Good news, we got a microscope camera! I can now make better ID guides for lab protocols, and that is very exciting

Anyone have a recommendation on fungicides? I'm looking for one that will kill all fungi and another that will spare mycorrhiza but kill pathogens

The to-do list doesn't end but hey, at least my paper revision is done. I'll take wins where I can get them

All of the men dropped out of my biogeochemistry class, most of the women are still standing! #WomeninSTEM

Does anyone come back to writing after a period of lab/field work and feel like a complete dunce? It's like I have to build skills and endurance back up every time I come back to work on manuscripts

Does anyone on here have expertise relating to dark septate endophytes? If so, I have some questions about how to distinguish the hyaline hyphae from other types of endophytic fungi

Can any urban ecologists tell me about something exciting in the field relating to invasive species? I'm preparing a lecture about invasive spp. and want to have something new about urban systems (since our university is in the middle of a big city and the students can relate)

Day 4 of not having electricity. Cheers to the friends letting me stay with them, boo to the apartment complex not sending updates.

One of the seniors in the class I'm TA-ing had the gall to complain about how "difficult" the class is after the first week.... dude didn't even do the first assignment! He came to my office, complained about the 3-page worksheet being too long, and then left to attend a basketball game.

First semester as a TA and they're straight up not reading the assignments before asking for help. Two students came to my office to ask "How do I do the lab" and hadn't read the instructions. How do I fix them? They're broken, that's not how normal people approach a task.

I just got the syllabus and textbook for my biogeochemistry class this semester, amazing stuff. I wish this had been part of my undergrad ecology curriculum!

Doing lab work that requires a hotplate today because my lab is 60 F.

If anyone doesn't know how universities are being affected by the Trump administration, my department was supposed to have 14 new grad students this semester and only 7 or 8 were able to get a visa interview in time to actually get here.

Two fungi Purple Jellydisc and Hairy Curtain Crust #fungi

My new year's resolution is to get 3 manuscripts submitted to journals and two of those through to publication. The main one is a greenhouse experiment that I started planning in fall 2022 and I really want to be done with it

Spending a full day in the lab would be so much easier if I could get lunch somewhere near campus. Sometimes I bring lunch but it's not ideal since there's no fridge in the break room. Sigh.

I'm so glad I have a good advisor. Being able to take a week long vacation has been wonderful, feeling ready to take on the revisions and lab work

There's a chapter (published Nov 2025 so there's no excuse) saying that all mycorrhiza are in Glomeromycotina, which is just false. They discuss ECM and ERM which are mostly in Ascomycota and Basidiomycota. What does one do to get this corrected? Will emailing the authors or publisher be better?

Good morning, it's 51 F in my lab this morning. Will the university ever turn on the heat in my building? Reporting live from my desk in a parka and knit bonnet

Moths are drinking moose tears? Nature is amazing esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Anyone have a good tip to actually get work done? I cannot bring myself to do another round of revisions on this paper, or work on finals

Very interesting article! Perhaps a pathway to reduce emissions from inorganic fertilizer? Harnessing entomopathogenic fungi: A meta‐analysis on their role as plant growth promoters - Crosby - 2025 - PLANTS, PEOPLE, PLANET - Wiley Online Library nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

WE WANT TRAINS! The public is sending a message: Amtrak is setting ridership records, carrying 34.5 million passengers in fiscal year 2024-25, while ticket revenue is $2.764 billion. www.trains.com/pro/passenge...

COP30 takeaways so far: I'm much more hopeful after attending a full day of this. I've heard about so many adaptation and mitigation measures in so many countries that I feel like we can really come together as humans and make the necessary changes to not only save, but lift up vulnerable people

No matter how hard people try to convince us having empathy is wrong, it is right. No matter how hard people try to convince us that diversity is a weakness, it is a strength. No matter how hard people try to convince us that love is limited, it is unlimited.

Dean of academics: "We can't cover tuition because the USDA doesn't allow it for non-citizens" Me and the four other US citizens in the program:

It's 56 F in my lab today and we have a mycorrhizal colonization training so I'm going to freeze until at least 12:30 😭 Why can't facilities turn off the AC???

The business cards came in! I'm gonna network up a storm at COP30 😎

democrats of all stripes should be rallying around kat abughazaleh asap. it doesnt matter where you stand ideologically. trying to jail dissenters is fundamentally unamerican and 100% fascist. democratic leaders at all levels should be making noise about it. you dont need a poll or focus group.

Proud to say I've managed to shoehorn Kernza into yet another class presentation

Today in 1949, A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold was first published. That book had an enormous impact on how I think about land and helped create the idea of a “land ethic.”

Making good slides takes so long, I hope literally anyone in the class appreciates the design and narrative

Someone broke into my dad's car this weekend and stole nothing, not even a bound copy of my thesis. If only they had read "Hardwood Regeneration in Kalmia latifolia Thickets", maybe they would leave the criminal life and become plant-soil feedback researchers instead 😞

One thing I've noticed now that I'm in an Ag program is that a lot of my peers know nothing about the natural world. I think including some ecology/environmental science classes in undergrad ag curriculum would help move us towards more sustainable ag in the future

“‘I often wonder, even though the teaching of Sacred Scripture is so clear about the poor, why many people continue to think that they can safely disregard the poor,’ Pope Leo XIV states in his first magisterial document …” www.americamagazine.org/vatican-disp...

nothing but respect for my Antichrist

I got badged for four days at COP30 and (against all odds) we got a place to stay! If you'll be there and want to meet for a coffee let me know 😄

🚨 Please repost widely!🚨 I am recruiting a PhD student to join my lab next fall to work on forest and climate change ecology projects in southern Appalachia! Come join me in one of the most beautiful, biodiverse, and understudied parts of North America. Details below and happy to answer questions

Amazing, love to see progress in conservation www.unesco.org/en/articles/...

RIP 🤍 www.nytimes.com/2025/10/01/o...

"Some have chosen to deride the increasingly evident signs of climate change, to ridicule those who speak of global warming, and even to blame the poor for the very thing that affects them the most." BBC News - Pope Leo condemns climate change critics www.bbc.com/news/article...

Happy Monday! I hope everyone is enjoying the work that was scheduled for Friday, continued into the weekend, and still needs time on Monday 😅

It’s getting very dark very fast. 🇺🇸 www.kenklippenstein.com/p/trumps-nsp...

Has anyone studied the effects of having food in the workplace? The nearest food to my work building is half a mile away, which isn't far but I think we'd all spend more time on campus if we could get a coffee during the day. I'd also spend more time working if I weren't freezing all the time.

🚨HEY NASHVILLE — THERE’S A SPECIAL ELECTION GOING ON — WHY ARE Y’ALL NOT VOTING? All schools in Davidson County will be closed on October 7th and Dec 2nd for an election… no one is showing up to? (H/T @LisaQuigleyTN)

We're halfway through early voting for the special election primary and less than 4000 people have voted in Davidson County, TN. None of the candidates mention climate change on their websites, but Aftyn Behn wrote a substack post on it so she's the best candidate (low bar) on the environment

Finally learning to do GIS work in R instead of ArcGIS Pro, this is great! Data management is easier, I have a record of the data cleaning/analysis in the script, and it runs faster. Highly recommend

It's badging time, who all's going to COP30?