With #eseb2025 coming to a close, it is time to start making plans for 2026. Interested in the interface of evolution 🧬 and ecology 🌳? Come to our #ExE conference hosted by @uniexecec.bsky.social in beautiful #Cornwall. Leave your email address at tinyurl.com/EvolxEcol to join our mailing list!

A big round of 👏 to the speakers in @sevans.bsky.social and my #eseb2025 symposium on forecasting evolution 🧬📈📉, and sorry if you didn’t find a 🪑. The mismatch between the no. of submissions and the overwhelming interest in the topic serves as an inspiration to get better at predicting the future 🔮

How did the #COVID-19 pandemic shape scientific productivity? Stephanie Meirmans, @maurineneiman.bsky.social, Shalene Singh-Shepherd @royalsocietypublishing.org and I crunched the submission and acceptance data for 25 journals in #Ecology&Evolution: doi.org/10.1098/rspb... @uniexecec.bsky.social

Although it is based on the behaviour of just a single bird, the date of the first egg of the season is a remarkably good predictor of the mean laydate for that year, explaining almost 70% of the variation.

The mean laydate is still unknown for 2025, but this shows a similar - albeit a less steep - advancement of about 1/10th of a day per year, or a week since the start of the study in 1955. The big ❓ is how this compares to the advancement of phenology of the trees and the caterpillars.

Last year I posted too early and had to retract my post 🫣, but now that all @niooknaw.bsky.social @animalecol-nioo.bsky.social nest boxes on #Vlieland have been checked, we know for sure that it is - yet again - a very early start of the breeding season! @uniexecec.bsky.social @sevans.bsky.social

What do you think, can we forecast evolution❓

@sevans.bsky.social and I would love to hear your thoughts, so if you are going to #ESEB2025, submit a talk to our symposium (S24: Forecasting evolution in natural populations) and join @colingarroway.bsky.social and Patrik Nosil!

Deadline April 25.

Want to use a unique dataset to study the spatial and temporal dynamics of genomic diversity and its drivers in a wild bird population? Apply for this #NERC #PhD position @uniexecec.bsky.social @animalecol-nioo.bsky.social.

www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...

🐦🌍🧪🧬 #ExeterCEC #Vlieland #NIOO-KNAW

🚨 Postdoc alert! 🚨
Come and work with Alastair Wilson, @bfraser.bsky.social and myself @exetercec.bsky.social on a NERC-
funded project that combines behavioural ecology, quantitative genetics and genomics in guppies. And all that in beautiful Cornwall🏖️🏄‍♂️⛵️! More info t.co/xFh8RNpoO6

Can we use animal personality to reduce chronic stress in captive 🐟 populations? This #BBSRC #SWBio DTP PhD project with Alastair Wilson #ExeterCEC and Christos Ioannou #UniversityOfBristol aims to find out. Interested? Information on the project and how to apply 👉 www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...