Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Katie Rocci, PhD @katie-rocci.bsky.social · 21d

Tomorrow’s the last day to apply for AGU-B DEI travel grants!!

AGU Biogeosciences @agubiogeosciences.bsky.social · 28d

We've extended the application deadline for this award to 9/17! Apply here for the Fall Meeting AGU-B DEI Travel Grant for up to $1500 ( connect.agu.org/biogeoscienc...)

Travel Grants - Biogeosciences

connect.agu.org

1

Katie Rocci, PhD @katie-rocci.bsky.social · 21d

❤️❤️ grateful for you and grad school bringing us together!

1

Katie Rocci, PhD @katie-rocci.bsky.social · 21d

So happy for you! ❤️ they are so lucky to have you - can’t wait to see the work from your lab 🤩

1 1

Reposted by Katie Rocci, PhD

AGU Biogeosciences @agubiogeosciences.bsky.social · 28d

We've extended the application deadline for this award to 9/17! Apply here for the Fall Meeting AGU-B DEI Travel Grant for up to $1500 ( connect.agu.org/biogeoscienc...)

Travel Grants - Biogeosciences

connect.agu.org

5 3

Katie Rocci, PhD @katie-rocci.bsky.social · 28d

he above link isn't working - use this one instead: connect.agu.org/biogeoscienc...

Travel Grants - Biogeosciences

connect.agu.org

Katie Rocci, PhD @katie-rocci.bsky.social · 28d

📣📣📣

We've extended the deadline for the AGU-B DEI travel grant to next Wednesday, 9/17!

Submit an application and spread the word to folks you know who need funding for the annual meeting!

****the link below isn't working - use this one instead: connect.agu.org/biogeoscienc...

2 2

Katie Rocci, PhD @katie-rocci.bsky.social · 28d

oh shoot thanks for pointing that out Ben! Here's the right link - I'll work on getting that updated

connect.agu.org/biogeoscienc...

Travel Grants - Biogeosciences

connect.agu.org

2

Katie Rocci, PhD @katie-rocci.bsky.social · Aug 29

A reminder that Biogeosciecnes DEI committee is hosting a travel grant for the 2025 AGU meeting! Apply at the link below by September 10th.

Katie Rocci, PhD @katie-rocci.bsky.social · Aug 8

AGU Biogeosciences DEI travel grants ARE OPEN and close September 10th. Find info to apply here: connect.agu.org/biogeoscienc...

4 5

Reposted by Katie Rocci, PhD

The Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative @thegsbi.bsky.social · Aug 21

🎉 Registration for the 4th Global Soil Biodiversity Conference is now OPEN 🎉

Early bird registration is open until December 15th ,2025 🦜

Registration page 👇

globalsoilbiodiversity2026.org/registration/

Registration - Global Soil Biodiversity Conference 2026

Registration Early-Bird Registrations Until December 15, 2025 at 23:59 PST Early-Bird Delegate$875.00 Early-Bird Student$525.00 Early-Bird Single Day$600.00 Regular Registrations Until February 16, 20...

globalsoilbiodiversity2026.org

7 10

Reposted by Katie Rocci, PhD

AGU Biogeosciences @agubiogeosciences.bsky.social · Aug 17

Applications for Fall Meeting AGU-B DEI Travel Grant for up tp $1500 (with a minimum award amount of the cost of graduate student early bird registration) ARE OPEN and close September 10th! Apply here. (docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...)

AGU Biogeosciences DEI Travel Grant 2025

This is the application for the 2025 AGU Biogeosciences DEI Travel Grant. Please submit by September 10th to be considered for the award. More information can be found here: https://connect.agu.org/bi...

docs.google.com

1 8 8

Reposted by Katie Rocci, PhD

Advyth Ramachandran @advyth.bsky.social · Aug 11

At #ESA2025 and interested in the potential for urban forests to cool cities, and tree functional traits? Stop by my poster tomorrow (Tuesday) in PS 25-160, Urban Ecosystems. Excited to chat about our results so far, compare findings with others, and get feedback on further directions!

1 6 6

Katie Rocci, PhD @katie-rocci.bsky.social · Aug 8

AGU Biogeosciences DEI travel grants ARE OPEN and close September 10th. Find info to apply here: connect.agu.org/biogeoscienc...

1 3

Katie Rocci, PhD @katie-rocci.bsky.social · Aug 5

thanks Ben!

Reposted by Katie Rocci, PhD

AGU Biogeosciences @agubiogeosciences.bsky.social · Jul 19

AGU-B DEI will once again host the DEI Travel Grant to support in-person or virtual attendance for the 2025 AGU Annual meeting. Check back in mid-August for the application!

2 2

Katie Rocci, PhD @katie-rocci.bsky.social · Aug 5

Proud of this one and grateful to my amazing collaborators!

See my pinned post for a thread on this work!

Global Change Biology @globalchangebio.bsky.social · Aug 5

Integrating Microbial Community Data Into an Ecosystem‐Scale Model to Predict Litter Decomposition in the Face of Climate Change

🔗 buff.ly/gcynPT1
@katie-rocci.bsky.social

2

Katie Rocci, PhD @katie-rocci.bsky.social · Jul 29

A very fun workshop last week in NH about representing (sub)tropical soils in process-based soil carbon models using data from sub-Saharan Africa. Led by @sophievf.bsky.social with @ultracricket.bsky.social !

Don't we make calibrating models look fun?!

Photos from Sophie

1 6

Reposted by Katie Rocci, PhD

INSTAAR 🏳️‍🌈 @instaar.bsky.social · Jul 17

🦠 Interested in microbes & litter decomposition?

Check out this paper & thread by Katie Rocci (postdoc, INSTAAR + IGCB U Mich) et al. Will Wieder (INSTAAR researcher & NCAR investigator) is a co-author too ⬇️

Katie Rocci, PhD @katie-rocci.bsky.social · Jul 17

📣 New paper alert 📣

Out TODAY in GCB!

We have a lot of evidence that microbial communities are important for litter decomposition but we haven't evaluated those microbial community effects in ecosystem-scale models using empirical data. Now this work has!

doi.org/10.1111/gcb....

1/n

Integrating Microbial Community Data Into an Ecosystem‐Scale Model to Predict Litter Decomposition in the Face of Climate Change

Representing observational drivers of ecological processes like litter decomposition in computer models is important for improving confidence in climate change predictions. We calibrate an ecosystem-...

doi.org

1 1

Katie Rocci, PhD @katie-rocci.bsky.social · Jul 17

Thanks Angela! And thanks so much for contributing to this - your microbial expertise was invaluable!

1

Katie Rocci, PhD @katie-rocci.bsky.social · Jul 17

I am so grateful to have joined such a lovely group of collaborators for this work, all of whom contributed in huge ways. This was such a great project to teach me process-based modeling and that’s largely thanks to my collaborators.

@oliverio.bsky.social and the bluesky-less co-authors

6/6

2 1

Katie Rocci, PhD @katie-rocci.bsky.social · Jul 17

Overall, we believe parameterizing MIMICS with microbial community data form the field provides more confidence in our model output, since it is underlain by empirical measurements.

5/n

1

Katie Rocci, PhD @katie-rocci.bsky.social · Jul 17

We also provide a case study for assimilating empirical bacterial community data into functional microbial groups in an ecosystem model. We think this is a great starting point for empirical-modeling integration of soil microbial data!

4/n

1

Katie Rocci, PhD @katie-rocci.bsky.social · Jul 17

We show that we are able to reasonably represent 3 drivers of litter decomp (proxies for climate, litter quality, and microbial community) w/o compromising model performance. This predicted higher litter mass loss under climate change at 3 sites, w/ implications for C-climate feedbacks.

3/n

1

Katie Rocci, PhD @katie-rocci.bsky.social · Jul 17

For this work, we used the MIMICS model coupled to a litter decomposition dataset to evaluate:
(1) effect of representing empirical drivers of litter decomp for ecosystem model performance and predictions
(2) the potential for integrating microbial composition data into an ecosystem model

2/n

1

Katie Rocci, PhD @katie-rocci.bsky.social · Jul 17

📣 New paper alert 📣

Out TODAY in GCB!

We have a lot of evidence that microbial communities are important for litter decomposition but we haven't evaluated those microbial community effects in ecosystem-scale models using empirical data. Now this work has!

doi.org/10.1111/gcb....

1/n

Integrating Microbial Community Data Into an Ecosystem‐Scale Model to Predict Litter Decomposition in the Face of Climate Change

Representing observational drivers of ecological processes like litter decomposition in computer models is important for improving confidence in climate change predictions. We calibrate an ecosystem-...

doi.org

1 3 18