Theresa Laverty

A Namib desert beetle runs to stay cool: how scientists solved the puzzle of this unique and speedy species A Namibian desert beetle cools down by running in the sun.

In the scorching Namib desert, a small black beetle surprises scientists by sprinting across the sand in extreme heat.

theconversation.com/a-namib-dese...

#EnvironmentAndEnergy

Many congrats, Gavin! Good luck with the move!

Biodiversity modulates the cross‐community scaling relationship in changing environments Organismal abundance typically declines with increasing body size, with metabolic theory predicting a universal size–abundance slope of –0.75. Using protist microcosms across gradients of species ric...

Does body size predict abundance the same way in all environments, as predicted by the Metabolic theory of Ecology? Our new study challenges this assumption. Read it here: 📄 doi.org/10.1111/ele....

Enjoy! Missing the conference and all the lovely participants unfortunately this year

Zoe, a blue heeler mix puppy, smiles for the camera

Zoe and Bruce (blue and red heeler mixes) enjoy the shade in the yard

Funny faces-- a yawn and a head shake-- from Zoe and Bruce

Bruce looks adoringly at the new puppy Zoe

Got my dog a friend from the shelter this week. Zoe is adjusting to life with our other cattle dog, Bruce

library("pins") # specify folder in Google Drive to store objects board <- board_gdrive("https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/FOLDER_ID") # upload file board |> pin_write(big_dataset, "big_dataset.csv", type = "csv") # retrieve file (e.g. in another computer) board |> pin_read("big_dataset.csv")

Finally using {pins} #rstats package to share heavy files that can't be shared among collaborators through GitHub, and it works like a breeze! Supports data versioning, cache, etc. Thanks @posit.co

Here using Google Drive to share files, but can use many different servers, see pins.rstudio.com

Iona Rohan (center) with co-advisors Theresa Laverty (left) and Jennifer Frey (right)

Kit fox with wind turbines in the background

The first student in my lab group successfully defended their graduate work today! Many congrats to Iona Rohan (coadvised by @jenniferfrey.bsky.social) for her MS work analyzing the effects of wind energy on the habitat use of terrestrial mammals in central NM. Stay tuned for our findings!

Reminder: two more days to apply for this opportunity!

Great news!
JSTOR now have a free account with an Independent Researcher category. You can access 100 documents per month

www.jstor.org/action/showL...

Job Posting: CESA Five-Year Review Coordinator State Seal Logo Department of Fish and Wildlife JC-493311 - CESA Five-Year Review Coordinator ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENTIST $4,269.00 - $8,877.00 per Month New to State candidates will be hired into the minimum salary of the classification or minimum of alternate range when applicable. Final Filing Date: 10/13/2025

CA Biology job alert
My unit at the CA Dep of Fish and Wildlife is hiring a permanent position to write 5 year reviews for species listed under the CA Endangered Species Act.
Based in West Sacramento, currently 2x week in office.
I am happy to answer questions
calcareers.ca.gov/CalHrPublic/...

A purple and red octopus talk to each other on the tin can telephone. Purple octopus says “want to connect your students with real Scientists?” Then red octopus says “Skype a scientist matches groups with scientists for virtual q&as. It’s free!” And then an orange flapjack octopus says “get a match at skypeascientist.com”

Alrght everybody, get your Tin Can Telephones out. We need your help!

We reach new people by word of mouth. Send all your educator friends this pic! Teachers, librarians, scout troop leaders, etc! We offer our program for free, so we need help getting the word out without advertising $$.

The solicitation is finally up! Good luck to everybody applying this year (and those with mentees applying) - it's an extremely tight turnaround but very glad to see this. 🧪🌎

Do heat waves happen in rivers? How do river heat waves (RHW) compare to air heat waves (AHW)?

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Here we show: 1) RHWs occur less frequently & intensively but last twice as long as AHWs; 2) RHW have risen much faster than AHWs.

Congrats to Dr. Kayal Sadayappan!

Environmental metrics of ethanol production improve with increased biomass yield and carbohydrate content in Populus trichocarpa When selecting economically and environmentally advantageous genotypes for domestication in a biofuel supply chain, variability of cell-wall composition within a feedstock population and its impact o....

New paper out in Biofpr: "Environmental metrics of ethanol production improve with increased biomass yield and carbohydrate content in Populus trichocarpa"
scijournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

If only I could say the same about my country...

Theresa with two vaccine bandages on her arm

Glad that my state recognizes the benefits of vaccines!

I feel this. We used to get away with only logging in every few days, but this semester I have to two-factor in multiple times a day

A collage of bat photos of species from around the world. Photos are contributions from photographers who have kindly allowed us to use their work for education and conservation. Text reads "Celebrate Bats!" and 1500.

#BREAKINGNEWS 🦇🌍 The world now has 1,500 recognized bat species! 🎉 The global list at www.batnames.org just hit this milestone. New bats are found through fieldwork in remote places & genetic discoveries. Amazing biodiversity news! #Bats #Biodiversity #BatsNeedFriends

Great work from Nate's lab on Madrean Sky Island specimens!

This is a very fast turn around this year and it seems the solicitation still isn't up. Get going on those GRFP proposals ASAP and hope for minimal changes to the requirements/qualifications!

Which Plant Traits Increase Soil Carbon Sequestration? Empirical Evidence From a Long‐Term Poplar Genetic Diversity Trial This study measured soil carbon concentrations and stocks in a 13-year-old poplar common garden study, exploring the degree to which soil carbon storage is affected by biological diversity or attribu...

New in @globalchangebio.bsky.social- "Which Plant Traits Increase Soil C Sequestration? Empirical Evidence From a Long-Term Poplar Genetic Diversity Trial". We sampled soils & roots from 24 black cottonwood genotypes in a 13-y.o. Center for Bioenergy Innovation common garden.
doi.org/10.1111/gcb....

Advertisement for a PhD assistantship in the Laverty Lab on bats, birds, and the role of ephemeral water sources. Applications are due 1 October 2025. Visit https://lavertylab.org/join-the-lab for more information

A playa lake at the Jornada Basin Long-Term Ecological Research site just north of Las Cruces (New Mexico). Photo by: Wiebke Boeing.

A tinaja in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument (Arizona) with a mist net positioned along the shore in front of it

Do you like acoustic data, community ecology, and desert oases? Apply for a PhD in my lab to investigate the role of ephemeral water sources (i.e., playa lakes and tinajas) in structuring desert bat (and maybe bird) communities. Visit lavertylab.org/join-the-lab for more. Applications due October 1

This guy is playing it right. We need to back him up!

This 🧵 is long so please bear with me. It is compiles evidence in a historical timeline on how effective #COVIDVaccines are. When a pandemic ends we quickly and easily forget the tools that got us out of it. So here is my labour day gift to you prompted by this headline.

our paper on how light pollution affects bird vocal behavior is out today in Science!!

w/ @brentpease.bsky.social

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

My cattle dog mix Bruce stands on trail in front of the Organ Mountains and looks up towards a beautiful pink/purple monsoon sunset

Though classes started this week, we are still far from the end of summer in the Southwest. Here's a glimpse of one of the many gorgeous monsoon sunsets from last month

Medellin, Colombia 2028!
#ibrc2028 #bats #batresearch

Underrepresented minority faculty in the USA face a double standard in promotion and tenure decisions - Nature Human Behaviour Masters-Waage et al. report that underrepresented minority (URM) faculty in the USA face barriers in the promotion and tenure process, receiving more negative votes and fewer unanimous positive decisi...

URM faculty received 7% more negative votes & were 44% less likely to receive unanimous votes from P&T committees -evidence that P&T decision-making processes contribute to the sustained underrepresentation of URM faculty in tenured faculty positions
www.nature.com/articles/s41...