Taylan Morcol

Taylan Morcol

Taylan Morçöl is a freelance data scientist and nature lover.

Ecological study designs and my garden

Christie, Alec P., et al. "Simple study designs in ecology produce inaccurate estimates of biodiversity responses." Journal of Applied Ecology 56.12 (2019): 2742-2754.

A conversation with a colleague A few weeks ago, I was chatting with a colleague about one of his ecological field experiments. His group is testing the impact of a biocontrol insect on the growth of an invasive tree species.…

Wet Boots, Dry Boots: Two Days in the Field

Credits: BIISC (left) and Ben Stubbs (right). Full credits in the article.

Over the past month, I’ve had the opportunity to help out with a variety of my colleagues’ projects at work. In this article, I highlight two of these projects. These reflections are written on my personal time, are not part…

How Even is My Garden? Then vs. Now

Figure 3, Lou Jost 2010, CC-BY 3.0, https://doi.org/10.3390/d2020207

Welcome back! This is my fourth article in a mini-series exploring biodiversity, using the plant community in my home garden as an example. In the first article, I presented the results of a botanical inventory of the garden, using cover…

Where I Get My Plant Photos (and Why)

GBIF.org (2026), GBIF Home Page. Available from: https://www.gbif.org [7 June 2026].

The past couple of weeks I’ve been learning about biocultural restoration in Hawai’i, and I have some article ideas I’ve been stewing on. But in the meantime, I wanted to write about a different topic that I’ve been sitting on…