Science birthday

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Voilà, a weird illustration I made for the Nordic Society Oikos.

NSO is the ecological society of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The society publishes four international journals, each of which is reaching a decade milestone.

Oikos is 70 years old. The Journal of Avian Biology is about to turn 50. Ecography is 40 years old. The Nordic Journal of Botany is turning 40 as well.

This quite clearly adds up to two centuries of scientific publishing. Happy birthday.

Seabirds in the mountains

Plant antics

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Abby McBride

For the latest cover of the journal Oikos, I illustrated a paper about kin selection in plants by Bodil K. Ehlers and Trine Bilde.

Tagline: “Imagine you and your cousin are two plants growing in the same pot. In what conditions would it make sense to cooperate rather than compete?”

I’m not sure if anyone noticed that the cover image for this Swedish publication includes a portrayal of the Scandinavian Ox Dance.

June cover of @Oikos_Journal! To show that kin selection is really happening, argues this 'Forum' paper, you have to measure inclusive fitness. The authors simulated interactions between plants and predicted conditions that favor kin selection. https://t.co/qnzD6Ppvh2 #ecology https://t.co/V8dntyCGxa

— Nordic Society Oikos (@NordicOikos) June 30, 2019

Ghost gallery

Sunny days alternated with late May blizzards throughout the week at Mountainfilm in Telluride, Colorado (during which I had an art show, talk, and sketch walk). Read more in a post by The Fulbright Program.

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Ghost birds in Ghost Town: watercolors of the New Zealand storm-petrel (thought to be extinct for the entire 20th century) on the walls of @ghosttowntelluride. Thanks to @mountainfilm, @the_fulbright_program, and @insidenatgeo for helping me bring seabirds to the mountains. Swipe for more seabird sketches. . . Photo by Christine Zirneklis . . #newzealand #seabirdstory #fulbright #natgeo #nz #seabirds #mountains #movies #fulbrightnz #watercolor #pencil #sketch #art #birds #conservation #science #biodiversity #wildlife #mountainfilm #telluride

A post shared by Abby McBride (@sketchbiologist) on May 26, 2019 at 2:58pm PDT

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Photo by Christine Zirneklis

Cover Bird

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Insights into the breeding biology of Grey-breasted Wood-Wrens in Venezuela! New issue from the Wilson Journal of Ornithology, with lead article by Necmiye Arslan and Tom Martin (link below). Frontispiece art by me. . . https://bioone.org/journals/The-Wilson-Journal-of-Ornithology/volume-131/issue-1/18-12/Reproductive-biology-of-Grey-breasted-Wood-Wren-iHenicorhina-leucophrys-i/10.1676/18-12.short . . #venezuela #birds #ornithology #research #conservation #biology #wildlife #nature #animals #art #watercolor #painting #pencil #drawing

A post shared by Abby McBride (@sketchbiologist) on Apr 15, 2019 at 11:29am PDT