The time has come to value tropical fieldworkers as equal partners.

With billions spent on watching forests from space, the skills of foresters and botanists have never been more vital. In our #Nature correspondence we show why - and what needs to change.
#GEO-TREES
rdcu.be/enT5S

So excited to finally share our new paper charting the global spectrum of tree crown architecture, out today at @natcomms.nature.com ‬🧪🌐

Paper link 🔗: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A brief thread of what we found 🧵

My first PhD paper is now published in #STOTEN! We used a long-term fire experiment and ecosystem monitoring protocol to quantify the effect of burning on the productivity, respiration and ecosystem #carbon balance of Cerrado #savanna (1/6)

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Here’s our The Conversation piece about the research.

Woody respiration is an important but unconstrained process in the forest carbon cycle. @mariabmills.bsky.social made real progress in Malaysian Borneo using lasers and climbing giants, so that you don't have to! She came away with great insights.

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

I had a lot of fun executing this field campaign and I am very pleased to have the final paper from my PhD published. Thank you to my wonderful collaborators for your support along the way @ymalhi.bsky.social @shenkin.bsky.social @matdisney.bsky.social @kungphil.bsky.social

We used a team of highly skilled tree climbers, a continuous automated flux system and TLS data to understand these biases in Maliau Basin Conservation Area, in Malaysian Borneo

This research aimed to understand the bias involved in tropical field campaigns and how we traditionally estimate stem CO2 efflux - specifically measuring at one time-stamp, one height on the tree stem and using allometric equations to upscale to stand-level

Our new paper is out today @newphyt.bsky.social We investigated the bias involved in woody stem CO2 efflux measurements in tropical forests - including diel and vertical variations, and used TLS to upscale vertical variations and estimate stem surface area nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

…Still getting used to introducing myself as a “postdoc” instead of “PhD student” 👩‍🎓eeek

First week in Singapore is off to a flying start. Loving the City in Nature so far, spotted some otters and the number of times I have gotten lost per day is on a declining trend 📉🍃

I have had such a wonderful 4 years at SGGE and such precious memories out in the field in Sabah. I am so proud to now be Dr Maria B Mills 💚

Very pleased to announce that on Monday I passed my PhD viva with no corrections! Big thank you to my supervisors Susan Page, Juan Carlos Berrio and Joerg Kaduk, and to the amazing Leicester PGR community. Special thank you to Kirsten Barrett and Michelle Pinard for such an enjoyable viva! 🍃

I’ve kept a couple that are most precious to me. But I feel like I’m splitting up a family! A house plant family 😭

So..I am currently in the process of packing up and moving house. Getting rid of trinkets / memorabilia / keepsakes etc is hard... But selling the house plants I’ve nurtured for almost 5 years. HEART BREAKING!

Interviewer: Can you explain this gap in your resume?

Forest ecologist: it was caused by a minor disturbance event.

@ecosail.bsky.social’s new #riegl terrestrial laser scanner arrived, funded by the Arizona Board of Regents and the citizens of Arizona via the TRIF fund. With it we’ll push ecosystem science and autonomous sUAS systems + dual-use DoD ISR/SAR applications, and more. Reach out to collaborate!

Great few days at #BES2024 in Liverpool last week! Wonderful to learn and connect with so many cool people. Looking back, I’d like to share the TOP 3 poster presentations I enjoyed best! Congrats on such great work:
@mariabmills.bsky.social
@alice-rosen.bsky.social @nicolaszurbuchen.bsky.social

Thank you!!

And she is done! Happy to have submitted my PhD thesis after 4 long years. Thank you to everyone who has helped along the way. Now time to sleep until Christmas 🎄

New paper out in @natureecoevo.bsky.social, led by Bruno Pinho, showing how human disruption is driving 'winner' and 'loser' #tree species shifts across tropical forests.
➡️ Fast-growing / small-seeded species dominating Brazilian forests were levels of deforestation and degradation are high.
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Had a wonderful time at #BES2024 seeing old friends and making new ones too. My last conference as a PhD student presenting my final research chapter! 🌿🗒️