Rachel Shepherd 🪴
@rmshepherd.bsky.social
PhD Candidate @ Syracuse University Fascinated by all things soil ecology! Currently investigating tropical forest soil protists using genomics
Did you know that thermophilic amoeba have been isolated by researchers at Syracuse University from a steam vent at SUNY ESF? artsandsciences.syracuse.edu/biology/news... You can visit this geyser of the built environment when you come to our first fall meeting, held at SUNY ESF this year!
New #ISEPpapers by @ankarn.bsky.social et al.! Living together: evolutionary and ecological dimensions of #protist endosymbiosis academic.oup.com/microlife/ar... #Protists #Microbes #Symbiosis #Evolution
What an amazing conference! Is there anything better than spending 4 days talking about soil with fantastic soil researchers? Until next time #GSB2026!!
Hey #GSB2026! Want to hear about soil protists? Want to learn more about long-read sequencing and assembling protist genomes? My talk tomorrow morning in the "Technological, Methodological, and Omics Advances - II" session will highlight some recent advancements in these realms 🦠🧬
Undergraduate researcher extraordinaire @melpaige05.bsky.social presented some of her recent findings on the role of temperature for the three life stages of a Heterolobosean protist (Fumarolamoeba sp.) today! Melanie's passion for pink posters and characterizing this amoeba is inspiring 💓🦠
Help! We're struggling to choose between these two images of #Mesodinium #karmachamaeleon and its cryptophyte prey, one more "documentary" and one more "action shot," as cover image submissions (to a society journal). If you were an editor, which one would more likely catch your eye? #protistsonsky
Mycelial networks doing their "carbon" magic in soils!
Hot off the press! If you’ve ever wondered how ecosystem-engineering gopher tortoises shape soil microbial and nematode communities, this paper is for you! 🐢💚 link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Gopher tortoise influence on soil biodiversity is constrained by historical land use - Biodiversity and Conservation
Keystone species and ecosystem engineers play critical roles in maintaining and enhancing biodiversity by modifying their environment and creating ecological niches that support a wide range of organi...
link.springer.com
Soil Critters: Illuminating a Hidden World Have you visited Frank Ashwood's website? We are obsessed with these photos! 🐜🐞https://www.frankashwood.com/macrophotography @frankashwood.bsky.social Can you ID this species in the comments? Send us your own photos to feature in our newsletter.
Time lapse of an odd little monster. Presumably some kind of cercozoan from brackish water. #protistsonsky
A poem I wrote while doing fieldwork at high-elevation ecosystems (@rmblscience.bsky.social) is now published online by Poets for Science! poetsforscience.org/sub-alpine-o...
Sub-alpine omens - Poets for Science
Three-legged cow— Omen of endurance, of merciful husbandry, of balance learned on the ridges knife-edge, moving through the wound. Wolf at the treeline— Omen of return, of old laws testing new borders...
poetsforscience.org
And finally all at SyracuseU - @shaharsu.bsky.social @jessniblo.bsky.social for protein analyses, @rmshepherd.bsky.social for culturing, & @oliverio.bsky.social for leading this effort with me!
So happy to announce our new preprint, “A geothermal amoeba sets a new upper temperature limit for eukaryotes.” We cultured a novel amoeba from Lassen Volcanic NP (CA, USA) that divides at 63°C (145°F) 🔥 - a new record for euk growth! #protistsonsky 🧵
bioRxiv Microbiology@biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · 8mo agoA geothermal amoeba sets a new upper temperature limit for eukaryotes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.24.690213v1
🚨Check out the first blog of our GSB4 ECR series!🚨 Dr. Sabrina Sadiq discusses the path to discovering a vast diversity of viruses in Australian soils, and why we must know more! 📢Be sure to check out the talk at the #GSB4 conference in April! www.globalsoilbiodiversity.org/blog-beneath...
Australian soils are rapidly expanding the known RNA virosphere — Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative
by sabrina sadiq, the university of sydney (australia) Soils and sediments harbour extraordinary biodiversity, with up to 10¹⁰ microbes per gram of soil. As RNA viruses likely infect all forms of lif...
globalsoilbiodiversity.org
Oh hey congratulations @oliverio.bsky.social @rmshepherd.bsky.social @hbrappap.bsky.social on the awesome thermophilic amoeba story!
bioRxiv Microbiology@biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · 8mo agoA geothermal amoeba sets a new upper temperature limit for eukaryotes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.24.690213v1
A Novel Protistan Trait Database Reveals Functional Redundancy and Complementarity in Terrestrial Protists(Amoebozoa and Rhizaria) #protists #eukaryotes #amoeba onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
📣🪱 New Paper Alert: Novel tools for characterizing soil eukaryomes using NEON data 🪱📣 Open Access: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...
Characterising Soil Eukaryotic Diversity From NEON Metagenomics Datasets
Belowground eukaryotic diversity serves a vital role in soil ecosystem functioning, yet the composition, structure, and macroecology of these communities are significantly under-characterized. The Na...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
We are our best when we collaborate. 🧪🦠🔬🧬🌍🍄 This mural about the invisible #soil #biodiversity in Moers(🇩🇪) resulted from the collaboration between my friend Dr. Arne Schwelm, the people from sci:moers and the Stiftung für Umwelt und Entwicklung under the artistic direction of #cokyone.
Super cool update!! @rmshepherd.bsky.social was able to culture some thermophilic amoebae from our built environment steam vent samples on campus that can happily grow at at least 50C! They are most closely related to Fumarolamoeba (isolated from... yep... fumaroles!) #protistsOnSky #MicroSky
sampling some local @sunyesf.bsky.social built environments (steam vents!) in pursuit of extremophile protists with @micromaresca.bsky.social and @rmshepherd.bsky.social #MicroSky #ProtistsOnSky
Happy to share that work led by PhD student @rmshepherd.bsky.social is now out in Soil Biology & Biochem: sciencedirect.com/science/arti... We sought to shed light on how soil micronutrients (Fe, Zn, Mn ...) regulate belowground microbiomes. #MicroSky 🦠🧫🧪 #MicrobiomeSky
Micronutrients modulate the structure and function of soil bacterial communities
Soil micronutrients are increasingly recognized as critical regulators of biogeochemical cycling and terrestrial ecosystem processes. Despite substant…
sciencedirect.com
Hey AGU23! If you’re interested in soil + microbes, I’ll be presenting some of my research at 11am🥼🔬🧬
our lab group decided to go super scary this year for halloween... 😱😱😱 coding error messages we've had recently 😱😱😱 @rmshepherd.bsky.social @nimshika.bsky.social @hbrappap.bsky.social
