Drew Peltier

@peltierdrew.bsky.social

1.9K followers 1.7K following 110 posts

Drought, global change, and the temporal weirdness of trees.
Assistant Professor at UNLV
Southwest Climate Adaptation Science Center (swcasc.arizona.edu)
Drewpeltier.com

Opinions my own.
he/him/his

Videos

Environmental science 65%

Geography 20%

Posts Replies Media Videos

Drew Peltier @peltierdrew.bsky.social · 14d

How do you like that rope runner device? Is it also a descender?

Reposted by Smith, Rebecca Tushnet, Alan Richardson , and 1 more Smith, Rebecca Tushnet, Alan Richardson, Drew Peltier

KNAU Arizona Public Radio @knauazpubradio.bsky.social · 15d

Flagstaff’s Lowell Observatory plans to cut nearly all its research funding and reduce the number of paid science staff to just two positions next year.

Lowell Observatory slashes research funding in the midst of financial struggle

Flagstaff’s Lowell Observatory plans to cut nearly all its research funding and reduce the number of paid science staff to just two positions next year.

buff.ly

Reposted by Drew Peltier

Laura Huenneke @lfhuenneke.bsky.social · 25d

I had missed this article earlier. An example of what we're losing, in terms of science that could make a difference for people in this time of climate crisis. Just one relatively small research group at one university (my own #NorthernArizonaUniversity). Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/c...

He Studied How Emissions Are Heating Up U.S. Cities

www.nytimes.com

Drew Peltier @peltierdrew.bsky.social · 25d

Happy Nevada day to all who celebrate. I see some people who have dressed up in spooky costumes. I don't totally understand what this has to do with Nevada, but to each their own.

Drew Peltier @peltierdrew.bsky.social · Oct 24

magnolia trees are pretty cool

Reposted by Drew Peltier

Sierra Magazine @sierramagazine.bsky.social · Oct 21

The megadrought currently sucking the Southwest dry is having far-reaching impacts on wildlife, especially migratory birds. The elegant trogon is one of them. With arid conditions intensifying, the birds are producing few young, leading to population declines that worry researchers. 🌎

A Megadrought Is Reshaping Birdlife in the Southwest

A recent bad year for elegant trogons is only the latest in a string of changes

www.sierraclub.org

Drew Peltier @peltierdrew.bsky.social · Oct 20

Cool piece, highlighting some of the impacts of the recent wildfires on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, as well as impacts of shutdown in slowing recovery.

Joan Meiners, PhD @joanmeiners.bsky.social · Oct 20

I'm riding my mountain bike on the 850-mile Arizona Trail this fall to see and write about #climate impacts along the way. We're publishing weekly dispatches from the trail in The Arizona Republic | @azcentral.com as I go.

The first one just dropped:
www.azcentral.com/story/news/l...

Reposted by Drew Peltier, Tyson Wepprich

Joan Meiners, PhD @joanmeiners.bsky.social · Oct 20

Reposted by Patrick Dunleavy, Martin Paul Eve, Johan P. Olsen , and 1 more Patrick Dunleavy, Martin Paul Eve, Johan P. Olsen, Drew Peltier

DESIGN THINKING! Comic @designthinking.lol · Oct 20

With the AWS outage, now‘s as good a time as any to post this old strip.

Reposted by Monica G. Turner, Ben Bond‐Lamberty, Ghislain Vieilledent , and 3 more Monica G. Turner, Ben Bond‐Lamberty, Ghislain Vieilledent, Drew Peltier, Chhaya M. Werner, Karl Andraczek

Tim Curran @timcurran.bsky.social · Oct 8

Great PhD opportunity with an excellent supervisor:

Quantify traits of tree species across the western US to determine how tree populations and forest communities will respond to drought and fire.

plant-traits.net/lab-openings/

Lab openings | Laughlin Research Lab

plant-traits.net

Reposted by Drew Peltier

Desert Research Institute @driscience.bsky.social · Oct 6

Thank you to the @lasvegassun.bsky.social and reporter @hillarylvsun.bsky.social for a terrific story on research into underground ecosystems that could inform the search for life beyond Earth. Read the story: bit.ly/drinasa #NSHE #NASA #DiscoverDRI #UNLV #UNR

Underground research in Nevada may shape NASA's search for extraterrestrial life

The Nevada System of Higher Education secured a $750,000 grant from NASA's Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research for the study.

bit.ly

Reposted by Ben Bond‐Lamberty, Stephen D. Murphy, Drew Peltier , and 2 more Ben Bond‐Lamberty, Stephen D. Murphy, Drew Peltier, Ryan B. Stephens, Tyson Wepprich

Ben R Lee, PhD @benrlee.com · Oct 3

🚨 Please repost widely!🚨

I am recruiting a PhD student to join my lab next fall to work on forest and climate change ecology projects in southern Appalachia! Come join me in one of the most beautiful, biodiverse, and understudied parts of North America. Details below and happy to answer questions

An ad for a PhD position to start fall 2026 working with me at ETSU. For more info, please email at LeeBR1@etsu.edu.

A close-up picture of dimpled trout lilies active in early spring, still largely surrounded by the previous year's senesced tree leaves.

A beautiful vista of the Blue Ridge Mountains from on top of Carver's Gap on the border between North Carolina and Tennessee.

Drew Peltier @peltierdrew.bsky.social · Oct 2

Drake, D. C., & Naiman, R. J. (2007). Reconstruction of Pacific salmon abundance from riparian tree‐ring growth. Ecological Applications, 17(5), 1523-1542.

Reposted by Drew Peltier

The Associated Press @apnews.com · Oct 1

Chunk, a 1,200-pound behemoth with a broken jaw, swept the competition Tuesday in the popular Fat Bear Week contest — his first win after finishing in second place three previous years.

Chunk, a 1,200-pound bear with a broken jaw, wins Alaska's popular Fat Bear Week contest

Chunk, a 1,200-pound behemoth with a broken jaw, swept the competition Tuesday in the popular Fat Bear Week contest — his first win after finishing in second place three previous years.

bit.ly

Drew Peltier @peltierdrew.bsky.social · Sep 30

Really enjoyable. Many good one-liners, but my favorite:

"AI-made material is itself a waste product: flimsy, shoddy, disposable, a single-use plastic of the mind."
www.nplusonemag.com/issue-51/the...

Reposted by Valerie M. Delmotte, Brian J. Enquist, Richard Betts , and 8 more Valerie M. Delmotte, Brian J. Enquist, Richard Betts, Kevin J. Anchukaitis, Julie L. Lockwood, Elena Litchman, Karen R. Lips, Mary Jane Curry, Carlos Carroll, Drew Peltier, Susanne Lachmuth

Meade Krosby @meadekrosby.bsky.social · Sep 28

Despite broad political support, one third of the nation's Climate Adaptation Science Centers will wind down in coming days due to lack of funds.

The Northeast, South Central, and Pacific Islands will be left without actionable science on drought, floods, wildfire, sea level rise and other hazards.

Trump officials shut off funding for climate adaptation centers

A third of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Climate Adaptation Science Centers are expected to drastically wind down and possibly close after Sept. 30.

www.washingtonpost.com

Drew Peltier @peltierdrew.bsky.social · Sep 26

What a cool one!

Reposted by Ben Bond‐Lamberty, Darío Martin‐Benito, Drew Peltier

Kevin Anchukaitis @thirstygecko.bsky.social · Sep 25

Nice article talking about our new NSF-funded radiocarbon and stable isotope facility (The TIME Lab - Tree-Ring Innovations in Mass Spectrometry of Earth Systems) in the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona! science.arizona.edu/news/univers...

University of Arizona opens groundbreaking TIME Lab to link past and present

Run by a team of distinguished researchers, the lab aims to “date the undateable,” linking natural events like eruptions or droughts to human history. With a focus on student training and public outre...

science.arizona.edu

Reposted by Drew Peltier, Tyson Wepprich

Bob Shriver @bkshriver.bsky.social · Sep 15

New paper led by PhD student Elise Pletcher! Forecasts from simple, density-dependent population models are highly transferable to new sites. Adding env. covariates does little to improve prediction in-sample and worsens forecasts out-of-sample. besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Density‐dependent growth and dispersal can accurately forecast near‐term range shifts in a dominant dryland tree species

We found that the inclusion of external drivers such as climate conditions or topography generally did not improve forecast accuracy and that at multidecadal time scales, intrinsic population process....

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Reposted by James A. Tyner, Dolly Jørgensen, Drew Peltier

Adam Csank @acsank.bsky.social · Sep 10

Come work with us! The University of Nevada, Reno is hiring an Assistant Professor in Human-Environment Geography, with a focus on energy and/or water sustainability, and environmental justice. Details at this link nshe.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/UNR-ex...

Assistant Professor, Human-Environment Geography

The University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) appreciates your interest in employment at our growing institution. We want your application process to go smoothly and quickly. Final applications must be submitt...

nshe.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com

Reposted by Drew Peltier

Tom Flood @tomflood.bsky.social · Sep 5

Shared Responsibility.

@thebikinglawyer.bsky.social

black car with a red x and a bright yellow car with a green check mark.
It's getting dark out earlier, be sure to add a bright coat of paint to your vehicle. Remember road safety is a shared responsibility.

Drew Peltier @peltierdrew.bsky.social · Sep 4

"I've taught this class before, I won't put as much work into prep this time"🥲

Drew Peltier @peltierdrew.bsky.social · Aug 29

I guess it's friday. Anyways look at this foxtail pine.

Reposted by Drew Peltier

Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center @nwcasc.bsky.social · Aug 29

A new USGS-led synthesis, supported by NW CASC, uses cutting-edge science to help the Bureau of Land Management understand how shifting precipitation patterns & rising temps are affecting big sagebrush ecosystems, helping support decisions to related to conserving big sagebrush 🔗 bit.ly/4mPkh9x

A National Park Service staff member measures the height of a big sagebrush plant in the City of Rocks National Preserve, Idaho.

Drew Peltier @peltierdrew.bsky.social · Aug 28

this is an excellent hashtag

Reposted by Ben Bond‐Lamberty, Julie L. Lockwood, Elena Litchman , and 3 more Ben Bond‐Lamberty, Julie L. Lockwood, Elena Litchman, Brian J. Harvey, Drew Peltier, Katherine Sinacore

Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · Aug 28

New Tenure Track Position in Data Science or Biostatistics with us here at MTU is live.

We have great people here in a fantastic location that is probably a lot cooler (temperature-wise) than wherever you live during summer!

www.employment.mtu.edu/en-us/job/49...

Assistant Professor, Environmental Data Science & Biostatistics | Michigan Technological University

Explore career opportunities at Michigan Technological University located in Houghton, MI. Browse and filter job listings to find the perfect fit and learn more about each position.

www.employment.mtu.edu

Andrew Dessler @andrewdessler.com · Aug 28

Our comment on the DOE CWG report is done. It tips the scales at 439 pages, approx. 3x longer than the DOE report.
This is related to Brandolini's law: The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it.

Example: refuting one sentence.

DOE CWG STATEMENT (second paragraph of section 2.1.1, page 3): “Piao et al. (2020) noted
that greening was even observable in the Arctic.”
COMMENT: This statement implies that the Arctic greening signal was caused by elevated CO2
,
however that is not the scientific consensus. Piao et al. (2020) attribute the greening trend in the
Arctic predominantly to growing season length driven by warmer temperatures (see also Y.
Zhang et al., 2022). Piao et al. (2020) also note that this positive impact of increasing
temperatures appears to have weakened over the past four decades, “suggesting a possible
saturation of future greening in response to warmer temperature” (see also comment on
greenness trends related to Section 2.1.1, first sentence of Page 4). It is also important to put
Arctic greening more broadly into the context of the carbon cycle and other impacts. While
above-ground plants may have displayed more leaf area over the past decades, rising
temperatures also thaw permafrost and drive accelerated decomposition in highly carbon rich
soils (Turetsky et al., 2020), a process which is expected to accelerate as climate continues to
warm (Miner et al., 2022). Thus even with Arctic greening, high latitude terrestrial systems may
become net carbon sources to the atmosphere, causing an amplifying feedback (Braghiere et
al., 2023). Other risks to the Arctic linked to higher CO2

levels and rising temperatures are not
mentioned in this report (Virkkala et al., 2025). The Arctic is warming at a rate of 2 to 3 times the
global average, leading to thawing of permanently frozen soils (permafrost), with downstream
impacts including loss of structural support for buildings and subsidence, threatening
communities, roads, runways, and other assets across Alaska (Manos et al., 2025; University of
Alaska Fairbanks Institute of Northern Engineering US Army Corps of Engineers Alaska District
& Laboratory, 2019).

Reposted by Katharine Hayhoe, Jason Mittell, Tim Bale , and 10 more Katharine Hayhoe, Jason Mittell, Tim Bale, Smith, Mirya R. Holman, Julia Lynch, Justin Lewis, Fredrik Albritton Jonsson, Stuart White, S. J. Holmes, Shaun C. Hendy, Southern Africa, Drew Peltier

Alex de Campi @alexdecampi.bsky.social · Aug 27

There are tons of graphic novels, academic papers, film and TV scripts, & prose novels/nonfiction on the LibGen list Anthropic used.

As settlement approaches, make it easy for the class action lawyers to contact you! Here’s how

Part 1: is your work in Libgen?

www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI

Millions of books and scientific papers are captured in the collection’s current iteration.

www.theatlantic.com

Reposted by Kevin J. Anchukaitis, Julie L. Lockwood, Juan Cole , and 3 more Kevin J. Anchukaitis, Julie L. Lockwood, Juan Cole, Carlos Carroll, Seth M. Munson, Drew Peltier

WBUR @wbur.org · Aug 27

“This is just another way to stop science,” said Bethany Bradley, the center’s co-director. The Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center is 1 of 9 regional hubs across the country that helps state and local partners develop plans to adapt wildlife, water and land to the effects of climate change.

Amherst climate science center could close as feds freeze funding

“This is just another way to stop science,” said Bethany Bradley, the center’s co-director. The Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center is one of nine regional hubs across the country that helps s...

www.wbur.org

Reposted by Monica G. Turner, Ben Bond‐Lamberty, John T. Abatzoglou , and 5 more Monica G. Turner, Ben Bond‐Lamberty, John T. Abatzoglou, Kevin J. Anchukaitis, Peter Brown, Brian J. Harvey, Drew Peltier, Elizabeth R. Pansing

GrumpyUncleSean🔥 @grumpyunclesean.bsky.social · Aug 21

1/4
Please see our new paper just published in Global Change Biology: “Intensifying fire season aridity portends ongoing expansion of severe wildfire in western US forests”. 🧪🌍🔥

Intensifying Fire Season Aridity Portends Ongoing Expansion of Severe Wildfire in Western US Forests

Area burned by wildfire has increased in western US forests over recent decades. However, high-severity fire—fire that kills all or most trees—is also an important metric of fire activity given its d...

doi.org

Add to Home Screen

Light up
your news

Add to Home Screen

Light upyour news

Sign in to Lightnews

Sign up to start reading

Connect Bluesky

Connect with Bluesky

Light up
your news