Adrian Stier

Ecologist and Conservation Biologist. PI @oceanrecoveries lab | Focus: ocean ecosystem resilience. | @ucsantabarbara | he/him/his

[Adrian Stier @AdrianStier]

New paper alert! We just published a massive meta-analysis in @Ecology_Letters asking: How does crowding affect survival in reef fish populations?
The answer? It's way more complicated than we thought.
🧵 Thread on what 147 studies taught us (1/8)

[Adrian Stier @AdrianStier]

Been using Claude Code for a few months. My R scripts no longer make me want to walk into the sea (which, as a marine biologist, is occupationally inconvenient). Made https://t.co/1xd8YiNoOO for researchers who've been meaning to learn AI coding.

[Adrian Stier @AdrianStier]

Bottom line: Population regulation isn't a fixed property—it's contingent on ecological context.
Want to dive deeper? 📖 Paper: https://t.co/dcrqB7GTcC
Big thanks to @OsenbergLab and everyone who shared their data! 🙏 (8/8)

[Adrian Stier @AdrianStier]

New paper alert! We just published a massive meta-analysis in @Ecology_Letters asking: How does crowding affect survival in reef fish populations?
The answer? It's way more complicated than we thought.
🧵 Thread on what 147 studies taught us (1/8)

[Adrian Stier @AdrianStier]

Why does this matter?
Understanding density-dependence is crucial for: 🔹 Managing fisheries 🔹 Conserving endangered species 🔹 Predicting how populations respond to disturbance (hello, climate change)
But we can't predict what we don't understand. (7/8)

[Adrian Stier @AdrianStier]

These aren't hypothetical scenarios. We examined Pacific hake, petrale sole, and sablefish on the US West Coast. Between 2005-2022, estimated unfished biomass changed by 25-65% as stock assessments incorporated new data every 1-4 years.

[Adrian Stier @AdrianStier]

Our new study by @jamealfsamhouri @PLOSClimate reveals an uncomfortable truth about climate-ready fisheries: adaptive management strategies can boost population biomass OR harvest—but rarely both. The 'right' choice depends on what we value as a society.
https://t.co/Chy0bvziFh

[Adrian Stier @AdrianStier]

imilar story with carrying capacity. When it dropped, adaptive management increased harvest 36% but reduced biomass 22%. The inverse happened when carrying capacity rose. Not a win-win—a trade-off.

[Adrian Stier @AdrianStier]

https://t.co/zH3OInYRtl

[Adrian Stier @AdrianStier]

Coral spawning = nature’s biggest party 🎉🌊
But while corals release their eggs + sperm into the night, a hidden guest list shows up hungry… 🦀⭐🐚🦪

@TomShlesinger reveals crabs, barnacles, brittle stars & more secretly feasting on coral spawn. https://t.co/DlsN8xcmYO

[Adrian Stier @AdrianStier]

🦈 Sharks, skates, and rays aren’t locked into slow, “fixed” life histories. New work in Ecology Letters shows they can shift to higher reproductive output when food availability increases — a surprising plasticity in elasmobranch biology! 👉 https://t.co/VZOFYVWXC9

[Adrian Stier @AdrianStier]

Stratford et al. tracked >1,000 coral “babies” in the remote Chagos Archipelago after bleaching. Survival & growth were high, but after 3 yrs they still made up just 2.4% cover. Even “ideal” reefs recover painfully slow. 🌊🌱
👉 https://t.co/FkFtLoHc8Q

[Adrian Stier @AdrianStier]

Take-home: Indonesia’s reefs may be showing more resilience than expected, but cover alone doesn’t capture species shifts, functional change, or hidden vulnerability.

[Adrian Stier @AdrianStier]

1/ New paper in Coral Reefs compiles 7,600+ observations of coral cover across Indonesia (1994–2022).
Surprisingly, they find no clear national-level decline in coral cover over nearly 30 years. 🤯
https://t.co/zhjW834WBN

[Adrian Stier @AdrianStier]

3/ The “shifted baseline” point is key: most data begin after the 1998 global bleaching event. What looks “stable” may already reflect reefs that declined before monitoring began.