Eric Wood
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laecology.bsky.social
Eric Wood
@laecology.bsky.social
Ecologist and associate professor at Cal State Los Angeles. AE ProcB. Lab themes: avian & applied ecology, urban ecosystems, urbanism, bird migration, natural history & conservation

www.ericmwood.org
Pinned
Bluesky and fellow #urbanists - I am an ecologist at Cal State Los Angeles. My research is focusing more and more on urbanist issues, e.g., walkability, urban design, etc., and the intersection between benefits for people and biodiversity. I'd love to connect with others thinking of similar things.
Reposted by Eric Wood
Rapid butterfly declines across the United States during the 21st century | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Rapid butterfly declines across the United States during the 21st century
Numerous declines have been documented across insect groups, and the potential consequences of insect losses are dire. Butterflies are the most surveyed insect taxa, yet analyses have been limited in ...
www.science.org
March 6, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Reposted by Eric Wood
[new paper] You probably suspected that loss of pollinator diversity consistently reduces reproductive success for wild and cultivated plants, but here we quantify it: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Loss of pollinator diversity consistently reduces reproductive success for wild and cultivated plants
Nature Ecology & Evolution - A meta-analysis finds that decreasing diversity of pollinator species has a negative affect on multiple measures of plant reproductive success, with wild plant...
www.nature.com
December 11, 2024 at 8:49 PM
For you SoCal people, if you have not seen this episode of 'Nature' (San Diego - America's Wildest City), you need to. My Ecosystems of California class will be watching it today discussing the awesome ecology, and identifying the plants, & wildlife featured.

www.pbs.org/video/san-di...
Nature | San Diego: America’s Wildest City | Season 43 | Episode 3
Experience San Diego, where dazzling biodiversity thrives amidst a transformed urban landscape.
www.pbs.org
December 5, 2024 at 9:16 PM
Reposted by Eric Wood
**FORESTGEO STAFF SCIENTIST POSITION!** We are hiring a Research Ecologist to focus on Central and South American Forest Dynamics, to be based at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Smithsonian staff scientist positions are excellent, as is the ForestGEO team! Come be our colleague!
ForestGEO Staff Scientist - Research Ecologist, South & Central American Tropical Forests
The Forest Global Earth Observatory (ForestGEO) is a global network of forest research plots and scientists dedicated to the study of forest function and diversity.
forestgeo.si.edu
December 2, 2024 at 3:48 PM
Reposted by Eric Wood
I'll be giving a free webinar Thurs, Dec 5, 7 p.m. Central time for the Minnesota Native Plant Society on the topics of #oak reproduction, #species, #hybrids, & #phylogeny / #treeOfLife, from my new book (press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...).

Join us, and pls share!

us06web.zoom.us/j/6977108818...
December 1, 2024 at 7:32 PM
Reposted by Eric Wood
A few years ago, postdoc Gail MacInnis led this great project showing that urban beekeeping doesn't help "save the bees" (and can do more harm than good). peerj.com/articles/146...
Decline in wild bee species richness associated with honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) abundance in an urban ecosystem
The spatial heterogeneity of urban landscapes, relatively low agrochemical use, and species-rich floral communities often support a surprising diversity of wild pollinators in cities. However, the man...
peerj.com
November 29, 2024 at 3:46 PM
@ndevere.bsky.social Hi - we do a bunch of urban pollinator work. Would be happy to network with you and others in the starter pack.
November 24, 2024 at 4:00 PM
As usual, students in my lab have been busy with many projects. One that has taken off recently is our NSF-funded urban food webs project, which generally explores relationships between native/nonnative oaks, insects, and birds right on our LA campus. A fun project with long-term data potential!
November 23, 2024 at 5:39 PM
A flower that mimics aerial leaf litter (e.g., dead leaves trapped in vines, branches etc) tricks an aerial leaf litter specialist beetle into pollinating it. Super crazy and cool pollination syndrome.
November 21, 2024 at 4:27 AM
Reposted by Eric Wood
The Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University, affiliated with our Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences Department, is hiring an Assistant / Associate Prof. Join us!

jobs.oregonstate.edu/postings/161...
Assistant/Associate Professor: Marine Mammal Biologist
The Marine Mammal Institute invites applications for a part-time (0.75 FTE), 12-month, tenure-track Assistant/Associate Professor position. This position is located in Newport, Oregon.Appointment at t...
jobs.oregonstate.edu
November 20, 2024 at 10:35 PM
Reposted by Eric Wood
Remarkable view of #BombCyclone west of Oregon & Washington and associated #AtmosphericRiver west of California this PM. Fortunately, the strongest winds will remain well offshore, but very heavy rainfall is likely across portions of northern CA into weekend. #CAwx #ORwx #WAwx
November 19, 2024 at 11:46 PM
Reposted by Eric Wood
Cat "What have you done?"
November 19, 2024 at 10:40 AM
Birding is the best.
Whew! Popping back here briefly to discuss a very eventful few days.

On Sat, a SNOW BUNTING appears at Hayward Regional. 😱 The bird is stunning & super-rare in the East Bay. Many birders go to see it. It's living its best life on a white/brown plastic culvert that it maybe thinks is snow? 1/
November 20, 2024 at 3:05 AM
Reposted by Eric Wood
If you are interested in #rstats, hierarchical modeling in ecology, and in particular occupancy models, then check out my blog!

The one post that gets the most traffic is this one here on how to combine presence-only and detection/non-detection data. 🧪

masonfidino.com/bayesian_int...
A gentle introduction to an integrated occupancy model that combines presence-only and detection/non-detection data, and how to fit it in `JAGS`
Species distribution models (SDMs) are useful tools in ecology and conservation biology. As the name implies, SDMs are used to estimate species presence or abundance across geographic space and throug...
masonfidino.com
November 19, 2024 at 9:41 PM
People are suggesting Bluesky is just an echo chamber. Possibly. But there needs to be a place to network with friends and colleagues and learn about amazing science and ways to improve our planet. That used to be the other site - and it was amazing. That is long gone and now this is where it's at.
November 19, 2024 at 6:57 PM
Reposted by Eric Wood
🚨Looking for two PhD students to join our lab in Fall' 25🚨

If you know someone that loves/works with Neotropical birds and/or species interactions, and is looking for a PhD please share this with them! (application deadline is January 3rd).

More info here --> montanolab.com/join-us/
November 19, 2024 at 3:55 PM
A really interesting critique of the ‘luxury effect’ in urban ecology studies and a discussion on an alternative framework to understand variability in biodiversity within cities.
1. Thrilled to share a new paper from my group out this week in Ecosphere where we critique the much researched “luxury effect” in urban ecology and offer a power-based socioecological framework to complicate our understanding of how wealth may or may not influence biodiversity. #oa
🧵:
Biodiversity is not a luxury: Unpacking wealth and power to accommodate the complexity of urban biodiversity
A positive correlation between wealth and biodiversity within cities is a commonly documented phenomenon in urban ecology that has come to be labeled as the “luxury effect.” We contend that both this...
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 19, 2024 at 2:50 PM
Bluesky and fellow #urbanists - I am an ecologist at Cal State Los Angeles. My research is focusing more and more on urbanist issues, e.g., walkability, urban design, etc., and the intersection between benefits for people and biodiversity. I'd love to connect with others thinking of similar things.
November 18, 2024 at 6:43 PM
Reposted by Eric Wood
💡 Tip: You can set your website as your username on Bluesky!

This is one form of self-verification, and we especially encourage official organizations and brands to do this! Examples include @npr.org @react.dev @duolingobrasil.com.br.

Here's our guide for how to do this:
How to set your domain as your handle - Bluesky
Using a domain as your handle helps with account identity, verification, and portability. Here's how to set your domain as your handle.
bsky.social
November 15, 2024 at 10:04 PM
Reposted by Eric Wood
go.bsky.app/HKhn9FZ just made a starterpack for LA Urbanists. These are accounts that I followed on Twitter that often (but not always) chimed in on LA urbanist issues like housing, bikes, transit, and the environment.
November 12, 2024 at 4:23 AM
youtube.com/watch?v=06eU...

This is amazing - a cool surf gang in Pakistan. Send these guys your spare boards and lets get these guys to the Olympics.
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November 16, 2024 at 5:42 AM
Cool study finding differences in herbivory between island and mainland sites - but no real vertebrate predation effects. We have an oak exclosure experiment going too and are finding strong predation effects related to herbivory patterns. Will be interesting to further compare with this neat study.
November 16, 2024 at 3:01 AM
Reposted by Eric Wood
Some amazing crossbill vagrancy going on in North America, White-winged Crossbills arriving on Bermuda over 1000km from the mainland! Worth scrutinising any “Two-barred Crossbills” that turn up near shipping lanes…
November 15, 2024 at 9:31 AM
Reposted by Eric Wood
Today in relatable science: Gulls making a mysterious daily trip that turned out to be to a potato chip factory
November 15, 2024 at 8:15 PM
Reposted by Eric Wood
I haven’t posted in a while, what have I been up to… well for starters Frontiers finally published our urban coyote connectivity paper after almost a year of being accepted. Bit criminal, but we are happy its out & somehow still relevant considering we submitted in 2022 doi.org/10.1002/fee....
November 14, 2024 at 1:44 PM