Mike Wilkins

A red Amanita fruiting with leaf litter around

How does variation in ectomycorrhizal fungal diversity affect tree growth? What are the knowledge gaps to more fully answering this question?

See my review out today in Fungal Ecology: doi.org/10.1016/j.fu...

The Private Firefighters On Call for the Californians Who Can Afford Them Andrew Sarvis of West Coast Water Tenders on the LA fires and the demand for private firefighers in Malibu and the Palisades.

We all know more and more people are hiring private firefighting crews in L.A.

But who are the private firefighters? Their price? Their vibe?

I drove up the Sierra Hwy to spend the day with a stuntman/teamster/firefighter to find out…

For @rollingstone.com

www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...

Metabolic interactions underpinning high methane fluxes across terrestrial freshwater wetlands - Nature Communications The authors created a multisite database to link microbial methane-cycling networks to CH4 fluxes across diverse wetlands, revealing differences in microbial cross-feeding and methanogen dynamics that...

Happy to share this work that just came out. Emily Bechtold and co-authors collated a huge amount of field microbiome data to identify microbial signals associated with high methane fluxes from freshwater terrestrial wetlands - more here 👇
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Conceptual diagram representing hypothesised mechanisms leading to observed differences in SOM pools between grasslands and coniferous forests. Differences in flux sizes are represented by varying arrow widths. Differences in the size of functionally distinct litter and SOM pools are represented by varying icon numbers.

📣 Our paper on soil carbon response to tree planting is out in J. of Env. Management:

🌲 Temperate grassland conversion to conifer forest destabilises mineral soil carbon stocks

Open access ➡️ tinyurl.com/3krerb92

A short thread ⤵️

Yeah, I’m a couple of episodes back into season 1 and it definitely benefits from a re-watch. I’d forgotten how good it is

10 degrees and snowing means perfect weather to get rid of some slash piles….

Took about 20 seconds of the Severance season 1 ‘recap’ for me to realize I had absolutely no recollection of what happened. Re-watch it is then…..

Taps flier

Confronting risks of mirror life Broad discussion is needed to chart a path forward.

With today's report outlining risks on mirror life www.science.org/doi/full/10.... many have asked:

Could mirror life survive in the wild?

Yes. While mirror life in the wild could have some significant disadvantages (like finding food it can digest), they do not appear to be insurmountable: 🧵

Firefighters monitor the Franklin Fire approaching Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. Photo by Jae C. Hong for AP

Well I guess it's time to restart the postcards from the anthropocene thread over here 📷 @asssociatedpress.bsky.social

The Willige Lab in the Department of Soil & Crop Sciences at CSU is looking for new graduate students. Position and application details below 👇

Christmas gathering for members of the Colorado State Microbiome Network!

Great end to the semester in our grad student presentation class! Kya Sparks spoke about her work investigating forest soil microbiomes, capping off 16 weeks of engaging presentations from grad students in the Soil & Crop Sciences department. Pic courtesy of Kelly Wrighton
@jchrispires.bsky.social

The Dogs Continue To Dunk On Us It’s well past time for leading Democrats to lead a national mourning of the norms that will never return.

The outcry over the Hunter Biden pardon is a symptom of a party that has not yet mourned the kind of political norms that will never return.

Wrote about it for Bad Faith Times: bad-faith-times.ghost.io/the-dogs-con...

Smart of Jerry Jeudy to conserve his effort for his last two seasons in Denver just so he could be fresh for this game

Thanks for posting this. I saw the article come up in the Guardian the other day, but hadn’t kept up with the literature enough to know whether something new had been found or if this was likely nonsense

Professor & Head, Department of Agricultural Biology We seek an engaged, innovative, and visionary leader and accomplished scientist to catalyze new initiatives and collaborations, identify strategic priorities, and provide leadership in research, schol...

Our sister department here at Colorado State (Agricultural Biology) is looking for a new department head. Position details here: jobs.colostate.edu/postings/153...

Hey Colorado peeps, especially those that live in Summit/Park Co. Someone I attended high school with is missing.

Please be on the lookout for Jayna Lang. Last seen 11/24 in her 2016 white Toyota 4Runner, license plate “JAYNA.” If you’ve seen it please call the police. Share this widely

Pair of mountain lions cruising on through the property…
📍Bellvue, Colorado

I know Georgia beating Georgia Tech isn't an upset but you should rush the field after 8 overtimes just to avoid deep vein thrombosis

I'm looking for a new grad student interested in microbiology of ancient groundwaters, a fascinating journey into an enigmatic environment with opportunities for fundamental discovery and relevance to groundwater remediation. Contact me if you like fieldwork, mesocosm experiments and metagenomics.

A functional microbiome catalogue crowdsourced from North American rivers - Nature GROWdb defines US river microbiomes at the genome level.

And here's a link to the paper itself:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

It was a pleasure to work on this project! Check it out if you’re interested in genome-resolved insights into river microbiomes

wait why does the dept of government efficiency have two co-chairs

Today, I wrap up teaching the writing part of my #SciComm class for the 8th (& possibly last) time. It is so gratifying to see the growth and reflection amongst the students in the class. At the end, I give the class my synopsis "Schimel Sheet": burginlab.wordpress.com/wp-content/u...
Please share.

Biogeofeminists starter pack image with 7 little circles of the over 130 Bluesky accounts included

Starter pack of biogeofeminists (I have missed many if not most - pls add yourself below & I can update 🩵💜 go.bsky.app/784EKsF

A rollercoaster read: Convergent evolution of viral-like Borg archaeal extrachromosomal elements and giant eukaryotic viruses
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Do... do borgs package themselves in capsids... or vaults ?

Almost a work of art: gas bubbles trapped in the ice in a beaver pond in northern Colorado

Anthropogenic impacts on the terrestrial subsurface biosphere - Nature Reviews Microbiology In this Review, Amundson et al. examine the importance and diversity of microbial life in the deep terrestrial subsurface and discuss how anthropogenic activity can affect microbial activity and compo...

Excited to see this out - Dr. Kaela Amundson led this forward-looking review on anthropogenic impacts on the terrestrial subsurface biosphere
www.nature.com/articles/s41...