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Shelby C. McClelland

@scmcclelland.bsky.social

180 followers 430 following 36 posts

Faculty Fellow in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) at Stony Brook University. Food, greenhouse gas emissions, and soil. www.scmcclelland.com

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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · May 19

🚨New paper alert🚨

We show that maintaining crop yields lowers the global climate benefits of natural climate solutions on croplands. But, we highlight where win-win opportunities exist for these practices to contribute to climate and production goals. 1/N

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Managing for climate and production goals on crop-lands - Nature Climate Change

Climate mitigation through natural climate solutions in crop-lands may be a way to reconcile climate goals with food security. However, here the authors show that some natural climate solution practic...

www.nature.com

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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 22d

Thanks, Matthew! I’m so grateful for your mentorship and support. Looking forward to continuing our research collaborations at Stony Brook.

Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 22d

Thanks, Rémi! Let’s connect sometime. I believe we have a lot of overlapping interests

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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 22d

Thanks, Katie! You were such a huge part of helping me get here. Can’t wait to watch you get your dream job this year 🤍

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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 22d

Thanks, @jandutkiewicz.bsky.social!

Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 22d

Likewise, if you’re interested in collaborating – reach out! 5/n

Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 22d

While I am not currently taking on students or postdocs, it’s never too early to reach out and start a conversation! I will be looking for folks to come work with me starting in Fall 2026 on data-driven and field-based experimental projects. 4/n

Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 22d

I will be continuing my research on #climatechange, #foodsystems, greenhouse gas mitigation, and land-based carbon removal. I’m also looking to expand into #bluecarbon, leveraging aquatic biomass in croplands as soil amendments for improved soil health. 3/n

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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 22d

After two-years, I will hopefully be joining SoMAS *officially* as an Assistant Professor starting in Fall 2027.

You can learn more about the PRODiG+ Fellow program below. 2/n

www.suny.edu/prodig-plus/

PRODiG at SUNY

PRODiG - Promoting Recruitment, Opportunity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Growth will work to increase faculty diversity to better reflect the diversity of students across SUNY's 64 campuses.

www.suny.edu

Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 22d

🚨 Big News!! 🚨

I am so excited to announce that I’ve recently joined the faculty at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences @stonybrooku.bsky.social ! My initial position is as a faculty fellow under the SUNY PRODiG+ Fellowship Program. 1/n

www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/soma...

Image of Shelby McClelland wearing a black Stony Brook University t-shirt standing in front of a tree.

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Reposted by Shelby C. McClelland

Richard Waite @waiterich.bsky.social · Jul 24

Good 🧵

Friendly amendment: stop burning fossil fuels (responsible for 2/3 of historical CO2 emissions), and also stop deforestation & land-use change (the other 1/3).

And if you do something that reduces fossil CO2 but increases land use and deforestation EVEN MORE, that’s an anti-solution. Avoid.

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · Jul 21

One like, one opinion about how to solve climate change.

Mike Eliason @holz-bau.bsky.social · Jul 21

1 like, 1 housing opinion

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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · Jul 23

To my co-author and PhD Advisor, Meagan Schipanski, THANK YOU! You let me dream up this project and supported me in diving deep into this research during my PhD. I learned so much through the ups and downs, and I am so grateful for the freedom to explore and grow as an ecologist.

Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · Jul 23

While this work starts to broaden our mechanistic understanding of how compost contributes to soil carbon sequestration, we absolutely need more data, better analyses, and longer-term studies to understand carbon flows (and persistence of this new carbon) in managed grassland ecosystems! 7/N

Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · Jul 23

To us, this suggests that the microbial community was more responsive to plant over compost-derived inputs. It also indicates that microbial-derived inputs were more important for building soil organic carbon in this managed grassland. 6/N

Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · Jul 23

We used a path analysis to test our hypothesis. But what we found surprised us! Plants only indirectly increased soil organic matter; their effect was entirely mediated through the soil microbial community, especially bacteria. 5/N

Figure 5 from the article. Image is a conceptualized drawing of the paths from different variables to soil organic carbon (SOC).

Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · Jul 23

Plants responded immediately, both in terms of productivity and community composition. Microbes, however, were slower to respond. We only observed community differences in the final growing season. There were also differences in microbial functional diversity. 4/N

Figure 3 from the article. Image is four panels of faceted (by year) box and whisker plots of soil microbial community responses.

Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · Jul 23

Over three growing seasons in northern Colorado, we measured plant growth and diversity, microbial community composition and function, and soil carbon. We hypothesized that plants and microbes jointly contributed to the soil carbon response.

What did we find? 3/N

Image is a photo of lead author, Shelby McClelland, conducting a plant transect in a pasture.

Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · Jul 23

Infrequent compost applications in managed grasslands can boost soil organic carbon stocks–even after discounting the carbon from the compost itself!

Read our earlier work 👉 tinyurl.com/a3nzcwbs

But! We still don’t fully understand how plants and microbes interact to build this carbon. 2/N

Infrequent compost applications increased plant productivity and soil organic carbon in irrigated pasture but not degraded rangeland

Improved agricultural soil management can facilitate the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to help keep planetary warming at or below 2 °C…

tinyurl.com

Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · Jul 23

✨ The LAST chapter of my dissertation is published! ✨

How do plant-soil feedbacks support carbon sequestration in grasslands receiving compost?

Here’s what we learned ⬇️

tinyurl.com/muk2ufe5

Soil organic carbon sequestration mediated by plant–microbe interactions after compost application

Organic amendments like compost can enhance soil health and climate change mitigation in managed grassland ecosystems. We previously demonstrated in a northern Colorado cool-season pasture that infre...

tinyurl.com

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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · Jun 3

Our Research Briefing is now out in Nature Climate Change!

We examine the spatially variable tradeoffs between climate change mitigation and crop yields under regenerative agriculture. Globally, safeguarding crop yields will substantially lower mitigation potential.

Read more ➡️ rdcu.be/eo6lE

Reposted by Shelby C. McClelland

Paul Behrens @profpaulbehrens.bsky.social · Jun 2

This is incredibly unfair: high-income nations with large dairy sectors are looking to adopt a "no additional warming" target, avoiding the methane cuts needed to meet international targets and pledges.

We have written an open letter to the NZ PM and I spoke to the FT👇🧵

www.ft.com/content/2ea6...

Scientists accuse New Zealand and Ireland of trying to cover up livestock emissions

‘Accounting trick’ to support methane-emitting sectors undermines fight against climate change, say researchers

www.ft.com

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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · May 21

Great coverage in the Cornell Chronicle of our paper including quotes from me and @dominicwoolf.bsky.social.

Read here ➡️ tinyurl.com/yfmwy34h

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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · May 19

If you want to explore some earlier, related data, check out these high resolution soil organic carbon maps from my colleagues over at SoilsRevealed.org. 12/N

Soils Revealed

Soils Revealed platform lets you see past soil organic carbon losses and opportunities for future gains, to manage soil health that helps mitigate climate change, promote clean water and biodiversity.

SoilsRevealed.org

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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · May 19

If you don’t have time for all the details, but want to learn more about our key findings, check out our accompanying press release from NYU, www.nyu.edu/about/news-p.... Later I'll post the link to our Research Briefing from @natureportfolio.nature.com 11/N

Scientists Identify Ways to Minimize Tradeoffs Between Crop Yields and Climate Benefits

Research highlights where and how regenerative farming could lead to win-wins for climate-change mitigation and crop production

www.nyu.edu

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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · May 19

A special shoutout to @dominicwoolf.bsky.social @matthewhayek.bsky.social for your mentorship and support! 10/N

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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · May 19

This study came out of an amazing collaboration between @cornelluniversity.bsky.social, @newyorkuniversity.bsky.social, CSU, @nature.org, @envdefensefund.bsky.social, and @woodwellclimate.bsky.social. Thanks to my collaborators who helped get this massive modeling effort to the finish line! 9/N

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