Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Mike Moore @gypsumbotany.bsky.social · Aug 5

🚨🚨 New tenure track position in #ConservationBiology @oberlincollege.bsky.social in the #Biology department--come join us, and contribute to our brand new Environmental Science major too! #biologyjobs #ecologyjobs

jobs.oberlin.edu/postings/16671

Assistant Professor of Biology

The Biology Department at Oberlin College invites applications for a full-time tenure track faculty position in the College of Arts and Sciences in conservation ecology. Initial appointment to this po...

jobs.oberlin.edu

110 84

Mike Moore @gypsumbotany.bsky.social · Aug 2

Love this so much. Morgan's definitely having a good time! That's some #UpAllNightWednesday magic.

1

Reposted by Mike Moore

Blue Beehive Studio @bluebeehivestudio.bsky.social · Jul 27

While it didn't work out to be a vendor in California for #Botany2025 this week, I'm excited to be there virtually through social media! This week only - the entire shop is 10-25% off. I'll be adding more pieces over the next several days, too. BlueBeehiveStudio.Etsy.com

6 10

Reposted by Mike Moore

Blue Beehive Studio @bluebeehivestudio.bsky.social · Jul 27

Hello everyone at #Botany2025! I’m not there in person this year, but I’ll be posting a coupon code tomorrow after I get the textiles up on the shop!

1 4 10

Reposted by Mike Moore

Botanical Society of America @botsocamerica.bsky.social · Apr 10

🔥🌱 From the upcoming #AJB Special Issue: “Understanding novel ﬁre regimes using plant trait‐based approaches" 🌱🔥

Community #phylogenetics of North American #conifers through the lens of fire-adapted traits

By Daniel Turck, Aaron Sparks, Jack Sullivan & David Tank
doi.org/10.1002/ajb2... #botany

This figure shows the distribution of four common conifer fire adaptations across North America: Thick bark, serotinous cones, seedling grass stage, and post-fire resprouting. We see here that these traits are latitudinally stratified, with serotiny being the only trait present in North American boreal ecosystems. Moving south, thick bark, and then resprouting occur. Finally, the seedling grass stage is present only in tropical and subtropical ecosystems.

6 18

Reposted by Mike Moore

Botanical Society of America @botsocamerica.bsky.social · Apr 11

apnews.com/article/bord... are scouring the US-Mexico border to document a forgotten ecosystem split by a giant wall

Botanists are scouring the US-Mexico border to document a forgotten ecosystem split by a giant wall

Botanists and citizen scientists armed with the iNaturalist app on their smartphones are recording the biodiversity along the U.S.-Mexico border.

apnews.com

3 23

Reposted by Mike Moore

Molly Edwards, PhD @science-irl.bsky.social · Mar 17

🌱🌱🌱Big botanical news🌱🌱🌱

Announcing 'Build A Plant' by the Onyenedum Lab at NYU, a video series all about plant anatomy! I had a plantastic time working on this 🥹

4 eps are out now, covering root, shoot, secondary growth, and leaf anatomy:
youtube.com/@joyceonyene...

🧪 #scicomm #botany #plants

5 27 75

Reposted by Mike Moore

Isaac Lichter Marck @ca-naturalist.bsky.social · Mar 4

🚨Urgent: Help Save Decades of Work by Navajo Botanists🚨

For decades, Arnold Clifford has built up the Carrizo Mountain Herbarium. Now, this collection is at risk—snowstorms are causing the roof to cave in, putting >30,000 specimens in danger.

#IndigenousScience #Conservation #MutualAid #botany

Arnold Clifford, Navajo Botanist, holds up a pressed herbarium specimen of an undescribed species of thistle found in Carrizo mountain.

The roof of Carrizo Mountain Herbarium caving in, leaving herbarium cabinets inside vulnerable to snow and rain.

1 51 59

Reposted by Mike Moore

Isaac Lichter Marck @ca-naturalist.bsky.social · Feb 18

Very excited to introduce the newest genus of wild sunflowers, a tiny desert annual covered in dense wool and heads with just two small ray florets.

Ovicula biradiata, a new Composite from Big Bend National Park in Trans-Pecos Texas doi.org/10.3897/phyt... via @phytokeys.pensoft.net

2 17 55

Reposted by Mike Moore

Botanical Society of America @botsocamerica.bsky.social · Feb 4

The new issue of #AppsPlantSci is online!

Highlights include #MachineLearning models for predicting plant tissue identity, automated approaches to produce digital #herbarium records, a new CNN to classify plant disease, and more

bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/21680450... #botany #iamabotanist

The cover of the January-February issue of Applications in Plant Sciences. The image shows an Arabidopsis plant on the left, with RNAs emerging to form a network that simulates an artificial intelligence model, generating predictions of plants from different species (from top to bottom: a pumpkin, a sunflower, and an orange tree). Drawing by Tamara Santos-Rougon; digital editing by Alejandra Rougon-Cardoso.

8 21

Mike Moore @gypsumbotany.bsky.social · Feb 5

don't like to see a good plant go bad

1

Reposted by Mike Moore

Jonas Geschke @jgeschke.bsky.social · Feb 1

Genetic diversity loss occurs globally & for many species, especially birds & mammals, in the face of threats such as land use change, disease, abiotic natural phenomena & harvesting or harassment. The need for genetically informed conservation interventions is urgent.

📑 doi.org/10.1038/s415...

7 12

Reposted by Mike Moore

Botanical Society of America @botsocamerica.bsky.social · Jan 30

Congratulations to Dr. Jill Wegrzyn (@jillwegrzyn.bsky.social), Senior Associate Editor of BSA's #AppsPlantSci, and UConn Associate Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, for winning the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).

today.uconn.edu/2025/01/biol...

1 6 37

Reposted by Mike Moore

Max Larter @maxlarter.bsky.social · Jan 7

Cool paper on conifer evolution / diversification and fire adaptations 🤓

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

Fire in the tree: The origin and distribution of fire–adapted traits within conifers and their influence on speciation rates across the conifer phylogeny

Premise Considering rapidly changing fire regimes due to anthropogenic disturbances to climate and fuel loads, it is crucial to understand the underpinnings driving fire-adapted trait evolution. Amo...

bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

12 33

Reposted by Mike Moore

Chris Martine | Plants are Cool, Too! @martinebotany.bsky.social · Jan 4

Y’all need to check out the cool stuff at @bluebeehivestudio.bsky.social. My old pal Melissa is the best. #SICB2025

1 2 12

Reposted by Mike Moore

Botanical Society of America @botsocamerica.bsky.social · Dec 20

🌵🌴 Big news! Botany 2025 is now heading to sunny Palm Springs, CA (July 25-31, 2025)! While plans shifted from Tucson, we're excited to stay in the Southwest. See you there!

More information will be coming in early January at www.botanyconference.org

#Botany2025

Graphic promoting Botany 2025 in Palm Springs, CA, taking place July 25-31, 2025. The tagline reads "Botany Without Barriers" against a bright blue sky with tall palm trees. Logos of supporting societies are displayed along the bottom, including the Botanical Society of America, American Fern Society, ASPT, Society of Herbarium Curators, IAPT, and ABLS.

2 50 84

Mike Moore @gypsumbotany.bsky.social · Dec 20

Very cool #paleobotany paper--with *maybe* a new family of #Caryophyllales? Best Christmas present ever!

www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/this...

This mysterious plant fossil belongs to a family that no longer exists

In 1969, fossilized leaves of the species Othniophyton elongatum — which translates to “alien plant” — were identified in eastern Utah. Initially, scientists theorized the extinct species may have bel...

www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu

3

Reposted by Mike Moore

J. Sebastian Tello @sebastello.bsky.social · Dec 10

The Missouri Botanical Garden is launching a major initiative to revolutionize species identification! By combining data from our 8-million-specimen herbarium with AI tools, we aim to advance the study of plant biodiversity and provide unique insights for its conservation. 🌿

shorturl.at/tccro

Revolutionizing Species Identification (RSI)

www.missouribotanicalgarden.org

1 18 40

Mike Moore @gypsumbotany.bsky.social · Dec 11

Thanks for putting this together!

1

Reposted by Mike Moore

Matt Johnson, PhD @mossmatters.bsky.social · Nov 24

Now out in Ecosphere, a paper with the @bceenet.bsky.social crew describing how we use digital natural history collections data (e.g. herbaria) in ecology/evolution courses, improving access to course-based undergrad research experiences (CUREs)

esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Improving access to undergraduate research using digitized natural history collections course‐based research experiences

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) can be a powerful tool in broadening participation in undergraduate research. In this paper, we review the benefits of and barriers to undergra....

esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

1 8 18

Reposted by Mike Moore

Botanical Society of America @botsocamerica.bsky.social · Dec 2

An optimized CTAB method for genomic DNA extraction from green seaweeds (Ulvophyceae)

New in #AppsPlantSci by Hossen, Courtney, Bringloe, et al

bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... #botany #Ulvophyceae #GreenSeaweed #DNAExtraction #iamabotanist

Phase contrast microscopy image showing the chloroplast morphology of siphonous green algae.

5 9

Reposted by Mike Moore

Lena Struwe @drgentian.bsky.social · Nov 25

How did plants cross the ocean to N America? Many with ballast in hulls of sailing ships before 1900 - nearly 100 grass species from records in New Jersey, USA. Some died, some lived a bit, some stayed put, some spread widely. #weeds #botany #history

Schmidt et al (2024): tinyurl.com/grassballast

Waif to Invasive: the Transatlantic Migration and Establishment of Grasses Introduced to North America with Pre-Twentieth-Century Ship Ballast | International Journal of Plant Sciences: Vol 185, No 5

Premise of research. Little is known about the establishment success of grasses after their introduction into new areas. Using herbarium data, we investigated temporospatial patterns in the survival, ...

tinyurl.com

1 14 35

Mike Moore @gypsumbotany.bsky.social · Nov 28

This is a wonderful genus that loves #gypsum. Can be a dominant on gypsum in some parts of #Mexico. Still blows my mind when I see it. bsky.app/profile/scot...

🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴 @scottzona.bsky.social · Nov 27

Hechtia (Hechtioideae; 94 spp., Texas to Nicaragua) are terrestrial xerophytes. They are also dioecious and have crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM). They are attractive but well-armed. This beauty is an undetermined sp. from San Luis Potosi, Mexico. 📷: Amante Darmanin CCBY2 #botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of a terrestrial rosette plant. The leaves are slender and bear large, red teeth on their margins.

1 5