Frank Burdon
@fburdon.bsky.social
Kiwi ecologist interested in biodiversity, food webs, and ecosystem functioning. Hike, bike, ultimate, and the outdoors for fun. Views my own.
Pinned
Frank Burdon
@fburdon.bsky.social
· Nov 24
Interested in freshwater food webs and keen to connect with like-minded researchers on Bluesky? Give me a shout-out and I will add you to the Freshwater Food Webs starter pack.
go.bsky.app/R2WU99T
go.bsky.app/R2WU99T
Impressed to see a whole tree snagged mid-channel below the Victoria Bridge in Hamilton. The Waikato River is running very high at the moment.
October 18, 2025 at 5:31 AM
Impressed to see a whole tree snagged mid-channel below the Victoria Bridge in Hamilton. The Waikato River is running very high at the moment.
Concentrations of an omega-6 LC-PUFA in stream biofilms was greatly decreased in open, well-lit conditions when compared to a shaded treatment - suggesting that riparian shading can improve the nutritional quality of biofilms
Nutritional Quality of Basal Resource in Stream Food Webs Increased with Light Reduction—Implications for Riparian Revegetation - Microbial Ecology
Biofilms are considered a basal resource with high nutritional quality in stream food webs, as periphytic algae are abundant of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). PUFAs are essential for growth and ...
link.springer.com
September 19, 2025 at 12:52 AM
Concentrations of an omega-6 LC-PUFA in stream biofilms was greatly decreased in open, well-lit conditions when compared to a shaded treatment - suggesting that riparian shading can improve the nutritional quality of biofilms
Understanding the specificity of algal-consumer interactions in stream food webs may be crucial for better understanding how essential LC-PUFAs are acquired from dietary sources #fattyacids
Red and brown macroalgae in temperate stream food webs: Are we missing an important trophic link?
In temperate low-order streams and rivers, the macroinvertebrate community has a key role in the flow of matter and energy. Despite its relative scarcity, in-stream primary producers have a high func....
aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
September 18, 2025 at 10:56 PM
Understanding the specificity of algal-consumer interactions in stream food webs may be crucial for better understanding how essential LC-PUFAs are acquired from dietary sources #fattyacids
Molecular analyses revealed that the microbiomes of hydropsychid caddisfly biostructures differ taxonomically and functionally from adjacent rock biofilms (~2 cm distant). They were enriched in microbial taxa associated with ecosystem functions including denitrification #ecosystemengineers
Net-spinning caddisflies create denitrifier-enriched niches in the stream microbiome
AbstractLarval net-spinning caddisflies (Hydropsychidae) function as ecosystem engineers in streams where they construct protective retreats composed of or
academic.oup.com
September 18, 2025 at 3:51 AM
Molecular analyses revealed that the microbiomes of hydropsychid caddisfly biostructures differ taxonomically and functionally from adjacent rock biofilms (~2 cm distant). They were enriched in microbial taxa associated with ecosystem functions including denitrification #ecosystemengineers
Interested in applying fatty acid biomarkers and functional traits to understand landscape drivers in stream-riparian food webs? Look no further than our recent paper published here: esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
September 12, 2025 at 10:28 AM
Interested in applying fatty acid biomarkers and functional traits to understand landscape drivers in stream-riparian food webs? Look no further than our recent paper published here: esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
How does trophic connectivity between different ecosystems work at a landscape scale? We applied a novel conceptual framework with functional traits and fatty acid biomarkers to assess direct and indirect effects of landscape drivers on cross-ecosystem connectivity in stream-riparian #foodwebs
Fatty acid biomarkers reveal landscape influences on linkages between aquatic and terrestrial food webs
Stream and riparian habitats are meta-ecosystems that can be strongly connected via the emergence of aquatic insects, which form an important prey subsidy for terrestrial consumers. Anthropogenic per...
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
September 2, 2025 at 5:46 AM
How does trophic connectivity between different ecosystems work at a landscape scale? We applied a novel conceptual framework with functional traits and fatty acid biomarkers to assess direct and indirect effects of landscape drivers on cross-ecosystem connectivity in stream-riparian #foodwebs
Warming of aquatic ecosystems disrupts aquatic–terrestrial linkages in the tropics - a natural experiment using geothermally-warmed streams showed how increased temperature reduced emerging adult insects, thus affecting terrestrial predators that rely on this prey subsidy #foodwebs
Warming threatens aquatic–terrestrial linkages: evidence from tropical geothermal streams
Terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems are connected through energy fluxes partially driven by aquatic organisms that migrate to terrestrial environments during adulthood. According to the thermal perfor...
nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
August 27, 2025 at 8:43 AM
Warming of aquatic ecosystems disrupts aquatic–terrestrial linkages in the tropics - a natural experiment using geothermally-warmed streams showed how increased temperature reduced emerging adult insects, thus affecting terrestrial predators that rely on this prey subsidy #foodwebs
Interesting study considers how climate change might interact with two plant species to affect litter decomposition - could such responses cross ecosystem boundaries when decomposition happens in aquatic receiving environments?
Climatic stress‐induced changes in plant chemistry alter the compound‐specific degradation of litter during decomposition
Plant litter decomposition sustains ecosystem productivity and modulates soil carbon cycling. Drought directly impacts decomposition by decreasing soil moisture and indirectly by altering plant tiss.....
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
August 26, 2025 at 5:25 AM
Interesting study considers how climate change might interact with two plant species to affect litter decomposition - could such responses cross ecosystem boundaries when decomposition happens in aquatic receiving environments?
Indirect ecological interactions are everywhere in nature, with species influencing another through a third species or the environment. Such interactions are rarely connected to rapid evolutionary change. Here, aphid-driven herbivory of duckweed drove adaptive evolutionary change in Daphnia.
Aphid herbivory on macrophytes drives adaptive evolution in an aquatic community via indirect effects | PNAS
Indirect ecological effects occur when the impact of one species on another is mediated
by a third species or the shared environment. Although indi...
www.pnas.org
August 25, 2025 at 8:08 AM
Indirect ecological interactions are everywhere in nature, with species influencing another through a third species or the environment. Such interactions are rarely connected to rapid evolutionary change. Here, aphid-driven herbivory of duckweed drove adaptive evolutionary change in Daphnia.
Japanese researchers were able to use a ViT model to successfully achieve high accuracy in identifying mayfly families from images. This demonstrated the potential for machine learning and image analysis to automate the taxonomic identification of macroinvertebrates in freshwater biomonitoring.
Japanese mayfly family classification with a vision transformer model - Limnology
Benthic macroinvertebrates are a frequently used indicator group for biomonitoring and biologic assessment of river ecosystems. However, their taxonomic identification is laborious and requires specia...
link.springer.com
July 24, 2025 at 6:17 AM
Japanese researchers were able to use a ViT model to successfully achieve high accuracy in identifying mayfly families from images. This demonstrated the potential for machine learning and image analysis to automate the taxonomic identification of macroinvertebrates in freshwater biomonitoring.
Restoration ecology that considers biotic interactions is essential if goals include restoring species. Constructed wetlands complement adjacent streams by supplying emergent aquatic insect subsidies asynchronously, extending the foraging window for terrestrial consumers #foodweb #landscapediversity
Restoration of aquatic habitat complex extends the foraging window of terrestrial consumers
Cross-ecosystem linkages benefit generalist consumers by providing prey fluxes from donor habitats, but these trophic connections are highly vulnerabl…
www.sciencedirect.com
June 28, 2025 at 5:55 AM
Restoration ecology that considers biotic interactions is essential if goals include restoring species. Constructed wetlands complement adjacent streams by supplying emergent aquatic insect subsidies asynchronously, extending the foraging window for terrestrial consumers #foodweb #landscapediversity
Reposted by Frank Burdon
Andrew Barnes @barnesecodiv.bsky.social will present our next seminar:
"Deciphering the Multitrophic Consequences of Biodiversity Change Through an Energetic Lens"
Join us online Thursday 26th June 1pm AEST!
Sign up to our mailing list to receive the zoom link forms.gle/24Y557Cjeu6w...
"Deciphering the Multitrophic Consequences of Biodiversity Change Through an Energetic Lens"
Join us online Thursday 26th June 1pm AEST!
Sign up to our mailing list to receive the zoom link forms.gle/24Y557Cjeu6w...
June 20, 2025 at 5:16 AM
Andrew Barnes @barnesecodiv.bsky.social will present our next seminar:
"Deciphering the Multitrophic Consequences of Biodiversity Change Through an Energetic Lens"
Join us online Thursday 26th June 1pm AEST!
Sign up to our mailing list to receive the zoom link forms.gle/24Y557Cjeu6w...
"Deciphering the Multitrophic Consequences of Biodiversity Change Through an Energetic Lens"
Join us online Thursday 26th June 1pm AEST!
Sign up to our mailing list to receive the zoom link forms.gle/24Y557Cjeu6w...
Aquatic-terrestrial food webs are inextricably linked through reciprocal exchanges of subsidies. New synthesis explores their benefits as limiting resources that increase consumer fitness and ecosystem production, but also their dark side by vectoring contaminants, often in human-impacted watersheds
Integrating the Bright and Dark Sides of Aquatic Resource Subsidies—A Synthesis
You have to enable JavaScript in your browser's settings in order to use the eReader.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
April 12, 2025 at 3:19 AM
Aquatic-terrestrial food webs are inextricably linked through reciprocal exchanges of subsidies. New synthesis explores their benefits as limiting resources that increase consumer fitness and ecosystem production, but also their dark side by vectoring contaminants, often in human-impacted watersheds
I was happy to be a contributing author for this new publication from the DecoDiv globally-coordinated experiment. Warming drives microbial decomposition of leaves in a way consistent with metabolic theory, and may contribute to positive climate feedbacks
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Positive Feedback on Climate Warming by Stream Microbial Decomposers Indicated by a Global Space‐For‐Time Substitution Study
A globally distributed study in stream ecosystems revealed that plant litter decomposition by microorganisms is more sensitive to temperature than decomposition in the presence of detritivores, where....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
April 12, 2025 at 2:42 AM
I was happy to be a contributing author for this new publication from the DecoDiv globally-coordinated experiment. Warming drives microbial decomposition of leaves in a way consistent with metabolic theory, and may contribute to positive climate feedbacks
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
The landscape theory of food web architecture (LTFWA) describes relationships between body size, trophic position, mobility, and energy channels that couple habitats, which in turn promotes stability. This study in Lake Michigan explores evidence for the LTFWA
doi.org/10.1002/ecy....
Image: NASA
doi.org/10.1002/ecy....
Image: NASA
April 10, 2025 at 8:04 PM
The landscape theory of food web architecture (LTFWA) describes relationships between body size, trophic position, mobility, and energy channels that couple habitats, which in turn promotes stability. This study in Lake Michigan explores evidence for the LTFWA
doi.org/10.1002/ecy....
Image: NASA
doi.org/10.1002/ecy....
Image: NASA
Reposted by Frank Burdon
Today, Greenpeace #Italy released a report featuring our glacier projections for all Italian #glaciers. See the future of these icy giants with an interactive map 🌍🔍 Explore now: maps.greenpeace.org/maps/gpit/de... #WorldGlaciersDay #GlacierPreservation #GreenpeaceItaly
Declino dei ghiacciai italiani dal 2000 al 2100
Su questa mappa interattiva è possibile osservare come i ghiacciai si stiano riducendo e scomparendo nel tempo
maps.greenpeace.org
March 21, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Today, Greenpeace #Italy released a report featuring our glacier projections for all Italian #glaciers. See the future of these icy giants with an interactive map 🌍🔍 Explore now: maps.greenpeace.org/maps/gpit/de... #WorldGlaciersDay #GlacierPreservation #GreenpeaceItaly
Urban gullies, with their associated seepages and streams are important ecosystems that support native biodiversity in Hamilton. Here two new caddisfly species are described from an urban stream that I have used in my Rewilding Rivers SCIEN301 capstone course www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Two new species of caddisflies (Trichoptera) from New Zealand
Two new species of caddisflies are described and illustrated from Mangaiti Reserve, Hamilton City, in the central North Island of New Zealand; Oxyethira kirikiriroa (Hydroptilidae: Trichoglene) and...
www.tandfonline.com
February 24, 2025 at 12:51 AM
Urban gullies, with their associated seepages and streams are important ecosystems that support native biodiversity in Hamilton. Here two new caddisfly species are described from an urban stream that I have used in my Rewilding Rivers SCIEN301 capstone course www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Interesting post on decreasing male student participation in higher education. This phenomenon is noticeable in the biological sciences.
Why aren't we talking about the real reason male college enrollment is dropping?
We would rather talk about literally everything else.
celestemdavis.substack.com
January 1, 2025 at 10:56 PM
Interesting post on decreasing male student participation in higher education. This phenomenon is noticeable in the biological sciences.
Interesting food web interaction across ecosystem boundaries: stream decapods feeding on inputs of terrestrial fruit in neotropical forest catchments
Linking Neotropical riparian and stream food webs: nocturnal foraging behavior and facilitation among decapods in response to added palm fruit - Hydrobiologia
Freshwater macroinvertebrates can connect tropical forests and stream food webs by consuming both terrestrially and aquatically produced foods, but direct observations of nocturnal feeding behavior in...
link.springer.com
December 16, 2024 at 11:25 AM
Interesting food web interaction across ecosystem boundaries: stream decapods feeding on inputs of terrestrial fruit in neotropical forest catchments
Climate change may be altering the distribution of flows in river networks - with greater flood disturbance in headwaters and more low flows in downstream basin outlets. This potentially affects erosion, sedimentation, and ecological communities
More flow upstream and less flow downstream: The changing form and function of global rivers
We mapped daily streamflow from 1984 to 2018 in approximately 2.9 million rivers to assess recent changes to global river systems. We found that river outlets were dominated by significant decreases i...
www.science.org
December 16, 2024 at 11:21 AM
Climate change may be altering the distribution of flows in river networks - with greater flood disturbance in headwaters and more low flows in downstream basin outlets. This potentially affects erosion, sedimentation, and ecological communities
Global biogeochemical cycles are interconnected. Alterations to the carbon cycle are akin to inflation with too much money in supply. The same problem is happening with water - freshwater stocks are depleted as more enters the atmosphere, reinforcing climate forcing and driving intense rain events
Global Freshwater Abruptly Declines
The amount of freshwater stored on land and underground has plummeted in the past decade, which might indicate that Earth’s continents have entered a persistently drier phase.
earthobservatory.nasa.gov
November 27, 2024 at 11:33 AM
Global biogeochemical cycles are interconnected. Alterations to the carbon cycle are akin to inflation with too much money in supply. The same problem is happening with water - freshwater stocks are depleted as more enters the atmosphere, reinforcing climate forcing and driving intense rain events
Reposted by Frank Burdon
Interested in freshwater food webs and keen to connect with like-minded researchers on Bluesky? Give me a shout-out and I will add you to the Freshwater Food Webs starter pack.
go.bsky.app/R2WU99T
go.bsky.app/R2WU99T
November 24, 2024 at 3:08 AM
Interested in freshwater food webs and keen to connect with like-minded researchers on Bluesky? Give me a shout-out and I will add you to the Freshwater Food Webs starter pack.
go.bsky.app/R2WU99T
go.bsky.app/R2WU99T
I have been inundated with peer review requests this year, and my patience with the system is growing weary
The strain on scientific publishing: we set out to characterise the remarkable growth of the scientific literature in the last few years, in spite of declining growth in total scientists. What is going on?
direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
A 🧵 1/n
#AcademicSky #PhDchat #ScientificPublishing #SciPub
direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
A 🧵 1/n
#AcademicSky #PhDchat #ScientificPublishing #SciPub
November 26, 2024 at 9:41 PM
I have been inundated with peer review requests this year, and my patience with the system is growing weary
New study explores how stream pollution might shift the diet composition of riparian spiders by altering aquatic insect prey assemblages. This study includes cutting-edge applications of molecular methods to detect prey in spider guts and thus help describe cross-ecosystem food webs
Shift in diet composition of a riparian predator along a stream pollution gradient | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Terrestrial insectivores in riparian areas, such as spiders, can depend on emergent aquatic insects as high-quality prey. However, chemical pollution entering streams from agricultural and urban sources can alter the dynamics and composition of aquatic ...
royalsocietypublishing.org
November 25, 2024 at 2:45 AM
New study explores how stream pollution might shift the diet composition of riparian spiders by altering aquatic insect prey assemblages. This study includes cutting-edge applications of molecular methods to detect prey in spider guts and thus help describe cross-ecosystem food webs
Interested in freshwater food webs and keen to connect with like-minded researchers on Bluesky? Give me a shout-out and I will add you to the Freshwater Food Webs starter pack.
go.bsky.app/R2WU99T
go.bsky.app/R2WU99T
November 24, 2024 at 3:08 AM
Interested in freshwater food webs and keen to connect with like-minded researchers on Bluesky? Give me a shout-out and I will add you to the Freshwater Food Webs starter pack.
go.bsky.app/R2WU99T
go.bsky.app/R2WU99T