Fun day of events at Hopkins yesterday! Photo of my current lab group - I’m so proud of my PhD students & postdoc! I feel so lucky to lead such an incredible group! ☺️

Unsolicited seaweed product review: these Trader Joe’s“Sticky Rice & Seaweed Crisps” are quite tasty! 😋 I just wish they would specify which species were used (2nd ingredient is “seaweed,” last ingredient is “kelp powder”)…!

Another beautiful kelp forest science dive today! Such good visibility 😍 🌊

No Kings Protest, Monterey, CA! Love to see the turnout, even in smaller cities ☺️

📢 NEW OA PAPER 📢

Read here, in the latest paper from my PhD, about the impacts of small-scale temperate kelp farming on sedimentary carbon stocks.

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

#bluecarbon #eDNA #kelpfarming

Pervasive Fitness Trade‐Offs Revealed by Rapid Adaptation to Shifting Population Densities in Large Experimental Populations of Drosophila melanogaster Trade-offs are an inherent feature of organismal biology and fundamental to the evolution of natural populations. Using experimental evolution in large, genetically diverse populations of Drosophila ...

Really excited to see this work out now in Ecology Letters!
May be particularly interesting to those thinking about life-history trade-offs and eco-evolutionary feedbacks, and how those may interact to maintain variation within natural populations.

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

Always so fun to poke through the herbarium. 🥰 You can visit it virtually here, with 8,000+ images! www.gbif.org/dataset/1154...

For #PhycologyFriday, here is a glimpse into the Gilbert Smith Herbarium at Hopkins, including many specimens from Isabella Abbott and a Rhodymenia from 1940! @thalassalib.bsky.social @stanfordhopkins.bsky.social

Field Report: Baseline eDNA Mapping of the Sunflower Sea Star across California Madeleine Pacheco, Ashley Kidd, Zachary Gold, Paul Barber, Sarah Gravem | March 2026 Water Sample Collection We conducted eDNA sampling from the CA Channel Islands to the North Coast. Our sites included known historical hotspots, areas of recent confirmed and anecdotal sightings, and representative marine protected areas (MPAs) and adjacent reference sites along the California coast in 2025. Ashley Kidd from Sunflower Star Lab (right) and Dr. Sarah Gravem from CSU San Luis Obispo and Maddie (left). Analysis at NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory We ran a recently validated, highly sensitive, and species-specific eDNA quantitative PCR assay for Pycnopodia helianthoides in March 2026. Lab photos featuring Zack Gold and Han Weinrich. We found Pycnos in California! Half Moon Reef Navarro Beach Van Damme State Park Mendocino Headlands Shell Beach Jughandle Beach Noyo Beach No sunflower stars were detected south of Half Moon Bay.

Table of which sites had detections

Field Report: Baseline #eDNA Mapping of the Sunflower Sea Star across California

Amazing work from UCLA PhD student Maddie Pacheco

First detection of Pycnos south of Golden Gate Bridge in over a decade!

Congrats to @jellyfishvibes.bsky.social!! 🌊 🤿

Haldane Prize 2025 | Carolina Olguín-Jacobson: Recovery mode: Marine protected areas enhance resilience of invertebrate species from marine heatwave 2025 HALDANE PRIZE SHORTLIST: Carolina Olguín Jacobson discusses her paper “Recovery mode: Marine protected areas enhance resilience of invertebrate species from marine heatwaves”, which has been s…

⭐️Shortlisted for the 2025 Haldane Prize!⭐️

🪸Carolina Olguín-Jacobson used kelp forest monitoring data to assess the impact, resistance and recovery of marine heatwaves on fish and invertebrate communities inside and outside marine reserves🐟️

@jellyfishvibes.bsky.social

buff.ly/sAv1GGL

🧪🌍️

Program on Climate Change (PCC) Postdoctoral Scholar Program 2026 | Program on Climate Change

Postdoc Fellowship opportunity! UW Program on Climate Change has a new for a Postdoctoral Scholar program for fellows to develop and conduct novel climate science research that benefits from collaborations at UW. Apply by April 15th! pcc.uw.edu/research/fun...

So fun! I used to live in Bellingham, wish I could visit that coffee shop and see your art! :)

Absolutely gorgeous day tidepooling with my Marine Algae class @stanfordhopkins.bsky.social! 🌊

In case you missed it: our review titled "Spatial structure: shaping the ecology and evolution of microbial communities" is out! 🚨

Let me hit you with some highlights on why spatial structure matters. (and why you should care!)

Sharing is appreciated 🙏 🧵👇

doi.org/10.1093/fems...

Assistant/Associate Specialist - Phycological Specialist - University and Jepson Herbaria University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!

Awesome Master’s degree level #Phycology job at UC Berkeley!

aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05258?fbc...

✨Kelp embryos looking extra photogenic under the confocal today 🌱🔬 Young Egregia menziesii embryos developing from the megagametophyte 📸 Image by Siobhan Braybrook #FluorescentFriday

WATCH: Trump, EPA's Zeldin announce end of scientific basis for U.S. action on climate change The Trump administration on Thursday revoked a scientific finding that long has been the central basis for U.S. action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change, the most aggressiv...

Today, the Trump administration repealed the endangerment finding: the ruling that served as the basis for limits on tailpipe emissions and power plant rules. Without it, we’ll be less safe, less healthy and less able to fight climate change—all so the fossil fuel industry can make even more money.

Proud PI moment... I just submitted my first sbatch script as a #newPI to start metagenomic microbial data analysis again! 👩‍💻🧬 After a year of starting a lab & writing endless grants, I just want to look at data again! 👀

Oh how I missed this snowy landscape! Wisconsin 💙❄️

Absolutely gorgeous day tidepooling with students in my Marine Algae class yesterday! So much algal diversity, and a bonus Hopkins rose nudibranch! 🌊

Sunday hike reset, ready for another week! ⛰️ 🐕

We just released #anvio v9, "eunice" 🎉

This version represents over 2,000 changes in the codebase since v8, increasing the total number of programs in the anvi'o ecosystem to 176.

Read the release notes:

github.com/merenlab/anv...

Visit our up-to-date web page:

anvio.org

Finding beauty (& green algae for my phycology class) under the seawater outflow pipe!

Aerial view of a cityscape with a "WE ARE HIRING" text overlay.

Come join us at #UWEnvironment! @uwsafs.bsky.social and UW Friday Harbor Labs are hiring an assistant professor who specializes in marine invertebrate organismal biology. About the job and how to apply: https://bit.ly/44sItYr

So beautiful! Glad you are having fun out there!

This was a big year, starting my new research lab! So proud of all of my students. Happy Holidays from the Weigel Lab, and the kelp! 🎅🏻❄️🎄🌊

Dictyota coriacea (“Y-branched algae”) is our seaweed of the week! #PhycologyFriday

Cryptonemia obovata (which has no common name, but “red lobe weed” seems fitting) is our seaweed of the week! Red blades are notoriously difficult to identify, but supposedly this is one of the most common taxa in San Diego #PhycologyFriday

Amazing long-term monitoring program!! 👏