Forest under stress: responses and recovery of water relations across scales during the compound drought in summer 2022 Shekhar et al. nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

A striking finding from global drought experiments: Trees show little evidence of physiological acclimation to drought. The inner hydraulic machinery stays the same. The safety margin shrinks. That’s a very different, more vulnerable picture of forest resilience. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Declining hydraulic safety in a drier world | PNAS

Forests worldwide are increasingly exposed to soil drought under climate change, with their fates depending on the ability to maintain essential fu...

pnas.org

Global Change Biology | Environmental Change Journal | Wiley Online Library onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Climate Change Projected to Increase Rates of Background Tree Mortality Across Eastern North America

Background tree mortality is the ambient, natural death of trees that occurs without major disturbances. Using data from more than 24,000 forest plots across Canada and the United States, we found th...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Trees don’t always shift upslope with increasing temperature. Those that are more climate sensitive do but other species are moving downslope. Hydraulic traits can help determine which direction species will shift. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Hydraulic traits govern opposing range shifts of montane trees under warming - Nature Climate Change

The authors integrate dendrochronological records with range shifts to show that shifts in montane tree species are tightly linked to tree hydraulic properties. While climate-sensitive species track w...

nature.com

1/3 New today in @nature.com: a fascinating study by Smith-Martin et al. showing that tropical tree species exhibit substantial intraspecific variation in drought resistance. I had the opportunity to write the accompanying News & Views with Erick Calderón-Morales. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Intraspecific variation in tropical trees can drive resistance to drought

Different tropical tree species can vary in their ability to withstand drought — and so too, it seems, can distinct populations of the same tree species.

nature.com

Jeffrey pines shouldn’t be found 12,657 feet up a mountain — but that’s where they’ve turned up in California’s Sequoia National Park. How did they get there? And what does their arrival tell us about #climatechange, forest composition & California’s fiery future? therevelator.org/california-t...

A Gnarly Situation: High-Elevation Discovery Raises New Questions About Which California Trees Will Survive Climate Change • The Revelator

Birds may have been burying Jeffrey pine seeds up high for thousands of years. But now that they’re sprouting, this new species of subalpine tree may change the playing field.

therevelator.org

🌲We know very well where forest disturbances occur. But how much biomass loss do they cause? Our new paper led by @katjakowalski.bsky.social provides the first Europe-wide assessment of biomass losses from natural disturbances and harvest between 1985 and 2023. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Accelerating biomass loss from forest disturbances across Europe - Nature Geoscience

Satellite observations reveal accelerating aboveground biomass loss across Europe’s forests since 2018, increasingly driven by natural disturbances. These trends weaken the forest carbon sink and chal...

nature.com

Widespread carbon accumulation in mature forests remains underestimated by satellite observations "Satellite estimates indicate near-neutral biomass changes over recent decades, whereas forest inventories estimate an increase of 102 TgC yr−1" www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Widespread carbon accumulation in mature forests remains underestimated by satellite observations - Nature Ecology & Evolution

The authors combine satellites, repeat airborne lidar, dynamic global vegetation models and field plot monitoring across the conterminous USA to show widespread continued carbon accumulation in mature...

nature.com

I am pleased to announce that we are inviting applications for a Lead Laboratory Coordinator at the University of Arizona’s Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research. Review of applications will begin on September 15, 2026. For details and to apply, visit arizona.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

Water Limits Radial Tree Growth More Than Light in an Everwet Subtropical Forest onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Water Limits Radial Tree Growth More Than Light in an Everwet Subtropical Forest

We deployed automated point dendrometers on 35 trees representing three life history strategies in an everwet subtropical forest with 3500 mm rain annually and no pronounced dry season. Contrary to t....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

🌦️🌳 Why are more trees dying in European forests? Extreme summer droughts are definitely part of the story, but our new paper shows that tree mortality is shaped by climate variability across seasons, not by single extreme events alone. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Incredible rainfall "bullseye" in Louisiana from the remnants of Tropical Storm Arthur plus an influx of moisture interacting with a frontal boundary in the Southeast. Some areas have now recorded more than 30 inches of rain in the past 72 hours; with much of it in the past 24 hours.

Before-and-after images of tornado damage from last night's storm in northern Monroe County, Indiana. This is the entrance to Morgan-Monroe State Forest on the Main Forest Road (@l-tulipifera.bsky.social reports that the AmeriFlux tower and site are fine). Photo on right by Steve Scott.

Decoupled carbon assimilation and growth responses to aridity in temperate deciduous oaks Led by @mukund24rao.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Decoupled carbon assimilation and growth responses to aridity in temperate deciduous oaks

Long-term carbon sequestration as woody biomass in oaks is decoupled from photosynthesis and more sensitive to climate change.

science.org

New paper out in @newphyt.bsky.social by Tiantian Pan and others incl. @ianjwright.bsky.social @profchoat.bsky.social: Fast growth comes at a cost: Fast-growing Eucalyptus are less drought-resistant, revealing a clear growth–survival trade-off. nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Evidence for a trade‐off between growth rate and xylem embolism resistance in 22 Eucalyptus species

Examples of cross-sectional images of branchlets at 4× and 40×.

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

We're searching for a postdoc fellow to conduct research on biological nitrogen fixation in boreal forests! The postdoc will join a dynamic and fun research group in Umeå. Deadline Aug 27th. Reach out if you have any questions! www.slu.se/en/about-slu... @michael-gundale.bsky.social

Tuliptree flowers are still close to peak but that’ll likely end this week with warm temperatures in the forecast. I’ve enjoyed them!

Hello little paw paws!

Indiana University, not the UD Department of Agriculture, ordered the Inness lab to be locked down. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

US biology lab locked down for more than a week amid smuggling inquiry

The Trump administration has spent months investigating the lab after a Chinese postdoc was charged with smuggling biological material into the country.

nature.com

Very cool version of this monthly global average surface temperature anomaly chart showing both El Niño and La Niña years

More on the immediate effects of the institution’s support of the attack on Roger Innes www.ipm.org/news/2026-05...

IU lab lockdown causes severe disruption for other researchers

Biology department chair Armin Moczek said experiments are being aborted every day during the shutdown, including projects months in the testing.

ipm.org

Breaking news: Indiana University plant microbiologist Roger Innes has been locked out of his laboratory by the school in response to a request by one of his federal funders. The move comes after Innes complained about the government’s prosecution of Chinese postdocs. https://scim.ag/4tsDqRr

After USDA request, Indiana plant biologist locked out of lab by school

Move comes after Roger Innes complained about the government’s prosecution of Chinese postdocs

scim.ag

Check this new paper out! by Kersti Leppä et al ! Interpreting inter- and intra-annual environmental signals in tree-ring δ18O using isotope-enabled modeling academic.oup.com/treephys/art...

Take a look at our new paper! Opposing seasonal trends in source water and sugar dampen intra‐annual variability in tree rings oxygen isotopes - Szejner - New Phytologist - Wiley Online Library nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Opposing seasonal trends in source water and sugar dampen intra‐annual variability in tree rings oxygen isotopes

Variations of oxygen isotopes δ18O in tree rings provide critical insights into past climate and tree physiological processes, yet the mechanisms shaping the intra-annual δ18O signals remain incompl...

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Peak tuilptree flowering season. What I personally consider the start of summer!

The yellowwood (Cladrastis kentukea) trees on campus are blooming this year. They have a strange range and only flower every 2-3 years. To best of my knowledge, no one knows why. IU has a population in a forest on campus. Yellowwood state forest nearby is the greens spot in IN on map

What drives tree growth after a hurricane? 🌀🌳 Hot off the press in @pnas.org today! We tracked 1,082 trees in Puerto Rico and found that pre-disturbance growth outperformed crown biomass loss and competitive release as a predictor of post-storm growth. The paper: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Tree growth after a major hurricane reflects predisturbance vigor rather than canopy damage | PNAS

Tree crown damage from disturbance events strongly influences forest demography, yet its effect on stem growth remains poorly quantified, with both...

pnas.org

Redbud trees are spectacular early-flowering trees in the Bluegrass and much of the Eastern Deciduous Forest. They beautiful, and also have some complex flowering behavior that I don't fully understand. Have a look at the story (open to everyone).

Purple Haze

When the redbuds bloom

open.substack.com

First year the yard redbuds and pawpaws bloomed!

Did my annual pilgrimage to the local valley of the bluebells today. Never disapoints!