James Orr

One of ecology’s oldest questions - how does population growth change as density increases? - remains surprisingly contentious. In our new @plosbiology.org paper we contribute to the ongoing debate by applying the idea of “Growth-Density Inversion”: doi.org/10.1371/jour.... 1/6

Happy to finally share our preprint: Modelling variation in salinity-dependent growth in photosynthetic microbes, now available on @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Special thanks to my co-author @mridulkthomas.bsky.social for guiding me through the modelling jungle 😵‍💫

New Review out today in @natecoevo.nature.com with @callejas.eurosky.social, @andreatabi.bsky.social and Virginia Domínguez-García, where we take a critical look at the role interaction matrices play within community ecology. Sharing link: rdcu.be/bzD2oYUVKYMa... and short thread: (1/n)

County 11/32 of @lyndsayfw.bsky.social's journey around Ireland's energy landscape - this is a great story! lyndsaywalsh.substack.com/p/kerry-and-...

Congratulations to Michelle Jackson, who has been awarded the Marsh Award for Ecology in the 2026 @britishecologicalsociety.org awards! Her research has advanced understanding of biodiversity dynamics, reshaping perspectives on community assembly and species interactions 👇

And that’s a wrap on #MENI2026! What a great day of microbial evolution research, and a pleasure to host at Trinity with @paulinedscanlan.bsky.social

We are recruiting 4 Postdoctoral Fellows! 🌊🌊🌊 Applications are open now! Deadline is 10th October 2026. More details and updates here: climate-hub.ie/msdm/ #postdoc #marine #MarieSkłodowska-Curie #MarineLife!

New paper with @kelbrick.bsky.social and @jpjhall.bsky.social - we show that fungicides select for multidrug resistant bacteria in soil via shared resistance mechanisms (efflux) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

We rely on healthy soil microbial communities to support ecosystem functioning and plant growth, but what happens when soils are exposed to multiple environmental stressors simultaneously? Spoiler: it's not good doi.org/10.1093/isme...

Sublinear #DensityDependence is widely reported empirically, but is at odds with theory. @jamesaorr.bsky.social &co use a tightly controlled test in a microbial model system to reveal superlinear density dependence, so aligning empirical evidence with theory @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4vwAmEZ

Bacteriophage continue to have so much to teach us. It's in our interest to understand how they work and impact human & environmental health. New joint work led by @mariandm.bsky.social & @rantahan.bsky.social inferring single-cell latent period & burst size heterogeneity from population dynamics.

Evolutionary rescue in a phage community! New paper from former PhD student, Sam Greenrod, with brilliant colleague @craigmaclean.bsky.social : academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc...

Eye-opening work by @olimeacock.bsky.social (former postdoc, now PI in Sheffield). He presents an exact mapping from steady-state consumer-resource to generalized Lotka-Volterra models, revealing that cross-feeding can lead to competition for other limiting resources. Feedback pls!

Excited to share our new paper in @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social on data and code archiving at @britishecologicalsociety.org journals. TL;DR: Data archiving rates are high, code archiving rates are low, documentation needs to be improved! besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.....

A common complaint many people have about wind turbines: they don't like the look of them. But what lies beneath that dislike? Read more here: substack.com/home/post/p-...

Please share widely! Abstract submissions open for the 2026 Jacques Monod conference: Ecology and evolution of host-parasite interactions in a changing world! Held in beautiful Roscoff France from November 2- 6, 2026. Abstracts submission deadline : June 6 cjm.sb-roscoff.fr/en/conferenc...

Was great to be at the @hometreecharity.bsky.social conference last week! Not the usual suspects in the room, which made for some interestingly left-field discussions. These events are really important and they actually run it at a loss - so fair play to them for creating the space. Some thoughts 👇

PLEASE SHARE. PhD Opportunity with me, Ben Raymond and Jan Engelstaedter and Andrew Letten at University of Queensland. Experimentally testing mechanisms of how temperature may change selection and spread of AMR in E. coli. Coupled with some advanced modelling and sequencing. 🧪🦠 #microsky

The first Eco-Onco Exchange seminar has been postponed by one week, to Apr 22nd! Register here: forms.gle/B77tZmyzCzmp...

great summary of our newest paper - led by Abby Gilson #seaweed #MarineLife 🦑 #AlgalAwesomeness! #oceanfarmers

MENI is back! Join us in Dublin this August 2026 for our 3rd Meeting for Microbial Evolution in Ireland. We are delighted to have @rachelmwheatley.bsky.social @drrebeccajhall.bsky.social @jpjhall.bsky.social and @tweethinking.bsky.social join us as keynote speakers this year. miniurl.com/MENI

New paper by Laurie Wojcik et al. where we show that response to a pulse perturbation has a hump-shaped relationship with top-down control royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

Very excited to share the latest work from our lab, which was published today in Nature! nature.com/articles/s41... PhD graduate and now post-doc Sofia Dahlman, along with co-senior author Sam Forster from The Hudson and other researchers from our lab and others.

This is a real loss. Few people did as much as Manchán Magan to connect the Irish landscape to its language and culture. His books are impressive works of accessible scholarship and will hopefully be read for many years to come. #SpeirGorm

I have an MRC-funded PhD project available (www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...) on how warming will change the problem of AMR. Join a small and friendly group (padpadpadpad.netlify.app/about) in (sometimes) sunny Cornwall. 🧪🦠 #microsky Please share the ad below with anyone who may be interested.

Check out this new article on null model selection for multiple stressor research. Fantastic work by Iris Pimentel from @leeselab.bsky.social within the @crc-resist.bsky.social. Freely available at: dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3...

Wolves were treated as a threat to livestock and hunted to extinction in Ireland, aided by bounties. Portrait of John Watson with hound at his side and skin of ‘last wolf in Ireland’ 1786 under their feet. Royal Dublin Society collection #InternationalWolfDay

Was great to attend a Summer Academy of the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes. Really creative and clever students - enjoyed the seminar with the students and felt honored to give an evening talk in such a nice location on trends in insect populations. #Neubeuern #Studienstiftung #Insectdecline

Want to name a real virus? I have recently discovered 9 new phages which now need names! To enter, you simply need to donate to the Cystic Fibrosis Trust on my JustGiving page (£2 = 1 entry) and share your email with me on donation (see link info). Please share 💚 www.justgiving.com/page/meaghan-c-1

Thrilled to announce our webinar series: 🌱📈 Quantifying Ecology 📈🌱 We are collaborating with our SIG friends to bring you quantitative methods in different ecological contexts. Kicking off with Dr @jamesaorr.bsky.social and @bes-aquaticgroup.bsky.social on 5th August. More details to come!

Final version published in @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social Kong et al. Ecosystems have multiple interacting processes that buffer against co-occurring stressors www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...

Online now: Making sense of (sublinear) density dependence

Please share. 2 tenure-track T&R math/stat jobs at the University of Queensland, Australia. Amazing weather, gorgeous campus & lifestyle. 17% employer retirement contribution, lots of leave. Strong global reputation. Supports diversity @stevenstrogatz.com uq.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/uqcare...

Honoured to receive the 2024 Robert May prize !! 😊 🎉 Many thanks to the @britishecologicalsociety.org & @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social

🚨Jeremy Barr discusses how he began studying #bacteriophages, the historic use of the T-series #phages, and how they have shaped the field. #MicroSky #PhageSky www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Very happy to see this paper out, wonderful collaboration with Gaowen Yang and @jamesaorr.bsky.social & other friends Kong et al. @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social Ecosystems have multiple interacting processes that buffer against co-occurring stressors 🧪 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

We have announced the 2024 Robert May Prize shortlist, our award for early career researchers! 🏆 Follow the link below to see our shortlisted authors and their papers 🌎 🧪 👇

Reminder: application deadline upcoming for applications from MS + PhD students + postdocs for a Summer School on Quantitative Phage-Bacteria Dynamics Across Scales U of Maryland, College Park, June 23-27, 2025 Apply by 3/21/25: bit.ly/phageschool2...

We are looking for a #PhD student to work on the impacts of multiple stressors on native #oysters as part of the BRICONS Project co-supervised by @annikaclements.bsky.social - contact me for details on how to apply @tcddublin.bsky.social

Happy to share our new paper! We tested how species evolve in response to #competition. We tracked the evolution of 3 #phytoplankton species, evolved alone or together. Our main finding is that #density-dependence weakens through #evolution to increase population production. doi.org/10.1002/ece3...

Check out our dispatch on apicomplexans that infect corals! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... These parasite-like partners have lost photosynthesis but retained chlorophyll... are they friend or foe? @currentbiology.bsky.social #protistsonsky #symbiosky #microsky #coralreefs

In our new paper we discuss how modern coexistence theory can help microbial ecologists tackle fundamental & applied questions, and how microbial systems can help to push coexistence theory forward! With Andrew Letten and Dave Armitage (@darmitage.bsky.social). doi.org/10.1111/1462...

We are excited to announce our new seminar series highlighting research on population biology and theoretical ecology from academics and post-grads based in the Asia-Pacific. We have a great line up of speakers for the next few months. Stay tuned for more info!

Now accepting applicants for 25-26 intake of our #StatisticalEcology MSc: bit.ly/3ooHNyc. A unique opportunity to develop skills at the interface of #statistics and #ecology (some partial scholarships available too). Please help me share!