Matthew Kaproth

Single-nucleus transcriptomics revealed auxin-driven mechanisms of wood plasticity to enhance severe drought tolerance in poplar - Genome Biology Background Drought significantly affects forests and woody crops by limiting their growth, increasing their susceptibility to diseases, and reducing productivity. Wood anatomical plasticity is a crucial adaptive mechanism that enables trees to cope with fluctuations in water availability. During severe drought, trees develop more and narrower vessels, enhancing hydraulic safety and reducing the risk of embolism. However, the molecular regulation of vessel formation is still not well understood. Results Using single-nucleus transcriptomics, we have generated a cell type-specific gene expression map of the mature poplar stem under well-watered and drought conditions. Our findings reveal extensive gene expression reprogramming in xylem-forming cells, with changes in auxin homeostasis identified as a key mechanism for anatomical adaptation. Specifically, we show that poplar WAT1-like genes control vessel spatial patterning. Additionally, the downregulation of WAT1-like gene expression in the dividing cells of the vascular cambium and the upregulation of MP-like gene expression in cells undergoing early vessel differentiation facilitate the formation of secondary xylem with narrower and more numerous vessels under drought. Furthermore, the wat2 mutant exhibits greater drought tolerance than wild-type trees, underscoring its potential for developing drought-resilient tree varieties. Conclusions This study provides the first single-nucleus transcriptomic map of hybrid poplar stems under severe drought, uncovering auxin-driven hormonal networks that regulate xylem plasticity and enhance drought tolerance. These insights provide valuable targets for improving resilience in poplar and other woody species.

How do trees survive severe drought? 🌳 In this work performed at @cbgpmadrid.bsky.social , we used single-nucleus RNA-seq on mature Populus stems to reveal the genetic switches that reshape wood anatomy, helping trees stay resilient under severe drought stress.
doi.org/10.1186/s130...

Love autumn. All the big insects are showing themselves!

Beautiful updated #bryophyte #phylogeny!

Migration is on! Twenty monarchs today. The previous high in the front yard was 11... Filling up on Liatris before flying further south!

Impact of emerging compound droughts on forests: A water supply and demand perspective This review examines the physiological and ecological responses of trees to emerging compound droughts from a water demand and supply perspective, as well as the role of acclimation and consequences ...

🌳🔥Out now: Our review on compound droughts and forest responses - from leaf to ecosystem. Featuring a stunning 20-yr map of canopy temperatures variation across European forests. @chriswernerlab.bsky.social @simonhaber.bsky.social @vallicrosah.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Future climate change is projected to increase the severity of impacts across natural and human systems and will increase regional differences Examples of impacts without additional adaptation

Given the global lack of urgency and political will to radically curb emissions (2025 emissions are projected to rise by 0.8% - see bsky.app/profile/gle... - when they are meant to be *falling* by 5.5% per year to attempt staying below 2ºC) prudent risk management requires studying this map!

Climate Change Is Making Fire Weather Worse for World’s Forests

The chances of seeing extreme fire weather are roughly double in today’s climate compared with the preindustrial period. “It really puts to bed any debate about the role of climate change in driving these extreme fires,” Dr. Cunningham said.

Net Ecosystem CO2 Exchange of a Subalpine Spruce Forest in Switzerland Over 26 Years: Effects of Phenology and Contributions of Abiotic Drivers at Daily Time Scales This study investigated how climate change has affected carbon uptake in a subalpine spruce forest in Switzerland over 26 years. Air temperatures rose and soil moisture declined, while the amount of ...

Net Ecosystem CO2 Exchange of a Subalpine Spruce Forest in Switzerland Over 26 Years: Effects of Phenology and Contributions of Abiotic Drivers at Daily Time Scales

Excited to showcase my new Open Educational Resource for intro college level Botany. It's a hybrid textbook, lab manual, and workbook. Published and ready for anyone to implement! I'll be showcasing it in the Educational section of #Botany2025 today and handing out copies & stickers!

Opening page of the article of insights and tips from participants from IBC.

Getting ready for #Botany2025? Check out this Plant Science Bulletin article on tips on maneuvering through conferences by some attendees of the last year's IBC. A lot of good info that applies to all conferences!
issuu.com/botanicalsoc... #botany #plantscience

Ecology/Evolution/Marine Biology labs recruiting for Fall 2026 Please complete this form if you are a PI recruiting graduate students for a Fall 2026 start. If you are NOT recruiting, feel free to share the response sheet with prospective students looking for lab...

Its that time again - the list of Ecology/Evolution/Marine Bio Labs recruiting grad students for Fall 2026 is live!
PIs enter your position info here: forms.gle/2XTHBP6CZGEn...
Prospective students (and PIs not recruiting) share the composite list: docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
Please share! 🧪

What is spectral biology? We explain in this synthesis article on “Spectral biology across scales in changing environments”
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/R6QXPK
www.spectralbiology.org

#Fossombronia! #Fossombroniaceae Two species recorded in the area as I can see, F. wondraczekii and F. pusilla 🤔 these odd little liverwort look like tiny creeping Lettuces but unfortunately I would need spores to adequately ID these ruffly lil plants as they all are not that distinct from eachother

Coupled, decoupled, and abrupt responses of vegetation to climate across timescales Climate and ecosystem dynamics vary across timescales, but research into climate-driven vegetation dynamics usually focuses on singular timescales. We developed a spectral analysis–based approach that...

In analysis of fossil pollen records over 600k yrs, study found "vegetation was able to respond at timescales from 100s to 10s of 1000s of yrs, but not at timescales less than ~150 yrs." IOW at current rates of change, there's no way ecosystems will be able to adapt.🌏 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Climate Change Increases Evaporative and Crop Irrigation Demand in North America The strongest climate change-driven trends in ETo are found in the water-limited southwestern and central regions of North America Forced increases in ETo have primarily been driven by increased ...

New study w/ @climate-guy.bsky.social ! Increased evaporative demand due to climate change has increased crop irrigation demand; in the Central Valley, this additional irrigation demand is equivalent to ~11% of the region's observed groundwater loss.

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

Close up picture of a pink developing eucalyptus flower showing the cap about to pop off

Close up picture of a newly opened pink eucalyptus flower showing many pink stamens with yellow tips

One feature of eucalyptus species is the cap (or operculum) that covers developing flower buds (L). As the flower develops the cap is popped off revealing numerous fluffy stamens (R)
#ozflora #wildoz #eucalyptus #nativeplants

This place is still in trouble, please donate! It can make a difference, just like how PRI makes a difference in the lives of children who see come here and are excited by #science.

www.priweb.org/donate

#SavePRI

Milkweed flowers close up

Milkweed ollinia

Milkweed flowers

Common #milkweed, #Asclepias syriaca, named by #Linnaeus as he thought this was the same as Calotropis from the Middle East. Now in #flower in #Ithaca. Dark spots on the flowers are part of wishbone-shaped pollinia, packages of pollen; orchids & milkweeds make them instead of free pollen grains

This is very cool. Maybe we need that also internationally, not just in the US....

Seems important:

All ('IPCC') CMIP6 models are completely unable to reproduce what NASA satellites observed!

The rate of global warming (starting with Earth's Energy Imbalance and now surface air temperature) has more than doubled!

Our new study demonstrates low-cost single-scan terrestrial LiDAR is a powerful tool for fuel characterization and evaluation of wildfire risk across ecosystems
www.publish.csiro.au/WF/WF24221#f...

Long-term flowering-time data on Japanese mountain cherry (recorded since the 9th century!) shows a shift in full-flowering date beginning in the late 19th century.

Fascinating new @newphyt.bsky.social paper by @jgpausas.bsky.social

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Fully promoted! Thank you all for helping me get there! (Lots to be thankful for 💜)

Infrared imaging shows heat levels in sun-exposed leaves of Alstonia scholaris from the Australian Wet Tropics. As climate change increases temperatures and the severity of heat waves, both natural ecosystems and agricultural plants are increasingly affected by heat. Examining heat responses at cellular, genetic, physiological, and ecosystem scales, this special issue explores how plants sense and respond to high temperatures.

As the world warms, plants in natural ecosystems and agricultural settings find ways to respond to the heat.

In a new special issue of Science, researchers examine how heat affects plants at multiple scales, from the molecular level to the biosphere. scim.ag/44cSw3Z

Showing off our figure of global conifer leaf-widths & leaf silhouettes highlighting that conifers can be broad-leaved & angiosperms can be narrow/ needle-leaved! 🍃

Our paper: tinyurl.com/mss2me7v
@newphyt.bsky.social

@vallicrosah.bsky.social @botanykat.bsky.social & Matilda Brown

Wrapping up a great week in UP Michigan! We collected sugar maple spectra (start of the field season) to see if we can predict spring sap quality.

Uncovering ‘terroir’: Project to explore plant-environment interactions | Cornell Chronicle A Cornell grape geneticist is leading a $2.3 million multi-institutional project to understand how genetically identical grapevines are influenced by varying environmental conditions in three states.

It’s scary to be excited these days but I’m proud of our collaborative team and this new project to understand grafting and environmental variation effects on grapevine rootstock and scion epigenomics in vineyards across the Eastern US. @ajmiller4233.bsky.social
news.cornell.edu/stories/2025...

IRGA was just a little bit dirty... Eeek! Deep clean season before the field season.

Mammoths and Ants Look at the fragile mushrooms. Look at the Black Widow. Pause with me a moment, and hear the cicadas humming. Here is where I'm home, among the Mammoth Redwoods. When I was lost, the ants absorbed me, calling me to the smallness of Earth. There I heard the Song of Silence. Come with me through the minuscule. Listen. The Cicadas are humming.

I'll never get over this poem a child wrote with one of my poetry prompts.

Graphical art (lino-cut) showing functional ecologists busy with measuring leaf and fine root traits while ignoring storage and clonal growth organ

Check out this new #AJB essay by Jitka Klimešová, Timothy Harris & Tomáš Herben!

Morphological knowledge in plant #ecology and why it matters

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