Diego Ellis Soto

With stellar co-authors:
@drjerbs.bsky.social
@danielwanoble.bsky.social
@patricepottier.bsky.social
@alisonrobey.bsky.social
Pieter A. Arnold
@cmprokopenko.bsky.social

5/ Finally, we show how clustered heatwaves affect populations 📉

Even when the average temperature looks safe,
autocorrelated heat events can drive population collapse.

Extreme events matter as much as means.

4/ But organisms don’t experience climate averages — they experience microclimates 🌿

Using biophysical modeling (NicheMapR) we simulate thermal exposure in sleepy lizards 🦎

Behavior + microhabitat can buffer or amplify heat stress.

3/ Next we show how extreme heat improves species distribution models 🐦

Example: California quail

Including extreme weather:

• improves model specificity
• reduces overprediction at range edges
• shrinks estimated range size by ~9%

2/ We start by showing how to detect and quantify extreme heat events 📏

Using open climate datasets and tools like:

• daymetR
• heatwaveR

This lets researchers quantify duration, intensity, and timing of extreme events.

1/ Climate change is not just warming averages —
extreme heat events are becoming the new normal. 🌡️🔥

Yet many ecological models still rely on long-term mean climate variables.

Our goal: provide tools and workflows to integrate extreme heat directly into ecological analyses.

Thrilled to share our new preprint:
“Extreme Heat as the New Normal” 🌡️🔥

We introduce a roadmap + code for identifying and mapping extreme heat 📏 and linking it to ecology:

🧭 Species distribution models 🐦

🌿 Biophysical models & microclimates 🦎

📉 Population dynamics 👥

doi.org/10.64898/202... 🧵 ⬇️

@mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social @animaltracking.bsky.social @cbehav.bsky.social @calacademy.bsky.social @yalee360.bsky.social

Matthew Suttor, Kai Riedl, Vivek Hari Sridhar, Konrad Kaczmarek, Jessa Barzelay, Estefanía Pihen González, Jon Koss, and many many more

None of this work happens in a vacuum — it takes a village of humans and non-human animals, forests, and ecosystems (see tagged collaborators below) 🎶🤝🌎🌱

Over the moon to be featured on NPR’s The Wild with Chris Morgan 🎧✨🌍🎶

From turning animal & plant data into music—🐢 🐜 🐦 🌿 —to educational programs

I also share how music + nature supported me through my cancer survivorship journey 🎻🏥

🎧👇 www.kuow.org/stories/let-...

Thanks for letting me know and wow that filled out fast!

Would love to be added!

Tinkering at the intersection of participatory science, acoustic ecology for environmental education and music making, and telemetry - remote sensing for monitoring larger animals such terrestrial birds, mammals and tortoises
scholar.google.com/citations?us...

Thanks!

#CollectiveBehavior
#Bioacoustics
#SciArt
#AnimalBehavior
#DataSonification
#GenerativeMusic
#SoundArt
#MusicTheory

Who knew termites can jam? Termites decide to create an animal opera in a petri dish sized world YouTube video by Diego Ellis Soto

2/
From movement to music 🐜➡️🎶
Watch the termite tracks + sound here:
▶️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=0I3p...

Data from besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

@mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social
@icouzin.bsky.social
@animaltracking.bsky.social
@society4conbio.bsky.social

Who knew termites can jam Termites decide to create an animal opera in a petri dish sized world. I used artificial intelligence to track eight termites and map many of their collective and individual behaviors used for scienti

Who knew termites can jam?! 🐜🎶

The collective behavior of 8 termites on a petri dish, translated into music.

🎧 Hear it here: soundcloud.com/diegoellis/w...

How collective behavior becomes music:
🧠 www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYN5...

1/🧵

Have you ever wondered what you would find if you could keep your eyes on a bee for more than a few meters? Us, too!

preprint (with videos!) + thread 🧵

Precise, individualized foraging flights in honey #bees 🐝 revealed by multicopter drone-based tracking

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

1/9

A picture of a frog on a leaf with the SICB and Skype a Scientist logos on the bottom right with the following words on top: "Call for Artists!" Learn about the latest animal research adn create art inspired by the science at the SICB meeting in Portland, OR. Deadline to apply: dec 12, Project dates Jan 3-7, Stipend $1000"

ARTISTS!
I need your help!

In collab. w/the Society for Integrative & Comparative Biology, I'm organizing a group of artists to come to our Jan. meeting! We're looking for artists to create based on what they learn at the conference. $1000 stipend.

Application is V short! forms.gle/ah1i8KwNJinZ...

🥳64 more days until the start of #Animove at #LaSelva Organization of Tropical Studies in #CostaRica. 22 participants, 6 tutors,2077 plant species,125 mammal species,470 bird species,48 amphibian species,87 reptile species,45 fresh water fish species and 10000 insects, arachnids and other.🐒🦇🦜🐊🦂

🚨Now out in @pnas.org! Our group provides a framework to mathematically link environmental niches from individual to population and species scales. Our approach enables more accurate forecasting of biodiversity change across organismal levels. 🧪 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Muy feliz porque nuestro artículo sobre "un caso de ciencia comunitaria en América Latina desde una perspectiva crítica" fue finalmente publicado 💚 Fueron meses de trabajo, otros de reflexión y algunos más de proceso editorial. Pero finalmente ve la luz. Yo, ¡feliz! revistas.ufpr.br/made/article...

Wow this is so incredible! Also, beautiful figures!

Shoutout to my amazing mentors and collaborators @cboettig.bsky.social @liamtaylor.bsky.social Christopher J. Schell, Elizabeth Edson, Avery Hill and Rebecca F. Johnson
@calacademy.bsky.social
@schmidtdse.bsky.social ‪
@inaturalist.bsky.social

Introducing: the ICARUS birds project The Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior is launching a new project — ICARUS Birds — to investigate why we are losing birds that were once common in our gardens and forests.

Initiatives such as the Icarus Initiative from @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social @animaltracking.bsky.social are pioneering future efforts to understand where, when and how animals struggle and die in particular areas and context: www.ab.mpg.de/669445/icaru...

7/ With advances in technologies such as animal telemetry (bio-loging) are increasingly able to monitor wildlife behavior including vital rates, yet remains taxonomically, geographically limited, particularly in urban and suburban areas
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

7/ Endangered species in Latin America

[d] Our framework allowed daily monitoring of wildlife across Latin America documenting mortality for critically endangered species

6/ Mammal mortality across California

[c] Turns out most records of mammal mortality in California occurs near roads. Sampling bias meets anthropogenic stressor?!

5/ Puma mortality across the Americas

[b] We found mortality records spanning nine countries, underscoring the importance of international cooperation for conserving wide-ranging species like Puma concolor.

Strengths and limitations of using participatory science data to characterize a wildlife mass mortality event Participatory science (i.e., “community science” or “citizen science”) platforms are increasingly used at every level of ecological and conservation research, including disease monitoring. Here, we u...

4/ Check out this great paper from co-author @liamtaylor.bsky.social et al. digging deeper into this, which was a inspiration for parts of our preprint!

esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....