Lab postdoc Ilaine shares her new paper in New Phytologist! If you ever spend time looking at leaves of different species, you probably noticed that the way leaf veins are organized varies enormously (Fig.1). Some leaves only have a single vein, others exhibit complex venation networks with thousands of interconnected veins. Some networks are strictly... Read More ..read more

I just had a new paper come out (read in in the American Journal of Botany or download a PDF) exploring the question of why triploid aspen are common in western North America. This pattern is initially difficult to explain because triploids typically have low fertility due to chromosome segregation problems. The study does a detailed exploration of possible population-level mechanisms enabling coexistence of different ploidy levels. It shows that clonality is probably the main force maintaining triploids (so that long lifespan can balance out low reproduction), though numerous other mechanis ..read more

Like a straw can collapse under the suction of a thirsty drinker, the xylem conduits in leaves can collapse as water potential declines during droughts (Figure 1). In collapsed conduits the water flow is limited or even completely interrupted, so plants must reinforce their conduits to resist crushing pressures. The thicker the conduit double cell wall (T) relative to its maximum diameter (D), i.e. T/D, the greater the resistance against collapse. Having safer conduits (i.e. narrower and thicker conduits) may incur higher costs and reduced flow, while having less resistant xylem (i.e. wider an ..read more

Lab undergraduate student Dan Chen (now graduated!) just published a new methods paper on doing statistical inference on hypervolumes. It provides some important extensions to the hypervolume R package to do hypothesis tests, calculate p-values, etc. He and Alex Laini did the key development work. You can read it at the journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution open-access here ..read more

History Colorado’s Lost Highways podcast recently featured my article, A Lynching in Gothic, Colorado?. You can listen to the episode, put together by Blake Pfeil, at: https://pod.link/1477656916/episode/78f0ec1c4599c869782eabecd9c2cfc0 How did the mountains get so white? Not snow, but people. It wasn’t always so. And on this episode we look at a particular history of violence toward Chinese immigrants and Indigenous communities in one of Colorado’s scenic mountain towns. We’ll examine how it echoes in the present with increased violence toward Asian communities that began during the height of ..read more

We’ve had a lot to celebrate this last week – Erin passed her PhD qualifying exam, Megan and Aunnesha presented their theses to the College. They co-won the university’s Melis Medal, awarded for the best undergraduate thesis and distinction in research. It’s wonderful to see their hard work recognized by our community ..read more

Several lab members and collaborators are presenting at AGU in San Francisco this year – check out their work! Luiza Aparecido Abstract ID: 1251715 Final Paper Number and Abstract Title: B43D-01: Stomatal conductance depends on leaf temperature in addition to vapor pressure deficit: a meta-analysis across biomes Presentation Type: Oral Session Number and Title: B43D: Vegetation Canopies: Physiology, Structure, Function I Oral Session Date and Time: Thursday, 14 December 2023; 14:10 – 15:40 PST Presentation Length: 14:12 – 14:22 PST Location: MC, 3010 – West Benjamin Blonder Abstract ID: 131832 ..read more

Our new book just came out, building on a decade of K-12 education work at Sky School. You can buy the print version (all royalties donated), or also read the book freely online or download a PDF. The book is the outcome of five years of writing and is lavishly illustrated with examples of students learning and of student work. Please give it a read, or share with your networks! Place-Based Scientific Inquiry: A Practical Handbook for Teaching Outside By Benjamin Wong Blonder, Ja’Nya Banks, Austin Cruz, Anna Dornhaus, R. Keating Godfrey, Joshua S. Hoskinson, Rebecca Lipson, Pacifica Sommers ..read more

Jarome Ali just led a new paper on bird extinctions,  using  hypervolume  methods to assess how functional diversity varies for almost all species of birds under different extinction risks. This was part of his masters’ work and is an important contribution. White-necked Rockfowl (Picathartes gymnocephalus): a morphologically distinctive species threatened with extinction. Credit: Joe Tobias Read the article, or the journal summary, or check out the press coverage ..read more

Fieldwork in ecology and the environmental sciences often leads to negative physical and emotional outcomes for workers. I argue that this is largely due to an abdication of responsibility on the part of their supervisors, and that supervisors are charged with carrying three interlinked moral burdens: first, the duty of promoting safety; second, the duty of ensuring safe experiences are accessible to all; and third, the duty of continuing to learn and improve. To help, I offer a set of safety actions that supervisors can easily implement. I then offer a set of personal reflections on how we sh ..read more