Carl rothfels

(A) Distribution of Isoëtes species from the Pacific Laurasian Clade. (B) Collection locations for plants included in this project.

#Phylogenetics & population structure of the western North American endemic Pacific Laurasian clade of #Isoëtes

New #AJB research by Forrest Freund, Daniel Gates, Matthew Johnson & @crothfels.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1002/ajb2... #botany #plantscience #genetics #biogeography #evolution

“The genome assembly of the duckweed fern, Azolla caroliniana” Abstract. Azolla is a genus of freshwater ferns that is economically important as a nitrogen-fixing biofertilizer, biofuel, bioremediator, and for potentia

Azolla caroliniana genome! @fernway.bsky.social @tribblelab.bsky.social @crothfels.bsky.social #CCGP academic.oup.com/jhered/advan...

a cartoon of a man holding a frying pan and a spoon with red alert written above him ALT: a cartoon of a man holding a frying pan and a spoon with red alert written above him

ATTENTION: NSF GRANT RECIPIENTS

We received a heads up from a trusted source that you should proactively download/print/screen shot any documentation on research.gov pertaining to your NSF awards, both those that are current and any that have closed in the last 5-6 years.

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1. For the past thirty years I've had the best job in the world.


I've had the opportunity to follow my curiosity; explore the workings of nature and society; mentor students and junior colleagues in the same process; and teach generations of students about it all.

So excited to see this out! Come, poke around pteridoportal.org and get your seedfree fix

A roadmap of phylogenomic methods for studying polyploid plant genera Phylogenetic inference of polyploid species is the first step towards understanding their patterns of diversification. In this paper, we review the challenges and limitations of inferring species rel...

Super proud of recent PhD grad Weixuan Ning for his first paper from his PhD work on #polyploidy. He wrote this as 'the one I wished I would have had starting out as a PhD student.'
doi.org/10.1002/aps3...

Close-up photo of Azolla growing on the surface of a pond.

The nitrogen-fixing #fern #Azolla has a complex #microbiome characterized by varying degrees of cophylogenetic signal

New #AJB research by @mickischill.bsky.social, Forrest Freund, @tribblelab.bsky.social, @fernway.bsky.social & @crothfels.bsky.social et al.

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

Azolla is so weird

The court ordered that NIH grant funding be unfrozen, so The Regime found a way around it. For NIH grants to be funded, a review panel must rank them. In order for a review panel to meet, they must post it on the Federal Register. Submissions to the Federal Register are now on hold “indefinitely”.

Scatterplot titled “Empirical Evidence of Ideological Targeting in Federal Layoffs: Agencies seen as liberal are significantly more likely to face DOGE layoffs.” • The x-axis represents Perceived Ideological Leaning of federal agencies, ranging from -2 (Most Liberal) to +2 (Most Conservative), based on survey responses from over 1,500 federal executives. • The y-axis shows Agency Size (Number of Staff) on a logarithmic scale from 1,000 to 1,000,000. Each point represents a federal agency: • Red dots indicate agencies that experienced DOGE layoffs. • Gray dots indicate agencies with no layoffs. Key Observations: • Liberal-leaning agencies (left side of the plot) are disproportionately represented among red dots, indicating higher layoff rates. • Notable targeted agencies include: • HHS (Health & Human Services) • EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) • NIH (National Institutes of Health) • CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) • Dept. of Education • USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development) • The National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE), despite its conservative leaning (+1 on the scale), is an exception among targeted agencies. • A notable outlier: the Department of Veterans Affairs (moderately conservative) also faced layoffs despite its size. Takeaway: The figure visually demonstrates that DOGE layoffs disproportionately targeted liberal-leaning agencies, supporting claims of ideological bias. The pattern reveals that layoffs were not driven by agency size or budget alone but were strongly associated with perceived ideology. Source: Richardson, Clinton, & Lewis (2018). Elite Perceptions of Agency Ideology and Workforce Skill. The Journal of Politics, 80(1).

The DOGE firings have nothing to do with “efficiency” or “cutting waste.” They’re a direct push to weaken federal agencies perceived as liberal. This was evident from the start, and now the data confirms it: targeted agencies overwhelmingly those seen as more left-leaning. 🧵⬇️

Some long-term costs are already becoming clear. Others will appear sooner or later, sometimes from unexpected places. That's the kind of chaos you can expect when you crack open a complex adaptive system, like human societies or the environment, without understanding it.

Letter from the SSE/SSB/ASN councils on the scientific understanding of sex and gender, pls RT

National Science Foundation freezes payments in response to Trump's executive actions The National Science Foundation's funding freeze, and wider confusion about the status and future of science funding, is already hampering research.

NSF is still freezing grant payments because of Trump's executive orders targeting DEI, despite NSF's congressional mandate to weigh how grants will expand participation in science.

What that means for scientists/science (with more detail than yesterday's radio story)
www.npr.org/2025/01/31/n...

can't think of a better way to start my bluesky account than a shout-out to the 2025 Tropical Ferns and Lycophytes cohort. So honored to have been part of this enthusiastic community of fern lovers. Thanks to all teachers, classmates, and OTS, and to the ferns and streams of Costa Rica #buenhelechos

Sachi Gibson and Jason Dion: Why expanding safe bet and wild card technologies is critical to Canadian competitiveness

Here's me + Sachi Gibson in The Hub today explaining why a tech-focused approach to climate action should pursue safe bets *and* wild cards
thehub.ca/2024/12/10/r...

“Another unknown is whether NIH researchers will still be allowed to submit papers to peer-reviewed journals.” This is insanity, and could have major impact on entire fields of research worldwide (we all collaborate with one another)

You do NOT have to speak to ICE without a JUDICIAL warrant. If they attempt to enter your home or your workplace, ask for a warrant. Sometimes they will try to use other, non qualifying paperwork. They need a warrant.

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Hornwort genomes provide clues on how plants conquered the land New research reveals insights into the genetic blueprints of hornworts, uncovering fascinating details about plant evolution and the early days of life on land.

New research reveals insights into the genetic blueprints of #hornworts, uncovering fascinating details about plant evolution and the early days of life on land. news.btiscience.org/245723-hornw...

@fernway.bsky.social

#plantscience

Workshop on Molecular Evolution | Marine Biological Laboratory The workshop serves graduate students, postdocs, and established faculty from around the world seeking to apply the principles of molecular evolution to questions of anthropology, conservation genetic...

Applications are now open for the 2025 Workshop on Molecular Evolution (MOLE) at the Marine Biological Laboratory in *beautiful* Woods Hole, MA!

More info here: molevolworkshop.github.io

Apply here: www.mbl.edu/education/ad...

Application deadline: Jan. 29th

Workshop dates: May 22nd - June 1st

Fig. 1: The Chromosome number and Hidden State-dependent Speciation and Extinction (ChromoHiSSE) model. Panel (a) describes the event rates allowed in the model for both cladogenetic (upper) and anagenetic (lower) events. Panels (b) and (c) demonstrate those rates on a tree simulated under ChromoHiSSE. Branches that do not reach the present represent extinct, unsampled lineages. Panel (b) shows the anagenetic and cladogenetic changes in the hidden states, indicated by blue (i) vs orange (ii). Panel (c) shows the anagenetic and cladogenetic gains and losses of chromosomes, as well as speciation with no corresponding change in chromosome numbers. More red colors in (c) correspond to more chromosomes. The vertical blue and orange bars in (c) indicate clades in the blue (i) vs orange (ii) hidden states, displaying that chromosome number changes are less frequent in the blue hidden state than in the orange. The asterisk in (c) demarcates where a cladogenetic dysploidy event could appear as an anagenetic event because of unsampled lineages.

New study by @tribblelab.bsky.social @jimarcor.bsky.social @marcialescudero.bsky.social Michael May, Rosana Zenil-Ferguson and myself just out:

Introduces a novel HiSSE chromosome model and demonstrates the importance of chrom. evol. in #sedge diversity.

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

excellent description, but your equally excellent photo is of Pentagramma

looks like young Polystichum or Dryopteris (notice how sharp the teeth are at the ends of the leaflets)

can you add me?