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Sami Rifai

@samirifai.bsky.social
1.1K followers 369 following 25 posts

Ecosystem ecologist and remote sensing enthusiast at Adelaide University

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Sami Rifai @samirifai.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Are Australia's endangered plant species more likely to go extinct from climate change? Here is a Plant ecophysiology PhD opportunity in sunny South Australia, open to both domestic and international applicants. Contact @ilainematos.bsky.social (ilaine.matos@adelaide.edu.au) for further details.
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Sami Rifai @samirifai.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Hello all you botanists *with work rights in Australia* ! 3 year teaching and research Lecturer position, here in sunny Adelaide. Great opportunity for recent PhD grads. Apps due 31 May! jobs.adelaide.edu.au/jobs/lecture...
jobs.adelaide.edu.au
Lecturer, Botany/Plant Biology (Level A) - Adelaide CBD, SA, Australia
Based in the College of Science at the School of Biological Sciences, Adelaide City Campus Full-time, 3-year fixed term contract Salary Range: $81,293 - $109,307 per annum (plus 17% superannuation) A...
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Gergely Orosz @gergely.pragmaticengineer.com · 27/03/2026
If you use GitHub (especially if you pay for it!!) consider doing this *immediately* Settings -> Privacy -> Disallow GitHub to train their models on your code. GitHub opted *everyone* into training. No matter if you pay for the service (like I do). WTH github.com/settings/cop...
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Prof Ros Gleadow FAA 💙💚 @rgleadow.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
Level B lecturer position in Environmental Botany (plant ecology and plant physiology), School of Life and Environmental Sciences at Deakin Uni, Burwood (Melbourne) #BotanyJobs #PlantSciJobs #PlantEcology 🌾🪴🌿🌱🧪 Please repost Applications due 18th January. careers.pageuppeople.com/949/cw/en/jo...
careers.pageuppeople.com
Careers
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Caroline Lehmann @caroaceae.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
"Bond’s work leaves behind an inconvenient lesson for an era of climate urgency: that speed is not a substitute for understanding, and that good intentions, applied without care, can erase ancient worlds as efficiently as neglect." A beautiful tribute to William Bond. Forever missed by many.
butlernature.com
William Bond, defender of grasslands
In recent years, one of the loudest ideas in environmental policy has been that trees are the planet’s universal remedy. Plant enough of them, in enough places, and carbon will be soaked up, water wil...
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Charlie Koven @ckoven.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
NCAR’s Mesa Lab is literally a science castle dedicated to understanding our planet in an open and collaborative way, and leading the world in that effort. We cannot let this happen.
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Ilaine S. Matos @ilainematos.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
I have been successful on my first DECRA attempt. What a great surprise. #DECRA Safeguarding Australia's most threatened plants in a drier and hotter world.
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Paul Voosen @voosen.me · 25/08/2025
My latest: The Trump administration is not waiting for the next fiscal year -- or Congress -- to cut climate science at NOAA. A new document details the money it won't spend *this* year on climate research.
science.org
Trump administration pushes ahead with NOAA climate and weather cuts
Despite congressional resistance, agency aims to cut research spending now
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Sami Rifai @samirifai.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
Does anyone have suggestions for (moderately priced) phenocams with an NIR band that are still being manufactured? I get the sense that the standard StarDot cameras are no longer being sold, but haven't found an alternative apart from Campbell's CCFC which looks amazing but is def not cheap.
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Andrew Dessler @andrewdessler.com · 31/07/2025
🚨 If you're interested in working on a coordinated response to the DOE climate report, please enter your info on this google form 🚨 Please RT this so as many people see it as possible. forms.gle/BL9xUAfRxA...
forms.gle
DOE climate report response form
We are collecting names to assemble a writing team to respond to the DOE climate working group report. If you'd like to contribute, enter your info below. At this point, there is no guarantee what we'll do (if anything), but we want to keep our options open by collecting names. If you have any further questions, feel free to email me. We are primarily looking for Ph.D. scientists at universities or government labs in appropriate fields. I realize that this will exclude some qualified people and I apologize, but we felt this was necessary for a variety of reasons.
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Sami Rifai @samirifai.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
Rare(!) 4-year fellowship available here in South Australia, targeted to people with a few years of postdoc experience and < 8 years post PhD. careers.adelaide.edu.au/cw/en/job/51...
careers.adelaide.edu.au
Learn more about South Australia's new university for the future.
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Lucas Cernusak @lucascernusak.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
I have an opportunity for a new PhD student in tropical tree ecophysiology in my lab. Some more details at the link below. Please pass along! www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
findaphd.com
Responses of tropical forest trees to rising carbon dioxide - conifers versus angiosperms at James Cook University on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - Responses of tropical forest trees to rising carbon dioxide - conifers versus angiosperms at James Cook University, listed on FindAPhD.com
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Nature Plants @natplants.nature.com · 06/06/2025
New Article: "Leaf venation network evolution across clades and scales" rdcu.be/epLNP Evolution of leaf venation networks, from fewer, corrugated veins to high vein density and smoother loops. Herbivory as a potential driver of venation architectural changes.
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Sami Rifai @samirifai.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
www.usgs.gov/landsat-miss... Because of everything that has been going on... this really hits deeper than it should.
usgs.gov
A Final Farewell to Landsat 7
The Landsat 7 satellite will receive its final transmission from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) on June 4, 2025, at 1:08 PM CST. The satellite launched in April 1999 and will be decommissioned afte...
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ForestPlots @forestplots.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
Job Opportunity: Lecturer in Ecology and Global Change at University of Leeds. We welcome dynamic applicants from across the world to join our team of tropical ecology and global change scientists. jobs.leeds.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...
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Noam Ross @noamross.net · 19/04/2025
🚨Report your NSF grant terminations! 🚨 We are starting to collect information on NSF grant terminations to create a shared resource as we have for NIH. The more information we collect, the more we can organize, advocate, and fight back! Please share widely! airtable.com/appGKlSVeXni...
NSF Grant Termination Information Collection Form

Please use this form to submit information identifying specific NSF grants that have been cancelled for any reason after January 20, 2025.


We are tracking these grants to increase transparency, organize affected PIs, and facilitate responses, including via litigation. Please share the form as widely as possible with your networks. 


We are actively building a pipeline to organize these terminations and will soon have a tracker akin to our NIH grant tracker at https://airtable.com/appjhyo9NTvJLocRy/shrNto1NNp9eJlgpA


WE WILL NOT DISCLOSE THE IDENTITY OF ANYONE WHO USES THIS FORM TO PROVIDE INFORMATION. We will keep your identity confidential.


These resources are maintained by Noam Ross of rOpenSci and Scott Delaney of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, with input and support from additional volunteers. For any questions, please contact Scott Delaney on Signal (sdelaney.84).


THANK YOU FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE!
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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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Emilio M Bruna @brunalab.bsky.social · 19/04/2025
This directly affects land-grant universities and their stakeholders as well. UF’s Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation be wrecked if we lost our Co-op Unit.
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Christine Wiedinmyer @cwiedinm.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
Here is an article and a list of NOAA datasets expected to end and be unavailable in the next few weeks. Please make sure you get in and download what you need!! eos.org/research-and...
eos.org
NOAA Datasets Will Soon Disappear - Eos
NOAA has quietly reported that they will soon decommission 14 datasets, products, and catalogs related to earthquakes and marine, coastal, and estuary science.
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ForestPlots @forestplots.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
INPA procura candidato(a) para pós-doutorado no Projeto “Integrando a hidrologia do solo e características hidráulicas para entender os riscos de mortalidade às secas das árvores gigantes” com o projeto “GIGANTE” (www.caryinstitute.org/science/rese...). @treeco-db.bsky.social @evangora.bsky.social
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Yadvinder Malhi @ymalhi.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
In our new paper in @science.org, we show that tropical forests are changing over time, but too slowly to track climate change. Our article, led by @jeaggu.bsky.social just out: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... @oxfordgeography.bsky.social @naturerecovery.bsky.social @forestplots.bsky.social
science.org
Tropical forests in the Americas are changing too slowly to track climate change
Understanding the capacity of forests to adapt to climate change is of pivotal importance for conservation science, yet this is still widely unknown. This knowledge gap is particularly acute in high-b...
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Sami Rifai @samirifai.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Canopy functional trait variation across Earth’s tropical forests - Nature
Data from a variety of sources—including satellite, climate and soil data, as well as field-collected information on plant traits—are pooled and analysed to map the functional diversity of tropical fo...
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Sami Rifai @samirifai.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
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Jesús Aguirre Gutiérrez @jeaggu.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
Are tropical forests in the Americas changing as adaptation to ongoing climate change? Yes, they are! Are these changes enough to track their suitable climate? Not quite! Check out our paper in @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... to see more of what our network has been working on!
science.org
Tropical forests in the Americas are changing too slowly to track climate change
Understanding the capacity of forests to adapt to climate change is of pivotal importance for conservation science, yet this is still widely unknown. This knowledge gap is particularly acute in high-b...
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Sami Rifai @samirifai.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
Join us in sunny South Australia! Postdoc position in my group at the University of Adelaide to use UAV LiDAR and remote sensing to examine forest recovery and responses to weather extremes: careers.adelaide.edu.au/cw/en/job/51...
careers.adelaide.edu.au
Come and celebrate our 150th year. Explore our events, our history, and the foundation we’ve built for the future.
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Erika Berenguer @erikaberenguer.bsky.social · 28/12/2024
Post-doc opportunity in Oxdord for those with a background in Ecology and remote sensing: my.corehr.com/pls/coreport...
my.corehr.com
Job Details
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Martin De Kauwe @mdekauwe.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
📢 18-month postdoc in my lab doing drought modelling with either the UK land surface model JULES or machine learning. Up to you which. Please share widely (thanks) www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find/de... Closes: 18th January
European summer droughtJULES land surface model
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Sami Rifai @samirifai.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
Using remote sensing to study climate impacts on vegetation? Consider submitting an abstract to "CCS.18: Monitoring Climate Change Impacts on Vegetation" 2025 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium is coming to Brisbane, Australia Aug 3-8 Submission due by 10 January 2025!
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Sami Rifai @samirifai.bsky.social · 11/11/2024
Interested in using remote sensing to study forest recovery following fire? Well have I got the postdoc advert for you! careers.adelaide.edu.au/cw/en/job/51... Apply by Nov 21. Two year position based here in Adelaide, South Australia.
careers.adelaide.edu.au
Come and celebrate our 150th year. Explore our events, our history, and the foundation we’ve built for the future.
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Robbi Bishop-Taylor 🛰️🌏 @satellitesci.bsky.social · 20/10/2024
I'd love to connect with anyone working in satellite remote sensing/earth observation! 🛰️🌏 I've started a list of everyone I've found so far - please let me know if you're missing from the list, or if there's anyone else I should add! go.bsky.app/4PMRhNL
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Carl Boettiger @cboettig.bsky.social · 26/06/2024
This rather fantastic recent piece is a great illustration of the value of code review, as well as sensitivity analyses. doi.org/10.1038/s414... But I think it is particularly instructive as commentary on our scientific process today. 🧵
doi.org
Mathematical biases in the calculation of the Living Planet Index lead to overestimation of vertebrate population decline - Nature Communications
The Living Planet Index is a widely used metric to measure the global population trends of vertebrates. This in-depth analysis of the methodology underlying the index reveals fundamental issues and id...
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Sami Rifai @samirifai.bsky.social · 13/05/2024
Air temperature and vapor pressure deficit are highly correlated, yet they can have somewhat opposed effects on photosynthesis. (1/2) nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
The stomatal response to vapor pressure deficit drives the apparent temperature response of photosynthesis in tropical forests
<em>New Phytologist</em> is an international journal owned by the New Phytologist Foundation publishing original research in plant science and its applications.
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 16/04/2024
1. Let's talk about an absolute disaster in the US science ecosystem. The NIH's BRAIN (Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) suffered catastrophic budget cuts—under Biden, no less—and now is unlikely to fund any new grants and will likely cut funding to existing grantees.
braininitiative.nih.gov
From the BRAIN Director: Funding neuroscience in an uncertain budget climate | BRAIN Initiative
A message to the community from Dr. John Ngai, Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) BRAIN Initiative.
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Gavin Schmidt @climateofgavin.bsky.social · 11/04/2024
PACE data now available! Just in – data from our newest Earth-observing satellite, PACE! With PACE data, scientists can study microscopic life in the ocean and particles in the air, allowing us to monitor ocean health, air pollution, and impacts of climate change. More: go.nasa.gov/4aNNGe2 🧪
go.nasa.gov
NASA’s PACE Data on Ocean, Atmosphere, Climate Now Available - NASA
NASA is now publicly distributing science-quality data from its newest Earth-observing satellite, providing first-of-their-kind measurements of ocean
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Ana Bastos @anabastos.bsky.social · 30/03/2024
Ingeborg Levin by F.Vogel & S.Hammer🙏🏽 Never interested in judging herself or others by citation index, Ingeborg measured her contributions by the laboratories she helped establish & the crucial role she played in launching ICOS & building a global community www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Ingeborg Levin (1953—2024)
Pioneer in radiocarbon and atmospheric research
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Sami Rifai @samirifai.bsky.social · 19/03/2024
New google scholar pdf reader plugin seems handy scholar.googleblog.com/2024/03/supe...
scholar.googleblog.com
Supercharge your PDF reading: Follow references, skim outline, jump to figures
Researchers have long loved PDFs for reading papers. You can focus on absorbing the scholarship – the format is simple and clean. Researche...
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Sami Rifai @samirifai.bsky.social · 18/03/2024
!!! "Space Force's budget has already surpassed NASA's, and the Pentagon is seeking $29.4 billion for the branch in 2025." www.cnbc.com/amp/2024/03/15/investing-in-space-where-nasa-made-cuts-in-its-budget-request-.html
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Sami Rifai @samirifai.bsky.social · 25/02/2024
PACE, a UV-Vis-NIR hyperspectral imager w/1-km resolution successfully launched (whew!) www.nasa.gov/news-release...
nasa.gov
NASA Launches New Climate Mission to Study Ocean, Atmosphere - NASA
Editor’s note: This release was updated Feb. 12, 2024, to correct the PACE mission's full name.
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Sami Rifai @samirifai.bsky.social · 25/02/2024
These free textbooks published by Earth Observation Australia are great for anyone teaching remote sensing, or just needing a handy reference. www.eoa.org.au/earth-observ...
eoa.org.au
Earth Observation Australia
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