Sierra Jech

This week CrustNet went to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in the Sonoran Desert. 🌵 With saguaros and organ pipe cactus above & moist lush mosses and lichens below! We could not do this work without our incredible team & Park scientists 💛

CrustNet visits the California coastal scrublands! We set up a site at the Santa Margarita Reserve and were excited to find liverworts and a highly diverse community of moss and lichen. Gorgeous landscape!

CrustNet installation in New Mexico! With a flux tower, mountain lion tracks, and cool fungi. We had some rain which really lit up the crusts. Thank you to the field crew members and their hard work to get the site installed.

CrustNet installation at Grasslands National Park this week in Saskatchewan, Canada. Special shout out to Kai Schmitt, Emilie Porter, and Jordan Perron for spending time in the field with us. The Grasslands crusts are so beautiful. We are so lucky!

#crustnet

Navigating the possibilities and pitfalls of biocrust recovery in a changing climate Biological soil crusts are complex communities composed of lichens, mosses, bacteria, and cyanobacteria that create a living skin on the soil surface across drylands worldwide. Although small in size...

New paper out in the American Journal of Botany with some of my science role models, @michalaphillips.bsky.social @ecology-awesome.bsky.social @kristinayoung.bsky.social and also Cara Lauria and Ana Giraldo-Silva.

bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

Are you attending ESA this year? Are you a biocrust lover?

Come to COS 011 on Monday 1:30 pm to learn all about CrustNet and biological soil crusts. We are excited to recruit new collaborators and new sites for this project.
#esa2025
@womeninsoileco.bsky.social

We look forward to reconnecting at ESA this week! See you soon.

A blue poster describing opportunities to join the Bernhardt Lab -- for more information please see https://www.bernhardtlab.org/join-us

✨ The Bernhardt Lab at the University of Guelph is recruiting graduate students for 2026! Join us! We have several fully funded grad positions available ✨

Please spread the word!

www.bernhardtlab.org/join-us

#CSEE2025

@rcoconnor.bsky.social

#CrustNet is at Lubrecht Experimental Forest in Montana! We could not have done this without our amazing DIRT Lab crew, Scott Ferrenberg, and @matthewbowker1.bsky.social. We had challenging conditions, black bears, and wildflowers galore.

In May, we installed #CrustNet at MPG Ranch in Montana. Many DIRT Lab folks assisted in this effort. We are so grateful to study the biocrusts in this environment and with so much support from MPG.

It was a pleasure to visit Grasslands National Park with collaborators Katherine Stewart and Diane Haughland and their graduate students. We will finish this #CrustNet setup in September. Can’t wait to visit this Cladonia heaven again.

CrustNet is now at the Northern Great Basin Experimental Range in Oregon! Thanks to @rcoconnor.bksy.social and his awesome field crew for assisting with setup. We are so excited to include this site as a #CrustNet node.

Starting to measure #CrustNet plots, and learning some of our biocrust species! Thanks @sierrajech.bsky.social for coming out to NGBER! @matthewbowker1.bsky.social @ecology-awesome.bsky.social

Developing biocrust field cultivation techniques for soil restoration: An assessment of bacterial communities Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) are a coherent, thin soil surface layer, engineered and inhabited by a diverse community of moss, lichen, cyanobact…

New paper led by the amazing Sierra Jech, @ecoss-nau.bsky.social post-doc. Crucial steps toward realizing the dream of #biocrust farming. Collaboration between TNC, USGS, NAU's DIRT lab and Mayberry Seed Co. farminghttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0929139324005924

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📣 FUNDING OPPORTUNITY: Are you a researcher exploring the underground? 🍄

Apply to become an Underground Explorer. Gain funding and support from our thriving community of myconauts.

Help us spread the word.

🗓️ Deadline: 21 March
👉 Find out more and apply: https://buff.ly/3CludWr