I'm excited to share that I've recently started a new postdoc in the Forest Genetics group at the University of Freiburg, Germany! I'm looking forward to new projects and collaborations while working in beautiful Freiburg (right next to the Black Forest!)

This is so sad! Thankfully it sounds like the fire was relatively low intensity in the Torrey pine grove. A good reminder of the importance of ex situ collections.

Los Angeles Times@latimes.com · 5mo ago

Santa Rosa Island fire burns through rare Torrey pine grove. But there's hope for the endangered tree

When you're working with a mentee's draft manuscript, what kind of feedback should you give? To be both efficient and effective, we suggest suppressing some of your instincts... scientistseessquirre... 🧪

Three stages of manuscript development – and why they matter to you as a mentor

When folks find out that Bethann Garramon Merkle and I have written a book called Teaching and Mentoring Writers in the Sciences: An Evidence-based Approach, they often ask: “What’s your #1 tip?”* …

scientistseessquirrel.wordpress.com

Preprint up now! With @ferrisifolius.bsky.social, we found positive selection on leaf shape plasticity across the altitudinal range of the cutleaf monkeyflower. This experiment was a HUGE personal undertaking. If you give it a read, I’d love to hear your thoughts! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Phenotypic plasticity is broadly adaptive across an elevation gradient in the Cutleaf Monkeyflower

Phenotypic plasticity is a key mechanism by which organisms can cope with environmental heterogeneity, but its evolutionary consequences depend on how plastic responses align with the broader adaptive...

biorxiv.org

There are many days when I think that "less" is the single most powerful bioinformatics tool. Just look at your data.

NSF bio hour - NSF BIO lost 40% of its staff 😑

Some more context on my university’s proposal to discontinue offering a Philosophy degree. scienceforeveryone.science/humanities-a... 🧪

Humanities are the heart of every college and university

I suppose that means some institutions are heartless.

scienceforeveryone.science

Terry McGlynn@hormiga.bsky.social · 10mo ago

So our campus just announced the six undergraduate programs being put on the chopping block. One of them is Philosophy. Philosophy. Can we be a university without offering a Philosophy major?

Very happy to see our article comparing the responses of hybrid poplars in 17 common gardens, out now in @newphyt.bsky.social! We estimated reaction norms to predict how warming winters could change where different ancestries are favored. nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

This just out from @mortonarboretum.bsky.social Rebekah Mohn: reference genome and read mapping method both affect phylogenetic inference & heterozygosity estimates across species. Punchline? Use a closely related but not conspecific reference. Open-access! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Variant Calling in the Goldilocks Zone: How Reference Genome Choice and Read Mapping Stringency Impact Heterozygosity Estimates and Phylogenetic Analyses

The increasing numbers of published reference genomes and affordability of whole genome resequencing have enabled multispecies population genomic and phylogenomic studies on non-model organisms, but ...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Climate and hybridization shape #stomatal trait evolution in #Populus 📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... by Zavala-Paez et al. @WileyPlantSci @michellezavala.bsky.social @jillahamilton.bsky.social

It is official! DR. @michellezavala.bsky.social defended a very impressive dissertation today!! With friends, family, stomata cookies, and Ecuadorian Guinea pigs cheering her along! We understand so much more about the consequences of hybridization to the evolution of physiological traits!! #proudPI

Happy goldenrod season to all who celebrate (and bonus Coreopsis)

Hi #ESA2025! I'll be talking about phenology in a poplar hybrid zone at 3:45 this afternoon in the "Beyond Budburst–Connecting Phenological Transitions Among Tissues and Times in Woody Plants" session. Excited to hear some phenology talks!

I am thrilled to share this paper outlining some ideas I’ve been thinking about for a little while on a simple but powerful approach for predicting risk of inbreeding depression from long runs of homozygosity and non-ROH heterozygosity. 1/n @klohmueller.bsky.social doi.org/10.1016/j.tr...

Very excited to have our study come out looking at multiple plant mosaic hybrid zones and their implications for hybrids to act as "sutures" of species ranges. We use genomic data to project shifts into future climates and discuss impacts on conservation/management. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Super sad to be missing out on #Botany2025, but Hamilton Lab is represented by @sammymuraguri.bsky.social - be sure to drop by his poster to learn about the genomic architecture of adaptive introgression across repeated contact zones between two sister Poplar species #PopUpPoplars

Winter is great, thunderstorms in spring are great, leaves changing colors in fall is great. Californians insulate themselves from the beauty and changes of the seasons in search of a mythical “perfect weather”. It’s perverse Utopianism and a weakness of the spirit

William B. Fuckley@opinionhaver.bsky.social · last yr.

After experiencing “four seasons” I’m calling bullshit on people saying they prefer that more than California weather. Bullshit you do. You just experience such a massive dopamine rush in spring after the hell-dark that you rationalize it.

One week to go!!! So excited to host our colleagues next week in the Happy Valley of Pennsylvania! Over 150 registrants from around the world!! If you’re interested in coming but unable to join in person - email me to learn about virtual options forestgeneticsconference2025.com #forestgenetics2025

Based on some quick math, this alone could fund the NSF Plant Genome Research Program for ~4 years; the NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology, which was totally axed in the NSF budget request, for ~9 years; and ~ half the total NSF GRFP budget

The Associated Press@apnews.com · last yr.

BREAKING: The Pentagon said the deployment of National Guard members and Marines to protests over immigration raids in LA will cost $134 million.

Our new study out in Molecular Ecology, led by 3 early-career scientists, uses hyb-seq on rangewide field collections to document introgression, species differentiation, and phylogeograhy of bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa) & relatives. Great work by a large team over many yrs! doi.org/10.1111/mec....

Happy Pride from California Native Plants!

Super excited for the first manuscript #NSFFunded led by the very talented @alaynamead.bsky.social from our #PopUpPoplar common gardens spanning 17 environments across the US that examined fitness variation and predicted range shifts for hybrids to new environments www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Variation in responses to temperature across admixed genotypes of Populus trichocarpa x P. balsamifera predict geographic shifts in regions where hybrids are favored

In a rapidly changing environment, predicting changes in the growth and survival of local populations can inform conservation and management. Plastic responses vary as a result of genetic differentiat...

biorxiv.org

Constantia, Lassen County, CA 🗺39.9228, -120.0034 🧭216° ⛰5604 ft https://ops.alertcalifornia.org/cam-console/1635

One thing I’ve noticed as people move away from the rainbow palette is more use of divergent palettes for sequential data. That’s not *always* a bad idea, but often is. This example inadvertently de-emphasizes states (Colorado) where people hear about climate change more frequently. #dataviz 📊

Excited by new #NSFFunded research from #PopUpPoplars led by @michellezavala.bsky.social that shows the importance of considering cytonuclear interactions to plant function The role of cytonuclear interactions to plant adaptation across a Populus hybrid zone www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The PLANTS program (funded by NSF) at @botsocamerica.bsky.social was a cornerstone of the conference each year, bringing together new-to-science scholars with more experienced mentors. It helped provide community, support, and connection to new scientists. The grant was terminated last week.

happy to see our study on genetic parallelism of reproductive isolation in chickadee hybrid zones out in @evolletters.bsky.social—great work led by Georgy Semenov & Scott Taylor: doi.org/10.1093/evle...

Replicate geographic transects across a hybrid zone reveal parallelism and differences in the genetic architecture of reproductive isolation

Abstract. Determining the genetic architecture of traits involved in adaptation and speciation is one of the key components of understanding the evolutiona

doi.org

With all the chaos, it was good to help put some trees in the ground today! 🌿💚

Jill Hamilton@jillahamilton.bsky.social · last yr.

Day 2 of the PI taking selfies and photos while everyone works really hard #blackash #commongarden #congen. It’s a little wet out here!!

We report: the first few days of May happened like a drawn-out sigh, a spill of warmth and light. Spring is now rolling out at full speed, and we remember now how hungry green can be, crawling onto pavements and walls and trees. The sunset seems a weak attempt at stopping it.