Seth Munson

☀️This dryland study unveils diverse drought resistance strategies in annuals and shows that in open areas, more drought-resistant populations are more stable over time. Under extreme aridity, delayed germination emerges as a key driver of stability

🔍Article: buff.ly/PvhqEXD
📰 Blog: buff.ly/gh2nJNq

Growth form and lifespan of herbaceous species mediate the role of traits in short-term drought response - Nature Ecology & Evolution Using 63 globally distributed grassland and shrubland sites from the International Drought Experiment, this study identified plant traits linked to drought resistance after 1 year of extreme drought a...

🌱 From Nature Ecology & Evolution: Traits that aid short drought survival vary by growth form and lifespan, showing no universal plant strategy for resisting extreme dry spells. (Samantha J. Worthy, Jennifer L. Funk)

▶️ www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#PlantScience #Climate

Abiotic and biotic controls of non-native perennial plant success in drylands - Nature Ecology & Evolution It is unclear whether the harsh abiotic conditions of drylands hinder biological invasions. This global analysis shows that drylands are vulnerable to non-native plants and are likely to become more s...

Drylands are globally resistant to invasive species!

Native biodiversity and aridity are key but increasing grazing pressure and eutrophication may change the game 🌐

Our new paper is here @natecoevo.nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

👀 Global maps of 37 plant #FunctionalTraits as defined in the TRY Plant Trait Database with a resolution of 1 km and a global extent 🌐🧪 📏🧮🌮 global-traits.projects.earthengine.app/view/global-...

New paper from lab-@natecoevo.nature.com

Abiotic and biotic controls of non-native perennial plant success in drylands

Non-native plant success in drylands is facilitated by high grazing pressure & resource availability.

Led by Rahmanian and @ftmaestre.bsky.social

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

USFS land on the left, City of Flagstaff on the right.

The position applies subject-matter expertise in restoration ecology, forest and fire ecology, and wildfire risk reduction to advance proactive, landscape-scale restoration, fuels management, and conservation in frequent-fire forests and woodlands of the Intermountain West.

Our new paper out on how desert annual plants, which make up ~50% of diversity, respond to large scale solar energy development. Native annual plant diversity can increase with more microclimate heterogeneity in low-impact facilities
#ecovoltaics
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

One of the graphics of the paper on Anthyllis cytisoides resprouiting after drought, showing model predictions and observations of the data analysed in 2022 and 2023; fire occurred in 2021. For flowering and fruiting, the negative effects of drought are stronger on unburned plants (A and C). Burned plants produced nearly four times more flowers than unburned plants (B), and had a higher seed set and heavier seeds than unburned plants in both years (D and E).

Fire buffers drought impacts on reproduction in a resprouting shrub
nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Under drought, burned plants had ⬆️prob. of flowering, produced +flowers, set +seeds & heavier seeds, than unburned
Saiz-Blanco et al @oikosjournal.bsky.social

🧪🌍🔥🌿🪴🌾🌱 Anthyllis

How many STEM Ph.D.s were lost from the U.S. federal government last year?

My colleagues @mghersher.bsky.social and @policyhound.bsky.social dug into a recent data release to find the answer. A @science.org exclusive.

www.science.org/content/arti...

Joshua trees are flowering in the Calif. desert. That’s bad news. Joshua trees rely on a single moth species to reproduce.

www.sfgate.com/news/article...

Plant diversity enhances ecosystem resistance to increasing grazing pressure in global drylands - Nature Ecology & Evolution Grazing affects plant diversity, but plant diversity in turn may modulate the effect of grazing on the plant community. This global analysis explores the association between plant species richness and...

Grazing is a major land use in drylands with major impact on ecosystems

In a new paper, we found that plant diversity is key to increase ecosystem resistance to increasing grazing pressure. This effect is driven by complementarity in plant traits

🧪🌐

Find more here⬇️

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

A Rare Desert Plant Shows Benefits of Sustainability Efforts at a Large Solar Array in the Mojave Desert Although sunlight is one of the cleanest forms of renewable energy available, clearing large swathes of desert habitat to build solar arrays has consequences for the plants and animals it displaces. R...

Nice write up that explains the study
www.dri.edu/a-rare-deser...

📖 Published!

Seed germination traits of native temperate European herbs predict naturalization success in different climatic zones, offering a simple but effective tool for assessing naturalization risk globally 🌱 🌳

🔎 Read more: buff.ly/O2S2Hfd

Similar results in the Mojave Desert, although elevated moisture levels likely due to shading

bsky.app/profile/smmu...

From invasive species tracking to water security – what’s lost with federal funding cuts at US Climate Adaptation Science Centers The people who manage America’s aquifers, wetlands, shorelines and recreation areas rely on federal science as they face new and rising risks in a changing climate.

You probably heard the US admin is threatening to break up the National Center for Atmospheric Research: but did you know they already froze funding for the 9 regional Climate Science Adaptation Centers? From tracking invasives to helping tribes with drought, here's why the CASCs matter ⬇️

Conceptual diagram illustrating how climate influences stomatal traits and drought responses in Andropogon gerardii. The top panel compares populations: warm, dry environments are shown with leaves having smaller, more numerous stomata to reduce water loss, while cool, moist environments have leaves with larger, fewer stomata that enhance transpiration. The bottom panel depicts drought responses: dry-adapted populations maintain similar stomatal traits and continue carbon gain (drought tolerant), whereas wet-adapted populations show pronounced stomatal closure or reduction in size and density, leading to lower photosynthesis (drought susceptible).

Intraspecific variation in stomatal architecture, gas exchange, & #drought response of a dominant #prairie #grass sourced from broad climatic gradients

New #AJB research by @j-sytsma-56.bsky.social, Allison Ricker, Helen Winters, Brian Maricle et al.

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

Ecovoltaic solar energy development effects to microclimate, temperature, and soil moisture in panel array interspaces in a warm desert Solar energy development is increasing in warm deserts of the southwestern United States, and ecovoltaics has emerged as an approach to maintain ecosy…

How does a solar energy facility built with low disturbance methods affect microclimate?

We found lower evaporative demand, less heat loading, and higher soil moisture inside compared to outside the facility, potentially benefitting desert flora and fauna

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Thanks for covering this. Many U.S. fed scientists have strict travel caps or are not receiving approval to attend

“Notably, desert species had the most cold and heat tolerant leaves, and therefore the widest thermal tolerance breadth”

Cycad plants use thermogenesis to warm their reproductive cones. A beetle dusted with pollen and fluorescent dyes lands on the warm cone of a cycad. High concentrations of dye have been deposited on the cone’s hottest regions during previous visits by other labeled beetles. Beetle pollinators use these thermal infrared patterns as a guide to locate host pollen and ovulate cones.

Long before flowers dazzled pollinators with brilliant colors and sweet scents, ancient plants used another feature to signal insects: heat. The findings in Science offer insights into what shaped the earliest eras of plant-animal coevolution.

Read more in this week's issue: https://scim.ag/4rVtArQ

Weird wet weather has Joshua trees flowering early — or late? Help the Yoder Lab map this “bonus bloom” to understand why A flowering tree in Yucca Valley, CA, observed by iNaturalist contributor wanderingmojave on December 9. A tree with lots of flowers in Tehachapi, CA, observed by iNaturalist contributor tina9294 o…

I started getting reports of an unseasonal Joshua tree bloom in the last few weeks, and looking over records on @inaturalist.bsky.social it's pretty widespread! So we're putting out the call for folks to record this "bonus bloom" and help us study it 🌿

lab.jbyoder.org/2025/12/10/w...

This paper was led by two top-notch early career researchers Laura Shriver and Sarah Costanzo

Seed coating treatments alter emergence timing of native Intermountain West U.S. grasses under different regimes of water availability We demonstrate that seed coatings can alter seedling emergence percent and timing across different timings and amounts of water availability in a greenhouse setting. Seed coatings designed to acceler...

Seed-based restoration often fails. Find out how seed enhancement technologies can improve outcomes by shifting emergence to target favorable climate windows and bet-hedge against variable precipitation. Our new paper in @restorationecology.bsky.social

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

Meet the 2026 team for the ESA Southwest Chapter! 🌵☀️ We're super excited to serve our community and support your science in any way we can! Got questions or ideas? Send them our way! Stay tuned for introduction posts of each of our amazing new leaders!

Divergent responses of seed banks and aboveground vegetation to drought and deluge in grasslands across an elevational gradient - Oecologia Increased variability in precipitation associated with climate change creates extreme conditions of drought and deluge that can have profound effects on the abundance and composition of plant communit...

We compared the responses of aboveground and seed bank communities at five perennial grass-dominated sites across an elevational gradient to 6 years of extreme drought and deluge. New paper led by Jenny Gremer

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Frontiers | Rare milkvetch (Astragalus) persistence at a utility-scale solar energy facility in the Mojave Desert Utility-scale solar energy (USSE) development is driving the projected growth in global renewable energy capacity but comes with environmental tradeoffs. New...

Can rare species coexist with energy generation from large solar facilities? We show this may be possible with alternative construction methods that reduce disturbance. #ecovolataics

www.frontiersin.org/journals/eco...

Insights Into Water Vapor Uptake by Dry Soils Using a Global Eddy Covariance Observation Network

🔗 buff.ly/O9bovwm

Invitation to contribute to a Special Feature on “Scaling laws in (vegetation) ecology” in the Journal of Vegetation Science - vegsciblog.org Posted by Jürgen Dengler (Chair of the Guest Editors) Outline: Scaling laws are ubiquitous in ecology. Ignoring them can lead

‼️ Call for papers!
We're looking forward to your submissions to our Special Feature on “Scaling laws in (vegetation) ecology”
🌿First deadline for abstract submission: 30 November 2025
🌿Second deadline: Spring 2026
🌿Last deadline: Summer 2026

Scientists predict a wetter, greener future for the Sahara Desert UIC researchers predict that the Sahara Desert could see up to 75% more rain by the end of this century due to rising global temperatures. Using 40 climate models, the team found widespread precipitat...

A wetter future for the Sahara?
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/202...