Wu Sun

@wu-sun.bsky.social

Assistant Professor of Ecosystem Ecology at the University of Georgia | Biosphere–atmosphere interactions 🛰️🌲, photosynthesis ☀️🍃, global carbon cycle, climate change impacts https://ecology.uga.edu/ 📍Athens, Georgia, USA & 🌎

Tried using Claude Opus 4.8 to look for a reference that reports leaf turgor pressure diurnal cycles in tropical forests, but all it can find me are papers on phytoplankton community composition because it has memory of me asking these questions. I refuse to be replaced by something not even wrong

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Tried using Claude to do a literature search, and found out that it cannot tell the difference between "subpolar" and "subtropical." Had to babysit it and ended up spending more time than doing a normal Google Scholar search. Guess my job remains safe to AI

Well, the ridiculous mid-March heat has officially arrived in the Western U.S., with quite a few locations in California already reaching/breaking all-time monthly records today. Believe it or not, the heat will further intensify and become even more widespread later this week.

Map of U.S., from coolwx.com, showing locations currently experiencing record-breaking temperatures. There are many such locations in the Western U.S., with numerous red dots (locations breaking daily record highs) and even quite a few pink dots (locations breaking March monthly record highs).

The upcoming SW USA heat dome is predicted to be so anomalous that the 500 hPa heights over the entire region will exceed every historical daily max (1990-2025) from now until JUNE. This may be a short lived event, but the consequences for snowpack, water supply, and drought will be felt all year.

Map of western and central North America showing the earliest calendar date (Mar 17 to Jun 16) when historical 500 hPa heights met or exceeded the current 10-day forecast peak at each grid point. Gray areas indicate locations where that threshold was already met by today. Earliest dates (purple/blue, late March to mid-April) cluster in parts of the Southwest and southern Plains, while later dates (orange/yellow, May to mid-June) appear across much of California, Nevada, Utah, and nearby interior regions.”

Before the 1990s, plane crashes caused by microbursts used to kill planeloads of people fairly regularly. Dr. Ted Fujita and NCAR scientists figured out how to detect microbursts and warn pilots about them. Since then? Zero airliner crashes from microbursts.

USA TODAY@usatoday.com · 8mo ago

Exclusive: The Trump administration is moving to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, according to a senior White House official, taking aim at one of the world's leading climate research labs.

Just published this new paper, with a bunch of fantastic colleagues, with many suggestions for "Improving the representation of plant water stress and water use in Earth System Models." Access is free online. We have some great figures, thanks to Victor Leshyk. 🧪🌐🌳🌎

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New Phytologist@newphyt.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Improving the representation of plant water stress and water use in Earth System Models Dukes et al. @dukesjeff.bsky.social @changliao.bsky.social @richphillipslab.bsky.social @scottmcadam.bsky.social nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Measurement-model-remote sensing framework to improve and scale predictions of ecosystem response to climate change across landscapes.

Seriously, in 2025? Submitting an abstract is not waiting in line for a restaurant. I can't believe our membership fees couldn't afford a modest AWS plan to deal with queuing and concurrency

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1. Kevin Gross and I just posted a new science-of-science preprint. This one explores the looming peer review crisis. As many of you know, it's becoming significantly more difficult for journal editors to find scholars willing to serve as peer reviewers for submitted manuscripts.

Will anyone review this paper? Screening, sorting, and the feedback cycles that imperil peer review

Scholarly publishing relies on peer review to identify the best science. Yet finding willing and qualified reviewers to evaluate manuscripts has become an increasingly challenging task, possibly even ...

arxiv.org

DOE ASR program manager just sent a colleague an excerpt from the WH DOE budget that was stealthily dropped: “BER activities in environmental system sciences, atmospheric system research, earth system modeling, data management, and the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement User Facility are terminated."

"To envision the disastrous impact of this plan, one only needs to see what NOAA research has provided to the U.S. taxpayer and imagine where we would be without it." "Now is the time to reach out to your elected representatives." "Stand Up for NOAA Research" - @nwas.org and @ametsoc.org statement

Stand Up for NOAA Research – The Time to Act is Now

The AMS is a global community committed to advancing weather, water, and climate science and service.

ametsoc.org