David Boukal
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davidboukal.bsky.social
David Boukal
@davidboukal.bsky.social
110 followers 76 following 6 posts
Ecologist and occasional photographer. Interested in [the ways we humans destroy] life on Earth and what can be done about that. Aquatic habitats, experiments, modelling. Wild East, south of Prague. Professor @JihoceskaUni. Opinions my own.
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davidboukal.bsky.social
#SEBconference is underway! Many talks focus on the effects of #climate #warming and other stressors on aquatic animals. My colleague Claire Duchet presented our #mesocosm study linking individual responses to warming and #pharmaceuticals to changes in communities and ecosystem services.
July 8, 2025 at 3:38 PM
davidboukal.bsky.social
Fresh blood for freshwaters goes virtual in 2025! Great networking and learning opportunity for ECRs working on all freshwater related things.💧
January 17, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Reposted by David Boukal
djmmeeg.bsky.social
We have a few funded spots left for ECRs! Join us if you’re interested in the ecology/evolution of size in unicells!
biologists.bsky.social The Company of Biologists @biologists.bsky.social · Jan 13
🧪 Deadline to apply for a funded early-career researcher place at our Workshop 'Why Are Cells the Size They Are?' organised by Dustin Marshall
@djmmeeg.bsky.social and Craig White has been extended to 31 January 2025.

Find out more and apply at
bit.ly/4gVDROh

#BiologistsWorkshops

#ECR
A banner with the text: "Workshop Why Are Cells the Size They Are? Organisers: Dustin Marshall and Craig White Early-career researchers apply for funded places 13-16 July 2025 Buxted Park, East Sussex, UK" with The Company of Biologists logo to the left.
January 14, 2025 at 11:37 AM
Reposted by David Boukal
kratina.bsky.social
The first comprehensive assessment, just published in Nature, shows that 24% of freshwater animals are threatened with extinction:
theconversation.com/a-quarter-of...
A quarter of freshwater animals threatened with extinction, finds major new study
Scientists have assessed more than 23,000 species.
theconversation.com
January 15, 2025 at 10:57 PM
Reposted by David Boukal
eawag.bsky.social
Barbora Trubenová has been newly appointed as a Group Leader in the Eco department and Assistant Professor of Pathogen Evolution at @ethzurich.bsky.social. She is interested in the resistance of bacteria, fungi and parasitic worms to drugs.

👉 More about her group: www.eawag.ch/de/abteilung...
January 16, 2025 at 12:40 PM
Reposted by David Boukal
bjenquist.bsky.social
A critical read for anyone who has used or is thinking of using
#TRY plant trait data -- "Currently, ecological analyses using TRY data appear, at best, not as powerful as they can be and, at worst, wrong." -- We likely need to start anew and rebuild how we share, access, and cite #PlantTrait data
frodsan.bsky.social Francisco Rodriguez-Sanchez @frodsan.bsky.social · Nov 29
1/ Important read for anyone using, contributing, or building large databases by aggregating data sources. Discusses issues with data quality, duplication, credit attribution, etc, and includes recommendations for improvement

doi.org/10.1111/gcb.... #ecopubs
Improper data practices erode the quality of global ecological databases and impede the progress of ecological research The scientific community has entered an era of big data. However, with big data comes big responsibilities, and best practices for how data are contributed to databases have not kept pace with the collection, aggregation, and analysis of big data. Here, we rigorously assess the quantity of data for specific leaf area (SLA) available within the largest and most frequently used global plant trait database, the TRY Plant Trait Database, exploring how much of the data were applicable (i.e., original, representative, logical, and comparable) and traceable (i.e., published, cited, and consistent). Over three-quarters of the SLA data in TRY either lacked applicability or traceability, leaving only 22.9% of the original data usable compared with the 64.9% typically deemed usable by standard data cleaning protocols. The remaining usable data differed markedly from the original for many species, which led to altered interpretation of ecological analyses. Though the data we consider here make up only 4.5% of SLA data within TRY, similar issues of applicability and traceability likely apply to SLA data for other species as well as other commonly measured, uploaded, and downloaded plant traits. We end with suggested steps forward for global ecological databases, including suggestions for both uploaders to and curators of databases with the hope that, through addressing the issues raised here, we can increase data quality and integrity within the ecological community.
January 17, 2025 at 11:22 AM
Reposted by David Boukal
ipbes.net
Call for Fellows! 🚨

@ipbes.bsky.social is seeking #EarlyCareer experts to join the Biodiversity #SpatialPlanningAssessment. Contribute to crucial work on conservation, restoration, land/sea use planning & connectivity! 🌍

🗓 Apply by 24 Jan 2025

🔗 More info: www.ipbes.net/spatial-plan...
An aerial image shows a landscape divided between lush green forest on the right and patchy agricultural land on the left. The road between the two areas runs vertically through the image. The text reads: "Call for Fellows: IPBES Spatial Planning Assessment. Deadline: 24 January 2025." The IPBES logo appears in the upper-right corner.
January 10, 2025 at 2:06 PM