iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Alayna Mead @alaynamead.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

I'm excited to share that I've recently started a new postdoc in the Forest Genetics group at the University of Freiburg, Germany! I'm looking forward to new projects and collaborations while working in beautiful Freiburg (right next to the Black Forest!)

Smiling short-haired woman standing in front of a wall with tree trunk cross-sections of different sizes

A gorgeous brown sandstone gothic-style church tower with an arched entrance, clock, and intricate spire

A blue sign labeled Alte Universität on the wall of a building listing what's inside; one of the listings is Professur für Forstgenetik.

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Alayna Mead @alaynamead.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

This is so sad! Thankfully it sounds like the fire was relatively low intensity in the Torrey pine grove. A good reminder of the importance of ex situ collections.

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Jill M. Love, PhD 🏳️‍🌈 @jillmlove.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

Preprint up now! With @ferrisifolius.bsky.social, we found positive selection on leaf shape plasticity across the altitudinal range of the cutleaf monkeyflower. This experiment was a HUGE personal undertaking. If you give it a read, I’d love to hear your thoughts! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.org

Phenotypic plasticity is broadly adaptive across an elevation gradient in the Cutleaf Monkeyflower

Phenotypic plasticity is a key mechanism by which organisms can cope with environmental heterogeneity, but its evolutionary consequences depend on how plastic responses align with the broader adaptive...

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Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra @jrossibarra.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

There are many days when I think that "less" is the single most powerful bioinformatics tool. Just look at your data.

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AZ Faust @azfaust.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

NSF bio hour - NSF BIO lost 40% of its staff 😑

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Terry McGlynn @hormiga.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

Some more context on my university’s proposal to discontinue offering a Philosophy degree. scienceforeveryone.science/humanities-a... 🧪

scienceforeveryone.science

Humanities are the heart of every college and university

I suppose that means some institutions are heartless.

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Alayna Mead @alaynamead.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

Very happy to see our article comparing the responses of hybrid poplars in 17 common gardens, out now in @newphyt.bsky.social! We estimated reaction norms to predict how warming winters could change where different ancestries are favored. nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Variation in predicted reaction norms in response to mean coldest month temperature (MCMT) across admixed Populus genotypes. The reaction norm of each genotype is shown as a separate line colored by species ancestry, with green indicating Populus trichocarpa and blue indicating Populus balsamifera. Predictions for the overall model (a, d) incorporate both yearly growth increment in centimeters (cm) and the probability of mortality; predictions for the conditional model (b, e) only predict growth, ignoring the probability of zeros arising from other processes including mortality; and predictions for the zero-inflated model (c, f) predict the probability of zeros arising from mortality. (a–c) Responses across the range of MCMT values at garden and home climates. Actual values of home climates (|) and garden climates (circle) used for model training are shown on the x-axis. (d, e) Responses based on distance from climate of origin (garden–home MCMT); positive values indicate a warmer climate and negative values indicate a colder climate. If genotypes perform best in environments similar to their home environment, growth should be highest and mortality should be lowest when the transfer distance is 0.

Maps showing the predicted shift in species ancestry in the Populus hybrid zone, based on genotype-specific responses to mean coldest month temperature (MCMT). In (a, b), the color of the base layer shows the species ancestry of the studied genotype which is predicted to have the highest fitness (as measured by growth and mortality) in that location under historic (a) and future climates (b). (c) The change in optimal species ancestry between future (b) and historic (a) climates, indicating regions where increased Populus trichocarpa ancestry is expected to be beneficial in green, and regions with no change in gray. As MCMT increases, we predict that genotypes with higher P. trichocarpa ancestry may be able to outcompete genotypes with higher Populus balsamifera ancestry in some portions of the P. balsamifera range, favoring a northeastern shift of the P. trichocarpa range and the hybrid zone and into historically colder, more continental regions. Regions with MCMT values outside of the range measured in the common gardens (−13.05°C to 10.85°C) are masked and colored white. Actual ancestry of collected genotypes is shown as circles. Species ranges are shown as dark blue and green outlines (Little, 1971). The same predictions are mapped across North America, including the common garden sites (Supporting Information Fig. S15).

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New Phytologist @newphyt.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

Climate and hybridization shape #stomatal trait evolution in #Populus 📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... by Zavala-Paez et al. @WileyPlantSci @michellezavala.bsky.social @jillahamilton.bsky.social

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Jill Hamilton @jillahamilton.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

It is official! DR. @michellezavala.bsky.social defended a very impressive dissertation today!! With friends, family, stomata cookies, and Ecuadorian Guinea pigs cheering her along! We understand so much more about the consequences of hybridization to the evolution of physiological traits!! #proudPI

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Alayna Mead @alaynamead.bsky.social · 28/09/2025

Happy goldenrod season to all who celebrate (and bonus Coreopsis)

A spider with long green and brown striped front legs hides behind the petals of a yellow flower

A black and white beetle trundles along the underside of a goldenrod stem

A slightly blurry iridescent green bee takes off from a yellow goldenrod, with blue sky behind

A yellow beetle with black spots sitting on a yellow goldenrod flower

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Alayna Mead @alaynamead.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

Hi #ESA2025! I'll be talking about phenology in a poplar hybrid zone at 3:45 this afternoon in the "Beyond Budburst–Connecting Phenological Transitions Among Tissues and Times in Woody Plants" session. Excited to hear some phenology talks!

Bright green, newly formed leaves growing from a poplar stem in a field.

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Chris Kyriazis @ckyriazis.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

I am thrilled to share this paper outlining some ideas I’ve been thinking about for a little while on a simple but powerful approach for predicting risk of inbreeding depression from long runs of homozygosity and non-ROH heterozygosity. 1/n @klohmueller.bsky.social doi.org/10.1016/j.tr...

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Trevor Faske @trevorfaske.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

Very excited to have our study come out looking at multiple plant mosaic hybrid zones and their implications for hybrids to act as "sutures" of species ranges. We use genomic data to project shifts into future climates and discuss impacts on conservation/management. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

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Jill Hamilton @jillahamilton.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

Super sad to be missing out on #Botany2025, but Hamilton Lab is represented by @sammymuraguri.bsky.social - be sure to drop by his poster to learn about the genomic architecture of adaptive introgression across repeated contact zones between two sister Poplar species #PopUpPoplars

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Kevin Bird @stairwaytokevin.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

Winter is great, thunderstorms in spring are great, leaves changing colors in fall is great. Californians insulate themselves from the beauty and changes of the seasons in search of a mythical “perfect weather”. It’s perverse Utopianism and a weakness of the spirit

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Jill Hamilton @jillahamilton.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

One week to go!!! So excited to host our colleagues next week in the Happy Valley of Pennsylvania! Over 150 registrants from around the world!! If you’re interested in coming but unable to join in person - email me to learn about virtual options forestgeneticsconference2025.com #forestgenetics2025

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Kevin Bird @stairwaytokevin.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

Based on some quick math, this alone could fund the NSF Plant Genome Research Program for ~4 years; the NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology, which was totally axed in the NSF budget request, for ~9 years; and ~ half the total NSF GRFP budget

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Andrew Hipp @andrewlhipp.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

Our new study out in Molecular Ecology, led by 3 early-career scientists, uses hyb-seq on rangewide field collections to document introgression, species differentiation, and phylogeograhy of bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa) & relatives. Great work by a large team over many yrs! doi.org/10.1111/mec....

ADMIXTURE analysis. Admixture plots for (a) K = 5 and (b) K = 6, partitioned by species (leaf silhouettes; from left to right, Q. macrocarpa, Q. alba, Q. bicolor, Q. stellata, Q. muehlenbergii). (c) Plot of cross-validation error as a function of K, from K = 2 to K = 8. (d) Heatmap of pairwise FST scores between ancestral clusters inferred in the K = 6 ADMIXTURE run.

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Justin Luong, PhD 🏳️‍🌈🌾 @justinluong.com · 01/06/2025

Happy Pride from California Native Plants!

Progressive Pride Flag made in 2022 by Dr. Justin Luong from photos taken by Justin Luong of California Native Plants.

#Pride
#Pride2025
##CaliforniaNativePlants

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California Landscapes @calandscapebot.bsky.social · 17/05/2025

Constantia, Lassen County, CA 🗺39.9228, -120.0034 🧭216° ⛰5604 ft ops.alertcalifornia.org/cam-console…

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Robert Simmon @rsimmon.bsky.social · 16/05/2025

One thing I’ve noticed as people move away from the rainbow palette is more use of divergent palettes for sequential data. That’s not *always* a bad idea, but often is. This example inadvertently de-emphasizes states (Colorado) where people hear about climate change more frequently. #dataviz 📊

A map of the US showing how most people aren't talking about climate change. Source: https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/visualizations-data/ycom-us/

The palette goes from dark red (100% of people in that state hear about climate change weekly), to a transition between pale orange and pale blue at 50%, to dark blue (people never hear climate change messages). In the U.S. no state is above 50%, so states with more frequent climate communication (Colorado, Massachusetts) are lighter than states with less (Oklahoma, West Virginia). This visually de-emphasizes those states.

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Jill Hamilton @jillahamilton.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

Excited by new #NSFFunded research from #PopUpPoplars led by @michellezavala.bsky.social that shows the importance of considering cytonuclear interactions to plant function The role of cytonuclear interactions to plant adaptation across a Populus hybrid zone www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

biorxiv.org

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Karolina Heyduk @kheyduk.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

The PLANTS program (funded by NSF) at @botsocamerica.bsky.social was a cornerstone of the conference each year, bringing together new-to-science scholars with more experienced mentors. It helped provide community, support, and connection to new scientists. The grant was terminated last week.

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Alayna Mead @alaynamead.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

With all the chaos, it was good to help put some trees in the ground today! 🌿💚

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Reports From Unknown Places @clever-reports.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

We report: the first few days of May happened like a drawn-out sigh, a spill of warmth and light. Spring is now rolling out at full speed, and we remember now how hungry green can be, crawling onto pavements and walls and trees. The sunset seems a weak attempt at stopping it.

Digital painting of a sunset sky, a gradient of a deep blue to a bright orange, with long wisps of red and pink clouds sprawled across the sky.

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Daniel Bolnick @danielbolnick.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

Upset about federal funding cuts in the US? Want some ideas of what to do? I wrote a long-ish blog post about it here ecoevoevoeco.blogspot.com summarizing things I learned meeting with Senate & House aides this week with the @aibsbiology.bsky.social Congressional Visits Day event.

ecoevoevoeco.blogspot.com

Eco-Evo Evo-Eco

Academic musing by Hendry, Bolnick, Gotanda, and awesome guests. Opinions and statements expressed on this blog are the views of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent endorsement by the blog...

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Scott Delaney @scott-delaney.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

NEW: We (mostly @noamross.net) launched a website to shine a brighter light on terminated NIH and NSF grants. grant-watch.us It links to our NIH & NSF trackers, grant info submission forms, and other info. We'll also add new analyses soon. Check it out and let us know what else you'd like to see.

grant-watch.us

Grant Watch

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Jay Jinsing Falk @jjinsing.bsky.social · 26/04/2025

My NSF PRFB on the genetics of female polymorphism in hummingbirds was terminated yesterday. I don't have much to say, I'm just sad. We've discovered so much, and could have gone so much further. If anyone else is in the same boat, esp postdocs, please reach out, it would be good to connect.

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Scott Delaney @scott-delaney.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

🧪 Our Terminated NSF Grant Tracker is live 🧪 🔴 114 NSF grants listed so far 🔴 Cancelled grants focused on → Training scientists → Misinformation → AI → Climate change Credit to @noamross.net for all the work to build this & to all PIs who submitted their info. Link: airtable.com/appGKlSVeXni...

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Dr. David Miller 🏳️‍🌈 @davidimiller.bsky.social · 20/04/2025

🧪 Tip: You have the right to contest a grant termination, even though NSF says you don't. 🧵 On Friday, NSF terminated 402 grants (per Musk's DOGE). The notification letters had one of the most egregious violations of fed regulations I've seen so far in these cases: "not subject to appeal"

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Maddy Jalbert @maddyjalbert.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

I got an email yesterday afternoon that my NSF SPRF Postdoctoral Fellowship was terminated. My grant focused on testing interventions to address online misinformation and I was 8 months into a two year appointment.

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Erin Reed @erininthemorning.com · 31/03/2025

1. Six years ago, during the hardest winter of my life, I found myself again. A month later, I found myself again, under a cherry blossom tree. On Trans Day of Visibility this year, we travel through our toughest winter. But we know the promise of spring. Subscribe to support my journalism.

erininthemorning.com

Finding Hope And Spring On Transgender Day Of Visibility

The past three months have been brutal for transgender people—but if there’s one thing our community knows, it’s how to travel through darkness to find spring.

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Andrew Hipp @andrewlhipp.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

We are hiring a seasonal research intern to work in our Bur Oak ACE experiment at The Morton Arboretum. Our lab is a fun group, the experiment fascinating. Come join us! Application: careers.hireology.com/themortonarb... ... information: www.wbez.org/race-class-c... grist.org/science/to-u...

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Rachel Germain @gerlame.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

Stats question: without doing math, does anyone know of a package that does inverse predictions for glmmTMB? E.g., I have a fitted equation and I want to know the value of a predictor that yields a specific value for the response

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Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them) @jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

YES, MORE OF THIS. As I've said before, at the end of the day trans people have rights regardless of what the science says (bc that's not how we decide who gets human rights) but ALSO since there's a determined effort to frame transphobia as science, these statements are critical.

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Jonathan Lambert @jonlambert.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

"This administration appears to be not just setting priorities, but enforcing ideological conformity in a way that if your grant is studying something that's not aligned with a particular view of the world, it's just not going to be funded," - @epopppp.bsky.social www.npr.org/sections/sho...

npr.org

"Unprecedented": White House moves to control science funding worry researchers

If the Trump administration continues targeting DEI in science and seeking to slash funding, American science will look fundamentally different.

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Evolutionary Applications @evolappjournal.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

Soil properties – water availability and pH – are strongly associated to the spatial distribution of two hybridizing and sympatric oak species (Quercus spp) at local stand scale. w/@felix-zimmermann.bsky.social, @christian-rellstab.bsky.social doi.org/10.1111/eva.70076

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Colin Tucker Smith @colinsmithpsych.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

Slightly annoying how many of the comments are like, "This is written so broadly it's going to even affect ME over here in chemistry" or whatever. We need to (always) stand together as scientists whether you're the target or the collateral damage.

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Reports From Unknown Places @clever-reports.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

We report on a long hike: once, we mapped out the trees around here, but it was a different season, and they now all look very different. We did it again, methodically, walked for hours until we had to look for our feet below our knees. The smell of the woods is in our hair.

Digital painting of a cloudy sky, a pale grey filled with darker grey-blue, straggly clouds fading into one another. There are black birds flying, spread over the frame.

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Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

NEW: We obtained the directions NSF program officers are following to review all grants for compliance with the Trump EOs and the turmoil it has created in an agency mandated to broaden STEM participation. Our story: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

nature.com

Exclusive: how NSF is scouring research grants for violations of Trump’s orders

The US National Science Foundation has unfrozen grant funding, but it continues to scrutinize research projects, sowing turmoil.

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Eric Boodman @ericboodman.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

NSF froze payments to researchers. State AGs said it was unconstitutional for exec branch to pause congressionally mandated funds. Judge issued restraining order. Payments resumed. But some inconsistencies in what the NSF has said (thread): www.statnews.com/2025/02/02/n...

statnews.com

National Science Foundation restores payments after five-day pause, but worries over science funding persist

The NSF said on Sunday that its payment system was back on line, after it froze out researchers and sparked financial worries.

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Kevin Bird @stairwaytokevin.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

The dismantling of American Science continues. The Organismal Response to Climate Change grant call has been cancelled. The NSF Director is a disgrace

Email text:
[EXT] Grants.gov
Opportunities Update
External Email
The following grant opportunities were created, updated, or deleted on Grants.gov:
NSF
National Science Foundation
25-504 - Organismal Response to
Climate Change
Deletion Comments: Opportunity deleted

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Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

Really appreciate Jonathan Lambert pointing out that NSF grants are congressionally mandated to weigh how grants broaden participation in science, putting the administration's executive order against DEIA in conflict with, and potentially undermining, congressional legislation

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Julia Van Etten @couchmicroscopy.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

To update people on the NSF PRFB situation: despite the court challenge and rescinding the original memo, the NSF has continued to comply with the executive order. They have not communicated with us at all and our paychecks are still canceled indefinitely. I know people who cannot pay their rent.

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Kevin Bird @stairwaytokevin.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

To expand on this, right now ~200 postdoc fellows directly funded by NSF are locked out of their salary &research funds right before the first of the month. No doubt other NSF funded grads &postdocs are affected as well. All requests for funds put in before the freeze are slowly being cancelled

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