Our very own @biolliegist.bsky.social and @erolafenollosa.bsky.social will be will be part of this event next week. It’s always timely and important to discuss gender biases in quantitative ecology 🌈📊 @biology.ox.ac.uk #GenderBiasInScience #QuantitativeEcology
Anyone interested in queer ecology, forests or SDMs... roll up! 🌲🌈📈
Do you research disease models/epidemiology? Come join the next installation in our free seminar series TOMORROW - an awesome talk on brucellosis dynamics in wild ibex! 🦌
starting in just over half an hour! check it out 🌊
📣 One more day to register! 📣
We kick off tomorrow at 9am BST.
Our first Quantifying Ecology webinar! This series of collaborations with different groups across the BES should give something for everyone interested in nature and numbers - check it out: www.britishecologicalsociety.org/content/quan... 🐠🔢
Quantitative methods underpin all of ecology - whether we like it or not!
Join our new webinar series, 🌱📈 Quantifying Ecology 📈🌱, where we team up with other BES SIGs to explore quantitative methods in their research fields.
Kicking off on 5th Aug. Keep following for updates and links!
Thrilled to announce our webinar series:
🌱📈 Quantifying Ecology 📈🌱
We are collaborating with our SIG friends to bring you quantitative methods in different ecological contexts.
Kicking off with Dr @jamesaorr.bsky.social and @bes-aquaticgroup.bsky.social on 5th August. More details to come!
Deadline for the EvoDemoS conference 2 wks away! Join us at @PembrokeOxford @UniofOxford to discuss the breath and depth of demographic theory and applications in Sept evodemo2025.weebly.com Please retweet @biology.ox.ac.uk @pembrokeoxford.bsky.social @mpidr.bsky.social @britishecologicalsociety.org
Only 11 days left to the early-bird registration deadline for the 10th annual Evolutionary Demography Society @PembrokeOxford
22-24 Sept 2025. evodemo2025.weebly.com. @biology.ox.ac.uk @mpidr.bsky.social @naturerecovery.bsky.social @oxforddemsci.bsky.social @britishecologicalsociety.org
Mistletoe super-host in Cambridge @robsalgo.bsky.social
The lovely weather doesn't just mean spring is coming, it means the #mistletoe season is almost up! Send in your records of mistletoe in the UK to MistleGO! before the trees grow new leaves! treecouncil.org.uk/science-and-...
Sneak peak number 2 :)
Please find a minute to head on over to YouTube and subscribe. THANK YOU!
www.youtube.com/channel/UC1Y...
Beautiful red roses on a pink background with flowing script saying "Roses are red," Violets budding and blooming. "Violets are blue," Hydnora plants opening up looking like terrifying red mouths bursting from the hard sandy soil. "Hydnora are leafless, bizarrely fleshy, and incapable of producing chlorophyll," A splash of cute red and pink hearts. "And so are you. Happy Valentine's Day."
Botany valentine. Another from years past. New one on Monday!
Mistletoe clumps in poplar trees, taken from below
Just over a month left to record the #mistletoe in your area via the MistleGO survey! Find out more here: treecouncil.org.uk/science-and-...
Mistletoe isn't particularly common in North Lincolnshire, but I'm lucky to have a site not far from home. I don't remember ever seeing it in an Alder before; I'm not sure how unusual this host is. I've submitted it via the MistleGo app - I hope @biolliegist.bsky.social will be pleased!
@bsbicountries.bsky.social wonderful spot! thanks so much for submitting to mistleGO! alder is certainly not the most common host:)
We've now got the green light to revamp this booklet and we're looking for volunteers to write/peer review sections. Express your interest here: forms.gle/ZYFLPaC3k2RF.... We want to feature diverse ECR writers from across the world. Women of colour are especially encouraged!
'Quantitative Ecology' means different things to different people, but one thing's for sure: we can't avoid using numbers in ecological research.
Complete our survey today to let us know what it means to you, and help us tailor our resources and events to our members' needs.
📋 shorturl.at/n6jRd
jury’s out… though they’re SO rare I reckon it would be hard to make a tradition out of…
And so concludes another year's #mistletoe advent calendar! Have a merry Christmas and a happy New Year all! And if you want to help our research by recording mistletoe on your winter walks, check out MistleGO!: treecouncil.org.uk/science-and-... 🌱🎄🧪
Drawing of druids harvesting mistletoe from an oak tree. Original caption: The druids; or the conversion of the Britons to Christianity (1752), depicting the oak and mistletoe ritual. Engraving by S.F. Ravenet, 1752, after F. Hayman. Photo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritual_of_oak_and_mistletoe#/media/File:%22The_druids;_or_the_conversion_of_the_Britons_to_Christianit_Wellcome_V0036085.jpg
Day 24: Pliny the Elder wrote about the druids harvesting #mistletoe from oak trees, but oak is an extremely rare host for Viscum album... There are only 13 confirmed mistletoe-oaks in Britain! (Box, 2019) Maybe Pliny was talking about Loranthus... 🌳🧪 (25/26)
Mistletoebird (Dicaeum hirundinaceum) with a mistletoe seed in its mouth. Photo: James Peake/Alamy https://www.audubon.org/news/mistletoe-whats-it-birds
Day 23: many species are vulnerable to the effects of drought, but mistletoe could help! One study found that Australian mistletoes like Amyema and Dendrophthoe may moderate drought impacts on birds, but the.mistletoes are vulnerable to drought themselves... (Crates et al., 2022) 🐦🧪 (24/26)
Graphical abstract from Deconninck et al., 2024, Arthropod-Plant Interactions. It shows mistletoe-infested trees from winter to summer with Drosophila species feeding on mistletoe berries in several locations across France.
Day 22: the effects of #mistletoe on ecosystems can be complex... Recently, scientists in France have found invasive Drosophila suzukii flies using Viscum album fruits to help them overwinter, and mistletoe could support the flies in infesting crop fruits (Deconninck et al., 2024) 🍎🧪 (23/26)
Single cover for "Mistletoe and Wine" with dark blue background, square picture of Cliff Richard in a denim jacket, his name above and the title below. Photo: EMI records.
Day 21: a somewhat less scientific #mistletoe fact... Cliff Richard's Christmas classic "Mistletoe and Wine" was the best-selling song in the UK that whole year, with over 500,000 copies sold. It was originally written for a musical ("Scraps"), based off a Hans Christian Andersen novel...🍷🧪 (22/26)
Awesome! Yes, parasites have all sorts of adaptations to get the most out of their host:)
thank you so much for sharing ! ❤️🌲
The fly Helina reversio on a purple thistle flower. Photo: James K. Lindsey https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helina_reversio#/media/File%3AHelina.reversio.jpg
Day 20: as European #mistletoe (Viscum album) is dioecious and has sticky pollen, it’s almost entirely dependent on pollinators to fruit. In particular, V. album is pollinated by winter-active insects, especially flies (Diptera) like Helina reversio (Thomas et al., 2022) 🪰🧪 (21/26)
Figure 8 from Schröder et al., 2022, Plant Physiology - schematic showing comparison of photosynthetic apparatus between Arabidopsis thaliana and Viscum album. Original caption: Chloroplast protein complexes involved in photosynthesis in A. thaliana and V. album. Yellow, chloroplast (cp) complex V; orange, cp Complex I (NDH complex); dark blue, cytochrome b6f complex; light green, Photosystem I; dark green, Photosystem II; light blue, plastocyanin; grey, ferredoxin. TM, thylakoid membrane.
Day 19: European #mistletoe has reduced capacity for respiration, but it has also lost some of its photosynthetic apparatus (Schröder et al., 2022) as shown from a comparison with Arabidopsis. This might have evolved because it can steal some carbon from its host trees instead... 🍃🧪 (20/26)
Monito del monte (Dromiciops gliroides) clinging to some bamboo. Photo: José Luis Bartheld from Valdivia, Chile https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monito_del_monte#/media/File:Monito_del_Monte_ps6.jpg
Day 18:some #mistletoe species don't rely on birds to spread their seeds, but marsupials! The monito del monte (Dromiciops gliroides) is a marsupial that eats and spreads seeds of Tristerix corymbosus mistletoes (Amino and Aizen, 2000) 🦘🧪 (19/26)
