iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Leslie Spencer

Living Landscapes Lab @ricketts-lab.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

🎉 Please join us in welcoming Ali Lotfi to the Living Landscapes Lab! Ali is starting his Ph.D. in Natural Resources this fall, co-advised by Taylor Ricketts & Nicholas Aflitto. His research will focus on building a bee-monitoring system to improve pollinator data collection. Welcome, Ali! 🐝

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Reposted by Leslie Spencer

Living Landscapes Lab @ricketts-lab.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

👋 Welcome to our new page! We're the Living Landscapes Lab at the University of Vermont, headed by Taylor Ricketts. We integrate natural and social sciences to address fundamental research questions and real-world environmental problems. Follow along for research updates and other lab news.

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Leslie Spencer @lesliespencer.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

It’s officially spring in Vermont! We may still be bundled but the #Colletes are back in action 🐝

A bee sits on my hand and I am holding it towards the camera. I am smiling as is the person over my shoulder!

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Reposted by Leslie Spencer

Atticus Murphy @atticusmurphy.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

Pollinator gardens are having a moment, with good reason! But what can these gardens realistically achieve for conservation and for the people who make them? Led by Nick Dorian, we take a stab at these questions, out today in Conservation Biology: conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Setting goals for pollinator gardens

In recent years, declines in animal pollinators have stimulated tremendous interest in pollinator-friendly gardening. There is a widespread notion that pollinator gardens are beneficial, but the spec...

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Leslie Spencer @lesliespencer.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

Our first flower of the spring starting poking up out of the frozen ground this week. I wrote about it here: open.substack.com/pub/lesliecs...

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Leslie Spencer @lesliespencer.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

open.substack.com/pub/lesliecs...

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Leslie Spencer @lesliespencer.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

As someone who studies bees, it’s easy for me to think that winter is quiet time in the natural world. So fun to learn more about winter ecology yesterday, to explore all the hidden stories in our winter woods. Read about it on my Substack ❄️ open.substack.com/pub/lesliecs...

open.substack.com

Winter tracks and trees

A snowy Sunday exploration of umwelten

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Leslie Spencer @lesliespencer.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

Hi friends, anybody planning to go to the Northeast Natural History conference in Springfield in April? 🐛

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Leslie Spencer @lesliespencer.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

“I've begun to think that berry-picking is the medicine we need to create a legion of land protectors.” Grateful, as always, for the wisdom of Robin Wall Kimmerer. This was a delightful, quick read, political in a way that felt reeeeal good this week. #serviceberry #gifteconomy

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Leslie Spencer @lesliespencer.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

On this freezing cold, snowy day in Vermont, I’m enjoying the photo memories popping up on my phone… 5 years ago, I was on a research trip in Costa Rica studying nutritional ecology of orchid bees. It’s where my bee research journey began 💙🥰💚🐝

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Leslie Spencer @lesliespencer.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

Hitting the road this holiday season? Stay curious about the places you pass – even if they seem boring at first glance. Even from the highway, you might be surprised about the stories you can uncover! 🗻❤️ Read more about a recent adventure of mine here: open.substack.com/pub/lesliecs...

open.substack.com

A Geology Lesson from the Trans-Canada Highway

plutons, rare minerals, and a foreboding white horse

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