Katie Wenzell

The circular seabird economy is critical for oceans, islands and people - Nature Reviews Biodiversity Seabirds are top predators and nutrient cyclers in marine island ecosystems, but are threatened by risk of extinction. This Review explores the circular seabird economy around islands and discusses ho...

Our new review on the “circular seabird economy”
- how seabirds circulate nutrients betwem ocean and land, supporting ecosystems and livelihoods …https://www.nature.com/articles/s44358-025-00099-w

A queen bumble bee (Bombus bifarius) foraging on a pale green and white Frasera speciosa flower, with her proboscis extended into a nectary. Her orange pollen basket is prominently visible on her hind leg. Photo credit: Jane Ogilvie.

Improving plant DNA #metabarcoding accuracy with ecological filters and #Angiosperms353: Field and pollen microscopy validation

New in #AppsPlantSci by Benkendorf, @sophietaddeo.bsky.social, Fant et al

bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... #botany #PlantScience #herbaria #ecology

The allotetraploid lycophyte Selaginella rupincola growing among the boulders at Cochise Stronghold in the Dragoon Mountains southeast of Tucson, Arizona.

Xanthisma spinulosum growing outside a gym in Tucson, Arizona.

Selaginella arizonica X eremophila hybrid zone at Alamo Canyon in Organ Pipe National Monument.

A Dieteria sp. being visited by a skipper in the White Mountains of Arizona.

I'm recruiting PhD students for the Barker Lab @uofa-eeb.bsky.social We study plant evolutionary genomics - polyploidy, hybridization & machine learning for genome evolution. Work with Selaginella, Xanthisma, Brassica & more. Funding available via CAMBIUM Fellowships. Reach out if interested! 🧬🌵🤖

Just add water: A simple floral bud injection method for stable Agrobacterium‐mediated transformation in two ecotypes of Mimulus guttatus Premise Stable transformation is the biggest barrier to studying gene function in plants. In most species, transformation requires tissue culture and regeneration methods that may be arduous and cau...

Excited by this breakthrough work led by Dr. Lauren Stanley (now Assistant Professor at Central Michigan University). Lauren was able to develop for the first time floral dip/spray transformation methods in the yellow monkeyflower (Mimulus guttatus). bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

NSF GRFP solicitation is finally up. Life Sci deadline extended to Nov 10 but 2nd year grad students no longer eligible www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

Or $159k per award (over 3 years)? But no mention of "anticipated number of awards" unlike previous solicitations...

If you are or you know people on an #H1B, get in touch with your U international office to get guidance and know what you/they should/should not be doing.
I just received the information below from #AAUP. Feel free to share and check in with your immigrant friends/colleagues. They are not doing ok.

Congratulations to Emma Fetterly, who is wrapping up her master’s thesis: “Evaluating drivers of flower color polymorphism in Castilleja coccinea,” with the Northwestern/Chicago Botanic Garden Graduate Program in Plant Biology and Conservation. 🧪

Hybridization and introgression are major evolutionary processes. Since the 1940s, the prevailing view has been that they shape plants far more than animals. In our new study (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
), we find the opposite: animals exchange genes more, and for longer, than plants

Cover of "When Trees Testify: Science, Wisdom, History, and America's Black Botanical Legacy"!!! published by @henryholtbooks.bsky.social.
I can't tell you all adequately how proud of & eager I am to share this with the world!!!
Coming January 20, 2026
Pre-order NOW: bookshop.org/p/books/when...

Congratulations to Dr. Drake Mullett on successfully defending his dissertation, “Effects of Root and Stem Hemiparasitic Plants on Tallgrass Prairie Plant Species,” advised by Dr. Stuart Wagenius with the Northwestern / Chicago Botanic Garden Graduate Program in Plant Biology and Conservation. 🧪

A grassland on a sunny day near Boulder, CO

We're recruiting!! Myself along with Nathan Gill, Dylan Schwilk @schwilk.org, and Katharine Suding are recruiting people for Master's, PhD, and postdoc positions in GrassFire, an NSF funded project examining fuels and fire risk in grassland ecosystems across the Southern Great Plains! 🔥🌿🐮

Angler Hatch Survey Take this survey powered by surveymonkey.com. Create your own surveys for free.

Do you fish in freshwater? Please share or/and complete survey gathering data on observations of insects for a study on aquatic insect population declines! The link to survey is here: www.surveymonkey.com/r/VXLMY89. Especially in need of information from #Canada, #SouthAmerica, #Africa & #Australia!

How bison boost the nitrogen cycle—and create healthier plants The large herbivores stimulate plant growth by cycling carbon and nitrogen in the soils of Yellowstone National Park, showing benefits of free-roaming wildlife

After several years studying grasses and forbs in Yellowstone National Park in the US, researchers have formally documented the power of bison as nature’s own fertilizing agents. cen.acs.org/environment/... #chemsky 🧪

Atlanta Botanical Garden Inc - Research Scientist, Genetics The Atlanta Botanical Garden seeks a highly qualified scientist with training in plant population genetics to serve in the role of Research Scientist in Genetics within the Southeastern Center for Con...

We are recruiting a Research Scientist in Genetics trained in plant population genetics to run the Conservation Genetics Research Program! This is an incredible opportunity to work on a diverse and active team in a biodiversity hotspot!!! recruiting.paylocity.com/Recruiting/J...

Congrats to Dr. Haley Carter, who completed her Ph.D. from the Northwestern/Chicago Botanic Garden Graduate Program in Plant Biology and Conservation last year: “Causes and consequences of floral scent diversity in a rare evening primrose,” co-advised by Dr. Krissa Skogen and Dr. Norm Wickett!

Beyond the Grant–Stebbins model: floral adaptive landscapes and plant speciation AbstractBackground. Floral diversity, a striking feature of angiosperm evolution, provides the impetus and rationale for linking pollinator-driven selectio

Is the Most Effective Pollinator Principle a zombie idea? How do plants adapted to one pollinator shift to another without traversing an adaptive valley? How should we measure fitness in pollinator selection studies? We explore these questions and more in a new review doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

#OnThisDay in 1858, a seminal journal article comprised of papers by Alfred Russel Wallace FRS and Charles Darwin FRS on the theory of evolution by natural selection was published by the Linnean Society, the first public announcement of the theory of evolution. bit.ly/3k8fq4u

Write-up of Shannon's paper, with a neat photo of a #bee face. news.unt.edu/news/2025/un...

Please repost and amplify !

We are hiring a faculty position in Evolutionary Genetics in the Biology Department at U of South Carolina!

Check us out and come be our colleague!
sc.edu/study/colleg...

Deadline for applications is Oct 1

#AcademicJobs #EvoBio

Just want to shoutout a new study from the Wessinger Lab by my colleague @trinitydepatie.bsky.social. bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/.... She investigated the repeated evolution of personate flowers within Penstemon by examining patterns of introgression, topological discordance, and

I finished my 1st draft!!

Pro tip for writers:

A very bad first draft is not a failure—it’s a great start, Congratulations!

You can’t revise a blank page, but you can shape a bad one into something really great

🌟Editing is easier than Creating🌟

🐝 Congratulations to Dr. Jackie Fitzgerald, who recently defended her PhD: “Dimensions of Difference: Multi-Scale Consequences of Trait Variation in Bumble Bees” under the guidance of Dr. Paul CaraDonna!

Green road sign on the highway that says: Grants City Limit Elev 6470

Y’all, big news, I found out where they’re keeping them all

Looking for evidence to inform invasive species management decisions? This free resource from @naturalareas.bsky.social is a great starting place, feature work from numerous ecosystems.

Super excited to see the published Editorial for our Special Issue on Ecology of Gene Expression. We began working on this in 2023, and we have some excellent papers to share (1)

Molecular Ecology | Molecular Genetics Journal | Wiley Online Library onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Flowers of species in a subalpine meadow in southwestern Colorado for which the authors associated floral traits with temperature of the floral microenvironment.

🌼🎨 From the upcoming #AJB Special Issue: “Paradigm Shifts in #Flower Color." 🎨🌼

Floral shape & color impact heat accumulation & thermal stability of the floral microenvironment in a subalpine #meadow

By Jennifer Apland, Katherine Riddle & Matthew Koski

doi.org/10.1002/ajb2...
#botany #pollination

An individual of Bombus ephippiatus, the most effective pollinator of Salvia lavanduloides, moments after taking off from a previously visited inflorescence of this sage species.

Floral syndromes predict the most effective #pollinators in five species of #Salvia

New #AJB research by Arturo Tavera, Martín de Santiago-Hernández, Víctor Rosas-Guerrero, Clementina González & Eduardo Cuevas

doi.org/10.1002/ajb2... #botany #plantscience #bees #hummingbirds #Lamiaceae

Blue background with four images from left to right: black woman with a bucket hat and a big smile, black man with dreadlocks and a warm smile, black woman with a powerful gaze and slicked back hair and a black man with glasses gazing off into the distance

Mikhaela Neequaye will be speaking at an upcoming webinar hosted by BioSci Toolkit CIC on Wed 4 June, marking World Environment Day. In the meeting they'll be discussing an important and timely topic: representation in environmental science, plant science, and ecology. Book here: buff.ly/yoK8lb8