John L Field

The heat energy we added to the ocean LAST YEAR is the equivalent of:
- Detonating ten hydrogen bombs every minute
- operating over a hundred large power plants continuously for all of written human history
- Five times all the electricity human beings have ever used

Today was the last day for our SPRUCE experiment. Bringing it to a close after 10 years! mnspruce.ornl.gov

It’s the “season of love and giving”…but this year, doesn’t it seem more like a “season of fear and taking”? Like many of you, I’ve been saddened by the human impact of draconian government budget cuts and how angry many housed Americans are at unhoused Americans.

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#AGU25 folks, there is a rapid- response town hall TODAY on the #NCAR dismantling at 1 pm, La Nouvelle Orleans ballroom C (per an AGU media advisory)

This is what democracy looks like. #NoKings

#NoKings in Las Cruces NM

I don’t know who needs to hear this but the CDC is being eviscerated right now. America is not going to have any kind of outbreak response capacity after tonight. Americans’ health data is no longer secure. Say goodbye to federal public health in any capacity. It’s a disaster. We won’t recover.

A Stylized Study of the Climate Response to Longwave and Shortwave Forcing at the Altitude of Aviation‐Induced Cirrus For the same magnitude of LW and SW forcing at the altitude of aviation-induced cirrus, climate sensitivity is larger when the forcing is imposed at high latitudes For the same change in concentr...

We could get rid of half of the radiative forcing of climate caused by aviation if we could get airlines to stop making contrails, mostly by flying a few thousand feet higher or lower.

New open-access paper from a climate physics perspective.

agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

📢📢📢 The application window is now open for YCNCC's Fall 2025 Postdoctoral Fellowship call. Details and application via the below link. We will start reviewing applications after 12/1. Please share widely!! naturalcarboncapture.yale.edu/opportunitie...

Excellent, well-informed new podcast! Like a ship entering a storm, we’re now entering the overshoot - a world above 1.5 degrees C #globalwarming. This requires a whole new mindset,
explored by Laurie Laybourn.

Jane Goodall, ethologist and conservationist, has died. She was 91

Reminder: two more days to apply for this opportunity!

Yessss new paper is OUT! Scott Ferrenberg led this effort to tease apart "nurse plant" effects in the Chihuahuan Desert.

Spoiler alert: don't underestimate the power of a little shade in arid systems

@scottferrenberg.bsky.social

rdcu.be/eH1O8

High-level conclusion: the environmental footprint of poplar-derived cellulosic ethanol production is much more sensitive to poplar yield than it is to poplar biomass quality (sugar content).

Similar what we concluded previously for switchgrass— doi.org/10.1021/acss...

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/...

You still have 5 days to apply for this awesome postdoc opportunity in the Environmental Data Science Innovation & Impact Lab at the University of Colorado-Boulder! This could be your backyard!

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....

Assistant Professor Plant-Microbe Interactions We seek a creative, collaborative, and visionary plant biologist to establish an internationally recognized research program at the forefront of plant-microbe interactions aimed at understanding how t...

The Department of Biology at Colorado State University is hiring an Assistant Professor in the area of plant-microbe interactions! Please spread the word!

jobs.colostate.edu/postings/165...

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

Which Plant Traits Increase Soil Carbon Sequestration? Empirical Evidence From a Long‐Term Poplar Genetic Diversity Trial

🔗 buff.ly/Esj0c1H
@johnlfield.bsky.social

Thanks to cbi.ornl.gov and DOE/BER, the ORNL LDRD program, @ultracricket.bsky.social, @chrisinknox.bsky.social, and other great coauthors not here on Bluesky!

A researcher from the Center of Bioenergy Innovation sampling roots in between rows of tall black cottonwood trees at a common garden site near Clatskanie, Oregon.

Biologically diverse long-term common gardens can provide unique insights into plant controls on biogeochemical cycling, even if they weren't originally designed for it. We're now sampling 300+ other genotypes at this site, to try to resolve the controls and mechanisms affecting soil C & N cycling.

We found:
- surface mineral-associated C stock differences under black cottonwood trees of different genotype.
- soil C associated more strongly with root elemental content than root lignin, N, or aboveground biomass.
- surface soil C stocks diverged by genotype at rates of 1–4 Mg/ha/y.

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....

This will end the Hispanic-serving institution (HSI) program (schools with >25% Latino undergrads). For reference, current flagships that are HSIs include Arizona and Arizona State, 5 UCs (Irvine, Riverside, Merced, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz), Rutgers, U New Mexico & NM State, UT Austin & UT El Paso

ecoevojobs.net 2025-26

The 2025-26 Eco-Evo job list is out. Good luck to those applying!

docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Enjoying the cool weather in Baltimore this week for #ESA2025. Come hear about the long-distance movements of lesser long-nosed bats that my colleagues and I have been documenting this Thursday at 8:45am (COS 128 - Behavior: Migration and Movement 1). Please don't be afraid to say hi!

The Laverty Lab A conservation science and wildlife ecology lab at NMSU

Also if you're at #ESA2025 and interested in bats (maybe birds too), bioacoustics, arid landscapes, and thinking of a PhD, please say hello. I plan to recruit 1-2 grad students. Spring or fall 2026 start with a focus on desert waters or renewable energy. lavertylab.org

Happy to meet up!

NASA Planning for Unauthorized Shutdown of Carbon Monitoring Satellites - Eos Despite warnings that their actions are illegal, Duffy and other senior NASA officials have continued to secretly direct NASA employees to draw up plans to end at least two major satellites missions s...

NASA is making plans to shut down two Earth observing satellites that provide key data to climate scientists and farmers, despite lawmakers telling them it’s illegal to do it. Story by @astrokimcartier.bsky.social

eos.org/research-and...

The EPA cited my paper in their argument against the endangerment finding today. However, their point is completely backwards: my paper actually supports the EPA's 2009 range of 1.8C to 4C warming by 2100. www.nature.com/artic...