New academic year, new beginnings! I’m excited to share that I have started a new position as an Associate Professor at the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) in Yunnan, China 🇨🇳 XTBG has been a place close to my heart, due to its vibrant research community, friendly working environment, and stunning landscapes. I’m deeply grateful to XTBG and the Chinese Academy of Sciences for their trust and support in my research. I look forward to collaborating with colleagues here to produce exciting and impactful work. Stay tuned for announcements about graduate and postdoctoral opportunities in our lab! #XTBG #ecological #research #biodiversity #conservation

Whether you like it or not, large language models are here to stay. Read what two researchers have to say about the new tech’s use in conservation science in TWS’ latest Q&A. wildlife.org/qa-should-wildl…

Αυτός είναι ο Μπόρα. Από αυτόν έμαθα την Κύπρο, από αυτόν έμαθα να αγαπώ την Κύπρο. Έχει προωθήσει τον τόπο μας όσο ελάχιστοι. Βρίσκεται εδώ από μικρό παιδάκι. Για τριάντα χρόνια τον βασανίζει η γραφειοκρατία μας και δεν του δίνει κυπριακό διαβατήριο. Ντρέπεται και η Ντροπή.

The Natura 2000 network plays an important role in lowering human pressure across EU riparian zones, and its benefits could be amplified through stronger management, broader coverage, and better use of existing policy instruments. sciencedirect.com/science/ar…

We are recruiting a postdoctoral researcher to join a funded project evaluating the effectiveness of protected areas across Southeast Asia. Please feel free to share this opportunity with anyone who might be interested.

Κάθε φορά που ταξιδεύω Ευρώπη, και βλέπω κόσμο να περπατά και να ποδηλατεί στην καθημερινότητα του, και να έχει τόσο πράσινο μες τους δρόμους, πιάνει με κατάθλιψη. Εμείς γιατί όχι; Οι πολιτικοί μας εν θέλουν και εκείνοι και τα παιδιά τους να ζουν σε ένα πιο υγιή και όμορφο τόπο;

Large Language Models Show Promise for Ecological Research english.cas.cn/newsroom/rese…

Natura 2000 sites play a crucial role in protecting Europe’s riparian habitats, but designation alone is insufficient. Agriculture and urbanization continue to exert growing pressure, especially outside protected areas, underscoring the need for stronger management and complementary EU policies to better safeguard these vital ecosystems @CopernicusLand

It is hard to miss the current debate around LLMs. While many people are excited about their transformative potential, others are rightly concerned about the associated risks, including deskilling and the potential misrepresentation of minority voices. What is becoming clear, nonetheless, is that LLMs are already changing how academic research is conducted. In this article, we review potential applications of LLMs in ecology and conservation science. We identify emerging and future uses that could advance ecological research and support progress toward biodiversity targets. At the same time, we discuss important risks that need to be acknowledged and addressed, and we present some initial solutions. We hope this article will serve as a useful primer for researchers interested in incorporating LLMs into their work and will contribute to the current debate on how these tools can be used more effectively and responsibly. doi.org/10.1111/cobi.70287 #LLMs #GenerativeAI #Ecology #Biodiversity #Conservation #Academic #Research

Emerging applications of large language models in ecology and conservation science conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.c…

In this preprint (link in the comments), we review emerging applications of LLMs in ecology and conservation science and discuss limitations, risks, and future directions. As LLMs become increasingly integrated into scientific workflows, we hope this work will be useful to ecologists and others.