We have a new symposium at this year's European Palaeobotany and Palynology Conference in Muenster, Germany: Plant Paleoart: Perspectives and promises", organised by @palaeojules.bsky.social and myself! Both scientists and artists are welcome to contribute!

www.uni-muenster.de/GeoPalaeonto...

If you use GitHub (especially if you pay for it!!) consider doing this *immediately*

Settings -> Privacy -> Disallow GitHub to train their models on your code.

GitHub opted *everyone* into training. No matter if you pay for the service (like I do). WTH

github.com/settings/cop...

Our blog "Plant Life Belowground" celebrates two years anniversary. Thanks Curtis Lubbe, the editor! Read and share, ecologists need to learn more about belowground!

Job vacancies: University of Hohenheim Current job opportunities at the University of Hohenheim

our cluster is searching for a technical assistant for supporting joint plant phenotyping experiments to be carried out at the University of Hohenheim
www.uni-hohenheim.de/en/job-openi...

Graduate Student Position (M/F) 0204 Graduate Student Position (M/F) in Parallel Evolution of Clonality in Angiosperms...

We are looking for a new PhD student: Parallel Evolution of Clonality in Angiosperms www.ibot.cas.cz/en/vacancies...

Secondary Growth and Exodermal Barriers Shape Local Root Hydraulics: Modeling Insights in #Tomato
by Marco D’Agostino, Rémy Schoppach, Adrien Heymans, Valentin Couvreur, Guillaume Lobet
doi.org/10.64898/202... via @biorxiv-plants.bsky.social #PlantScience #RootScience

This morning I solved a little scripting problem in ~ 10 minutes.

ChatGPT failed to solve it after 40 minutes.

Claude failed to solve it in 20 minutes, then tried to convince me that I wanted to solve a different problem.

This is why we don't let LLMs near any @epic-biodiversity.org code.

Soils drive convergence in the regulation of vascular tension in land plants Terrestrial vascular plants operate under negative water potential, which results in hydraulic tension in the vascular system. Vascular tension varies with transpiration and soil drying and is regulat...

Out in @science.org this week. Soils drive convergence in the regulation of vascular tension in land plants. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

#plantscience
#ecophysiology

This is an incredibly useful read! How I’m learning to navigate academia as someone with ADHD www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Working with drylands and/or (semi-)arid catchments? Please consider our session on hydrological processes in dryland catchments www.egu26.eu/session/55943

Fig. 2 Hydraulic fluctuations at the cambium.

#TansleyInsight | On growth and flow: hydraulic aspects of aboveground meristems

@jalonsos.bsky.social 👇

📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

#LatestIssue #PlantScience #TansleyMedal

🎤Hi #dendrometer users! You are invited to join our new Dendrometer Network (catchy name still tbd 😜). Online meeting 10:30-12 CET Friday 12 Dec. Please share and let me know if you want to join and I will send the meeting link 🌴🎄🌳🌲

Many people think about cold in Northern Europe if the Atlantic Ocean current system #AMOC fails. But that wouldn’t be the only problem for Europe by far.
This new study shows that severe drought is another one. 🌊

Atmospheric Feedbacks Reverse the Sensitivity of Modeled Photosynthesis to Stomatal Function Atmospheric feedbacks reverse the direction of photosynthesis sensitivity to stomatal function in the tropics and high latitudes Stomatal function with higher water cost per carbon gain leads to ...

New lab paper: How does photosynthesis respond to assumptions about stomatal functioning? We find that including atmospheric feedbacks reverses the direction of photosyn. response => stomatal cond. changes temp. & water stress. Led by Amy Liu, w/ many collaborators! doi.org/10.1029/2025...

Weak global trade‐off between frost and drought resistance in trees Drought and frost stresses play important roles in determining species distributions, especially at range margins. Understanding how stress resistance traits interact to determine vulnerability to c...

Resharing new paper
@newphyt.bsky.social 🧪

🌳We found a weak trade-off: drought resistant trees tend to be less frost-hardy & vice versa 🌡️🔥❄️
🌲💪 Conifers are generally tougher than angiosperms🌺
🧐No "costs" related to fast-slow economics spectrum 🍃🌱
📖more:
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Like math and plant community ecology?

I am recruiting one or two new Ph.D. students to work on theory and its integration with data in the areas of forest dynamics, species coexistence, or plant community ecology more generally.

Deadlines for the EEB and Plant Biology programs are Dec. 1.

JOB ALERT! We are looking for a LAB MANAGER (7-year position!) to help us build the MOLECULAR BIODIVERSITY lab in our @terra-cluster.org at @unituebingen.bsky.social. Are you a NGS wet lab expert, and you like the idea of supporting research on natural biodiversity, then apply!

Please re-post!

Digital microscope photographing a five-armed vascular strand in a fossil stem cross section. Specimen sections in boxes on the table next to microscope controls, a keyboard and a monitor displaying a compisite image of the fossil.

#FossilFriday
Five-lobed strand of water-conducting tissue in the ~400 million year old stem of Gothanophyton, being welcomed into the digital age today at Uni Münster.

Massive thanks to Benjamin Bomfleur for doing everything to make this possible and being a wonderful host!

Do you study effect of disturbance on large scales? Use Belowground Persistence Types of plants! We hope that they will help us to understand better ecosystem resilience than only plant traits.

Short, thick segments of light-coloured roots woven into a brown soil with dark cracks and macropores. Glare at image top and bottom from LED light.

Technician carefully inserting a camera on a very long rail into a transparent tube in the ground in a beech forest.

First images from our #HydroScale Průhonice site show a cluster of beech roots growing at a depth of 1.2m!

Michal Man there, using the new device to #GoBelowground. We may need to come up with a new name for it--doesn't feel like a "mini" rhizotron.

Job vacancies: University of Hohenheim Current job opportunities at the University of Hohenheim

... and a scientific coordinator for experiments of the "Plant Perturbation Atlas" within our cluster www.uni-hohenheim.de/en/job-openi...

Stellenangebote: Universität Hohenheim Aktuelle Stellenangebote der Universität Hohenheim.

JOB ALERT! Do you also love large ecological experiments? Become coordinator of our big new geo-biosphere experiment in @terra-cluster.org. 7-year position! Follow link for details.
@gfoesoc.bsky.social
@britishecologicalsociety.org
@ecologicalsociety.bsky.social
@uslter.bsky.social

Please repost!

This is why we fund scientists to study things like oyster slobber even if you don’t think it sounds important

Single-nucleus transcriptomics revealed auxin-driven mechanisms of wood plasticity to enhance severe drought tolerance in poplar - Genome Biology Background Drought significantly affects forests and woody crops by limiting their growth, increasing their susceptibility to diseases, and reducing productivity. Wood anatomical plasticity is a crucial adaptive mechanism that enables trees to cope with fluctuations in water availability. During severe drought, trees develop more and narrower vessels, enhancing hydraulic safety and reducing the risk of embolism. However, the molecular regulation of vessel formation is still not well understood. Results Using single-nucleus transcriptomics, we have generated a cell type-specific gene expression map of the mature poplar stem under well-watered and drought conditions. Our findings reveal extensive gene expression reprogramming in xylem-forming cells, with changes in auxin homeostasis identified as a key mechanism for anatomical adaptation. Specifically, we show that poplar WAT1-like genes control vessel spatial patterning. Additionally, the downregulation of WAT1-like gene expression in the dividing cells of the vascular cambium and the upregulation of MP-like gene expression in cells undergoing early vessel differentiation facilitate the formation of secondary xylem with narrower and more numerous vessels under drought. Furthermore, the wat2 mutant exhibits greater drought tolerance than wild-type trees, underscoring its potential for developing drought-resilient tree varieties. Conclusions This study provides the first single-nucleus transcriptomic map of hybrid poplar stems under severe drought, uncovering auxin-driven hormonal networks that regulate xylem plasticity and enhance drought tolerance. These insights provide valuable targets for improving resilience in poplar and other woody species.

How do trees survive severe drought? 🌳 In this work performed at @cbgpmadrid.bsky.social , we used single-nucleus RNA-seq on mature Populus stems to reveal the genetic switches that reshape wood anatomy, helping trees stay resilient under severe drought stress.
doi.org/10.1186/s130...

Intraindividual Variability as a Large Source of Trait Variation in Clonal Tundra Dwarf Shrubs Along Elevation and Latitude Gradients Aim Intraindividual trait variability (iITV), which is the variability among repeated architectural units within an individual, may represent a crucial dimension of functional diversity in plant eco...

This study documents extensive intraindividual trait variability (variability among repeated units within an individual) within clonal plants for both size-architectural and leaf traits (up to 100% of total). Congrats to @albaanadon.bsky.social and co-authors !

doi.org/10.1111/geb....
[Open access]

This print was added to our store by popular demand.

PRINT ◆ smbc-store.myshopify.com/products/aut...
ORIGINAL COMIC ◆ www.smbc-comics.com/comic/autism...

Job Alert! The University of Tübingen is hiring a FULL PROFESSOR (W3) in FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY! Come and join our institute, and maybe our new excellence clusters @terra-cluster.org and @greenrobust.de. @gfoesoc.bsky.social @britishecologicalsociety.org @ecologicalsociety.bsky.social Please repost!

Plant Bodies The book about how the knowledge of the shapes of the plant body contributed and contributes to the understanding of plant life strategies.

As happy author I wold like to advertise my new book. I am presenting what do we know about functions of plant morphological characters. I hope it will change a way how ecologists look at plants and insipire them in their research. (link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

A beautiful, sobering piece for everyone beginning their syllabi and lesson plans for the fall...

www.gramercyreview.com/erasure/