Susan Eshelman

@s-eshelman.bsky.social

(she/her) Postdoc at RBGE, Research Associate Univ. of Edinburgh| Exploring global grassland diversity & drivers of grass functional traits 🌾🌍 🔎 Open to collaboration 📬 DM to connect! 😊 linktr.ee/susan.eshelman

Catch my talk today at 16:15 in the Ecosystems and Functional Ecology session (Kilsyth) at #BES2025 🙌🌍 Exploring how environment 🌦️ (including fire 🔥) shape grass traits 🌾, with a look ahead to linking traits with biodiversity 🦋 and carbon storage 🌳

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I'm very sad to say William Bond, of the University of Cape Town & Fellow of the Royal Society (@royalsociety.org ), has passed away. It is a great loss. He was an enthusiastic ecologist and a critical thinker. I learned a lot, and I still had a lot to learn from him. RIP. 😢 🧪🌎🔥🌿🌳🪴🌐 #PlantScience

Three books by W. Bond and collaborators: Fire and plants (1996), Fire in Mediterranean ecosystems (2012), and Open ecosystems (2019).

Less than two weeks until #BES2025! 😁 I’ll be presenting my work modelling Malagasy grass trait-environment relationships on Tuesday 16th at 16:15 in the Ecosystems and Functional Ecology session (Kilsyth). Come hear how using herbarium traits can reveal grass differentiation across Madagascar 🇲🇬

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After so many years of hard work, I can finally say my PhD journey has come to an end!🌾🥳🎉 Thanks to Caroline (@caroaceae.bsky.social) Graham (Stone) for being such great mentors through this process! #PhDone

Caroline Lehmann@caroaceae.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Congrats 🎉 Dr Eshelman!! @s-eshelman.bsky.social graduated her PhD having completed fab work on the functional ecology of grasses + grazing. Look out for her papers on grazing lawns, intraspecific trait variation and using herbarium specimens to examine grass life histories across Madagascar. 🥂😊👏

Really enjoyed the ACE Early Career Symposium yesterday! Great to present my work on intraspecific adaptations of Scottish grasses, chat with other early career academics, and hear from the panel on the many different ways careers can develop. Thanks to the ACE team for hosting an incredible event!

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This week I attended the Tropical East Asian Savanna Symposium at RBGE and helped lead a Global Grassy Group Surveying workshop with visiting researchers in Holyrood Park. It’s been great connecting with scientists working in a region I haven’t explored much in my own research 🌏🌾😊

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Submitted my thesis today 🥳🥳🥳 It’s been a journey—wild, exhausting, amazing 🌾🌾🌾Thanks to everyone who help me along the way! Next step… viva (after some well deserved weeks off 😊)

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Feeling grateful for the opportunity to attend #SSNM2025 and share my work on Malagasy grasses 🌾. After an incredible week in the bush🐆🦓🦏🐘🦒, it’s time to head back to reality—just three weeks left to wrap up my PhD! 😅

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Tomorrow (9.30), I’ll be giving a quick talk at #SSNM2025 on Malagasy 🇲🇬 grassy flora—using herbarium traits to explore how top-down and bottom-up drivers shape grass structures and life history strategies. Looking forward to sharing this work from my PhD! 🌾🌾🌾

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Senior scientists who will be reviewing tenure & promotion files in the future - please remember that the effects of many of these executive orders will disproportionately affect researchers from marginalized groups - often the same folks penalized by COVID-related delays, childcare issues, etc. 🧪

Image of a ship in rocky seas. Text reads “We are not all the same boat. We are in the same storm. Some have yachts, some have canoes, and some are drowning. Just be kind and help wherever you can”