Biology subjects

Robinson, E. J. H.

Publications and source records attributed to Robinson, E. J. H..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

The W-index: a novel tool to evaluate gender equity in STEM research

Gender inequities in scientific research persist, from citation indices to collaboration networks and funding success. Current estimates for achieving equal representation remain in timescales of decades to centuries. To help individuals and groups improve their gender representation in a shorter timeframe, we present the W-index, a simple metric to evaluate gender ratios, and specifically the representation of women, in research collaborations and other aspects of scientific life. Here it is applied to three case studies: internal collaborations derived from six years of research outputs across a university, co-author groups from 60 years of publications across a journal collection, and supervisor-student relationships over 60 years. Despite contrasting sources, these datasets show common features: W-index increases as the proportion of women increases W-index also increases with age or career stage, and women have a consistently higher W-index compared to men. We finish with reflections and recommendations for individuals, organisations, and funding bodies to action positive and timely change towards gender equity.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2025

Wood ants on the edge: how do thecharacteristics of linear edges affect thepopulation dynamics of an edgespecialist?

Landscape structure modulates species dispersal by presenting barriers or opportunities. Slow-dispersing edge specialists, e.g. the northern hairy wood ant (Formica lugubris), are likely to be most affected by topography and land management practices, because they require adjacent contrasting habitats, e.g. to access both food and sunlight. In managed forests, canopy gaps are often linear and anthropogenic, such as paths, firebreaks, and roads (collectively rides), and their orientation determines shade distribution. Using data spanning 10 years, we ask how ride orientation and width affect the distribution and dispersal of three F. lugubris populations in the North York Moors, UK. Ride orientation clearly affected nest abundance, with a higher nest density on rides oriented north-south (N-S) or east-west (E-W) (cardinal directions) than on those oriented NE-SW or NW-SE (intercardinal directions). Conforming to predictions based on sunlight availability, N-S oriented rides were occupied more symmetrically than E-W ones, where the north side was used predominantly. Nests were generally larger on narrower rides. Ride orientation also clearly affected dispersal: wood ants dispersed c15 m/year along rides oriented in cardinal directions, compared with only c5 m/year on rides oriented intercardinally. Our results show that ride characteristics (width, orientation), resulting directly from forestry practices, influence the distribution and dispersal of an ecosystem engineer woodland species; this may also apply to other forest-edge specialists. As wood ants can suppress defoliating pests, these findings could benefit forest management; forest planners could encourage wood ant colonisation of plantation forest by ensuring linear features contribute to north-south and east-west connectivity.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2024

Random walks with spatial and temporal resets may underlie searching movements in ants

AO_SCPLOWBSTRACTC_SCPLOWMany ant species are central place foragers, living in a nest and exploiting the surrounding environment. It is however unclear how their exploration behaviour relates to the emerging exploited area. Ants provide a great opportunity to study the emergence of foraging range from individual movements, given the potentially large number of scouting workers involved. Here, we introduce a random walk model with stochastic resetting to depict the movements of searching ants. Stochastic resetting refers to spatially reset at random times the position of agents to a given location, here the nest of searching ants. We investigate the effect of a range of resetting mechanisms by changing how the probability of returning to the nest depends on the duration of unsuccessful foraging trips. We compare the macroscopic predictions of our model to laboratory and field data. We find that the probability for searching ants to return to their nest decreases as the number of foraging trips increases, resulting in scouts going further away from the nest as the number of foraging trips increases. Our findings highlight the importance of resetting random walk models to depict the movements of central place foragers and nurtures novel questions regarding the searching behaviour of ants.

animal behavior and cognition↗