Happy Arachtober! Given the various spider-related projects we have underway in FERG, it's always a special time of year (and great for bizarre spider merchandise like the infuriating trend of shops selling 'spider skeleton' Halloween statues). We've had a busy month at conferences and workshops, and the new academic year has meant we have aContinue reading "FERG News October 2025"
Jordan secured NERC-FAPESP funding with Raul Costa-Pereira to kickstart new UK-Brazil collaborative research!
Great news! Over the next two years, FERG will be building collaborative research with the Intraspecific Diversity Lab, Raul Costa-Pereira's research group at Unicamp, Brazil! This is a really exciting project funded by the UK's Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and Brazil's São Paulo Research Foundation, FAPESP. This project will involve exchanges between the twoContinue reading "Jordan secured NERC-FAPESP funding with Raul Costa-Pereira to kickstart new UK-Brazil collaborative research!"
Happy Peer Review Week!
It's Peer Review Week this week (15th-19th September 2025), and, here in FERG, we are big advocates of the importance of peer review! Peer review is one of the most vital pillars upholding scientific rigour and excellence, but it takes a community to keep it alive! Alongside encouraging and supporting one another to engage inContinue reading "Happy Peer Review Week!"
Max Tercel’s visit from Cibio, Portugal!
We had the immense pleasure of hosting long-term FERG collaborator Max Tercel here in Newcastle! Max came to visit for EcoNet (which you can read all about in our recent post, including Max's help running the molecular workshop) and Ento 2025 in Glasgow. Jordan and Max have worked closely together for most of their careersContinue reading "Max Tercel’s visit from Cibio, Portugal!"
FERG joined NEG in hosting EcoNet 2025!
Following the last Symposium on Ecological Networks (EcoNet) in Israel in 2023 (which was the topic of one of our first blog posts), Darren Evans of the Network Ecology Group (NEG) was approached to host the next EcoNet. Darren asked Jordan, Katherine Baldock of Northumbria University, Madeleine Fabusova from NEG and Shai Pilosof from theContinue reading "FERG joined NEG in hosting EcoNet 2025!"
FERG News September 2025
Another month of fieldwork and fun here in FERG! Alongside all of the various field experiments well under way, we've had some exciting adventures to conferences and courses, some new articles and protocols, and even a new (non-human) member of the group! New FERGers Welcome to our new trusty fieldwork trolley, Selina Go-mez! She's beenContinue reading "FERG News September 2025"
Jordan awarded RES Alfred Russel Wallace Award
Jordan has been awarded the Royal Entomological Society's Alfred Russel Wallace Award for his PhD thesis, submitted in 2020! The award is for post-graduates who have been awarded a PhD, and whose work is considered by their supervisory team to be outstanding. The research involved should be a significant contribution to the science of entomology. TheContinue reading "Jordan awarded RES Alfred Russel Wallace Award"
Check out Jordan’s talk about nutritional networks for entoLIVE on YouTube!
Jordan recently gave a talk for entoLIVE about recent and ongoing FERG research focused on nutritional networks, including some hot-off-the-press results for a couple of upcoming publications, and some fun new analogies for prey choice and network robustness. If you're devastated that you missed it, fear not - it's been immortalised on YouTube! Check outContinue reading "Check out Jordan’s talk about nutritional networks for entoLIVE on YouTube!"
Check out Ainsley’s new article out in The Conversation!
Ainsley has co-authored an article just out in The Conversation! Check it out here: The UK is losing its small fishing boats – and the communities they support The UK has a long history of small-scale fishing boats that support local fish markets, communities, economies and a rich cultural heritage, but these are disappearing. Whilst theseContinue reading "Check out Ainsley’s new article out in The Conversation!"
New preprint: Ecoacoustics for context-rich direct and indirect trophic interaction data and ecological network construction
Check out this new preprint that Will led alongside his PhD supervisory team across Newcastle University, Fera Science Ltd and Nottingham Trent University! Ecoacoustics can be used to monitor biodiversity across massive spatiotemporal scales, including in ecologically cryptic systems like soil, yet its application to the detection and characterisation of predator-prey interactions remains poorly developed.Continue reading "New preprint: Ecoacoustics for context-rich direct and indirect trophic interaction data and ecological network construction"
Foraging Ecology Research Group 