Selecting coastal California prairie species for climate-smart grassland restoration Published in CNGA Grasslands Journal, PDF: justinluong.com/assets/pdf/L... #restorationecology #grasslands

Local grassland restoration affects insect communities doi.org/10.1111/een.... Local scale grassland in coastal Santa Barbara, CA affects insects communities resulting in less hyper dominance of herbivorous pests like thrips, and higher abundance and possible refuge for native bumblebees

Gorgeous.

HAPPY PRIDE from California Native Plants and the Luong Lab!!! 🤍🩷🩵🤎🖤❤️🧡💛💚💙💜 This 2026 Flag from our lab features 152 california native plants! Did you know California is a Biodiversity hotspot with over 6000 native plants? How many plants can you name or spot? 🧐 #CaliforniaNativePlants

Check out our new lab instagram page! www.instagram.com/restorationa...

Updated my website 🥰 JustinLuong.com

Crazy times...

Join us tonight for our the California Native Grassland Association tonight at 6PM for a talk by Jessica Solis titled "Carbon Flux Dynamics from a Coastal Grassland Disturbed by Wildfire". Free for members and students or $10 for all others! Hope to see you there! cnga.org/event-6278005

Cool talk by Emma King looking at how Irish wind energy installation affects biodiversity!!

🧪 #SER2025 @justinluong.com just gave a really cool and quick talk on the work he and many others are doing to build a network of support for grassland restoration practitioners in California. Check it out! justinluong.com/menu/grassne...

A great presentation by Julia Briand at #Ser2025 about how we can improve integration of functional traits for ecological restoration across scales and trophic levels!

NSF GRFP Solicitation now live (www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...) Deadlines - Life Sciences: Nov 10, Geosciences: Nov 14, Social Sciences: Nov 12

I've reached my first 100 cited paper! 🥳 www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...

Join us tonight for a double feature presentation by Andrea Nebhut (Stanford) and Deborah Ayala (Texas AM)!!! Cnga.org/events at 6 PM pst

Apparently Sept 15 is prospective graduate student inquiry day!

Dept of Plant Biology at UIUC hiring in any subdiscipline of Mycology and/or Plant-Fungal Interactions tenure-track faculty position at the assistant professor level. Apply by Oct 31, 2025. For complete details including salary and benefit information, visit go.illinois.edu/PlantBiolfac...

Join us for the kick off of the 2025 GRASS Student Seminar Series!! Free for students or members tonight at 6 PM PST - register at cnga.org/event-6289388 for $10/talk or become members and see the rest of the series free while supporting California Native Grasslands!

sun sets at 240am in california tonight - dont miss it! ✨️ ai ✨️

After several years studying grasses and forbs in Yellowstone National Park in the US, researchers have formally documented the power of bison as nature’s own fertilizing agents. cen.acs.org/environment/... #chemsky 🧪

Applications for the 2026 Pivot to Plants Fellows Program at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center are now open. Location: St. Louis, MO Application Deadline: October 15, 2025 Dates: Jan. 5, 2026 – Dec. 23, 2026 Estimated Stipend: $37,275 Learn more: www.danforthcenter.org/our-work/edu...

Is ecological restoration of grasslands successful? You'll have to read to find out more ;) but a quick preview says yes!! Interviews with managers show there are limitations both creative ways forward! Check out an amazing illustrated summary by LesleyGoren.com doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2023.109956

We know diversity = more ideas, novelty, advancement and desirable outcomes but how do we recruit and retain diversity? In our paper, me and other LGBTQ+ restoration ecologists outline issues and solutions to retaining and supporting queer ecologists onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

We need PEOPLE! in the ecosystems, being in the grassland makes you appreciate it more, but it could be informed by how trails affect plants. We found native and invasive bunchgrasses have different responses to trail disturbance on California coastal prairies! doi.org/10.1007/s11258-022-01284-z

Join us for California Native Grassland Association's 4th Annual Virtual Speaker Series for Student Grant Winners! Register at CNGA.org/events for $10/talk (unlimited access after), or become a member and come to all talks free with membership, and access all previous talks. Hope to see you soon!

🚨Job Alert!! Assistant professor vacancy ‘plant abiotic stress resilience’ in our group @uuplants.bsky.social Come for the science, stay for the amazing colleagues 😀More details here www.uu.nl/en/organisat... Please share!!

AMAZING opportunity to lead the future of the Macaulay Lab (home of the beloved Merlin App) at the Lab of Ornithology at Cornell University. Search is on for a new Director. Please forward along! academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30293

Join us for California Native Grassland Association's 4th Annual Virtual Speaker Series for Student Grant Winners! Register at CNGA.org/events for $10/talk (unlimited access after), or become a member and come to all talks free with membership, and access all previous talks. Hope to see you soon!

New paper out!! We found compost increased bulk carbon in some contexts but with trade-offs that resulted in higher invasive species cover but there was more available forage. Native seeding at recommended rates had no effect and may need to be higher for degraded rangelands doi.org/10.1016/j.ra...

Light peeks through

Caturday onLEASHED

🔥🌱 From the upcoming #AJB Special Issue: “Understanding novel #fire regimes using plant trait‐based approaches" 🌱🔥 Testing key tenets of pyro-ecophysiology: Indicators of #drought response in relation to shoot flammability By Niger Sultana et al. doi.org/10.1002/ajb2... # botany #plantscience

We need PEOPLE! in the ecosystems, being in the grassland makes you appreciate it more, but it could be informed by how trails affect plants. We found native and invasive bunchgrasses have different responses to trail disturbance on California coastal prairies! doi.org/10.1007/s11258-022-01284-z

This was a very important paper then and even more so now.

Protect the endangered Nipomo Lupine!!! #scienceart #scienceillustration

We know diversity = more ideas, novelty, advancement and desirable outcomes but how do we recruit and retain diversity? In our paper, me and other LGBTQ+ restoration ecologists outline issues and solutions to retaining and supporting queer ecologists onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

a few years ago I found that non-periodic restoration activities can promote native woody species encroachment in California coastal prairies, specifically by Baccharis pilularis (coyote brush). This may suggest a need for stewardship of coastal grasslands! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Drought favors key plant functional groups and strategies, especially rhizomatous species; thatch is also related to lower native plant cover! I wrote a small piece for California Native Grasslands Association's on Selecting Coastal California Prairie Species for Climate-Smart Grassland Restoration

Ecological restoration is successful at meeting minimum targets - but is that enough? Our review of eco-restoration found there's preference using 'work-horse' or species that will succeed contributing to a lack of recovery from biotic homogenization ($ limited) doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2022.05.002

Have you ever wondered about developmental tradeoffs of California native plants or if they do better than invasives during drought? Check out our paper: Adjustments in physiological and morphological traits suggest drought-induced competitive release of some CA plants doi.org/10.1002/ece3...

Big news!! I now an Assistant Professor of Working Lands and Restoration in the Environmental Science, Policy and Management Dept at UC Berkeley!! I'll miss my time in Humboldt but excited for my new journey and grateful for all the support from everyone over the years! @natureatcal.bsky.social

We had a funeral for our beloved lab scanner last week. She shall be missed R.I.P. circa. 2017 - 2025 😭🪦💔

Nice article in @pressdemo.bsky.social about how the Milo Baker chapter of the California Native Plant Society is restoring native coastal dune-wetland ecosystems at Doran Beach and elsewhere by removing invasive iceplant and European dune grass: www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news...

I need a reviewer/specialist interested for an insect based functional diversity recovery after restoration study -- any multi-taxa restoration or community ecologists interested???

Stanford is hiring an Assistant Professor of Traditional Ecological Knowledge!!! facultypositions.stanford.edu/en-us/job/49...

I am very happy to share that @calpolyhumboldt.bsky.social is now the first and only accredited undergraduate rangeland degree program in California through an effort I led!! 🤠 now.humboldt.edu/news/rangela...

Fairies for Revolution 🧚🏽‍♂️🇵🇸

Arroyo Lupine - Lupinus succulentus at a urban restoration project in Santa Barbara #CaliforniaNativePlants

I made a feed for California Native Plants!! You can contribute with that term or #CaliforniaNativePlants bsky.app/profile/did:...