Kathryn Flinn

It has been a privilege to mentor Skyanne as she grows into a scientist!

Yep that's my grad school buddy who has explained everything with his new book!

Forest diversity and composition changed over 120 years of post-agricultural succession in Cleveland Metroparks, Ohio, USA - Plant Ecology Changes in land use have radically impacted forests in the USA over the past several centuries. This study examined how the long-term effects of agricultural land use shape the vegetation structure, d...

So proud of my lab's first paper with the first author a
@baldwinwallace.bsky.social undergraduate. Another fruitful collaboration with Cleveland Metroparks, informing forest conservation in northeast Ohio. Congrats Skyanne!
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

I really hate being captain science buzzkill.

"That science-y thing you're all talking about and excited about? Actually it's not true. But please still care about science!"

Ugh. It's no fun.

But it's not true! And it matters that it's not true! Someone should say so!

Buckeye candies, round balls with chocolate on the outside and peanut butter in the middle, sitting in a dish.

Ohio buckeye fruits and seeds scattered on the ground. The fruits are round, spiky, yellow spheres with white interiors. The nuts are dark brown with a buff-colored center.

A friend gave me some buckeyes, the lovely peanut butter and chocolate candy. Ohio buckeye is the most toxic tree in our flora, with potentially lethal doses in all plant parts. There is some irony that the candy is delicious but the actual nut can kill you, and that the Ohio state tree is toxic.

Widespread ecological novelty across the terrestrial biosphere Nature Ecology & Evolution - Even outside urban and agricultural areas, ecosystems are vastly transformed as a result of human activities. Here the authors map patterns in climate change,...

A global analysis of altered species compositions and climate change reveals the extent to which ecosystems, including in protected areas and biodiversity hotspots, are exposed to novel conditions due to anthropogenic forces rdcu.be/edTpA

Forest fires push up greenhouse gas emissions from war in Ukraine Emissions estimated at 55m tonnes in 2024 and nearly 230m tonnes in three years of war

The link between war, fire, and climate explored in the Guardian today. #envhist #envhum #wildfire

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f...

Cover page and photo plate for paper in the journal Castanea on an incursion of katrusa tree in central Pennsylvania. Lead author is an undergrad at Bucknell University.

Now in print: Observations of an incursion of katsura tree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) + heavy seedling recruitment during COVID-related reductions in campus landscape maintenance. If u have a bunch of mature trees, heads up. #trees #invasive #undergradresearch castaneajournal.com/article/scie...

Presettlement Tree Distributions and Forest Types of Northeast Ohio, USA, Mapped With Species Distribution Models Using species distribution models to map the presettlement vegetation of northeast Ohio, we found that tree distributions depended largely on elevation and slope. Fagus grandifolia had the largest ar...

Ecologists seek to understand how species distributions relate to environmental factors, but often these relationships have been radically human-altered. This new paper by Flinn et al. uses historical data & SDMs to understand the presettlement distributions of forest trees. doi.org/10.1111/jvs....

Presettlement Tree Distributions and Forest Types of Northeast Ohio, USA, Mapped With Species Distribution Models Using species distribution models to map the presettlement vegetation of northeast Ohio, we found that tree distributions depended largely on elevation and slope. Fagus grandifolia had the largest ar...

Ecologists seek to understand how species distributions relate to environmental factors, but often relationships are radically human-altered. Our new @jvegsci.bsky.social paper uses historical data in niche models to understand presettlement distributions of forest trees. 🧪🌿🌎 doi.org/10.1111/jvs....

Spread the word... All 1938 aerial photos of Cuyahoga County, Ohio are now freely available to everyone in this digital archive: libguides.bw.edu/c.php?g=1379... 🌿🌎🧪

Needing to move is a huge barrier to broadening representation in the sciences Science will be more inclusive and equitable when we stop expecting people to uproot their lives every few years

Imagine our profession was built so that you could advance your career without moving all the time. Isn't this a huge piece of the equity and access problem? Yes, it is.

This link should work for free access to the paper.
rdcu.be/dsgZC

How a city shapes its forests: Land use change and forest distribution around Cleveland, Ohio over 2... As cities consume increasing land area worldwide, we need more investigation of the effects of urbanization on forests. Here we provide a comprehensive example of how the growth of a city shapes its s...

Link: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
If your institution doesn't subscribe, I am happy to email you a reprint! Just message me your email.

link.springer.com/article/10.1...
If your institution doesn't subscribe, I am happy to email you a reprint! Just message me your email.

The upshot: we need to protect remaining primary forests, which cover only 6.7% of the landscape, from development. These forests contain northeast Ohio's natural heritage. And we can work on restoring biodiversity to post-ag forests, the majority of our current forests.

From 1938 to 1979, new lawns and development were largely built on agricultural fields, with only 10% of new lawns and development destroying forests. From 1979 to 2021, 23% of new development and 44% of new lawns destroyed forests.

Young forests were more likely to be developed than mature forests, which were relatively stable. Good news! However, this is changing...

Steeper slopes and lower elevations were more likely to remain and become forests, and oak forests were three times more likely to be kept than beech forests. That means current forests are a highly biased sample of presettlement forests, making remaining beech forests precious.

Most forest patches are <45 acres, and 75% of points in forest fall within 50 yards of an edge. This means fragmentation is likely having a big effect on the diversity, composition, and function of our forests.

2/3 of current forests are growing on former farmland, most established <85 years ago. These tend to be impoverished in biodiversity and altered in composition, but they represent a huge opportunity for recovery and restoration.

1/3 of current forests are primary, meaning they were never cleared for agriculture. These forests harbor the most biodiversity and are most similar to presettlement composition. This is a very high percentage compared to other places!

Over the past 220 years, Cuyahoga County experienced massive forest loss, from 98.7% to 12% of the landscape, and modest recovery, to 21%. Clearing for agriculture caused most deforestation in the 1800s, but development became the main agent of forest loss from the 1900s to now.

Our new analysis of land use change in Cuyahoga County, home of Cleveland, Ohio, published today in Urban Ecosystems. We trace how urbanization has impacted our native forests over the past 220 years, providing context for current growth. Highlights in thread: 🌿🧪🌎

Graph showing daily temperature anomaly hitting peak of 2.06°C on November 17th, 2023 for the time period starting from 1940 to 2023.

There's a deep sense of sadness and loneliness seeing this record shattering graph.

November 17, 2023 was the first day in recorded history when the earth's surface was a whole 2°C hotter than pre-industrial times. Yet, there's barely any chatter about this staggering breach.

Here is my lab website: kathrynflinn.wordpress.com

@danirabaiotti.bsky.social Hi Dani, may I be added to the What's Science contributor list? Thanks!

Spotted my first lanternfly, at Cleveland Metroparks' Lakefront Nature Preserve, which is a peninsula in Lake Erie. This invasive crop pest recently arrived in northeast Ohio and lives primarily on tree of heaven. How did she get here? 🌿🌎

How lucky that my birthday coincides with the persimmon harvest! I'm making persimmon pudding with fruit I gathered from this native tree. Find a persimmon tree if you can... yes, they're seedy and squishy, but the flavor is worth it and like nothing else. 🌿

Like Wendell Berry, I am asking,
What has happened here?
What is here now? What is left of the natural endowment? What has been lost? Added?
What is the nature, or genius, of this place?
What will nature permit us, or help us do here?
What can we do to mend the damages we have done?