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brols.bsky.social
Brian Rolek
@brols.bsky.social
1.2K followers 1.6K following 62 posts

PhD | Quantitative Ecologist at a nonprofit | Applied conservation science | Birds esp Raptors and Passerines | Bayesian stats | Population Ecology | Forest Management | Dadding

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Environmental science 80%
Geography 20%
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brols.bsky.social
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · Oct 23
Reintroduction: I'm an ecologist with The Peregrine Fund. I'm currently focused on raptors, conservation, population ecology, and management. I work with fun species like the critically endangered Ridgway's Hawk, California Condor, and African Vultures.

Reposted by Martin Jung, Tom Shakespeare, Peter Stoett , and 5 more

thelabandfield.bsky.social
Dr Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social · Oct 10
Well, it's official. After our paper last year (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....), the Slender-billed Curlew is officially declared Extinct today.

Scientists dream of describing new species, not writing their obituary and epitaph, knowing that they are gone forever #ornithology

brols.bsky.social
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · Oct 3
A preview of my upcoming talk at Raptor Research Foundation. Evaluating management of Ridgway's Hawk using IPMs and PVAs. Press play and watch the Population Viability Analysis go!

brols.bsky.social
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · Oct 1
So many people have made personal sacrifices working every day to improve living standards for all of us. They are heroes that often go unrecognized and deserve better. I'm thinking about you all today.
sjcfishy.bsky.social Steven J Cooke @sjcfishy.bsky.social · Oct 1
Thinking about all of my US colleagues today that work for USGS, USFWS, US Parks Service, NOAA and the EPA. From front line environmental practitioners to scientists and policy makers, these folks ensure that waters are swimmable, fish are edible, that natural areas are accessible, etc, etc, etc.

Reposted by David W. Kerstetter, Brian W. Rolek

sjcfishy.bsky.social
Steven J Cooke @sjcfishy.bsky.social · Oct 1
Thinking about all of my US colleagues today that work for USGS, USFWS, US Parks Service, NOAA and the EPA. From front line environmental practitioners to scientists and policy makers, these folks ensure that waters are swimmable, fish are edible, that natural areas are accessible, etc, etc, etc.

brols.bsky.social
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · Sep 27
Check out our latest where we look at long-term trends of Boreal Owl captures, juvenile captures, body condition, and cycles. Great work Justine Le Vaillant! A collab with @hawkmountain.bsky.social
www.tandfonline.com/eprint/EZU6Z...
Demographic trends for the Boreal Owl, Aegolius funereus, using standardized migration monitoring data in eastern North America
Many boreal species have declined during recent decades in North America. Various indexes suggest that populations of the Boreal Owl Aegolius funereus are declining across North America, but very f...
www.tandfonline.com

brols.bsky.social
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · Sep 5
Someone please do this with Grasshopper Sparrows. It would be pretty wild because their early successional habitat can result from fires, agriculture, or mechanical manipulation. Cool study!
ecologyofgavin.bsky.social gavin jones @ecologyofgavin.bsky.social · Sep 5
Which results in these incredibly insightful visualizations showing how bird-fire relationships vary spatially in their magnitude and, sometimes, direction (see the goshawk!!). This shows us that the effect of fire in one part of a species range might be completely different in another. Wowowowow

Reposted by Brian W. Rolek

ecologyofgavin.bsky.social
gavin jones @ecologyofgavin.bsky.social · Sep 5
Which results in these incredibly insightful visualizations showing how bird-fire relationships vary spatially in their magnitude and, sometimes, direction (see the goshawk!!). This shows us that the effect of fire in one part of a species range might be completely different in another. Wowowowow

brols.bsky.social
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · Sep 3
As of today, I'm officially an Elective Member of the American Ornithological Society (AOS)! 🎉🎈🎊 I always need to remind myself to stop and celebrate these things.

brols.bsky.social
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · Aug 19
Alliances among vast organizations including states, cities, academic institutions, unions, etc leading to a general strike and the creation of alternative institutions.

brols.bsky.social
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · Aug 13
Or the opposite side of the coin. Maybe you all could talk about how excluding people from the economy damages the economy for everyone.

brols.bsky.social
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · Aug 13
Let's pretend the economy is a pie. Does inclusion and diversity in the economy slice the pie into smaller pieces or does the pie just get bigger? (I strongly suspect the latter but it would be great to hear from experts).

brols.bsky.social
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · Aug 8
😂 you're a tough customer. I'm just glad that I know to avoid those models for now.

brols.bsky.social
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · Aug 8
Here's an extremely useful study for those using survival models that compares different implementations. Just my luck, guess which model I had been using for a not-yet-published study. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Comparison of Bayesian Models to Estimate Survival From Dead‐Recovery Alone and Together With Live‐Encounter Data: Challenges and Opportunities
Different models in the Bayesian framework for analyzing dead-recovery data, either alone or together with live-encounter data to estimate survival, are presented and compared. Although all but one o...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com

brols.bsky.social
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · Aug 7
I'm finding as I make more complex models I seem to need to use the noncentered param more to get adequate sampling. Any chance you've had a similar experience?

brols.bsky.social
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · Aug 7
okay I probably wouldn't have used it then. Still that team is always adding nice features.

brols.bsky.social
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · Aug 7
Honestly I think one of your previous posts brought this to my attention, so thanks! I was not aware that nimble had a built-in noncentered sampler. I probably should be using that.

brols.bsky.social
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · Aug 7
And obviously this won't rescue a poor dataset, but it might rescue some poorly behaved MCMCs.

brols.bsky.social
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · Aug 7
Just sending this out to the BlueSky-iverse in case any of you Bayesians are struggling with convergence out there.

brols.bsky.social
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · Aug 7
Using non-centered parameterizations of the normal and multivariate normal distributions has absolutely rescued a couple of complex models for several projects. It served me well when models become intractible or take too long to run.

Reposted by Stephen R. Carpenter, Gordon Hodson, Ben Bond‐Lamberty , and 3 more

monicagturner.bsky.social
Monica G. Turner @monicagturner.bsky.social · Aug 4
Please, please, please-submit to good journals (society + reputed publishers), respect peer review, and do your reviews with integrity. So important. Thanks to all of you who do. @steve-carpenter.bsky.social @esajournals.bsky.social #Ecosystems
science.org Science Magazine @science.org · Aug 4
A new study, based on an analysis of thousands of publications and their authors and editors, shows paper mills are just part of a complex, interconnected system that includes publishers, journals, and brokers. scim.ag/3H9kwwQ
Scientific fraud has become an ‘industry,’ alarming analysis finds
Sophisticated global networks are infiltrating journals to publish fake papers
scim.ag

Reposted by Ingolf Kühn, Olivier Giménez, Brian W. Rolek

maeliskervellec.bsky.social
Maëlis Kervellec @maeliskervellec.bsky.social · Apr 18
Honoured to receive the 2024 Robert May prize !! 😊 🎉 Many thanks to the @britishecologicalsociety.org
& @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social
methodsinecoevol.bsky.social Methods in Ecology and Evolution @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social · Apr 17
Congratulations to the winner of our 2024 Robert May prize!! 🏆

Read more about Maëlis’ research on the methods blog 👉https://methodsblog.com/2025/04/17/robert-may-prize-2024-winner-announced-for-early-career-researcher-award/

brols.bsky.social
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · Jul 23
Latest achievement, I made my model indices spell s,c,a,t. Thats sex, captivity, age, and time. Sadly, my study has nothing to do with actual scat.

brols.bsky.social
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · Jul 22
Wildlifers who have traveled/lived in Costa Rica, what should i check out after a conference in October?

Reposted by Brian W. Rolek

yeetkunedo.bsky.social
Yeet Kune Do @yeetkunedo.bsky.social · Jul 6
re: generative AI

I have finally fully and accurately explained my problem with how it’s marketed and used.

And now, you can use it, too.
Generative Al is being marketed as a tool designed to reduce or eliminate the need for developed, cognitive skillsets. It uses the work of others to simulate human output, except that it lacks grasp of nuance, contains grievous errors, and ultimately serves the goal of human beings being neurologically weaker due to the promise of the machine being better equipped than the humans using it would ever exert the effort to be. The people that use generative Al for art have no interest in being an artist; they simply want product to consume and forget about when the next piece of product goes by their eyes. The people that use generative Al to make music have no interest in being a musician; they simply want a machine to make them something to listen to until they get bored and want the machine to make some other disposable slop for them to pass the time with. The people that use generative Al to write things for them have no interest in writing. The people that use generative Al to find factoids have no interest in actual facts. The people that use generative Al to socialize have no interest in actual socialization. In every case, they've handed over the cognitive load of developing a necessary, creative human skillset to a machine that promises to ease the sweat equity cost of struggle. Using generative Al is like asking a machine to lift weights on your behalf and then calling yourself a bodybuilder when it's done with the reps. You build nothing in terms of muscle, you are not stronger, you are not faster, you are not in better shape. You're just deluding yourself while experiencing a slow decline due to self-inflicted atrophy.

Reposted by Brian W. Rolek

theperegrinefund.bsky.social
The Peregrine Fund @theperegrinefund.bsky.social · May 30
New Book: State of the World's Raptors 📖 https://bit.ly/SotWR

The new book, led by Executive V.P. of Science and Conservation Dr. Christopher McClure provides an original approach to setting regional priorities for the conservation of raptors across the globe. 

Chris with book 📷 Anne Dixon

Reposted by Brian W. Rolek

theperegrinefund.bsky.social
The Peregrine Fund @theperegrinefund.bsky.social · May 13
Our Madagascar Program Director, Dr. Lily-Arison Rene de Roland, has been named the 2025 Indianapolis Prize winner! Congratulations, Lily!

Read more about Lily's accomplishments and the Indianapolis Prize at https://bit.ly/4klk1Od

📷 John Mittermeier  
#RaptorResearch #birds #raptors

Reposted by Brian W. Rolek

scibri.com
Brian Owens @scibri.com · May 13
Are you a US researcher who has recently moved to Canada because of the Trump disruption to science (or are you in the process of doing so)? I want to talk to you for a story in @nature.com 🧪

brols.bsky.social
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · May 12
Extended closing date of 30 May 2025.

brols.bsky.social
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · May 12
Post-doc position available if you're interested in "movement ecology, animal tracking, conservation and sustainability science, environmental planning, human–wildlife coexistence, project management and/or consortium-style, big-data research." www.vacancies.st-andrews.ac.uk/Vacancies/I/...
Post-doctoral Research Fellow - AR3119LS
Post-doctoral Research Fellow - AR3119LS, School of Biology Salary: £38,249 - £45,413 per annum Start Date: As soon as possible Fixed Term for 2 Years with a possibility to extend, <p style="text-ali...
www.vacancies.st-andrews.ac.uk

Reposted by Brian W. Rolek

rosariolebronentomology.com
Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · May 8
The legendary USGS Bee Lab is being shut down. The 2026 budget proposal defunds the Ecosystem Mission Area, which supported the lab. If their science helped your work, there’s still time to make your voice heard. Read below. (1/4)
🧪 #pollinators #Pollinators #USGS #Entomology #Hymenoptera 🪲🪳
USGS Bee Lab at the Eastern Ecological Science Center
The USGS Bee Lab supports research on native bees. As part of that program we and our co-located USFWS partners develop identification tools and keys for native bee species, take public access hi reso...
www.usgs.gov