardi

pablo-ecology.bsky.social
Pablo Garcia-Diaz @pablo-ecology.bsky.social · 5d
Alien range size, habitat breadth, origin location, and domestication of alien species matter to their impact risks 🌎🌐🧪 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Alien range size, habitat breadth, origin location, and domestication of alien species matter to their impact risks
We collected information on 1071 established alien terrestrial vertebrate species (mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians) and created a comprehensive database of 108 alien species to assess their ...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Reposted by Dennis Rödder

pablo-ecology.bsky.social
Pablo Garcia-Diaz @pablo-ecology.bsky.social · 7d
Cold-blooded commerce: Characterizing and predicting trade in Australian squamates. Sad to read that John Measey has passed away - John was a leading invasion biologist 🌐🌎🧪 #bioinvasions conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Cold‐blooded commerce: Characterizing and predicting trade in Australian squamates
Despite a national ban on native wildlife exports, Australian reptile species continue to appear in international trade. Using boosted regression trees, we found that large body sizes and taxonomic f...
conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Reposted by Julie L. Lockwood

pablo-ecology.bsky.social
Pablo Garcia-Diaz @pablo-ecology.bsky.social · 7d
Good to see an evaluation of horizon scans. The authors are quite positive about horizon scans, but the success rate was around 22%? I understand it’s difficult to define the candidate pool for these exercises, so I guess it depends a lot on the purpose and how it is used #bioninvasions 🌎🧪
jappliedecology.bsky.social Journal of Applied Ecology @jappliedecology.bsky.social · 7d
📖Published!

Assessing the success of a horizon scanning approach in predicting invasive non-native species arrival🐀

This paper highlights the importance of citizen science, including biological recording, and of local expertise for detecting and documenting arrival of INNS👇️

buff.ly/2Uhrl97

Reposted by Pablo García‐Díaz

jappliedecology.bsky.social
Journal of Applied Ecology @jappliedecology.bsky.social · 7d
📖Published!

Assessing the success of a horizon scanning approach in predicting invasive non-native species arrival🐀

This paper highlights the importance of citizen science, including biological recording, and of local expertise for detecting and documenting arrival of INNS👇️

buff.ly/2Uhrl97

pablo-ecology.bsky.social
Pablo Garcia-Diaz @pablo-ecology.bsky.social · 18d
Tracking the hidden trade of non-native pet amphibians in the United States 🧪 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Tracking the hidden trade of non-native pet amphibians in the United States
The global wildlife trade is contributing to biodiversity loss, with amphibians especially vulnerable and overlooked in trade regulations. The trade i…
www.sciencedirect.com

pablo-ecology.bsky.social
Pablo Garcia-Diaz @pablo-ecology.bsky.social · 19d
Indeed. We should write a paper ;)

Reposted by Pablo García‐Díaz

drbrucewebber.bsky.social
Bruce Webber @drbrucewebber.bsky.social · 19d
Introduced foxes and cats have had a devastating impact on Australia's mammals. This threat to biodiversity has been widely recognised, documented and acted upon by scientists, policy makers and land managers. Here we refute recent assertions to the contrary.

Read more (OA): doi.org/10.1093/bios...
Timing of extirpation of a native mammal population from a location relative to the time of arrival of feral cats at that location. Data are taken directly from Supplement 1 in Wallach and Lundgren (2025), using the last record of the native species, and the earliest arrival date from the range of arrival dates of cats to that location. Based on this information, extirpation of a native mammal occurs before cats arrive in only two cases, and these are where Wallach and Lundgren (2025) arbitrarily give the last record dates of 1788 and 1789 (i.e., time of European colonization, in 1788) for undated subfossil material. Of the 178 cases given in the Supplement, eight are omitted from this graph because: they were repeats of another row (n=4), there is no date for the last record of the species (n=1), the species is still present at the location (n=2), or the species never occurred at the location (n=1).

pablo-ecology.bsky.social
Pablo Garcia-Diaz @pablo-ecology.bsky.social · 19d
Yeah, there are many trade offs and decisions to navigate depending on your goal. The comment referred to intentionally choosing a biased model just because it is simpler.

I also acknowledge that there are several "modelling camps" with different perspectives.

pablo-ecology.bsky.social
Pablo Garcia-Diaz @pablo-ecology.bsky.social · 19d
It made me think about choices and assumptions, and the fact that my undergrad training emphasised that uncertainty is bad. The bias-variance tradeoff is quite important and often neglected

Reposted by Benjamin Larue

pablo-ecology.bsky.social
Pablo Garcia-Diaz @pablo-ecology.bsky.social · 19d
Reading this paper on causal inference and attribution (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... 🌎🌐), I came across this discussion. I used to favour simple models, even if I thought they could be biased, until my PhD cosupervisor (a math person) asked me "why would you choose a biased model?"
A screenshoot with the highlighted text reading "Researchers might gravitate toward simple models because they are often easier to interpret, reduce concerns of overfitting, and can lead to greater statistical power (e.g., by trimming explanatory variables) (Aho et al. 2014). Favouring simplicity, however, is not always beneficial for causal inference (Coelho et al. 2019). An imprecise but unbiased estimate (i.e., the expected value of the estimate is equal to the true value of the relationship being estimated (Dee et al. 2023; Simler-Williamson and Germino 2022)) is often preferred to a precise yet potentially biased estimate from a simple model."

Reposted by Nicolas Gross

pablo-ecology.bsky.social
Pablo Garcia-Diaz @pablo-ecology.bsky.social · 25d
Meta-analysis reveals negative but highly variable impacts of invasive alien species across terrestrial insect orders 🌎🌐🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Meta-analysis reveals negative but highly variable impacts of invasive alien species across terrestrial insect orders - Nature Communications
Insects are crucial for ecosystem functioning but face multiple threats, including invasive alien species. Here the authors quantify impacts of invasive alien species on four insect orders, with effec...
www.nature.com

pablo-ecology.bsky.social
Pablo Garcia-Diaz @pablo-ecology.bsky.social · 25d
I know that vegetation has been altered significantly. I am wondering what you mean by 'dysfunction'- I have never heard it before. Is it that the communities are impoverished relative to some baseline? Missing some important functional traits? Reduced ability to perform key ecosystem functions?

pablo-ecology.bsky.social
Pablo Garcia-Diaz @pablo-ecology.bsky.social · 25d
Thanks. Managing for game species seems to be prevalent in many areas of Scotland. Maybe it is useful to showcase and pilot alternative approaches to land and ecosystem management to better elicit societal preferences?

Reposted by Brian J. Enquist

pablo-ecology.bsky.social
Pablo Garcia-Diaz @pablo-ecology.bsky.social · 25d
Can hierarchical modelling of co-occurrence data provide accurate inference into species interactions? 🌎🌐🧪 besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

pablo-ecology.bsky.social
Pablo Garcia-Diaz @pablo-ecology.bsky.social · 26d
Don't do guerrilla rewilding or don't do rewilding altogether? Plenty of benefits from rewilding, and I have the impression that conservation policies could be updated/adapted to this new reality. Not sure how, though. From your bio, it seems that you are/were a policymaker, what do you think?

pablo-ecology.bsky.social
Pablo Garcia-Diaz @pablo-ecology.bsky.social · 26d
It depends on how you define 'benefit' - it seems clear that some single species reintroductions result in substantial changes to ecosystems (eg, beavers). Not sure what 'dysfunctional vegetation structures' means, though. Surely combining reintroductions and active restoration can help with that.

Reposted by Pablo García‐Díaz, Pieter Vantieghem

skatsanevakis.bsky.social
Stelios Katsanevakis @skatsanevakis.bsky.social · 27d
#AI is transforming #ecology — but at what cost? A new #Nature piece warns that as models, drones & remote sensing boom, many scientists are spending less time outdoors (“I rarely get outside”). Are we losing essential natural-history insight? 🌿🤖
🧪🌍🌐
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

pablo-ecology.bsky.social
Pablo Garcia-Diaz @pablo-ecology.bsky.social · 27d
I have submitted two editorial recommendations and three reviews since Saturday. I think I have done enough for 2026 - time for a beer 🌐🧪

pablo-ecology.bsky.social
Pablo Garcia-Diaz @pablo-ecology.bsky.social · 27d
Can we learn from the UK’s guerrilla rewilding movement? 🌎🌐🧪 www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Can we learn from the UK’s guerrilla rewilding movement? | Oryx | Cambridge Core
Can we learn from the UK’s guerrilla rewilding movement?
www.cambridge.org

Reposted by Pablo García‐Díaz, Joan Dudney

dylancraven.bsky.social
Dylan Craven @dylancraven.bsky.social · 28d
wonderful collab lead by @zurelllab.bsky.social on the context dependency of climatic niche conservatism of non-native plants: www.nature.com/articles/s41... #UniversidadMayor #DataObservatory

Reposted by Pablo García‐Díaz

jmbecologist.bsky.social
James Bullock @jmbecologist.bsky.social · 28d
An early view of our accessible introduction to the state of the art for Causal Machine Learning methods to understand & predict land use change

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Reposted by Graeme S. Cumming

pablo-ecology.bsky.social
Pablo Garcia-Diaz @pablo-ecology.bsky.social · 28d
Crime and punishment in the outback: A review of extractive and destructive green crime cases in Australia's criminal justice system 🌎🌐🧪 conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Crime and punishment in the outback: A review of extractive and destructive green crime cases in Australia's criminal justice system
Wildlife and environmental crime is a global issue, but regional assessments of these crimes and their impacts are lacking. We reviewed publicly available case files from Australia's intermediate and...
conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Reposted by Julie L. Lockwood

pablo-ecology.bsky.social
Pablo Garcia-Diaz @pablo-ecology.bsky.social · 28d
Site selection algorithms for optimal ecological monitoring design 🌎🌐🧪 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Site selection algorithms for optimal ecological monitoring design
Comprehensive monitoring of biodiversity to direct conservation action is foundational to addressing the ongoing biodiversity crisis. As integrative m…
www.sciencedirect.com

Reposted by Pablo García‐Díaz, Marius Somveille

fletcherecology.bsky.social
Robert Fletcher @fletcherecology.bsky.social · 29d
As someone trained as both a field ecologist and quantitative scientist, this tension runs deep for me. Some of my group are entrenched in the field whereas others work with models for a living.

‘I rarely get outside’: scientists ditch fieldwork in the age of AI www.nature.com/articles/d41...
1/4
Client Challenge
www.nature.com

Reposted by Valerie M. Delmotte, Brian J. Enquist, Andy Purvis , and 15 more

ipbes.net
IPBES @ipbes.net · Jan 8
“We cannot withdraw from the fact that over 1 million species of plants and animals face extinction.”

IPBES remains committed to its mandate to provide the most credible science and evidence about biodiversity to all decision makers and actors.

— @davidobura.bsky.social , @ipbes.net Chair
Split-screen image on a deep green background. Left side contains a statement from Dr David Obura, IPBES Chair, regarding the US withdrawal from IPBES and extinction threats to over 1 million species. Right side shows a photograph of a man wearing glasses, dressed in a dark jacket and grey shirt, seated at a conference table with a microphone. The IPBES logo appears at the bottom with the tagline "Science and Policy for People and Nature". The design features white typography on the dark green background, creating a professional contrast. Several small pins or badges are visible on the speaker's jacket.