"Impacts of COVID‐19 on ecology and evolutionary biology faculty in the United States" was published yesterday in Ecological Applications, which I coauthored with Lise Aubry and Zhao Ma. Ecology and evolutionary biology faculty perceived that negative impacts of COVID-19 on their lab's fieldwork and lab work will be long-lived. Academic rank, gender, care-giving roles, and working arrangements all played a significant role in explaining work-life balance satisfaction during the early months of the pandemic. We also documented shifts in time allocations for academic duties and compiled recommendations for universities and administrators going forward. Feel free to email me if you need assistance accessing the paper. Abstract: We surveyed ecologists and evolutionary biologists in American Universities to understand how they are coping with the COVID‐19 pandemic. Female respondents, assistant professors, and those who care for at least one child or teenager, were significantly more dissatisfied with their work‐life balance during this pandemic than others, and further expected these negative impacts to be long‐lived. Online teaching support, relaxed expectations on publications, the possibility of pausing the tenure clock, and an acknowledgment of "no business as usual" by administrators were thought to be effective policies in mitigating these negative impacts. This survey serves as a manifesto to what our professional community is currently experiencing, and should be used to inform academic policies directed at improving faculty productivity and welfare.
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"New national records for Cyclopodia greeffi greeffi (Diptera: Nycteribiidae) from the Kunene Region, Namibia, Africa" was published today in Entomological News, which I coauthored with Will Reeves, Elena Gratton, Lina Mushabati, and Seth Eiseb. We report the first collections of C. greeffi greeffi from Namibia, expanding the range of the ectoparasite to a new country. These bat flies were discovered on an African straw-colored fruit bat, Eidolon helvum, in Sesfontein in June 2016, but likely occur found wherever E. helvum is found in Namibia. Feel free to email me if you need assistance accessing the paper.
Last June, Mikko Jimenez, Sara Bombaci, Kate Wilkins, Drew Bennett, Liba Pejchar, and I published a paper in Nature Ecology & Evolution highlighting the disproportionate role underrepresented faculty play in advancing diversity and inclusion. In this 'After the Paper' post published today, Mikko, Liba, and I reflect on how our findings changed our path, and could be contributing to today’s conversation around equity, diversity and inclusion.
I will be giving a virtual presentation on my bat research in the northern Namib Desert, Namibia as part of Bats without Borders' #WingedWednesday webinar series. My presentation takes place this Wednesday, November 11th at 3pm Central African Time or 6am Mountain Time for those of you based in North or South America. A live Q&A session will occur immediately afterward. If you are interested in the live presentation, please register here. For those of you who cannot make it, the talk will be recorded. It is now available to watch below or at the link here. "Rickettsia hoogstraalii and a Rickettsiella from the bat tick Argas transgariepinus, in Namibia" was published today in the Journal of Parasitology, which I coauthored with Will Reeves, Ben Mans, Lance Durden, Myrna Miller, and Elena Gratton. Our detection of R. hoogstraalii in Namibia is a new national record for this spotted fever group rickettsia and a potential new vertebrate host (the long-tailed serotine bat, Eptesicus hottentotus). Feel free to email me if you need assistance accessing the paper. Abstract: Ectoparasites were collected from Eptesicus hottentotus, the long-tailed serotine bat, caught in Namibia as part of an ecological study. Larvae of Argas transgariepinus, a blood-feeding ectoparasite of bats in Africa, were removed from 3 of 18 bats. We present scanning electron microscope images of unengorged larvae. As with other ectoparasites, this bat tick might transmit pathogens such as Borrelia and Rickettsia to their hosts as has been reported for bat ticks in Europe and North America. We screened 3 pools (25 total) of larvae of A. transgariepinus removed from the long-tailed serotine bat Eptesicus hottentotus caught in Namibia. Two microbes of unknown pathogenicity, including Rickettsia hoogstraalii, a spotted fever group pathogen, and a Rickettsiella sp. were detected by molecular techniques.
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