Drew Peltier

I always forget to tag 🌱🌎🧪

Resin-based defenses in Pinus edulis are only reduced after long-term drought Abstract. Constrained carbon allocation toward secondary metabolites involved in chemical defense is a common explanation for widespread drought-related be

Trees can be killed by beetles during drought without obvious reductions in chemical defenses. Perhaps related: first measurements of D14C in exuded oleoresin (as far as I know) show resin C is up to 10 years old. academic.oup.com/treephys/art...

Google with AI buttons

Google without AI buttons

I made a filterlist for uBlock Origin to remove Generative AI features on websites. Includes blocks for
* Google AI Summaries
* YouTube Ask button & chat summaries
* GitHub Copilot
* Facebook AI chat
* X's Grok buttons
* Deviantart DreamUp
* Booru AI images
* And more

github.com/Stevoisiak/S...

Tree ring image showing some notable drought years.

Plodding along through the 1950s

My colleagues Calvin Farris (NPS) and Ellis Margolis (USGS) led a landmark study in paleofire reconstruction. In addition to showing that fire management can restore past fire regimes, the demonstrated methods are a first in dendrochronology. 1/6 esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

More grim news about the West's snow drought:

🛰️ Lowest Feb. 1 snow cover in the satellite record (since 2001)

📉 Record-low Feb. 1 statewide snowpack in Oregon, Colorado, and Utah

⚠️ “A Dry, Warm January Leaves the West With the Worst Snowpack in Decades”

www.drought.gov/drought-stat...

How tree rings help scientists understand disruptive extreme solar storms A study published this week shows that how trees store and use radiocarbon left over from ancient solar storms can tell scientists a lot about these ancient storms and help them refine estimates of…

Scientists have long relied on tree rings to learn about solar storms.

A Tansley review published this week shows that trees don’t all record this carbon in the same way. Understanding those differences is key to interpreting Earth’s history of space weather.

www.eurekalert.org/news-release...

this is so cool. the linked video is also wild

Back in 2021, I was trying to make "SUP" dendro a thing for us wetland/coastal investigators. We hypothesize this pond was created by a fault scarp ~200 years ago, drowning the cedars, and changing the landscape of Bainbridge Island, WA! doi.org/10.1130/B383... #DendroDating #TreeHistory

PostDoc position in #dendrochronology at U of Giessen (Germany) to work on medieval climate and societal changes in the Caucasus. Dream position: a great international team to work with, super research topic and amazing field sites. www.uni-giessen.de/de/ueber-uns... #PostdocJobs #AcademicJobs

The cost of inaction The feds outlined their plans if states don’t reach a deal on Colorado River water. It’s a lot of bad options.

Great piece in AZ Water Agenda explaining options in draft EIS for managing Colo River water in drier future. Though I suspect future hydrology will be even worse than pictured, this may be drastic enough to finally get the attention of people here in AZ! azwateragenda.beehiiv.com/p/the-cost-o...

wikipedia turns 25 today! the last unenshittified major website! backbone of online info! triumph of humanity! powered by urge of unpaid randos to correct each other! somehow mostly reliable! "good thing wikipedia works in practice, because it sure doesn't work in theory" - old wiki adage

Very spooky! Thx steve!

Climate: A Factor in the Origin of the Pole Blight Disease of Pinus Monticola Dougl Measurements of cores or disc samples representing slightly more than 76,000 annual rings from 336 western white pine tree were compiled to obtain a set of deviations from normal growth of healthy tr...

Anybody know why there are no P monticola (western white pine) data on the ITRDB? There are some older studies (doi.org/10.2307/1934...). Are they just mixed up with sugar pine?

@firescar.bsky.social @acsank.bsky.social @rmtrr.bsky.social @thetreecorener.bsky.social

Cryogenic vacuum distillation‐induced deuterium isotope biases in leaf water and their ecophysiological implications Recent experiments show that cryogenic vacuum distillation (CVD) – the standard method for plant water extraction – can introduce biases into δ2H measurements of stem water. However, whether similar...

New study provides the evidence for the pervasive presence of cryogenic vacuum distillation artefacts in leaf water and identifies deuterium exchange between organic matter and water as the primary underlying mechanism; @newphyt.bsky.social nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

From invasive species tracking to water security – what’s lost with federal funding cuts at US Climate Adaptation Science Centers The people who manage America’s aquifers, wetlands, shorelines and recreation areas rely on federal science as they face new and rising risks in a changing climate.

You probably heard the US admin is threatening to break up the National Center for Atmospheric Research: but did you know they already froze funding for the 9 regional Climate Science Adaptation Centers? From tracking invasives to helping tribes with drought, here's why the CASCs matter ⬇️

Save NCAR from being dismantled today! The Trump Administration has vowed to dissolve the center that provides critical extreme weather and climate data for our nation.

AGU has a Congressional email and call script up on NCAR:

Learned today that “Galápagos” comes from a Spanish word for tortoise, meaning that “Galápagos Tortoise” is,

in fact,

a tortology

Weird wet weather has Joshua trees flowering early — or late? Help the Yoder Lab map this “bonus bloom” to understand why A flowering tree in Yucca Valley, CA, observed by iNaturalist contributor wanderingmojave on December 9. A tree with lots of flowers in Tehachapi, CA, observed by iNaturalist contributor tina9294 o…

I started getting reports of an unseasonal Joshua tree bloom in the last few weeks, and looking over records on @inaturalist.bsky.social it's pretty widespread! So we're putting out the call for folks to record this "bonus bloom" and help us study it 🌿

lab.jbyoder.org/2025/12/10/w...

Earth's largest land animals are limited by salt.

Sodium availability constrains the density and distribution of elephants, giraffes and rhinos across Africa, and offers a new explanation for the so-called 'missing megaherbivores'.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Free access: rdcu.be/eTPY2

I think there have been a couple since then? El Jefe for starters. Sombra and Yo'oko, too. But awesome to see there is a new one!

If you are a dendrochronologist, you will also find this depressing.

How do you like that rope runner device? Is it also a descender?

He Studied How Emissions Are Heating Up U.S. Cities

I had missed this article earlier. An example of what we're losing, in terms of science that could make a difference for people in this time of climate crisis. Just one relatively small research group at one university (my own #NorthernArizonaUniversity). Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/c...

Happy Nevada day to all who celebrate. I see some people who have dressed up in spooky costumes. I don't totally understand what this has to do with Nevada, but to each their own.

magnolia trees are pretty cool

A Megadrought Is Reshaping Birdlife in the Southwest A recent bad year for elegant trogons is only the latest in a string of changes

The megadrought currently sucking the Southwest dry is having far-reaching impacts on wildlife, especially migratory birds. The elegant trogon is one of them. With arid conditions intensifying, the birds are producing few young, leading to population declines that worry researchers. 🌎

Cool piece, highlighting some of the impacts of the recent wildfires on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, as well as impacts of shutdown in slowing recovery.

With the AWS outage, now‘s as good a time as any to post this old strip.

Join the Laughlin lab and our new NSF funded project! Awesome opportunity to visit forests across the western US and examine the functional basis of demographic responses to drought and wildfire.