Josh Brian
@drjoshbrian.bsky.social
Post-doc at King's College London | Community ecology | Invasion biology | Symbiosis and Parasitism | Running | Views my own
V. pleased to have this out in Ecology @esajournals.bsky.social - evidence for limiting similarity vs. pre-adaptation (Darwin's naturalisation conundrum) vary across very fine spatial scales and when using phylogenetic vs. functional metrics!
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Evidence for environmental filtering and limiting similarity depends on spatial scale and dissimilarity metrics
Darwin's theory of natural selection provides two seemingly contradictory hypotheses for explaining the success of biological invasions: (1) the pre-adaptation hypothesis posits that introduced speci....
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 11, 2025 at 1:58 PM
V. pleased to have this out in Ecology @esajournals.bsky.social - evidence for limiting similarity vs. pre-adaptation (Darwin's naturalisation conundrum) vary across very fine spatial scales and when using phylogenetic vs. functional metrics!
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Such a cool network! Can't wait to see the empirical results start coming out 😍
Our first paper from the Bug-Network (BugNet) is out! 🎉
BugNet is a global network studying how invertebrate herbivores and fungal pathogens shape plant diversity & ecosystem functioning worldwide. The paper reports on the methods of the experimental part:
📄 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
BugNet is a global network studying how invertebrate herbivores and fungal pathogens shape plant diversity & ecosystem functioning worldwide. The paper reports on the methods of the experimental part:
📄 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
The Bug‐Network (BugNet): A Global Experimental Network Testing the Effects of Invertebrate Herbivores and Fungal Pathogens on Plant Communities and Ecosystem Function in Open Ecosystems
The Bug-Network (BugNet) is a novel global collaborative research network that implements standardized consumer-reduction experiments in herbaceous- or shrub-dominated ecosystems to assess the impact...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
October 10, 2025 at 10:03 AM
Such a cool network! Can't wait to see the empirical results start coming out 😍
Really nice to have our recent article featured by @biogeographynews.bsky.social!
🆕ECR feature: @drjoshbrian.bsky.social, postdoc researcher at King's College, London, reviewed the use of scale terms in plant biology🌱- highly relevant for biogeographical studies! Read about the interesting results Josh and his colleagues found: biogeographynews.org/2025/09/03/e...
ECR feature: Josh Brian
Josh is a Postdoc researcher at King’s College London. He is a community ecologist with special focus on plant invasions. Here, Josh shares his recent work which reviews the use of scale terms in p…
biogeographynews.org
September 5, 2025 at 4:43 AM
Really nice to have our recent article featured by @biogeographynews.bsky.social!
Great to see this out in Limnology&Oceanography @aslo.org - we provide the first global meta-analysis of ecosystem services provided by freshwater bivalves! One key message is that native species much better at providing services than invaders!
aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
A global meta‐analysis of ecological functions and regulating ecosystem services of freshwater bivalves
Freshwater bivalves are globally distributed, diverse, and common in benthic communities. Many taxa, particularly in the most species-rich order, Unionida, are declining due to anthropogenic stressor...
aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
August 26, 2025 at 7:18 AM
Great to see this out in Limnology&Oceanography @aslo.org - we provide the first global meta-analysis of ecosystem services provided by freshwater bivalves! One key message is that native species much better at providing services than invaders!
aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Reposted by Josh Brian
🚨📃🧪 New paper out: "Impacts of diverse undersown cover crops on seasonal soil microbial properties". Rashmi Shrestha used the #TWINWIN experiment to show that undersowing crops with diverse plant mixtures, particularly including legumes has beneficial effects on soil microbial life and function 1/6
June 30, 2025 at 4:01 PM
🚨📃🧪 New paper out: "Impacts of diverse undersown cover crops on seasonal soil microbial properties". Rashmi Shrestha used the #TWINWIN experiment to show that undersowing crops with diverse plant mixtures, particularly including legumes has beneficial effects on soil microbial life and function 1/6
Thrilled to see this out @jvegsci.bsky.social! We looked at spatial scale terms in plant community ecology - terms like 'local' or 'regional'. The implication is that these terms convey ecological info and so be fairly consistent across studies. But are they?
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Lost in Space: When Spatial Scale Terms Blur Actual Study Size in Plant Community Ecology
Scale terms, which include both ecological (e.g., ‘local’, ‘regional’) and methodological (e.g., ‘plot’, ‘quadrat’) characteristics are frequently used in plant community ecology. We show that the ar...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
May 12, 2025 at 10:35 AM
Thrilled to see this out @jvegsci.bsky.social! We looked at spatial scale terms in plant community ecology - terms like 'local' or 'regional'. The implication is that these terms convey ecological info and so be fairly consistent across studies. But are they?
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Josh Brian
Excited to share a new paper with Sandra Guerrero-Rubio and @docbroc.bsky.social on the convergent evolution of betalains, now published in @newphyt.bsky.social! nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/.... A 🧵
Multiple transitions to high l‐DOPA 4,5‐dioxygenase activity reveal molecular pathways to convergent betalain pigmentation in Caryophyllales
Many specialized metabolic pathways have evolved convergently in plants, but distinguishing multiple origins from alternative evolutionary scenarios can be difficult. Here, we explore the evolution .....
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
May 6, 2025 at 12:24 PM
Excited to share a new paper with Sandra Guerrero-Rubio and @docbroc.bsky.social on the convergent evolution of betalains, now published in @newphyt.bsky.social! nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/.... A 🧵
Stuff like this is why I love ecology - one of the coolest natural history papers I have read in years...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Hawaiian caterpillar patrols spiderwebs camouflaged in insect prey’s body parts
Lepidoptera is the most herbivorous of all the insect orders, with predatory caterpillars globally comprising less than 0.13% of the nearly 200,000 moth and butterfly species. Here, we report a specie...
www.science.org
April 25, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Stuff like this is why I love ecology - one of the coolest natural history papers I have read in years...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
The blog about our Harper Prize-shortlisted paper is now up @journalofecology.bsky.social! Read on for a summary of what we found, and what got me into (and keeps me in) ecology!
jecologyblog.com/2025/03/26/j...
jecologyblog.com/2025/03/26/j...
Joshua Brian: Release from aboveground enemies increases seedling survival in grasslands
2024 HARPER PRIZE SHORTLIST: For the next two weeks, we are featuring the articles shortlisted for the 2024 Harper Prize. The Harper Prize is an annual award for the best early …
jecologyblog.com
April 4, 2025 at 10:34 AM
The blog about our Harper Prize-shortlisted paper is now up @journalofecology.bsky.social! Read on for a summary of what we found, and what got me into (and keeps me in) ecology!
jecologyblog.com/2025/03/26/j...
jecologyblog.com/2025/03/26/j...
So excited to see my paper on the shortlist for the Harper Prize, amongst some amazing work!! (Definitely lots to add to my reading list!)
(You can find my paper here: besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....)
(You can find my paper here: besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....)
We're pleased to announce the shortlist for this year's Harper Prize. 🏆
Each year, we award the Harper Prize to the best paper in the journal by an early career author.
See the full list here:
Each year, we award the Harper Prize to the best paper in the journal by an early career author.
See the full list here:
2024 Harper Prize Shortlist: Early Career Research Award
The Harper Prize is awarded annually by the British Ecological Society for the best paper in Journal of Ecology by an early career author. We are pleased to present th…
buff.ly
March 20, 2025 at 11:28 AM
So excited to see my paper on the shortlist for the Harper Prize, amongst some amazing work!! (Definitely lots to add to my reading list!)
(You can find my paper here: besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....)
(You can find my paper here: besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....)
Pleased that my 2023 paper on enemy release was one of the top-10 cited articles in Ecology Letters from that year! If you missed it, check it out again here:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
A mechanistic framework of enemy release
The enemy release hypothesis as an explanation for (a) increased exotic performance is the product of (b) three factors, which are modulated by (c) seven contexts. Three factors: 1) the difference in...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
March 19, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Pleased that my 2023 paper on enemy release was one of the top-10 cited articles in Ecology Letters from that year! If you missed it, check it out again here:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
V. pleased to see this published! Priority effects are important in determining host-parasite dynamics. Here, I show there are different types of priority effect, and they have very different consequences for host populations...
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Pre‐ and postinfection priority effects have contrasting outcomes for parasite prevalence in host populations
Parasite species frequently co-occur more or less than expected by chance. These nonrandom co-occurrence patterns can be driven by pre- or postinfection priority effects: parasites are more or less l...
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
February 26, 2025 at 9:06 AM
V. pleased to see this published! Priority effects are important in determining host-parasite dynamics. Here, I show there are different types of priority effect, and they have very different consequences for host populations...
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Very pleased to have played a small part in this recent paper about sampling mass mortality events now out in @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social
(using freshwater mussels as an example) - something regrettably gaining more and more relevance!
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
(using freshwater mussels as an example) - something regrettably gaining more and more relevance!
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Sampling mass mortality events to enable diagnoses: A protocol using freshwater mussels
Many taxa around the globe are threatened by often unexplained mass mortality events (MMEs), which can decimate populations and compromise key ecosystem functions. One example of a highly threaten...
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
February 10, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Very pleased to have played a small part in this recent paper about sampling mass mortality events now out in @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social
(using freshwater mussels as an example) - something regrettably gaining more and more relevance!
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
(using freshwater mussels as an example) - something regrettably gaining more and more relevance!
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...