Ecology

ISEC brings together ecologists, statisticians and quantitative researchers working on ecological inference and modelling. The main conference runs 10–15 January 2027 in Mérida, Mexico; separate pre-conference workshops run 8–9 January. Registration is open, with early rates through 30 September 2026 and reduced rates for eligible Global South participants.

This meeting critically examines whether ecological forecasting can become accurate enough for conservation and biodiversity management. Demographic and ecosystem models, observations, statistical inference and machine learning address interacting species under climate and other pressures. Terrestrial, marine and polar examples explore predictability limits, uncertainty, model benchmarking and research-informed decisions. Programme participants include Emily G Simmonds (University of Edinburgh, UK); Benjamin Planque (Institute of Marine Research, Norway); Michael Dietze (Boston University, US); Stéphanie Jenouvrier (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, US); Owen Petchey (University of Zurich, Switzerland); Marlène Gamelon (University of Lyon, France). Schedule: 2–3 November 2026, 09:00–17:00 each day, Europe/London (GMT, UTC+0). Researchers may attend online or at the Royal Society, 6–9 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AG, United Kingdom. Both modes are free; advance registration is required using the appropriate online or in-person ticket. Optional lunch is £25/day, subject to availability; outside food is permitted. Poster proposals for 2 November, including an abstract up to 200 words, are due 16 October 2026; acceptance is rolling.

SETAC’s annual North American meeting takes place in Montreal on 2–5 November 2026 under the theme One Planet, Shared Future. Registration is open and late-breaking science poster abstracts are accepted until 14 October at 17:00 EDT, subject to available space and a submission fee. The meeting includes environmental-science sessions, training and professional exchange. Virtual registration provides recorded and on-demand content; student and low- and middle-income-country rates are available. The early registration deadline has passed.

Sanne Evers introduces the first forecasting challenge organized by the European Ecological Forecasting Initiative. The challenge uses long-running observations from Doñana National Park in southern Spain to support short-term predictions of vegetation indices and the abundance of multiple shrub species. Forecasting these changes can inform habitat management, productivity assessments and conservation decisions under climatic and hydrological pressures. The seminar explains why Doñana’s range of habitats and monitoring infrastructure offer a useful setting for comparing predictions before new observations become available. It also discusses lessons from developing the challenge and planned next steps, with participation encouraged across ecological disciplines and levels of forecasting experience.

The Science Show examines mineral nodules formed around fossil shark teeth on the deep-sea floor and the ecological risks of exploiting them. The programme also considers plant responses to climate change, debates over introduced species, and the contributions and limitations of three influential scientists.

Partha Dasgupta considers how economic progress should be measured during an ecological crisis. Drawing on his work on natural capital, he examines an approach to economics that assigns value to nature alongside other assets. The discussion asks how changing the way economies value the natural world could change the way they protect it. Dasgupta connects economic measurement with environmental sustainability and the challenge of recognising nature’s contribution to human well-being.

Srinivasan Keshav (University of Cambridge) presents an interface designed to help ecologists use AI for remote sensing despite unfamiliarity with embeddings and algorithms. The Tessera Embeddings Explorer lets practitioners privately explore a region of interest, create habitat maps and perform regressions using their domain expertise and ground-truth knowledge. The talk demonstrates the tool and explains the design principles and the software architecture that follows from them, connecting usable ecological workflows with AI representations. Keshav is the Robert Sansom Professor of Computer Science at Cambridge.

Seed support for short pilot and feasibility studies connected to the Tropical Field Station La Gamba in Costa Rica. Projects may cover scoping, method development, baseline data collection or initial infrastructure, with an emphasis on interdisciplinary research and follow-on external proposals within 6–12 months. Desk-based and preparatory research are permitted; an on-site visit is not mandatory. Base awards are up to EUR 10,000 for single-discipline projects or EUR 20,000 for interdisciplinary projects, over at most 15 months. A separate EUR 5,000 bonus follows submission of a competitive external funding application. The second call closes on 31 October 2026.

An institutional fellowship program supporting junior tenure-track faculty in mathematics, neuroscience, physics, ecology and evolutionary biology. Each selected HBCU can nominate up to four fellows and receive up to USD 320,000 annually for five years (USD 1.6 million total per institution, covering all fellows and including indirect costs). The program buys out at least half of fellows’ teaching duties. Letters of intent close 12 November 2026 at noon Eastern time; invited full applications close 9 February 2027. Awards begin September 2027. Funded by Simons Foundation International and administered by the Simons Foundation.