Responsible herping Every spring, thousands of amphibians embark on a perilous journey from their wintering grounds to breeding pools. This event is often referred to as the "Big Night." While they face many natural...

✨Amphibian migration has begun here in Rochester, NY 🐸

I drafted a guide on my website on how to “herp” responsibly from a conservation scientist’s perspective.

Please share!

megalabrit.weebly.com/responsible-...

#conservation #amphibian #communityscience #herpetology #ecology

Happy International Women’s Day! Thankful for all the funny, strong, creative, compassionate, supportive, and intelligent women in my life, especially those I get to share my lab with @rittigers.bsky.social! 💖✨🧬🔬

#WomeninSTEM #InternationalWomensDay

As a fun lab meeting activity right before break, one of my students designed a @jeopardyofficial.bsky.social game about our lab! My favorite category was “slack quotes.” Feeling so lucky to have such amazing @ritscience.bsky.social students! 💖

#MicroSky 🌎🐸🐢🐍🦎🦠🧫

Last call for abstracts! Join us at the Global Amphibian & Reptile Disease conference 🐸🐍🦎🐢🌎🦠🧬🧪

If you are a student whose NSF GRFP application was returned without review for vague 'eligibility' reasons:
1) Let your department chair & Graduate School know. Encourage them to contact NSF & congress
2) Write to your congressional reps.
3) Write to grfp@nsf.gov to request re-consideration;

Just a little over a week left to submit your abstract for #GARD26! 🧪🌎🧬🦠

🐸 Don’t miss out on networking with other herpetologists around the #salamander capital of the world!

Registration is open! 🧪🌎

Calling all herpers, ecologists, & #conservation researchers! 🧪🌏

🌟Join us in Knoxville!

#GARD26 #microbiology #disease #herpetology #ecology

🧪🧬🌎

We want to hear about your research! Spread the word and apply by Feb 1, 2026 🌎🐸🦠

Simons Empire Faculty Fellowship to fund four College of Science positions RIT’s College of Science will receive funding from the Simons Empire Faculty Fellows program for four junior tenure-track faculty positions.

Come be my colleague! Our college at RIT 🐅 has recently secured funding for four new professorships including one in #ecology & #evolution thanks to @simonsfoundation.org! ✨🧬🎉🧪🌎

www.rit.edu/news/simons-...

Are you a researcher studying amphibian & reptile disease? We want to hear about your research! Come join us at #GARD26 in Knoxville 🌎

Please share!

#conservation #herpetology

Applications for travel grants to #GARD26 are due Nov. 1st! We encourage diverse participation especially by those with limited financial resources and early career researchers. Join us in Knoxville! 🐸🐍🐢🌎

Apply: utconferences.eventsair.com/third-gard-c...

#herpetology #amphibian #reptile

“Our genes changed when we started to tangle with yeast and lactic acid bacteria, and theirs didn't. And so from the standard storytelling, we would say, well, they domesticated us.” -Dr. Rob Dunn

For thousands of years, humans have harnessed microbes to ferment beer and bread. But ecologist Rob Dunn asks: Who’s really in charge of this relationship?

buff.ly/BZyFzN6

🌍 Languages of Life | Línguas da Vida | Bahasa Kehidupan 🗣️🌱

Biodiversity doesn’t speak only English. 🌳🐒
If species cross borders, our words should too.
New paper in @ConLetters : why saving life also means using more languages

🔗conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/conl.13...

Please share with anyone who cares about NSF support for graduate students and take 30 seconds to sign and leave a comment.

The deadline for the 2025 Graduate Research Fellowship Program is about one month away and literally no one can apply. #NSFGRFP

jasonjwilliamsny.github.io/grfp2025/

Image shows a wheel with colourful wedges. The wedges are marked with words like 'sustainability', 'wellbeing' and 'policy'

An update to the Zoo Sphere of Influence model was recently published in the Biological Conservation journal (tinyurl.com/zoosphere)

This model, first conceived in 2023, originally set out to replace the 50-year-old perception of zoos and aquariums...

🌎1/4

My amazing @ritscience.bsky.social student, Emma, attended Princeton EEB scholars program last week. So proud of her! She is looking for #PhD programs this cycle so if you are looking for a student that can bridge field, lab, and computational biology… she is the PERFECT person for your lab! 👩🏼‍🔬🧬✨

Come join us as we plan for the Global Amphibian & Reptile Disease Conference 2026! 🐸🐍🐢🦎🦠🌎

📖Published📖

Neshat et al. introduce MicroEcoTools, an R package designed to test ecological framework predictions using microbial community data 🦠 🌎 🧪

Read the article here 👇

buff.ly/sXnPdhO

Bacteria poison and eat their neighbors Bacteria leverage a secretion system to kill and scavenge nutrients from nearby competitors

It’s a bacterium-eats-bacterium world…

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

30+ dead turtles alongside NY Highway 90 killed by cars as they try to cross from @deptfishwildlife.bsky.social Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge 🤬😭 @governor.ny.gov we need wildlife crossings! @dec.ny.gov

Image showing experimental design with map of Washington state showing increased precipitation from west to east. Soil was collected from field sites along this gradient and transplanted to the greenhouse where Camelina was grown in the soil under controlled conditions and their microbiome identified.

Another project from my time @jgi.doe.gov published @phytobiomesjournal.bsky.social ! Using a greenhouse soil transplant experiment we uncover the core microbiome of Camelina & show how past cropping regimes/precipitation can exert a legacy effect on microbiome assembly 🌾🦠🧬🧪
doi.org/10.1094/PBIO...

URGENT: The scientists' letter must be signed before May 19, when comments close. 🌎

Virtual Rally to Save the Cornerstone of Conservation Science · National Wildlife Federation We need YOU as we rally in support of _critical_ federal government services at risk of being lost forever. The U.S. Geological Survey Ecosystems Mission Area is responsible for many of the programs t...

Professors at USGS coop units were absolutely critical parts of my education at 3 different universities. They're probably affiliated with more useful conservation research than any other agency on earth. Join the rally to defend science next week!

🌎🐟🦉🐍🦊🌿🧪 #hydrology #Invert mobilize.us/s/JyAqUI

Student holding giant card signed by lab members

Student presenting masters thesis called “environmental factors that influence the amphibian microbiome”

Students sampling wild amphibians in the field

In happier news: the MEGA Lab @rittigers.bsky.social celebrated the successful defense of our first MS student! ✨ @trminahan.bsky.social did an amazing job summarizing the last two years of research on salamander microbiomes. It is a MASSIVE dataset! Stay tuned for our preprint this summer 🐸🧬🧫🦠🌎

Two circular hard enamel pin badges that say "it's Dr, actually". One has a trans flag design and one has a non-binary flag design

Getting a doctorate is hard work and it absolutely sucks when people swap out that hard-won gender-neutral expert title for something that both ignores your expertise and dismisses your gender. Apparently I'm not the only one who feels like this because you bought enough pins for me to make more!