How does a solar energy facility built with low disturbance methods affect microclimate? We found lower evaporative demand, less heat loading, and higher soil moisture inside compared to outside the facility, potentially benefitting desert flora and fauna www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Ecovoltaic solar energy development effects to microclimate, temperature, and soil moisture in panel array interspaces in a warm desert

Solar energy development is increasing in warm deserts of the southwestern United States, and ecovoltaics has emerged as an approach to maintain ecosy…

sciencedirect.com

Water use efficiency (iWUE) is related with water availability. Our recent @natcomms.nature.com paper shows that this relationship has been strengthened over the past decades. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

My latest for American Scientist Magazine helps give scientists the tools to fight back against politicized charges that our research is silly or pointless- tools that will work whether you’re asked “why are we funding this” from your asshole uncle at Thanksgiving or an asshole US Senator. 🧪🌎

“Why Are We Funding This?”

Long-standing myths about “silly science” have contributed to the reckless slashing of government-supported research.

americanscientist.org

There are 6 Forest Service research stations that also manage research labs, 80 experimental forests, a forest product laboratory, & the International Institute of Tropical Forestry. This is the most extensive natural resource research operation in the world--a hidden crown jewel of our country. 2/

Excellent piece by @kristinayoung.bsky.social on the critical threat facing the USGS's Southwest Biological Science Center. We must rally and fight this senseless attack on science!!

Voices: Research on dust in Utah has never been more important. Trump’s proposed cuts put our economy and public health at risk.

“The loss of this science doesn’t just mean fewer data points,” writes Kristina Young. “It means fewer tools to protect water supplies, fewer insights to guide wildfire mitigation and fewer answers wh...

sltrib.com

Fun time writing for @theconversation.com ! Please share! Controlled burns reduce wildfire risk, but they require trained staff and funding − this could be a rough year theconversation.com/controlled-b...

Controlled burns reduce wildfire risk, but they require trained staff and funding − this could be a rough year

Uncertainty from Washington along with staff and budget cuts have created turmoil for the US Forest Service’s fire management efforts.

theconversation.com

It's important that science continues, now more than ever. Hence I am happy to share our recent paper which shows the slowing of post-mortality forest recovery @natplants.nature.com. With great colleagues including @smmunson.bsky.social @wmhammond.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Our new research shows that forest recovery from tree mortality has slowed in recent decades. This reduction is primarily associated with rising temperatures and increased water scarcity. Recovery of forest canopy water content lags behind that of vegetation greenness www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Satellite-based evidence of recent decline in global forest recovery rate from tree mortality events - Nature Plants

Satellite data show declining global forest recovery from tree mortality since the 1990s, driven by warming and water scarcity. Canopy water recovers slower than greenness, stressing the need for a mu...

nature.com

Our March issue is now live! www.nature.com/natecolevol/... Featuring research on: 🌲boreal forest resilience 🦠microbial community invasion 🧬evolutionary divergence of X–Y chromosome genes Cover shows a micro-CT scan of the humpback #anglerfish from Miller et al. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Global Ecology starter pack was full, a Vol. 2 was needed! here it is 🕺 👉 scientists working on biodiversity, ecosystems, and conservation at a large scale, both terrestrial and marine realms go.bsky.app/L37W5uH Already 30 fellows in, who’s next ? reply to be added, share to spread 🌈 🌐🧪🌍🦤🦑🪴🍁

🚀 Global Ecology feed Digest #8 Jan 20-27, 2025 - 33 posts ✨For the lazy (yes we are) & friends who don't like social media (yes they can) but might benefit from Global Ecology feed, here’s a online DIGEST crafted with 💚 for you to share ! 🌈 👉 globalecologybs.github.io/feeddigest.g... 🌐🌍🦤🦑🪴🍁🧪

Reminder: They're trying to demoralize you, and they're doing a great job of it. Part of resisting is making time for joy despite the attempts to make you feel this is not the time for it. Love your people. Dig the art that speaks to you. Go to the places where life flows into you. You deserve joy.

January reading finished... reading is curing. #onebookamonth

In a newly published Agricultural and Forest Meteorology paper, we developed a method that successfully migrates eddy covariance based carbon flux measurements to thousands of meteorological stations. Led by postdoc Dr. Wenqiang Zhang. Check out the paper here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Bridging the gap in carbon cycle studies: Meteorological station-based carbon flux dataset as a complement to EC towers

The scarcity and uneven global distribution of eddy covariance (EC) towers are the key factors that contribute to significant uncertainties in carbon …

sciencedirect.com

Interesting new paper on inference with observational data in ecology onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Causal Inference With Observational Data and Unobserved Confounding Variables

As ecology tackles progressively larger problems, we are moving beyond the scales at which randomised controlled experiments are feasible. Using observational data for causal inference raises the pro...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

One of the best things you can do right now is read books. Buy them. Borrow them from the library. Gift them. Read history. Read fiction. Read science writing. Read anything that shows you the world is bigger than what fascists say it is. Read to remember why your resistance matters. 📚💙

Need this

Adam Rifkin 🐼@ifindkarma.bsky.social · 3y ago

if you get tired, learn to rest, not to quit.

ABC, NBC & CBS dedicated about 16 minutes of airtime last night to the California wildfires without once mentioning climate change. Since the news failed do it's job, here's a short summary of the role of climate change and wildfire risk: www.noaa.gov/noaa-wildfir...

Wildfire climate connection

Climate change, including increased heat, extended drought, and a thirsty atmosphere, has been a key driver in increasing the risk and extent of wildfires in the western United States during the last ...

noaa.gov

Forest gain is not the mirror symmetry of forest loss. We knew this for their biophysical effects. We now also know this for resilience - the gain of the same amount of forest cannot compensate for the loss in forest resilience. Check out our new paper in Nature Ecology & Evolution: rdcu.be/d6kUI

Asymmetric sensitivity of boreal forest resilience to forest gain and loss

Nature Ecology & Evolution - Boreal forests have been experiencing both gains and losses in recent decades. Here, the authors show that boreal forest resilience is more sensitive to forest...

rdcu.be

Research suggests that deep roots are beneficial for temperate #grassland species subjected to longer periods without rainfall, when #plant-available water is lacking in shallow #soil layers but remaining in deep soil layers besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Rooting depth and specific leaf area modify the impact of experimental drought duration on temperate grassland species

Temperate grassland species were exposed to different durations without precipitation. Specific leaf area seemed to be related to alternative drought survival strategies rather than drought sensitivi...

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

NASA JPL chief Laurie Leshin says that over 150 staffers at the research center have lost their homes in the LA fires; the lab has set up a relief fund to help them out, which you can support here: caltech.imodules.com/controls/ema...

#JPL has so far been safe as well thanks to round the clock work of our first responders. But over 150 JPLers have lost homes that we know of so far. We are raising funds to support them through Caltech! Please consider supporting: caltech.imodules.com/controls/ema... Thank you!

Finally finished this 696-page book before the end of December - thanks for the long holiday of this month. For next months I should challenge much shorter books! #onebookamonthchallenge

Anping Chen@dranpingchen.bsky.social · 2y ago

While November was quite disappointing, it might be a good idea to self-comfort with reading. I chose Steven Pinker's "The Better Angels of Our Nature" as my to-read for December. Quite curing, right? #onebookamonth

Interesting angel! 👍👍

Colin Carlson@colincarlson.bsky.social · 2y ago

This is so cool - this study used Chinese poetry to reconstruct 1400 years of range change for the Yangtze finless porpoise, and showed that most of the range loss happened in the last century papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

The IPBES #TransformativeChange Assessment Report Media Launch starts NOW! 📢 JOIN US ONLINE ⬇️💻 www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikmT...

Transformative Change Assessment Report Launch

YouTube video by IPBES Secretariat

youtube.com

🚨 OUT NOW 🚨 📚 The @ipbes.bsky.social #NexusAssessment Summary for Policymakers is now available! ➡️ Explore the most comprehensive assessment ever of the interconnections between biodiversity, water, food, health & climate. 🌏 Options for a just & sustainable future! www.ipbes.net/node/85582

Glad to share our new paper which examines the divergence between plants and animals in phenological stages, derived from analyzing hundreds of thousands of citizen science data records. The work is led by Dr. Weiguang Lang www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Phenological divergence between plants and animals under climate change - Nature Ecology & Evolution

Climate change is inducing widespread shifts in the phenology of terrestrial organisms. This global analysis reveals a growing asymmetry between plant and animal responses, with more pronounced phenol...

nature.com

Done with this semester's teaching!! Grading next week while at AGU

Really cool on plant-water relationship with fire!

Adam Pellegrini@afapellegrini.bsky.social · 2y ago

PhD student, Martin Baur, published an excellent first chapter: Ecosystems experience faster soil moisture losses after wildfires, and recovering plants tend to have less control on their water content @naturegeosci.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Interested in how and where trees move water? I'm hiring a plant ecophys postdoc to study hydraulic redistribution in Indiana forests. If you'll be at AGU and want to discuss, please reach out! jobs.carnegiescience.edu/jobs/postdoc...