Maria Clara Castellanos
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calacastellanos.bsky.social
Maria Clara Castellanos
@calacastellanos.bsky.social
Plant evolutionary ecologist @Sussex Uni | Pollination and flower evolution + fire ecology research | Editor-in-Chief Journal of Pollination Ecology @jpollecol.bsky.social
Reposted by Maria Clara Castellanos
I'm very sad to say William Bond, of the University of Cape Town & Fellow of the Royal Society (@royalsociety.org ), has passed away. It is a great loss. He was an enthusiastic ecologist and a critical thinker. I learned a lot, and I still had a lot to learn from him. RIP. 😢

🧪🌎🔥🌿🌳🪴🌐 #PlantScience
December 4, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Reposted by Maria Clara Castellanos
Looking for a postdoctoral fellowship? Get in touch with me if you’re interested in joining my lab and applying to a Sintring 2-year fellowship. I’m particularly interested in developing applications on buzz pollination, floral evolution, and Mimulus eco-gen projects. www.uu.se/en/departmen...
The Birgitta Sintring Foundation - Uppsala University
www.uu.se
November 29, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Reposted by Maria Clara Castellanos
And another freshly published article by van Kolfschoten & Vallejo-Marín: Getting hooked? Testing the function of anther spurs in Vaccinium myrtillus: doi.org/10.26786/192...
November 14, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Reposted by Maria Clara Castellanos
Managed honeybees affect the foraging behaviour of bumblebees in Geranium sylvaticum - new study out by Soininen et al.: doi.org/10.26786/192...
November 14, 2025 at 10:11 AM
Reposted by Maria Clara Castellanos
Rapid postfire color shift in a Mediterranean lizard
@jzoology.bsky.social

#Lizards inhabiting recently burned areas display lighter coloration, as a #thermoregulatory response
zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

🧪🌍🔥🦎📏 #trait #fauna #zoology #wildfire #fireecology #fire
November 12, 2025 at 11:41 AM
Reposted by Maria Clara Castellanos
Testing the pollen competition hypothesis - new article published by Yu & Muchhala: Greater number of pollen donors improves female reproductive success but not progeny vigour in Allium stellatum - doi.org/10.26786/192...
November 7, 2025 at 9:09 AM
Reposted by Maria Clara Castellanos
New publication: Pollination facilitation and temporal changes of plant-floral visitor network in a serpentine shrubwood of Cuba by Alameda et al. doi.org/10.26786/192...
September 26, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Reposted by Maria Clara Castellanos
Discover a new data paper by Barberis, Bitonto, Costantino et al. where they make "Insect-flower interactions in the Mediterranean area: a Citizen Science dataset collated within the Life4Pollinators project" available: doi.org/10.26786/192...
November 3, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Reposted by Maria Clara Castellanos
Bumble bee colony health is diminished in a mesotunnel enclosure planted with a cucurbit monoculture crop - New publication out by Gauger et al. doi.org/10.26786/192...
October 29, 2025 at 12:46 PM
Reposted by Maria Clara Castellanos
How do plants stave off greedy pollinators? Read our new paper on pollen dosing in buzz pollinated flowers just out in @funecology.bsky.social
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Gradual pollen release in a buzz‐pollinated plant: Investigating pollen presentation theory under bee visitation
Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
October 7, 2025 at 7:35 AM
👇 🌸 see Special Issue in New Phytologist on Nectar & nectaries with many ways of studying nectar biology - including our 2024 paper on nectar traits evolutionary potential @a-romerobravo.bsky.social @newphyt.bsky.social
On the cover of our #LatestIssue: #Nectar collecting at the tip of the stigma in Agapetes lacei (Ericaceae). Photo by Evin Magner, courtesy of the University of Minnesota CBS Conservatory.

📖 See Virtual Issue: Nectar and nectaries
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1...

#PlantScience
October 5, 2025 at 10:36 AM
Reposted by Maria Clara Castellanos
Those savannas next to the river that experienced flooding a few months ago are now ready to burn (flood-sensitive grasses); savannas further from the river are green (non-flammable).
Flooding enhances fire, i.e., water and fire are complementary forces in Los Llanos del Orinoco, Colombia.
🧪🌍🔥
September 18, 2025 at 12:03 AM
Reposted by Maria Clara Castellanos
Where does pollen go after leaving a flower? Our paper on pollen fates in buzz pollinated flowers is out. Congrats to the three brilliant undergrads that carried out this study from beginning to end!

pollinationecology.org/index.php/jp...
September 17, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Reposted by Maria Clara Castellanos
The Pollinator Academy is an online platform that provides tools and training to help strengthen your knowledge of the taxonomy of European pollinators. Follow us and visit our website to find out more! #PollinatorAcademy #Pollinators #Taxonomy #Bee #Hoverfly #Butterfly Pollinatoracademy.eu
September 10, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Reposted by Maria Clara Castellanos
Extremely interesting opinion piece by MacIvor & Irwin on "Mail-order solitary bee cocoons as a gateway for biological invasion": doi.org/10.26786/192...
September 10, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Reposted by Maria Clara Castellanos
The second one comes from India, looking at Bee diversity in apple orchards of the Lower Himalaya: research synthesis, a new field study, and future needs - by Virkar et al.: doi.org/10.26786/192...
September 5, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Reposted by Maria Clara Castellanos
Two new papers out from very different regions: the first one investigates how Timing of flowering affects pollination of Viburnum edule in Alaskan boreal forest by Kornhauser & Mulder: doi.org/10.26786/192...
September 5, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Experts on wildfires are posting about the fires in the northern part of Iberia, because fires there right now are remarkably large and numerous. But the causes are the same as in any Mediterranean environment. The thread below explains the complexity and why we need to adapt (in Spanish).
¿Por qué la región entre Zamora, León y Ourense arde tanto?
No, no es para construir aerogeneradores, ni por ninguna de las teorías conspiranoicas que estamos leyendo. La explicación es más compleja… y menos cómoda para quienes buscan respuestas simples. 1/13
August 16, 2025 at 10:34 AM
Reposted by Maria Clara Castellanos
¿Por qué la región entre Zamora, León y Ourense arde tanto?
No, no es para construir aerogeneradores, ni por ninguna de las teorías conspiranoicas que estamos leyendo. La explicación es más compleja… y menos cómoda para quienes buscan respuestas simples. 1/13
August 15, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Reposted by Maria Clara Castellanos
An article I wrote for @theconversation.com in response to #allotment sell-offs. Featuring evidence from myself and @davegoulson.bsky.social and the amazing work led by Jill Edmondson's team at Sheffield. #communitygardens #urbanbiodiversity #growyourown
theconversation.com/allotments-a...
Allotments are vanishing when the UK urgently needs more of them
In praise of digging for potatoes.
theconversation.com
August 8, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Reposted by Maria Clara Castellanos
Having Sir David Attenborough narrate a story based on our findings on the dyeing poison frog was something that I never imagined, even in my wildest dreams. Now it’s happening, in the new BBC series “Parenthood” (Episode on Freshwater)! 🤩 www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Zih...
📸: Screenshot from trailer
August 8, 2025 at 5:36 AM
Reposted by Maria Clara Castellanos
🥕 Are you a UK researcher or practitioner working in urban agriculture? Please join us at 'Growing Together: A Transdisciplinary Forum on UK Urban Food Systems'
📅17-18th September 2025
📍University of Sussex
✍️Register by 31st Aug: lnkd.in/eQHbQxP2
❓More info? Contact: e.nicholls@sussex.ac.uk
July 30, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Reposted by Maria Clara Castellanos
Paying attention to the correct sequence of numbers is important! Find out why in this freshly published paper by Symington & Rockx: A pervasive typographical error in an equation for calculating nectar density is likely to have limited consequences - doi.org/10.26786/192...
July 25, 2025 at 10:18 PM
Reposted by Maria Clara Castellanos
Can plants keep up with fire regime changes through evolution?
doi.org/10.1016/j.tr... | @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social

What about animals?
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... | @globalchangebio.bsky.social

Trait–fire mismatching
Food for thought by @ltkelly.bsky.social et al

🧪🌍🔥🌳🌿🌾🌐 #ecoevo
July 23, 2025 at 2:02 PM