Bill Smith

In #drylands, plants don’t grow randomly — they self-organize into disordered hyperuniform patterns that help them use water wisely & endure extreme aridity. A beautiful hidden logic of nature, revealed in a new @pnas.org study doi.org/10.1073/pnas... including #Maestrelab alumni

Newsom says he’ll pull California from governors group if it won’t condemn Trump deployments Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote to the National Governors Association that if the group can’t unite to condemn President Donald Trump’s actions, he will withdraw California’s membership.

www.sfchronicle.com/politics/art...

Our new perspective on what TLS can (& can't) do in forest research www.nature.com/articles/s41... - led by Eduardo Maeda w lots of great colleagues including @kimcalders.bsky.social @emilyrlines.bsky.social @louiseterryn.bsky.social @benjaminbrede.bsky.social (apols for any I don;t have @ for)

Accounting for albedo in carbon market protocols - Nature Communications The paper analyzes the impact of omitting biophysical effects from carbon credits on climate mitigation. It shows that some Voluntary Carbon Market projects may result in net warming due to albedo while others enhance cooling.

I'm excited to share this work led by Lynn Riley investigating albedo impacts from afforestation, reforestation, and revegetation projects. We hope the findings will guide future projects in the fight against climate change. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Climate-linked escalation of societally disastrous wildfires Climate change and land mismanagement are creating increasingly fire-prone built and natural environments. However, despite worsening fire seasons, evidence is lacking globally for trends in socially ...

Published today: our new paper showing a 44-year trend of increasing global wildfire disasters (fatalities and economic losses) due to climate change-induced extreme weather. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Our new @agu.org commentary on why keeping the Orbiting Carbon Observatory missions operational is essential for U.S. agriculture, national interests, and global food security. agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

The second paper of the Current Perspectives on Biosphere Research Initiative is available as a preprint and constructive comments are welcome during the open review process, which ends on 6 November.

Preprint: doi.org/10.5194/egus...
First Paper: bg.copernicus.org/articles/22/...

#climate #nature

New Democratic Staff Report: Direct Evidence Trump Administration Has Been Illegally Imposing President’s Proposed Budget Cuts at NASA Since Early Summer—Threatening Safety, Mission, Science Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, released a new staff report revealing that OMB Director Russell Vought has...

www.commerce.senate.gov/2025/9/new-d...

Disentangling climate and policy uncertainties for the Colorado River post-2026 operations - Nature Communications Planning for the Colorado River is critical to secure water and hydropower for the western US under climate change. This study highlights how different policies may reduce but not eliminate the risk of losing water and energy supply altogether.

Disentangling climate and policy uncertainties for the Colorado River post-2026 operations www.nature.com/articles/s41... 'under existing policy, both reservoirs will face substantial risks (>80% likelihood) of reaching dead pool before 2060'

We are searching for a Forest Ecophysiologist (tenure track Assistant or Associate Professor) to join the Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences, University of British Columbia Faculty of Forestry. Please share! Details are here: ubc.wd10.myworkdayjobs.com/ubcfacultyjobs

Climate rather than overgrazing explains most rangeland primary productivity change in Mongolia Rangelands are Earth’s dominant land type, supporting the livelihoods of more than 2 billion people. Concerns about rangeland degradation typically focus on overgrazing. But climate change may be a gr...

Climate rather than overgrazing explains most rangeland primary productivity change in Mongolia | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

We mourn the passing of our Editor-in-Chief Steve Long.

His vision to establish one of the first journals dedicated to Global Change over 30 years ago was truly ahead of its time. Through GCB, researchers have demonstrated that biology and ecosystems are not simply victims of global change..

Impact of current and warmer climate conditions on snow cover loss in burned forests Wildfires are causing earlier snowmelt across the western US, and this effect would be exacerbated with projected warmer winters.

Our latest research on fire impacts on snow melt timing across the Western US was just published in @aaas.org Science Advances. Read here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A globally consistent negative effect of edge on aboveground forest biomass - Nature Ecology & Evolution Across 97% of forest area from eight million sampled forested locations worldwide, the density of aboveground biomass is lower near forest edges than in forest interiors. Given widespread forest fragm...

Across 97% of forest area from eight million sampled forested locations, the density of aboveground biomass is lower near forest edges than in forest interiors. This edge effect is estimated to be responsible for 9% reduction in forest aboveground biomass.🧪🌲🌴🌳

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The weak land carbon sink hypothesis Satellite-derived time series of vegetation carbon do not support a strong Northern Hemisphere net land carbon sink.

Maybe the land carbon sink is weaker than we thought. Big implications: "A lower-than-expected land carbon sink would also imply that the land biosphere may be closer to transitioning from a net carbon sink to a net source than current models predict" Randerson et al. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

I found an obituary for Steve

www.renner-wikoffchapel.com/obituary/Ste...

📢📢We are looking for a postdoc to join a NASA Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) project!! Please see the attached job ad and help us share widely!! @uarizona.bsky.social @ecology-awesome.bsky.social @villarreal-miguel.bsky.social 📢📢

Our new article is out in @geoderma.bsky.social! Drylands, which cover 40% of Earth’s land, store ~30% of global soil organic carbon. But how do different carbon fractions support ecosystem services under rising aridity? 🏜️
📖 doi.org/10.1016/j.ge...

Distal to proximal: a continuum of drivers shaping tree growth and carbon partitioning The relationship between tree carbon (C) assimilation and growth is central to understanding tree functioning and forecasting forest C sequestration, yet remains unresolved. The long-standing debate ...

🌳 New Tansley Insight!
What really limits tree growth—carbon source or sink? 🤔
I argue it’s not either/or but a distal → proximal continuum: from photosynthesis to transport and cell division, drivers act together to shape C allocation & growth 🌱🌍
🔗 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.70516

Some tropical trees cool their leaves to survive the heat — but not all species have ways to cope In full sun, tropical leaves can become much hotter than the surrounding air. Their ability to cope can be a matter of life or death.

Check out our piece in @theconversation.com explaining how intraspecific trait coordination across climatic gradients helps to avoid heat stress in some (but not all) tropical tree species

theconversation.com/some-tropica...

Satellite‐Constrained Reanalysis Reveals CO2 Versus Climate Process Compensation Across the Global Land Carbon Sink CO2 ${\text{CO}}_{2}$-driven terrestrial C gains are ∼4 times greater than climate-driven losses during 2001–2021 and are mainly in live biomass reservoirs In the global sum, CO2 ${\text{CO}}_{2}...

New paper led by T. Eren Bilir in AGU Advances—proud to be a coauthor: Satellite-Constrained Reanalysis of the Global Land Carbon Sink. doi.org/10.1029/2025...

Joe Rogan claims study shows Earth cooling – but report’s authors say he’s wrong Scientists say ‘old-school denier nonsense’ isn’t helpful as podcaster repeatedly airs false claim on his show

I stand by my offer to appear on Joe Rogan and set the record straight about our half-billion-year temperature reconstruction www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Climate change increases the interannual variance of summer crop yields globally through changes in temperature and water supply Future crop yield instability is driven by not only warming but also increased temperature variance and covariance with dryness.

Climate change increases the interannual variance of summer crop yields globally through changes in temperature and water supply www.science.org/doi/full/10....

The Art of Research: Alan Knapp CSU University Distinguished Professor and plant ecologist Alan Knapp talks about the value of grasslands and the future of science research.

Distinguished scientist (and LTER stalwart) Alan Knapp talks about his long career in research and the evolution of science. source.colostate.edu/the-art-of-r...

Trump team’s contentious climate report ‘makes a mockery of science’, experts say Over 85 top climate specialists lambasted administration’s review, calling it a ‘shoddy mess’ that downplays risks

More coverage of the scathing review by more than 80 scientists of the report from the DOE's climate working group. It's biased, cherry picked, and written with a scientifically unsupported agenda. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Happy to share a new lab @jgrbiogeo.bsky.social paper: "Drought Response in Three Conifer Species Detected by Sap Flow and Proximal Thermal Remote Sensing" led by the amazing Daphna Uni w/ @mostafaj.bsky.social others @uarizona.bsky.social agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

Intensifying Fire Season Aridity Portends Ongoing Expansion of Severe Wildfire in Western US Forests

🔗 buff.ly/0VGwyh0
grumpyunclesean@bsky.social coopecology@bsky.social

In our field Martha Anderson, Larry Hipps, John Finnigan and Elie Bou-Zeid are honored. Congrats to all

Combining Observations and Models: A Review of the CARDAMOM Framework for Data‐Constrained Terrestrial Ecosystem Modeling The rapid increase in the volume and variety of terrestrial biosphere observations offers a unique opportunity to derive ecological insights, refine process-based models, and improve forecasting for ...

🌍 New paper alert! Our review, led by Matthew Worden, is out in Global Change Biology: “Combining Observations and Models: A Review of the CARDAMOM Framework”
👉 doi.org/10.1111/gcb....