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Reposted by Jeff Dukes

Plantae.org @plantaeofficial.bsky.social · 20d

Plant Science Research Weekly -- Senescence to nutrient cycling: Top-down effects of climate change (New Phytol.) @dukesjeff.bsky.social (Summary by Xavier Ozowara) buff.ly/oOvMxnX

#PlantaePSRW

Senescence to nutrient cycling: Top-down effects of climate change | Plantae

Precipitation plays an important role in shaping leaf tissue composition, and as climate change progresses, we’ll likely see dramatic shifts in precipitation regimes. Changes in leaf tissue…

buff.ly

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Reposted by Jeff Dukes

Dr. Renato Braghiere @renatobrgh.bsky.social · Sep 4

New paper led by T. Eren Bilir in AGU Advances—proud to be a coauthor: Satellite-Constrained Reanalysis of the Global Land Carbon Sink. doi.org/10.1029/2025...

Satellite‐Constrained Reanalysis Reveals CO2 Versus Climate Process Compensation Across the Global Land Carbon Sink

CO2 ${\text{CO}}_{2}$-driven terrestrial C gains are ∼4 times greater than climate-driven losses during 2001–2021 and are mainly in live biomass reservoirs In the global sum, CO2 ${\text{CO}}_{2}...

doi.org

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Jeff Dukes @dukesjeff.bsky.social · Sep 4

Threats from invasive species are on the rise in the US as federal job cuts lead to a black market boom ... for ants www.marketplace.org/episode/2025...

Federal job cuts lead to a black market boom ... for ants

There's a black market trade for everything — including ants. (Yes, even ants.)

www.marketplace.org

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Jeff Dukes @dukesjeff.bsky.social · Aug 26

In the Scars of L.A.’s Wildfires, Ecological Lessons Bloom www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/m...

What the Bloom After L.A.’s Wildfires Reveals About Our Ecological Future

www.nytimes.com

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Jeff Dukes @dukesjeff.bsky.social · Aug 25

New paper from the (long-finished) Boston Area Climate Experiment shows how water stress during plant growth affects the chemistry of leaves, with later consequences for decomposition rates. Led by Vidya Suseela's lab at Clemson. 🧪 #drought
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Climatic stress‐induced changes in plant chemistry alter the compound‐specific degradation of litter during decomposition

Plant litter decomposition sustains ecosystem productivity and modulates soil carbon cycling. Drought directly impacts decomposition by decreasing soil moisture and indirectly by altering plant tiss.....

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Jeff Dukes @dukesjeff.bsky.social · Aug 4

Sorry, I deleted the post and reposted an edited version.

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Jeff Dukes @dukesjeff.bsky.social · Aug 4

Trump administration takes aim at satellite that measures carbon dioxide and crops

This would be such a huge waste. Glad to see my @carnegiescience.bsky.social colleague @annamichalak.bsky.social quoted.

www.npr.org/2025/08/04/n...

Why a NASA satellite that scientists and farmers rely on may be destroyed on purpose

The Trump administration has asked NASA staffers to draw up plans to end at least two satellite missions that measure carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, according to current and former NASA employees.

www.npr.org

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Reposted by Jeff Dukes

Wren @feistywren.bsky.social · Jul 25

For gardeners in the Northeast US, here's an article about a new resource on native plants: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/07/25/s...

Planting guide: How to keep up with the evolving climate - The Boston Globe

What’s in, what’s out as our climate warms: A guide to four climate-resilient gardens

www.bostonglobe.com

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Dr. Dave Huber, Soil Scientist 🔥 @dphuber.bsky.social · Jul 19

www.reuters.com/legal/litiga...

US farm agency fires 70 foreign researchers following national security review

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said it has fired 70 foreign contract researchers after a national security review intended to secure the U.S. food supply from adversaries including China, Russia, North Korea and Iran.

www.reuters.com

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Weiwei Zhan @weiweizhan.bsky.social · Jul 11

Interested in how plant intrinsic water-use efficiency (iWUE) responds to rising CO2? Our new paper shows that CO2-enhanced iWUE is mainly driven by reduced canopy conductance, while stimulation of ecosystem photosynthesis is less detectable given current data length. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Reduced water loss rather than increased photosynthesis controls CO2-enhanced water-use efficiency - Nature Ecology & Evolution

A machine learning approach using long-term observations of eddy covariance finds that the increase in plant intrinsic water-use efficiency under higher CO2 levels, across diverse ecosystems, is drive...

www.nature.com

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Jeff Dukes @dukesjeff.bsky.social · Jul 9

Real consequences of this administration’s actions for the quality and future of US science

bsky.app/profile/nvog...

Noam Vogt-Vincent @nvogtvincent.co.uk · Jul 9

I'm sadly leaving Hawaii and the USA today. This NYT article, with comment from me, @solilyquy.bsky.social and @leafwax.bsky.social, explains one (of several) reasons why. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/c...

Recipients of a U.S. Climate Science Fellowship Are Put on Unpaid Leave

www.nytimes.com

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Jeff Dukes @dukesjeff.bsky.social · Jul 7

Great NYT article today about how not to make problems with invasive species even worse, featuring @evecologist.bsky.social and @jmheberling.bsky.social
🌐🧪🌱
Free link: www.nytimes.com/2025/07/02/r...

Fighting Invasive Plants: The Ones We’ve Got and Those We Think Are Coming

www.nytimes.com

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Jeff Dukes @dukesjeff.bsky.social · Jul 7

This program has supported so many exceptional scientists over the years. It's been a great investment in US science.

Jessica Tierney @leafwax.bsky.social · Jul 7

As of today, all current NOAA Climate and Global Change postdoctoral fellows have been furloughed due to the Dept of Commerce not releasing the funding for the program. In addition no new Fellows were awarded this year. cpaess.ucar.edu/cgc

NOAA Climate & Global Change (C&GC) Postdoctoral Program | Cooperative Programs for the Advancement of Earth System ScienceNOAA Climate & Global Change (C&GC) Postdoctoral Program | Cooperative Progra...

cpaess.ucar.edu

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Jeff Dukes @dukesjeff.bsky.social · Jun 24

What makes some non-native plants so successful? Using a massive US-based dataset, Blumenthal et al show non-natives have "fast" traits, which should help them compete in resource-rich contexts. But being new to the system provides additional advantages.

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Why are non‐native plants successful? Consistently fast economic traits and novel origin jointly explain abundance across US ecoregions

Are non-native plants abundant because they are non-native, and have advantages over native plants, or because they possess ‘fast’ resource strategies, and have advantages in disturbed environments?.....

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Jeff Dukes @dukesjeff.bsky.social · Jun 7

BTW, the MESI database is open and is described in this open access paper led by Kevin Van Sundert and Sebastian Leuzinger:

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

When things get MESI: The Manipulation Experiments Synthesis Initiative—A coordinated effort to synthesize terrestrial global change experiments

A wide range of experiments have been conducted that manipulate CO2, temperature, and nutrient and water availability in terrestrial ecosystems. Syntheses of results across such experiments provide a...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Reposted by Jeff Dukes

Andrew Dessler @andrewdessler.com · Jun 7

Really good article by @voosen.me about how the scientific community can provide actionable information to stakeholders. This is really the cutting edge of climate science.

Local predictions of climate change are hazy. But cities need answers fast | www.science.org/content/arti...

Local predictions of climate change are hazy. But cities need answers fast

Scientists are figuring out where “downscaled” climate models struggle—and how they can be improved

www.science.org

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Jeff Dukes @dukesjeff.bsky.social · Jun 6

How do dominant plants' functional traits affect biomass responses to global change? New paper by Mingyan Hu et al uses the large Manipulation Experiments Synthesis Initiative (MESI) database to find out.
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

Plant functional traits affect biomass responses to global change: A meta‐analysis

The positive effects of elevated nutrient on belowground biomass were more pronounced for communities dominated by “fast” species. In communities dominated by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi-associated ...

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Jeff Dukes @dukesjeff.bsky.social · May 23

Great article. Building sustained relationships with congressional staff is a great idea in principle but I found it hard in practice. It’s not practical to visit DC too often and turnover of LAs and even members can be high, depending on the district. Any suggestions? Target committee staff?

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Jeff Dukes @dukesjeff.bsky.social · May 20

Taking action on climate change is like pushing a boulder, @katharinehayhoe.com told @chrfield.bsky.social today @stanfordwoods.bsky.social, with govt policy as the undulating path beneath. The terrain has gotten a lot steeper lately (up AND down), but she’s optimistic we’re still making progress.

Katharine Hayhoe and Chris Field sit on a stage, discussing effective strategies for climate communication and action

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Simon Evans @drsimevans.carbonbrief.org · May 15

Could this be the biggest climate story of the year?

For the first time on record, China's emissions are falling due to clean energy growth, not slow power demand

Full analysis + outlook by Lauri Myllyvirta:

www.carbonbrief.org/...
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Jeannie Wilkening @jvwilkening.bsky.social · May 6

Recently, all the AAAS Science & Tech Policy Fellows at EPA were terminated from our positions with little notice and for no clear reason. This effectively ended a partnership that had been going since 1980 and which had brought hundreds of scientists to the EPA as fellows, many of whom stayed. 1/7

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Reposted by Jeff Dukes

Eric Columbus @ericcolumbus.bsky.social · May 6

🚨🚨 Deranged letter from Education Secretary Linda McMahon to Harvard’s president, cutting off federal funding for any new grants.

Worth reading in full. It is NUTS.

THE SECRETARY OF EDUCATION
WASHINGTON, DC 20202
May 5, 2025
Dr. Alan Garber
Office of the President
Harvard University
Massachusetts Hall
Cambridge, MA 02138
Dr. Garber,
The Federal Government has a sacred responsibility to be a wise and important steward of American taxpayer dollars. Harvard University, despite amassing a largely tax-free $53.2 billion dollar endowment (larger than the GDP of 100 countries), receives billions of dollars of taxpayer largess each year. Receiving such taxpayer funds is a privilege, not a right. Yet instead of using these funds to advance the education of its students, Harvard is engaging in a systemic pattern of violating federal law. Where do many of these "students" come from, who are they, how do they get into Harvard, or even into our country—and why is there so much HATE? These are questions that must be answered, among many more, but the biggest question of all is, why will Harvard not give straightforward answers to the American public?
Harvard University has made a mockery of this country's higher education system. It has invited foreign students, who engage in violent behavior and show contempt for the United States of America, to its campus. In every way, Harvard has failed to abide by its legal obligations, its ethical and fiduciary duties, its transparency responsibilities, and any semblance of academic rigor. It had scrapped standardized testing requirements and a normalized grading system. This year Harvard was forced to adopt an embarrassing "remedial math" program for undergraduates.
Why is it, we ask, that Harvard has to teach simple and basic mathematics, when it is supposedly so hard to get into this "acclaimed university"? Who is getting in under such a low standard when others, with fabulous grades and a great understanding of the highest levels of mathematics, are being rejected?
Harvard has even been embroiled in humiliating plagiarism scandals, exposed clearly and plainly in the media, with respect to your then…

$running the institution in a totally chaotic way. Harvard alumnus and highly successful hedge fund manager Bill Ackman noted that, under her leadership, Harvard has become "a political advocacy organization for one party." Ackman has called for the resignation of Pritzker, concluding that the "[t)he mismanagement here is Penny Pritzker" and noting that any serious corporation would have removed her after a litany of recent failings and the fact that, incredibly, "Harvard is not in a good financial position." According to Ackman, one of the world's foremost finance experts, Harvard's so-called S53 billion endowment is "massively overstated as far as what it's really worth," and Harvard has irresponsibly taken out $8 billion in debt. If this is true, it is concerning evidence of Harvard's disastrous mismanagement, indicating an urgent need for massive reform-not continued taxpayer investment. If Harvard prefers not to change, then Harvard should have no problem using its overflowing endowment to fund its bloated bureaucracy. At its best, a university should fulfill the highest ideals of our Nation, and enlighten the thousands of hopeful students who walk through its magnificent gates. But Harvard has betrayed this ideal. Perhaps most alarmingly, Harvard has failed to abide by the United States Supreme Court's ruling demanding that it end its racial preferencing, and continues to engage in ugly racism in its undergraduate and graduate schools, and even within the Harvard Law Review itself. Our universities should be bastions of merit that reward and celebrate excellence and achievement. They should not be incubators of discrimination that encourage resentment and instill grievance and racism into our wonderful young Americans. The above concerns are only a fraction of the long list of Harvard's consistent violations of its own legal duties. Given these and other concerning allegations, this letter is to inform you that Harvard should no longer seek GRANTS from the fede…$

Federal Agencies. The Administration's priorities have not changed and today's letter marks the end of new grants for the University.
These requests will advance the best interests of Harvard University, so it can reclaim its status as a respected educational institution for the future leaders of America. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
Sincerely,
Linda E. McMahon
Secretary of Education

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Geoff Brumfiel @gbrumfiel.bsky.social · May 2

President Trump's "skinny" budget request absolutely eviscerates scientific research funding.

The @aaas.org estimates the request would constitute an 82.5% reduction in research spending (and that's just the agencies named in the request).

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Reposted by Jeff Dukes

Daniel Bolnick @danielbolnick.bsky.social · May 2

Upset about federal funding cuts in the US? Want some ideas of what to do? I wrote a long-ish blog post about it here
ecoevoevoeco.blogspot.com
summarizing things I learned meeting with Senate & House aides this week with the @aibsbiology.bsky.social Congressional Visits Day event.

Eco-Evo Evo-Eco

Academic musing by Hendry, Bolnick, Gotanda, and awesome guests. Opinions and statements expressed on this blog are the views of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent endorsement by the blog...

ecoevoevoeco.blogspot.com

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Jeff Dukes @dukesjeff.bsky.social · May 2

We need US voters to understand that Trump's crew is essentially vandalizing the scientific infrastructure that generations of taxpayers bought and invested in. Thank you, communicators, for trying to reach the public on this.

Liz Neeley @lizneeley.bsky.social · May 2

I can't explain what it feels like:
+ to know what this news means if it all comes to pass
+ remember that "if it comes to pass" is NOT a foregone conclusion
+ also know how much damage is happening this second due to it

And then try to convey it, succinctly, w/emotional impact & technical accuracy

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