Dr Alison Cribb
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alisoncribb.bsky.social
Dr Alison Cribb
@alisoncribb.bsky.social
Paleoecologist with a computer 🐚🪱🪸👩‍💻 • Fossils for the future! • On the job market • 1851 Research Fellow at University of Southampton • she/her • atcribb.github.io #paleoecology #evoeco

atcribb.github.io
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New in Trends in Ecology & Evolution: 'Earth system engineers' and the cumulative impact of organisms in deep time 🔓 #ecoevo #openaccess

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

A thread 🧵:
‘Earth system engineers’ and the cumulative impact of organisms in deep time
Understanding the role of humans as ‘ecosystem engineers’ requires a deep-time perspective rooted in evolutionary history and the fossil record. Howev…
www.sciencedirect.com
One week to go! Don't forget to register for what is going to be an excellent day of highlighting early career research and networking. Keep your eyes peeled for the meeting programme and abstract booklet soon!
🚨Registration open!🚨

Join us for the 4th Early Career Researcher Symposium of the International Fossil Coral and Reef Society (it’s online and free!) 🪸

📆 13th November 2025
⏰ 09:00–16:00 UTC
🔗 Register: fau.zoom-x.de/meeting/regi...
November 4, 2025 at 4:28 PM
⚓️⭐️ go dores
October 25, 2025 at 11:21 PM
Reposted by Dr Alison Cribb
The GRFP announcement from NSF cuts out an entire cohort of 2nd year students from consideration, without warning. This is so deeply unfair that it warrants a formal protest from the scientific community. If someone wants to work with me to craft an open letter and solicit signatures, LMK.
New: After a long wait, the GRFP solicitation is live! Deadlines have been extended to early November, so applicants have a bit over a month to submit. www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)
www.nsf.gov
September 26, 2025 at 5:10 PM
New in Trends in Ecology & Evolution: 'Earth system engineers' and the cumulative impact of organisms in deep time 🔓 #ecoevo #openaccess

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

A thread 🧵:
‘Earth system engineers’ and the cumulative impact of organisms in deep time
Understanding the role of humans as ‘ecosystem engineers’ requires a deep-time perspective rooted in evolutionary history and the fossil record. Howev…
www.sciencedirect.com
September 24, 2025 at 8:55 AM
Reposted by Dr Alison Cribb
🌊 >70% of W. Atlantic coral reefs will transition into net erosional states by 2040. If warming >2°C (SSP2–4.5+), 99% eroding by 2100.

Sea level will rise 0.3–0.5 m above reefs by 2060, 0.7–1.2 m by 2100, boosting coastal flood risk

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reduced Atlantic reef growth past 2 °C warming amplifies sea-level impacts - Nature
An analysis of coral reefs in the tropical western Atlantic suggests that nearly all will be eroding by 2100 if global warming exceeds 2 °C, which will worsen the effects of sea-level rise.
www.nature.com
September 17, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Reposted by Dr Alison Cribb
Interested in simulating the kind of data that you might commonly find in evolutionary and ecological studies?

Then we have the R package for you - squidSim!!

Check our new preprint:
ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
squidSim: a flexible R package for structured and reproducible simulations in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
ecoevorxiv.org
September 15, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Reposted by Dr Alison Cribb
The bottom line: zoogeochemical niche construction offers a way to understand how animals, through their elemental legacies, can influence not just ecosystems—but their own evolutionary trajectories.
August 21, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Reposted by Dr Alison Cribb
Animals don’t just live in their environments—they transform them. And in doing so, they may also shape their own evolutionary trajectories. Our new paper in Trends in Ecology & Evolution introduces a framework for zoogeochemical niche construction. A thread 👇
August 21, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Reposted by Dr Alison Cribb
Really happy to see chapter 2 of my PhD published today in @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social. DeepDiveR is an R package to assist with deep learning inference of biodiversity change through time 🤿🦊 Thanks to @bethanyjallen.bsky.social & Daniele Silvestro for the collaboration

doi.org/10.1111/2041...
August 8, 2025 at 10:45 AM
Reposted by Dr Alison Cribb
Ever wanted to infer a morphological or total-evidence phylogeny in BEAST2?
It’s long overdue, but we now have a tutorial on Taming the BEAST to talk you through the process 💻🌳⚙️
Thanks to Joëlle Barido-Sottani for helping me pull this together!
taming-the-beast.org/tutorials/To...
Total Evidence Tutorial
taming-the-beast.org
July 8, 2025 at 6:12 AM
Reposted by Dr Alison Cribb
The #SCIMaP team announces a major update: an analysis of the economic impacts of the White House's NIH FY26 budget.

Bottom-line, we estimate $46B in total economic loss, 202K lost jobs, and impacts in communities nationwide.

Interactive map and shareable report:
scienceimpacts.org/fy26

a 🧵
June 23, 2025 at 7:10 PM
Reposted by Dr Alison Cribb
This is also totally inconsistent with action on EDI issues. The more that funding for ECRs is an inconsistent boom and bust, the more it harms those without the opportunities and external resources to ride out the droughts. Lots of my peers are less fortunate than me in this regard.
June 17, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Reposted by Dr Alison Cribb
The early career researchers who apply for fellowships like these are usually working on fixed term contracts without much job security. We need consistent, plannable fellowship opportunities, not mixed messages wasting our time. It shouldn't be a big ask.
June 17, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Reposted by Dr Alison Cribb
So NERC have quietly announced this afternoon that they're delaying/cancelling/suspending, whatever 'not launched at this time' means, their 2025 Independent Research Fellowship round. After announcing it 34 days ago.

Flip-flopping like this is really detrimental to early career researchers.
June 17, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Reposted by Dr Alison Cribb
Very sad to learn Richard Bambach has passed away. In addition to his significant contributions to science and the 'paleobiological revolution', I will mostly remember him as a warm and wonderful presence in our paleobiology journal club when I was a postdoc at the Smithsonian
June 24, 2025 at 9:16 PM
The mathematics gender gap has incredibly damaging consequences down the line for women’s rights re financial literacy and independence. For example, you’re more likely to give control of your finances to someone else if you genuinely believe you can’t and never will understand compound interest.
nature.com Nature @nature.com · Jun 11
When do girls fall behind in maths? Gigantic study pinpoints the moment

https://go.nature.com/4l1nC4g
June 24, 2025 at 12:25 PM
Reposted by Dr Alison Cribb
We’re wasting the remaining carbon budget on war and AI.
Only two years left of world’s carbon budget to meet 1.5C target, scientists warn
Breaching threshold would ramp up catastrophic weather events, further increasing human suffering
www.theguardian.com
June 19, 2025 at 9:44 PM
Reposted by Dr Alison Cribb
✨ Excited to share our new paper! ✨

Sustained shift in the morphology of organic-walled microfossils over the Ediacaran–Cambrian transition doi.org/10.1098/rsos...

@royalsocietypublishing.org @rosspanderson.bsky.social @kelleypaleolab.bsky.social
June 19, 2025 at 2:45 PM
My next 311 days sorted
June 19, 2025 at 7:35 PM
Reposted by Dr Alison Cribb
Registration for Life and Planet is now open on lifeandplanet.com! Keep an eye on your inboxes if you submitted an abstract, and watch the website for the program of talks. We are excited to see you in July!
Life and Planet
lifeandplanet.com
May 8, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Reposted by Dr Alison Cribb
How can zombie microbes interact with the Earth system? 🦠🧟🌎

Microbes, even when dormant, play a massive role in shaping Earth's ecosystems & biogeochemistry 🌎

In @natcomms.nature.com I explore dormancy in the context of Earth’s geosphere-biosphere co-evolution

🧵👇
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Microbial dormancy as an ecological and biogeochemical regulator on Earth - Nature Communications
Dormancy enables microbes to withstand periods of environmental harshness. It occurs throughout diverse ecosystems and spans vast timescales, and could play an important role in shaping the co-ev...
www.nature.com
April 28, 2025 at 9:15 AM
Reposted by Dr Alison Cribb
Today is the last day to submit an abstract under the extended deadline. Don't forget! lifeandplanet.com
Your friendly Friday reminder that abstracts for Life and Planet 2025 are open until Wednesday April 9th. Abstract submission is FREE! Submit your abstracts here: lifeandplanet.com 🌍🦠🌱🐚🧪🧑‍💻🧬👽🌏
April 16, 2025 at 9:19 AM
Reposted by Dr Alison Cribb
🚨Palaeoverse Lecture Series🚨
🗓️24th April 2025, 16:00 UTC🗓️

Next week’s talk is from Dr Richard Stockey @richardstockey.bsky.social from University of Southampton, on “Modelling ancient animal habitats in space and time: linking fossils and Earth system models”

Register here: bit.ly/palaeoverse-...
April 15, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Reposted by Dr Alison Cribb
No Paris-Roubaix without a geology story!

Marjolein Naudé explains in this clip how the Hell of the North froze over and made the muddy, dusty mess we all love so much!

And read more in our blog: www.geo-sports.org/2024/geology...

youtu.be/R00JSTLw-f0?...
Geology of Paris-Roubaix - When did the Hell of the North break loose?
YouTube video by Geo-Sports - The Geology of Sports Events
youtu.be
April 13, 2025 at 7:51 AM