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Rachel Shepherd 🪴

@rmshepherd.bsky.social
289 followers 293 following 12 posts

PhD Candidate @ Syracuse University Fascinated by all things soil ecology! Currently investigating tropical forest soil protists using genomics

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Reposted by Rachel Shepherd 🪴
CNY ASM @cnyasm.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
Did you know that thermophilic amoeba have been isolated by researchers at Syracuse University from a steam vent at SUNY ESF? artsandsciences.syracuse.edu/biology/news... You can visit this geyser of the built environment when you come to our first fall meeting, held at SUNY ESF this year!
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Reposted by Rachel Shepherd 🪴
ISEP @isepprotists.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
New #ISEPpapers by @ankarn.bsky.social et al.! Living together: evolutionary and ecological dimensions of #protist endosymbiosis academic.oup.com/microlife/ar... #Protists #Microbes #Symbiosis #Evolution
illustration of five different microbial cells and some of the chemicals they exchange with their environment
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Rachel Shepherd 🪴 @rmshepherd.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
What an amazing conference! Is there anything better than spending 4 days talking about soil with fantastic soil researchers? Until next time #GSB2026!!
12 scientists smiling after a successful conference
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Rachel Shepherd 🪴 @rmshepherd.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
I loved your protist genome talk, too! It was so nice to meet another researcher passionate about the importance of characterizing soil protist genomes (even though they are quite complex to assemble)!
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Rachel Shepherd 🪴 @rmshepherd.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Hey #GSB2026! Want to hear about soil protists? Want to learn more about long-read sequencing and assembling protist genomes? My talk tomorrow morning in the "Technological, Methodological, and Omics Advances - II" session will highlight some recent advancements in these realms 🦠🧬
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Rachel Shepherd 🪴 @rmshepherd.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Undergraduate researcher extraordinaire @melpaige05.bsky.social presented some of her recent findings on the role of temperature for the three life stages of a Heterolobosean protist (Fumarolamoeba sp.) today! Melanie's passion for pink posters and characterizing this amoeba is inspiring 💓🦠
Two scientists with big smiles are standing by a scientific poster that is colored bright pink.
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Reposted by Rachel Shepherd 🪴
Holly Moeller @mixotrophe.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Help! We're struggling to choose between these two images of #Mesodinium #karmachamaeleon and its cryptophyte prey, one more "documentary" and one more "action shot," as cover image submissions (to a society journal). If you were an editor, which one would more likely catch your eye? #protistsonsky
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Reposted by Rachel Shepherd 🪴
Carlos Aguilar-Trigueros @aguilart.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Mycelial networks doing their "carbon" magic in soils!
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Rachel Shepherd 🪴 @rmshepherd.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
I am grateful to my awesome collaborators for their support and guidance from study design to manuscript submission! One small step for scientists, one giant leap for gopher tortoises!! 🐢
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Rachel Shepherd 🪴 @rmshepherd.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
This project has a very special place in my heart as a Florida native who grew up with gopher tortoises often visiting and making burrows in my backyard.
Sign saying "tortoise crossing". Photo was taken during fieldwork at Ordway Swisher Biological Station.
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Rachel Shepherd 🪴 @rmshepherd.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
We were excited to dive into these complicated results! Specifically, in line with the "Habitat Heterogeneity Hypothesis", we observe that gopher tortoise activity likely enhances niche opportunities for soil organisms by increasing environmental heterogeneity - regardless of habitat quality!
A spread of soils collected during the experiment. The soils are varying in color and texture.
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Rachel Shepherd 🪴 @rmshepherd.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
Because of the decrease of land coverage of longleaf pine savanna across the southeastern US, we were also curious if the effect of gopher tortoise activities, burrowing and foraging, on below ground organisms were similar between sites with different anthropogenic histories.
picture of gopher tortoise burrows in a) longleaf pine savanna and b) improved pasture
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Rachel Shepherd 🪴 @rmshepherd.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
While the role of gopher tortoise burrowing has been shown to create an essential habitat for over 350 aboveground species, their effect on soil organisms was largely unknown!
A gopher tortoise in the grasses beneath a longleaf pine savanna overstory
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Rachel Shepherd 🪴 @rmshepherd.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
Hot off the press! If you’ve ever wondered how ecosystem-engineering gopher tortoises shape soil microbial and nematode communities, this paper is for you! 🐢💚 link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com
Gopher tortoise influence on soil biodiversity is constrained by historical land use - Biodiversity and Conservation
Keystone species and ecosystem engineers play critical roles in maintaining and enhancing biodiversity by modifying their environment and creating ecological niches that support a wide range of organi...
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Reposted by Rachel Shepherd 🪴
Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Finally, the bug is back with a round of the Guinness.
Macro photo of a brown stink bug in face view on a leaf, guarding a tightly-clustered bunch of eggs that are shaped and colored exactly like a full tray of dark beer with foam on top.
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Reposted by Rachel Shepherd 🪴
Soil Ecology Group @bes-soilecogroup.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
Soil Critters: Illuminating a Hidden World Have you visited Frank Ashwood's website? We are obsessed with these photos! 🐜🐞https://www.frankashwood.com/macrophotography @frankashwood.bsky.social Can you ID this species in the comments? Send us your own photos to feature in our newsletter.
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Reposted by Rachel Shepherd 🪴
John Burns @burnsajohn.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
Time lapse of an odd little monster. Presumably some kind of cercozoan from brackish water. #protistsonsky
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Reposted by Rachel Shepherd 🪴
Hannah B. Shulman ₊˚ʚ 🌀 ₊˚✧ ゚. @hannahshulman.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
A poem I wrote while doing fieldwork at high-elevation ecosystems (@rmblscience.bsky.social) is now published online by Poets for Science! poetsforscience.org/sub-alpine-o...
poetsforscience.org
Sub-alpine omens - Poets for Science
Three-legged cow— Omen of endurance, of merciful husbandry, of balance learned on the ridges knife-edge, moving through the wound. Wolf at the treeline— Omen of return, of old laws testing new borders...
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Reposted by Rachel Shepherd 🪴
H. B. Beryl Rappaport @hbrappap.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
And finally all at SyracuseU - @shaharsu.bsky.social @jessniblo.bsky.social for protein analyses, @rmshepherd.bsky.social for culturing, & @oliverio.bsky.social for leading this effort with me!
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Reposted by Rachel Shepherd 🪴
H. B. Beryl Rappaport @hbrappap.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
So happy to announce our new preprint, “A geothermal amoeba sets a new upper temperature limit for eukaryotes.” We cultured a novel amoeba from Lassen Volcanic NP (CA, USA) that divides at 63°C (145°F) 🔥 - a new record for euk growth! #protistsonsky 🧵
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The Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative @thegsbi.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
🚨Check out the first blog of our GSB4 ECR series!🚨 Dr. Sabrina Sadiq discusses the path to discovering a vast diversity of viruses in Australian soils, and why we must know more! 📢Be sure to check out the talk at the #GSB4 conference in April! www.globalsoilbiodiversity.org/blog-beneath...
globalsoilbiodiversity.org
Australian soils are rapidly expanding the known RNA virosphere — Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative
by sabrina sadiq, the university of sydney (australia) Soils and sediments harbour extraordinary biodiversity, with up to 10¹⁰ microbes per gram of soil. As RNA viruses likely infect all forms of lif...
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Reposted by Rachel Shepherd 🪴
Julie Maresca @micromaresca.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
Oh hey congratulations @oliverio.bsky.social @rmshepherd.bsky.social @hbrappap.bsky.social on the awesome thermophilic amoeba story!
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Reposted by Rachel Shepherd 🪴
Evgenii Protasov @evgenii-protasov.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
A Novel Protistan Trait Database Reveals Functional Redundancy and Complementarity in Terrestrial Protists(Amoebozoa and Rhizaria) #protists #eukaryotes #amoeba onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
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The Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative @thegsbi.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
📣🪱 New Paper Alert: Novel tools for characterizing soil eukaryomes using NEON data 🪱📣 Open Access: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Characterising Soil Eukaryotic Diversity From NEON Metagenomics Datasets
Belowground eukaryotic diversity serves a vital role in soil ecosystem functioning, yet the composition, structure, and macroecology of these communities are significantly under-characterized. The Na...
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Reposted by Rachel Shepherd 🪴
Germán Bonilla-Rosso @germusthermophilus.bsky.social · 02/11/2025
We are our best when we collaborate. 🧪🦠🔬🧬🌍🍄 This mural about the invisible #soil #biodiversity in Moers(🇩🇪) resulted from the collaboration between my friend Dr. Arne Schwelm, the people from sci:moers and the Stiftung für Umwelt und Entwicklung under the artistic direction of #cokyone.
A mural designed by members of sci:moers under the artistic direction of urban artist cokyone (https://cokyone.myportfolio.com), after the biodiversity analysis in soil done by Dr. Arne Schwelm. The organisms are a Gastrotrichia, Tardigrade, a nematode, a ciliate, a testate amoeba and the fruiting body of a fungus.
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Reposted by Rachel Shepherd 🪴
angela oliverio @oliverio.bsky.social · 15/11/2024
Super cool update!! @rmshepherd.bsky.social was able to culture some thermophilic amoebae from our built environment steam vent samples on campus that can happily grow at at least 50C! They are most closely related to Fumarolamoeba (isolated from... yep... fumaroles!) #protistsOnSky #MicroSky
Amoebae in culture from nearby SUNY ESF steam vent
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Reposted by Rachel Shepherd 🪴
angela oliverio @oliverio.bsky.social · 21/08/2024
sampling some local @sunyesf.bsky.social built environments (steam vents!) in pursuit of extremophile protists with @micromaresca.bsky.social and @rmshepherd.bsky.social #MicroSky #ProtistsOnSky
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Reposted by Rachel Shepherd 🪴
angela oliverio @oliverio.bsky.social · 14/03/2024
Happy to share that work led by PhD student @rmshepherd.bsky.social is now out in Soil Biology & Biochem: sciencedirect.com/science/arti... We sought to shed light on how soil micronutrients (Fe, Zn, Mn ...) regulate belowground microbiomes. #MicroSky 🦠🧫🧪 #MicrobiomeSky
sciencedirect.com
Micronutrients modulate the structure and function of soil bacterial communities
Soil micronutrients are increasingly recognized as critical regulators of biogeochemical cycling and terrestrial ecosystem processes. Despite substant…
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Rachel Shepherd 🪴 @rmshepherd.bsky.social · 13/12/2023
Hey AGU23! If you’re interested in soil + microbes, I’ll be presenting some of my research at 11am🥼🔬🧬
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Reposted by Rachel Shepherd 🪴
angela oliverio @oliverio.bsky.social · 31/10/2023
our lab group decided to go super scary this year for halloween... 😱😱😱 coding error messages we've had recently 😱😱😱 @rmshepherd.bsky.social @nimshika.bsky.social @hbrappap.bsky.social
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Rachel Shepherd 🪴 @rmshepherd.bsky.social · 16/09/2023
Smiling through the pain 🥲
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