iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Rebecca McMackin

Julián Aguirre-Santoro @jaguirresant.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

Eight new species of Greigia (Bromeliaceae) from the Andean cloud forests! Their pineapple-flavored fruits feed spectacled bears, their flowers smell like fermented milk, and one, G. muysca, honors the Indigenous Muysca people. Read more: doi.org/10.11646/

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Rebecca McMackin @rebeccalovesplants.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

So many stories about fall leaves and red flowers fall into this category. Telling people the stories of their world so they can see and appreciate what is all around them.

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Rebecca McMackin @rebeccalovesplants.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

Hello I am back on Bluesky! I was overwhelmed with the world, the world is overwhelming. But I am now back to talk about spider gardening, leaving leaves and the nuns of ecological restoration. xo!

rebeccamcmackin.substack.com

Grow Like Wild! - Harvest Moon

Left leaves, spider gardening, and nuns.

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Rebecca McMackin @rebeccalovesplants.bsky.social · 27/04/2025

Red Trillium with a crane fly pollinator. The flower emits a stinky scent, attracting flies and beetles. If you look close, you can see pollen grains in the fly’s legs.

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Rebecca McMackin @rebeccalovesplants.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

Trees make women happy. I could have told you that, but now there's a study. Researchers looked at 33,000 women, how many trees they lived around, and how likely they were to be depressed. The results were that more trees = less depression.

researchgate.net

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Reposted by Rebecca McMackin

Southern Minnesota Museum of Natural History @smmnh.bsky.social · 20/04/2025

Abundant Eocene fossils of plants and animals are found in the Green River Formation of Wyoming, Colorado and Utah. This fossil Pseudosalix Hanleyi, with stems, leaves and flowers preserved, is harder to find than a T-rex tooth!

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Reposted by Rebecca McMackin

David Grimm @david-grimm.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

The alemdro tree doesn't just survive lightning strikes--it appears to use the electricity to fry parasites and kill competitors. Fascinating story by @erikstokstad.bsky.social for @science.org!

science.org

Shocker: This tropical tree thrives after being struck by lightning

The almendro withstands thunderbolts that blast away parasitic vines

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Rebecca McMackin @rebeccalovesplants.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

Bad news: a massive study in Science found that US butterflies abundance is down 22% in the last 20 years. Good news: butterflies are incredibly environmentally responsive. If they have the conditions they need to thrive, populations can bounce back quickly. Protect & cultivate native plants! 🌎🧪🌿🌱

science.org

Rapid butterfly declines across the United States during the 21st century

Numerous declines have been documented across insect groups, and the potential consequences of insect losses are dire. Butterflies are the most surveyed insect taxa, yet analyses have been limited in ...

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Rebecca McMackin @rebeccalovesplants.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

Times are bleak, it’s true. But people are still out here doing incredible work now, when it matters most. Activists in KY bought land slated for a new prison, and will now fill it with native plants and use it as an intertribal gathering location. 🌱🌎🧪🌿

lpm.org

Eastern KY activists bought land where feds wanted to build a prison

Rep. Hal Rogers has wanted another prison in eastern Kentucky for years. Local and national activists say the new land owners have better plans for Letcher County.

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Reposted by Rebecca McMackin

Joseph D. Birch @josephdbirch.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

Our newest study is out today! We found that 9 y after fire there were HUGE differences in bacterial and fungal communities between neighboring burned soils and small unburned refugia. Contact me directly if you can't access the paper and I will email you a pdf copy! doi.org/10.1016/j.sc...

doi.org

Redirecting

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Rebecca McMackin @rebeccalovesplants.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

A long-running study out of England has found that, as you use fertilizers on landscapes, you lose pollinators. The mechanism is that fertilizers encourages grasses, which outcompete insect pollinated flowers and reduce floral resources. 🌿🌱🧪🌎

theguardian.com

High fertiliser use halves numbers of pollinators, world’s longest study finds

Even average use of nitrogen fertilisers cut flower numbers fivefold and halved pollinating insects

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Rebecca McMackin @rebeccalovesplants.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

New Bee Alert! This little blue mining bee only visits a couple of species of nightshade in flowers in southern grasslands. Their name, Andrena androfovea, translates to "eyeliner boy" because the males have this fuzzy stripe of hair that is usually only on females. 🌎🧪🌿🌱

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Reposted by Rebecca McMackin

The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation @xercessociety.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

Pesticides are a major reason so many native bees, butterflies, & other pollinators are in serious trouble. So why does the EPA only consider risks to honey bees when approving pesticides for sale? @earthjustice.bsky.social & Xerces are calling on the EPA to fix this flaw🔗 xerces.org/press/pollin...

“The EPA’s System for Judging Pesticide Risks to Pollinators has a Serious Flaw. It Is Time to Fix It.”

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Rebecca McMackin @rebeccalovesplants.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

This is dangerous rhetoric. As much as I’ve benefitted from Attenborough’s work over the years, he’s done a massive amount of harm by, not just ignoring, but actively erasing the people in the various ecosystems he shows to the world.

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Reposted by Rebecca McMackin

Dakota McCoy, PhD @reallymccoy.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

New paper out! We show that heart cockles use bundled fiber optic cables to transmit light through "skylights" in their shell for their photosynthetic algae. The skylights filter out harmful UV radiation. These coral analogues are cool critters!! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

Heart cockle shells transmit sunlight to photosymbiotic algae using bundled fiber optic cables and condensing lenses - Nature Communications

Some bivalves have evolved photosynthetic symbioses. Here, the authors show that heart cockles transmit light through their upper shell to internal photosynthetic symbionts, using mineral fiber optic ...

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Rebecca McMackin @rebeccalovesplants.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

Remember a few years ago when we found out that some moths emit ultrasonic clicks to jam bat sonar? Then recently we heard that some plants make ultrasonic clicks when dehydrated? Well now researchers have found that some moths HEAR those plant clicks and use them to decide where to lay eggs. 🪲🧪🌿🌎

nytimes.com

When They Hear Plants Crying, Moths Make a Decision

A new study suggests that the insects rely on the sounds made by distressed vegetation to guide important reproductive choices.

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Reposted by Rebecca McMackin

Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

A must-read: Patrick Chandler Brown — named after the PCB chemicals dumped in his community — purchased the plantation where his great-grandfather was enslaved and is in the process of transforming it to serve farmers like him

bittersoutherner.com

Black Earth — THE BITTER SOUTHERNER

In North Carolina, a Black farmer purchased the plantation where his ancestors were enslaved— and is reclaiming his family’s story, his community’s health, and the soil beneath his feet.

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Rebecca McMackin @rebeccalovesplants.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

ETHIOPIAN WOLVES AS (possible) KNIPHOFIA POLLINATORS!!!!

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Rebecca McMackin @rebeccalovesplants.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

A new Forensic Architecture report details ecological destruction in Gaza. Between Oct 23 and June 24, 83% of all plant life was destroyed. Along with 70% of agricultural land and >45% of greenhouses forensic-architecture.org/investigatio...

forensic-architecture.org

Forensic Architecture

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Reposted by Rebecca McMackin

Anthony Ricciardi @ecoinvasions.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

Yet another example of restoration of island biodiversity following invasive species removal. "What is unfolding is an ecological renaissance, since the rodents have gone." www.goodnewsnetwork.org/cloud-forest...

goodnewsnetwork.org

Cloud Forest Animals Thrive After Invasive Rodent Eradication on Lord Howe Island–A World Heritage Site

30 threatened species of plants found nowhere else on Earth are rapidly redistributing to the slopes of the two mountains.

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Rebecca McMackin @rebeccalovesplants.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

Every one of us can take meaningful action to support the plants and animals of our region. Great piece from @margaretrenkl.bsky.social on orgs helping people to garden ecologically www.nytimes.com/2024/11/25/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | Donate This Holiday Season. Biodiversity Needs Your Help.

Help for converting a garden, no matter how small, into a wildlife sanctuary.

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Rebecca McMackin @rebeccalovesplants.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

I’ve read quite a few studies now showing that bees like cities. Urban heat island effect and other harsh city conditions don’t seem to bother them. A lack of flowers and suitable habitat are the limiting factors: www.theguardian.com/environment/...

theguardian.com

Patches of wildflowers in cities can be just as good for insects as natural meadows – study

Researchers found no difference in the diversity of species in urban meadows compared with those in rural settings

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Reposted by Rebecca McMackin

Entomological Society of America @entsocamerica.bsky.social · 14/02/2024

Studying bee communities is critical to assessing their role in ecosystems and agricultural systems. A new meta-analysis of 72 bee-sampling studies reveals best practices—and the surprising breadth and scope necessary—for thoroughly documenting a local bee community.

entomologytoday.org

Estimating Bee Communities is a Tall Task, Analysis Shows

A new meta-analysis of bee-sampling studies reveals best practices—and the breadth and scope necessary—for thoroughly documenting a local bee community.

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Reposted by Rebecca McMackin

Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 14/02/2024

Roses are red, But that's not quite true, They absorb every wavelength of the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, *Except* for that hue.

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Reposted by Rebecca McMackin

Greg Olear @gregolear.bsky.social · 25/01/2024

Per @jessicavalenti.bsky.social, the total number in all the red states is 65,000. Not a typo.

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Rebecca McMackin @rebeccalovesplants.bsky.social · 10/12/2023

Awesome. Bees unhook flight muscles to vibrate their bodies so that pollen just explodes off a flower. Here is a review that I am excited to read:

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Reposted by Rebecca McMackin

Stone Cold Jane Austen @abbyhiggs.bsky.social · 30/11/2023

*Depeche Mode voice* Your own—

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Rebecca McMackin @rebeccalovesplants.bsky.social · 29/11/2023

Hilarious win for urban ecology folks: smarter bees can hack it in the city. 🧪🌿

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Reposted by Rebecca McMackin

Gwen Pearson @bug-gwen.bsky.social · 28/11/2023

I am so envious of the person that got to write this headline! (and Black Soldier Flies in spaaaaace) www.nytimes.com/2023/11/27/s...

nytimes.com

Mars Needs Insects

If humans are ever going to live on the red planet, they’re going to have to bring bugs with them.

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Rebecca McMackin @rebeccalovesplants.bsky.social · 27/11/2023

Great coverage in the NYT of the study linking racist redlining + urban ecology. "Often the interests of other species and marginalized humans align....We need to start thinking about humans and wildlife together in the landscape and mitigate things that will help both.”

nytimes.com

Why Warblers Flock to Wealthier Neighborhoods

In the unequal distribution of birds and other species, ecologists are tracing the impact of bigoted urban policies adopted decades ago.

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Reposted by Rebecca McMackin

IPBES @ipbes.net · 24/11/2023

A new study published in Nature on the decline of #amphibians reveals that they remain more threatened with extinction than any other vertebrate group. Many of the worst declines are being caused by #ClimateChange. @sciencenews.bsky.social #biodiversity 🌍🧪 www.sciencenews.org/article/amph...

sciencenews.org

A global report finds amphibians are still in peril. But it’s not all bad news

A survey of about 8,000 amphibian species provides the latest update on extinction risk trends stretching back to 1980.

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Reposted by Rebecca McMackin

Meredith Shiner @meredithshiner.com · 14/11/2023

Two weeks ago, Jewish Currents interviewed three doctors in Gaza to show the world the direness of their situation. The story was just updated to reflect one of the doctors was killed by an airstrike in his own home, making this quote even more gutting. jewishcurrents.org/we-have-lost...

I hope to raise my kids to be ambitious—not to think about war, missiles, rockets. Every day, I see a fear in their eyes that I can’t do much about. It’s very painful. If you have kids, you know how horrible it is not to be able to comfort them, to ensure they are alright, to make them hope for anything beyond living one more day. We want to live freely like other people—to grow scientifically and economically, to walk in the street without fearing bombardments, to make plans. We want to be able to learn, think, grow, travel, dream—to feel like we are really human. Not to think only about meeting our basic needs. This is what life has always been about for us, and now—I want the world to know—we are being eradicated en masse. This is not what life should look like.

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Reposted by Rebecca McMackin

Ross Dahlke @rossdahlke.bsky.social · 13/11/2023

Politicians will discount constituent letters if they disagree with the letters. But providing strong, unambiguous evidence of expertise in the policy area can reduce this discounting, finds Bergan et al. When writing legislators, provide a link or cite to your expertise doi.org/10.1093/hcr/...