Mike Fowler
Theoretical & Quantitative Ecologist. Dad. Whisky lover. Football coach. Relearning the drums. Not necessarily in that order.
See also @theorecol@ecoevo.social
He/him
- Marking Lit Reviews. Consecutive submissions have strong whiff of AI generation. 1st is practically unreadable: generic, bland. Also has a very low similarity score (unusual for entire pages to be original text). 2nd one has much better writing, + many high similarity chunks. Is 2nd paid-for genAI?
- Ear worm youtu.be/sBW8Vnp8BzU?...
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- Reposted by Mike FowlerSo initial experiments with Open AI's vibe-coding science tool Prism are going about as well as expected.
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- Reposted by Mike FowlerWhen it rains, it now rains more. For those experiencing the flooding in south-west England, it is worth remembering that rainfall in winter has increased by about 25% overall. And, the rainfall has also become more intense: when it rains, it now rains more, increasing the risk of flooding.
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- Most of the time, research-acronyms are garbage (I don't know if I coined the term "acronons" in this context, but I'm claiming it). However, this one gets 100% for creativity, insight and accuracy. Chef's kiss. No notes.
- We've got ISSUES. Literally. We scraped >100k special issues & over 1 million articles to bring you a PISS-poor paper. We quantify just how many excess papers are published by guest editors abusing special issues to boost their CVs. How bad is it & what can we do? arxiv.org/abs/2601.07563 A 🧵 1/n
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- Out now! Ecological #ResponseDiversity research priorities @nordicoikos.bsky.social 🌍🧪 Key findings: Ecologists don't agree (I could stop there) on definitions (& there...) of #ResponseDiversity scales & dimensions but see conceptual value Our network must diversify. Join us! doi.org/10.1002/oik....
- Latest piece of Sam Ross's global takeover with #ResponseDiversity thinking just accepted @oikosjournal.bsky.social! Such a cool collaboration with @ceresbarros.bsky.social @lauradee.bsky.social @owpet.bsky.social @hannah-wht-eco.bsky.social Takehiro Sasaki & Anna LoPresti! doi.org/10.1101/2025...
- Wonder if I'll get into trouble for sharing this?
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- Grant* submitted on deadline day, now straight back into marking before that deadline hits (also today). Living the academic dream! *Of which <45% will actually be spent on doing science. Those towers don't guild themselves in ivory for nothing!

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- Live video feed of me grant writing. youtube.com/shorts/VlmVl...
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- Listening to an album (while marking) that's over a quarter of a century old, but my brain still considers to be a new one... open.spotify.com/album/2MJc2N...
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- When everyone in the class chooses exactly the same (correct) statistical approach to address Q2, and exactly the same (incorrect) approach for Q1, you just know the class Whatsapp group has been working overtime for that (independent) assignment.

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- Happy new office coffee maker, to all those who celebrate! Feel free to drop in for a cup (but bring biscuits).
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- Geocentrism strikes again!
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- Well it's a marvelous night for a moondance 🎵🎶
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- Reposted by Mike FowlerExcited to launch the new improved Reproducible Code guide from @britishecologicalsociety.org @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social FREE online here! www.britishecologicalsociety.org//wp-content/... Amazing work by some very talented ECRs. We hope it’s useful!
- Reposted by Mike FowlerHere's an opportunity to lead research at Kilpisjärvi Biological Station (northern Finland, but close to the border with Norway and Sweden). An amazing place and job. Please forward to Arctic-focused folk. jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki...
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- I dunno, I feel like if they were being truly conservative, they'd be going back to Times Old Roman (or even further back...)
- New book going into the weeds of #JapaneseKnotweed identification, cytology, breeding behaviour & genetics, + evidence-based treatment & management requirements. A real labour of love by Dan Jones & colleagues (and, judging by some of our conversations, hate)! pelagicpublishing.com/products/jap...
- What if, now hear me out, we just stopped employing the people who come up with the bad business processes???
- Great work by @christophecoste.bsky.social
- Latest piece of Sam Ross's global takeover with #ResponseDiversity thinking just accepted @oikosjournal.bsky.social! Such a cool collaboration with @ceresbarros.bsky.social @lauradee.bsky.social @owpet.bsky.social @hannah-wht-eco.bsky.social Takehiro Sasaki & Anna LoPresti! doi.org/10.1101/2025...
- I mean, having posted this 10 days ago, I might as well start gambling professionally now. Especially as my employer is on the verge of announcing compulsory redundancies 🤬
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- Whooop! New paper online! "A Systems Perspective: How Social–Ecological Networks Can Improve Our Understanding and Management of Biological Invasions" Phenomenal effort by Fiona Rickowski to pull this all together, wrangling a large co-author/bag-of-cats team into shape! doi.org/10.1093/bios...
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- I see the video has cut out just before the biscuits are dropped on the ground, smashed, then shat on by the bird, who proceeds to try and scoop up all the crumbs again before anyone else can get to them?
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- No relation.