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Shelby C. McClelland

@scmcclelland.bsky.social
201 followers 435 following 37 posts

Faculty Fellow in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) at Stony Brook University. Food, greenhouse gas emissions, and soil. www.scmcclelland.com

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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Now is the time to be ratcheting up ambition on methane - not weakening it. See our recent statement signed by more than 40 scientists urging governments to avoid adopting "temperature neutrality" related goals and metrics ⬇️
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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
Thanks, Matthew! I’m so grateful for your mentorship and support. Looking forward to continuing our research collaborations at Stony Brook.
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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
Thanks, Rémi! Let’s connect sometime. I believe we have a lot of overlapping interests
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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
Thanks, Katie! You were such a huge part of helping me get here. Can’t wait to watch you get your dream job this year 🤍
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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
Thanks, @jandutkiewicz.bsky.social!
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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
Likewise, if you’re interested in collaborating – reach out! 5/n
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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
While I am not currently taking on students or postdocs, it’s never too early to reach out and start a conversation! I will be looking for folks to come work with me starting in Fall 2026 on data-driven and field-based experimental projects. 4/n
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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
I will be continuing my research on #climatechange, #foodsystems, greenhouse gas mitigation, and land-based carbon removal. I’m also looking to expand into #bluecarbon, leveraging aquatic biomass in croplands as soil amendments for improved soil health. 3/n
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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
After two-years, I will hopefully be joining SoMAS *officially* as an Assistant Professor starting in Fall 2027. You can learn more about the PRODiG+ Fellow program below. 2/n www.suny.edu/prodig-plus/
suny.edu
PRODiG at SUNY
PRODiG - Promoting Recruitment, Opportunity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Growth will work to increase faculty diversity to better reflect the diversity of students across SUNY's 64 campuses.
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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
🚨 Big News!! 🚨 I am so excited to announce that I’ve recently joined the faculty at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences @stonybrooku.bsky.social ! My initial position is as a faculty fellow under the SUNY PRODiG+ Fellowship Program. 1/n www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/soma...
Image of Shelby McClelland wearing a black Stony Brook University t-shirt standing in front of a tree.
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Reposted by Shelby C. McClelland
Richard Waite @waiterich.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
Good 🧵 Friendly amendment: stop burning fossil fuels (responsible for 2/3 of historical CO2 emissions), and also stop deforestation & land-use change (the other 1/3). And if you do something that reduces fossil CO2 but increases land use and deforestation EVEN MORE, that’s an anti-solution. Avoid.
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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
To my co-author and PhD Advisor, Meagan Schipanski, THANK YOU! You let me dream up this project and supported me in diving deep into this research during my PhD. I learned so much through the ups and downs, and I am so grateful for the freedom to explore and grow as an ecologist.
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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
While this work starts to broaden our mechanistic understanding of how compost contributes to soil carbon sequestration, we absolutely need more data, better analyses, and longer-term studies to understand carbon flows (and persistence of this new carbon) in managed grassland ecosystems! 7/N
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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
To us, this suggests that the microbial community was more responsive to plant over compost-derived inputs. It also indicates that microbial-derived inputs were more important for building soil organic carbon in this managed grassland. 6/N
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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
We used a path analysis to test our hypothesis. But what we found surprised us! Plants only indirectly increased soil organic matter; their effect was entirely mediated through the soil microbial community, especially bacteria. 5/N
Figure 5 from the article. Image is a conceptualized drawing of the paths from different variables to soil organic carbon (SOC).
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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
Plants responded immediately, both in terms of productivity and community composition. Microbes, however, were slower to respond. We only observed community differences in the final growing season. There were also differences in microbial functional diversity. 4/N
Figure 3 from the article. Image is four panels of faceted (by year) box and whisker plots of soil microbial community responses.
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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
Over three growing seasons in northern Colorado, we measured plant growth and diversity, microbial community composition and function, and soil carbon. We hypothesized that plants and microbes jointly contributed to the soil carbon response. What did we find? 3/N
Image is a photo of lead author, Shelby McClelland, conducting a plant transect in a pasture.
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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
Infrequent compost applications in managed grasslands can boost soil organic carbon stocks–even after discounting the carbon from the compost itself! Read our earlier work 👉 tinyurl.com/a3nzcwbs But! We still don’t fully understand how plants and microbes interact to build this carbon. 2/N
tinyurl.com
Infrequent compost applications increased plant productivity and soil organic carbon in irrigated pasture but not degraded rangeland
Improved agricultural soil management can facilitate the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to help keep planetary warming at or below 2 °C…
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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
✨ The LAST chapter of my dissertation is published! ✨ How do plant-soil feedbacks support carbon sequestration in grasslands receiving compost? Here’s what we learned ⬇️ tinyurl.com/muk2ufe5
tinyurl.com
Soil organic carbon sequestration mediated by plant–microbe interactions after compost application
Organic amendments like compost can enhance soil health and climate change mitigation in managed grassland ecosystems. We previously demonstrated in a northern Colorado cool-season pasture that infre...
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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
Our Research Briefing is now out in Nature Climate Change! We examine the spatially variable tradeoffs between climate change mitigation and crop yields under regenerative agriculture. Globally, safeguarding crop yields will substantially lower mitigation potential. Read more ➡️ rdcu.be/eo6lE
rdcu.be
Maintaining crop yields limits mitigation potential of crop-land natural climate solutions
Nature Climate Change - The adoption of natural climate solutions in crop-lands, such as cover crops, no tillage and residue retention, is widely assumed to provide both climate change mitigation...
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Reposted by Shelby C. McClelland
Paul Behrens @profpaulbehrens.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
This is incredibly unfair: high-income nations with large dairy sectors are looking to adopt a "no additional warming" target, avoiding the methane cuts needed to meet international targets and pledges. We have written an open letter to the NZ PM and I spoke to the FT👇🧵 www.ft.com/content/2ea6...
ft.com
Scientists accuse New Zealand and Ireland of trying to cover up livestock emissions
‘Accounting trick’ to support methane-emitting sectors undermines fight against climate change, say researchers
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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
Great coverage in the Cornell Chronicle of our paper including quotes from me and @dominicwoolf.bsky.social. Read here ➡️ tinyurl.com/yfmwy34h
tinyurl.com
Study offers insight into balancing climate solutions and crop yields | Cornell Chronicle
A computer model analysis showed that global adoption of regenerative farming practices to improve soil health can benefit either greenhouse gas mitigation or crop yields but rarely both.
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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
If you want to explore some earlier, related data, check out these high resolution soil organic carbon maps from my colleagues over at SoilsRevealed.org. 12/N
soilsrevealed.org
Soils Revealed
Soils Revealed platform lets you see past soil organic carbon losses and opportunities for future gains, to manage soil health that helps mitigate climate change, promote clean water and biodiversity.
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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
If you don’t have time for all the details, but want to learn more about our key findings, check out our accompanying press release from NYU, www.nyu.edu/about/news-p.... Later I'll post the link to our Research Briefing from @natureportfolio.nature.com 11/N
nyu.edu
Scientists Identify Ways to Minimize Tradeoffs Between Crop Yields and Climate Benefits
Research highlights where and how regenerative farming could lead to win-wins for climate-change mitigation and crop production
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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
A special shoutout to @dominicwoolf.bsky.social @matthewhayek.bsky.social for your mentorship and support! 10/N
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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
This study came out of an amazing collaboration between @cornelluniversity.bsky.social, @newyorkuniversity.bsky.social, CSU, @nature.org, @envdefensefund.bsky.social, and @woodwellclimate.bsky.social. Thanks to my collaborators who helped get this massive modeling effort to the finish line! 9/N
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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
This research opens new possibilities for regenerative agriculture to provide climate and yield benefits, but shows its limits as a key climate solution. What food we produce is as important as how we produce it. Food system decarbonization must entail greater scrutiny of GHG-intensive foods 🥩🍗 8/N
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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
We provide spatially-explicit adoption recommendations based on Pareto-optimal outcomes that balance climate and yield goals. By maintaining crop yields, we find that the maximum GHG mitigation potential of cover crops, no-till, and residue is about 85% lower than if we ignore yield outcomes. 7/N
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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
What’s driving these outcomes? We used explainable machine learning to show that win-win outcomes are more likely in soils with higher clay content and lower initial soil nitrogen availability. Identifying these conditions helps us create a clearer decision-framework for adoption on farms. 6/N
Four panel figure of the top five features for predicting medium-term, 2016–2100, favourable outcomes ranked by mean absolute SHAP value estimated from random forest models. Corresponds to Figure 3 in the paper.
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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
Grass cover crops with no-till have the highest GHG mitigation potential (0.49 Pg CO2-eq yr-1) but lower crop yields (0.1 Pg yr-1) through 2100. Meanwhile, legume cover crops with no-till has clear crop yield benefits (0.28 Pg yr-1) over this timeframe but much lower mitigation potential. 5/N
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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
One of our key findings is that win-win outcomes from adopting these practices are not as common as we once thought. Our analysis shows that it is difficult to maximize GHG mitigation and crop yield benefits, especially over longer time horizons, i.e., 2100. 4/N
Four panel map of GHG and crop yield responses to natural climate solutions on croplands. Corresponds to Extended Data Figure 3 in the paper. Colors indicate lower, no difference, or higher yields and emissions, no difference, or GHG mitigation. For quantitative results, see Extended Data Fig. 1. Panels are Grass CC (a,), Grass CC + Ntill (b), Legume CC (c), and Legume CC + Ntill (d). Scenario: cover crop (CC); and, no-tillage (Ntill). Base map data in a–d from The World Bank under a Creative Commons license CC BY 4.0.
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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
We used DayCent to model future soil organic carbon, nitrous oxide, and crop yield responses to cover crops, no-till, and residue retention relative to fallow and tillage in maize, soybean, and wheat croplands. We included spatially-explicit management information and accounted for uncertainty. 3/N
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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
The global food system contributes to ~1/3 of anthropogenic GHGs. Soil emissions alone are estimated to have contributed to 15% of global climate warming. At Cornell, we investigated how soil management impacts GHGs and crop productivity—because with rising food demand we must safeguard yields. 2/N
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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
🚨New paper alert🚨 We show that maintaining crop yields lowers the global climate benefits of natural climate solutions on croplands. But, we highlight where win-win opportunities exist for these practices to contribute to climate and production goals. 1/N www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Managing for climate and production goals on crop-lands - Nature Climate Change
Climate mitigation through natural climate solutions in crop-lands may be a way to reconcile climate goals with food security. However, here the authors show that some natural climate solution practic...
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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
😡🤬
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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
Happening in less than an hour! Our research asks if adopting intensification strategies and mitigation technologies (without lowering meat + milk demand) are *enough* to meet CH4 targets at global and regional scales Come by to find out if they are (or not) if you’re here at #AGU24!
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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
If you won't be at AGU this year, and you're interested in learning more about our work, feel free to reach out!
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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
I'll be presenting preliminary findings from ex-ante modeling I've conducted at NYU with @matthewhayek.bsky.social through the Center for Environmental and Animal Protection and the Dept. of Environmental Studies.
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Shelby C. McClelland @scmcclelland.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
Can 2050 cattle CH4 mitigation targets be met through intensification and mitigation technologies? Are these strategies enough to reduce CH4 without lowering consumption of meat and milk? Come see me at my poster during #AGU24 (GC13L-0336) on Monday, Dec. 9 from 13:40-17:30 EST to find out!
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