Seema Sheth

FAQ for NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP) return without review (RWR)

An NSF spokesperson just responded to our request for percentages:

"NSF declines to provide the data. As stated below, we do not have any additional information to share beyond what is already included in the FAQs: www.nsf.gov/funding/info...

Screening, sorting, and the feedback cycles that imperil peer review The process of peer review is vital to contemporary science, but is also under enormous strain. This study uses mathematical models to dissect the threats to the long-term viability of peer review, su...

1. Kevin Gross and I have a new paper out today PLOS Biology.

We used economic models based around screening games and the market for unpaid labor to highlight a meltdown cycle threatening peer review.

Biomedical and life science articles by female researchers spend longer under review Women are underrepresented in academia, especially in STEMM fields, at top institutions, and in senior positions. This study analyzes millions of biomedical and life science articles, revealing that f...

Median amount of time spent under review is 7.4–14.6% longer for female-authored articles than for male-authored articles and the differences remain significant after controlling for several factors - analysis of >36.5 million articles in >36,000 journals
doi.org/10.1371/jour...

Climatic variability drives greater thermal tolerance breadth and enables larger range size in butterflies Abstract. Although climatic variability has been proposed to shape physiological tolerances, and in turn, species distributions, relatively few studies hav

We found support for the Rapoport effect in butterflies 🦋 species that live in more variable climates have broader thermal tolerances and larger range sizes. A collaboration with Aaron Yilmaz and @sarahdiamond.bsky.social 🔬

academic.oup.com/biolinnean/a...

Climate, ecological dynamics, and the seasonal distribution of birds in mountains Ecological dynamics related to energy use and competition drives the seasonal distribution of birds in mountains across the world.

New review of sznal elevation ranges for >10k bird populations in 34 mountain regions reveals altitudinal migration fulfills same ecological function as long-distance latitudinal migration, offering better predictions for mountain birds under global change.

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

bsky.app/profile/hype...

This is so, so chilling

NC State *fired* an Assistant Director of its LGBTQ Pride Center for saying the university will continue to support LGBTQ students—as it should—even with Trump’s ban on DEI-related activities

A conservative activist group secretly recorded the Assistant Director saying it

So excited to have been accepted to write this piece. Thanks to all who have entertained my ramblings over the years and have encouraged me in my passion for #ecophysiology and #evolution 🙏

#IAmABotanist 🌱

Reporting on GRFP applications returned without review.

My grad student, who got RWR and appealed, got an email from GRFP program today that said "Your application was screened by NSF program officers with expertise in your proposed field of study and was determined to be ineligible according to the solicitation requirements."

No details were given. 😡

Lecturer in Ecology and Evolution position available in Biology Department at Stanford University. Apply by April 1, 2026. (Photo by Rick Morris)
academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/31606

Time to publish responsibly: DAFNEE, a database of academia-friendly journals in ecology and evolutionary biology Abstract. The current economics of scientific publishing reveal a profound imbalance: academia pays prices far exceeding the actual costs of publication. R

Responsible publication of your research!

To help you do this @nicolasgaltier.bsky.social and coauthors have put together a handy database of academia-friendly journals, DAFNEE. You can read about it in their article recently published in @jevbio.bsky.social:

doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

Warmer environments harbor greater thermal trait diversity in moth assemblages - Nature Communications Climate limits where insects can live and which species can coexist. Using thermal tolerances of 653 moths on Asian mountains, this study shows warmer temperatures broaden thermal tolerance traits div...

How do temperature regimes shape trait diversity in communities? Does variability promote more specialists or more generalists?

Our new Nature Communications paper tackles this with eco-evo simulations + 653 moth species across latitudinal and elevational gradients.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🔥🔬🌲 Postdoc Opportunity at Duke! to study the drivers and impacts of post-fire forest loss in the western U.S.

Position is part of the inaugural SCALES fellowship, an exciting program funding interdisciplinary research addressing key climate challenges. academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/31549

Linking Community‐Climate Disequilibrium to Ecosystem Function When turnover in species composition lags behind the pace of climate change, community-climate disequilibrium increases. We, for the first time, explicitly link this disequilibrium to ecosystem funct...

Species shift their ranges in response to climate change, but many can't keep up. The resulting "community-climate disequilibrium" can impair ecosystem function and cause counterintuitive dynamics, like short-term gain but long-term loss onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Post doctor (3 years) within mountain plant community and ecosystem processes across a globally distributed experiment

Great postdoc opportunity in Sweden!! With the one and only David Wardle 🧪🌐
www.umu.se/en/work-with...

Apply for this fully funded PhD studentship in Tropical mountain forest ecology! Join us at University of Liverpool to carry out research on plant range shifts in the cloud forests. With: @fdraper.bsky.social @funkyant.bsky.social @jhomeier.bsky.social. Applications due Jan 21. tinyurl.com/23ary845

The Institute for Environmental Genomics at U Oklahoma (www.ou.edu/ieg) has 3 Research Scientists & 4-6 Postdoc openings (see details linked below).

Contact ieg@ou.edu w/ questions.

‘Dispersification’ of Agalinis (Orobanchaceae) Into South America Is Associated With Hummingbird Pollination and Perennial Life-History Shifts
@pedropezzi.bsky.social @soltislab.bsky.social
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Extremely proud of the outcome of this very cool experiment with @seemasheth.bsky.social that involved imposing a heatwave treatment on scarlet monkeyflower seedlings. It was really fun to be able to explore some plant ecophysiology concepts and put them in an evolutionary context. Please share!

The Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center (SE CASC) is seeking their next Communications & Engagement Manager. This is a full-time position based at NC State University in Raleigh, NC.

Learn more and apply here: https://loom.ly/82KBUmE

Universität Basel: PhD fellowship in Conservation Genetics The group of Plant Ecology and Evolution, Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Basel, Switzerland (https://duw.unibas.ch/en/ecoevo/), is looking for a PhD student in the field of…

PhD fellowship in Conservation Genetics, Basel
jobs.unibas.ch/offene-stell...

The project aims to verify how well reported dynamics of decline in rare plant species align with inferred trajectories of effective population size.
#PlantSciJobs

Color, size, shape: The drivers of floral variation in Hesperis matronalis (Dame’s Rocket) Evolutionary biologists have long been intrigued by the factors that sustain genetic and phenotypic variation within and among natural populations. Polymorphisms underlying components of floral displa...

A final new paper out from the lab, work from Steve Johnson, @joannarifkin.bsky.social & @stepheniwright.bsky.social

We asked what maintains the striking variation in floral color, size, and shape within and among populations of Dame's Rocket, Hesperis matronalis

Graduate instructor who gave failing grade to Samantha Fulnecky no longer teaching at OU A graduate teaching assistant who gave a University of Oklahoma student a failing grade on a psychology essay will no longer be teaching at the university.

A graduate teaching assistant who gave a University of Oklahoma student a failing grade on a psychology essay will no longer be teaching at the university

An image of a recruitment advertisement for a MS position at New Mexico Tech

I am recruiting a MS student in Biology at New Mexico Tech with an anticipated start date of Fall 2026 to work on the applied evolutionary genetics of wild populations with conservation or management concerns (butterflies, bighorn sheep). Please see the attached advertisement for more info.

3D figure showing how a family of unimodal, species-level thermal performance curves are collectively bounded by an exponential function across species, uniting predictions of growth rate at population and community levels. From Fig. S4.

Ecologists recognize the importance of integrating across scales, yet our models often target specific scales. Our new paper presents models of population growth that scale up to explain community-level patterns, including interactions of temperature, light & nutrients. doi.org/10.1002/ecm....

Evolution of floral traits and mating systems under drought: a range-wide study of Mimulus cardinalis Climate change is intensifying droughts globally, challenging species to adapt to novel conditions. While plant physiological and phenological responses to

2) Evolution of floral traits and mating systems under drought: a range-wide study of Mimulus cardinalis doi.org/10.1093/aobp..., led by Univ of Oregon undergrad Olivia Wilborn-Pilotte from Jeff Diez's lab for her honor's thesis research (3/3)

1) Evolutionary responses to historic drought across the range of scarlet monkeyflower, w/ postdoc @lucasjalbano.bsky.social et al. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.... (2/3)

Photo of a large number of scarlet monkeyflower plants growing in southern California (photo by MC Moazed).

Excited to share the first two publications from our PERSIST (Predicting Evolutionary Rescue of a Species in Space and Time) project. Thanks to NSF-DEB for supporting this work! (1/3)

Application Process Image Woman behind a podium presenting. Jessie Golding, BBCS postdoc, presenting at ICCB 2025. Apply to become a Lovejoy Fellow by submitting your resume, cover letter, and contact information for three references through the University of Arizona Talent Portal (link upcoming) by the first review date of January 30, 2026. Your cover letter should: Identify 1-2 Lovejoy BBCS faculty you would be interested in working with and explain the primary research directions you would want to pursue in collaboration with this faculty member. You are strongly encouraged to reach out to faculty before submitting your application. Describe your experience with or interest in inter- or transdisciplinary research. Explain how this experience will positively impact your career trajectory.

New postdoctoral fellowship opportunity! Please pass along. Excited to announce the launch of the Tom Lovejoy Fellowship Program at the University of Arizona for innovative research to protect species, sustain ecosystems, and promote a thriving planet lovejoycenter.arizona.edu/lovejoy-fell... 🧪🌐🌾