A thread on the dispute at Exeter Uni. #ucu #defendexeteruni @ucu.org.uk

On 15 June HR called Exeter UCU into a confidential meeting and informed us they would be putting over 500 colleagues at risk of redundancy and expected to loose around 200 staff. The number of c.150 you’ll have seen is FTE.

I've just heard that the BA/BSc Geography programme is to close at the University of Exeter’s Centre for Geography and Environmental Science (CGES) in Cornwall. This programme was made up of excellent modules with original and content, taught brilliantly—often with real innovation—by extremely 1/9

What has a greater effect on the number of butterfly records across Devon and Cornwall: habitat or public access?

Our new paper, led by Mingrui Li, addresses this question dx.doi.org/10.1111/ddi.... @jonbennie.bsky.social @davidroybrc.bsky.social @richardfoxbc.bsky.social @uniexecec.bsky.social

📣 New paper by Mingrui Li @uniexecec.bsky.social shows systematic differences in butterfly flight period estimates from monitoring vs opportunistic data. @jonbennie.bsky.social, @davidroybrc.bsky.social, @robboyd.bsky.social @ukbms.bsky.social resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Bittersweet news in the week when the university decided to get rid of 193 colleagues, including many that contributed to this success. Without transparent finance, a meaningful consultation is impossible to propose and cost more human-centric cost balancing.

That's great, although 17 academics in the Institute have this week been put at risk of redundancy, along with several others from environment facing depts. I do hope we can continue to contribute to Exeter's great track record on sustainability in the future.

1 month to go until 2026 Big Meadow Search Project gets underway.
Runs 1st June to 31st August across UK, Ireland and Channel Islands. Any type of grassland can be included. Everyone welcome to join. Watch this space for updates and please start looking for places to search

Got #pollen #allergies? You might find relief in less-well-lit rural towns than in brightly lit cities.

Read more in my latest story for @snexplores.bsky.social
bit.ly/3QZzmKF

#lightpollution #phenology #pollenseason Interviews w/ Lin Meng, @theresacrimmins.bsky.social & @jonbennie.bsky.social

Plant communities in forests grasslands and mountain summits are all reacting to climate change, but in subtly different ways. Nice to contribute a few data points from my PhD to this paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I'll be giving the ESI 'challenge of the month' talk on Monday at 1:30 - all welcome, call in to the ESI if your'e on Penryn campus or contact [email protected] for a Teams link if you want to join remotely

Dr Jonathan Bennie has taken up the ESI Challenge of the Month for November 2025.
Tune in to listen to his (hybrid) talk "Shifting grounds: rethinking conservation in an age of rapid climate change."

www.exeter.ac.uk/research/ins...

#esiChallengeOfTheMonth

Fully funded PhD in Plant Ecophysiology at UBC in Vancouver 🍁! Possible topics include leaf physiology, thermal ecology, microclimates, scaling, tree physiology, forest ecology & more. Start Jan/May/Sept 2026. michaletzlab.org
Please share!
#PlantEcoPhys #Ecology #Botany #PhDposition #GradSchool

Just signed into twitter/X after a few months since I gave up on posting there. My feed used to be science, conservation, pictures of rplants and stuff. Now it's 100% tweets boosted by Elon Musk. Is it cos everyone normal has left, or has the algorithm just gone nuts?