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Stuart Allison

@stuarta.bsky.social
855 followers 468 following 103 posts

restoration ecologist, wandering walker, occasional writer, constant dog lover, author of Ecological Restoration and Environmental Change, professor at Knox College

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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 20/04/2025
@nytopinion.nytimes.com, @DouthatNYT - Ross Douthat's recent column on living in an age of extinction is well worth reading and I think he is spot on about how the digital age is leading to extinctions of many human institutions. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/19/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | An Age of Extinction Is Coming. Here’s How to Survive.
Everything is under threat. What you care about can make it to the other side.
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
Species communicate many ways in nature, often across large differences in taxa. There is so much we need to learn to better understand and preserve the world. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Embedding information flows within ecological networks - Nature Ecology & Evolution
Ecological network research has typically focused on flows of matter and energy, but species also exchange information signals and cues that influence behaviour and movement. This Perspective argues t...
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
Mary Elizabeth Banning, a 19th century mycologist, finally gets her due recognition. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/25/s...
nytimes.com
A Fungi Pioneer’s Lifelong Work on Exhibit (Gift Article)
Mushrooms in 19th-century watercolors: The paintings of a self-taught female mycologist are featured at the New York State Museum.
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
If correct, this data on microplastics in plants is really bad news. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Microplastics hinder plant photosynthesis, study finds, threatening millions with starvation
Researchers say problem could increase number of people at risk of starvation by 400m in next two decades
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
Rephotography helps to document our rapidly changing environment. And it is changing a lot - even in 24 years. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/05/t...
nytimes.com
150 Years of Change: How Old Photos, Recaptured, Reveal a Shifting Climate
In the heart of Utah’s Uinta Mountains, a team of scientists is re-creating historical pictures to study how much, and how quickly, ecosystems are changing.
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
Sea otter's role as keystone species varies with location due to different suites of species in the two locations. Sea Otters are always important actors, but some places they are more important than others. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
This article has beautiful video of fungal networks expanding and moving material within their bodies. It is incredible stuff. So much of our world depends on the actions of fungi. Watch and be amazed. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/01/s...
nytimes.com
How Fungi Move Among Us (Gift Article)
Underground fungal networks are “living algorithms” that quietly help regulate Earth’s climate. Now scientists know what makes them so efficient.
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
Non-migratory bird reproductive strategies are related to annual climatic variability. Lots of annual variation - reproduce quickly with lots of offspring. Little annual variation - reproduce more slower. Climate change might mess up those strategies. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Environmental Variability Shapes Life History of the World's Birds
Theory suggests life history plays a key role in the ability of organisms to persist under fluctuating environmental conditions. Synthesising a collection of global data resources, we demonstrate a l...
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
The good news - rainfall in the Amazon basin may be more robust to deforestation than originally thought. So perhaps rainforest can become re-established following deforestation. agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Muted Amazon Rainfall Response to Deforestation in a Global Storm‐Resolving Model
This study is the first to explore the response of Amazon precipitation to complete deforestation using a global storm-resolving model Despite a strong decrease in evapotranspiration, mean Amazon...
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 22/02/2025
Science writer Ed Yong reflects on the complexities of life and understanding the world we live in. And he provides a beautiful quotation to help us carry on - "Hope is a discipline." www.nytimes.com/2025/02/22/m...
nytimes.com
‘The Interview’: Ed Yong Wants to Show You the Hidden Reality of the World (Gift Article)
The Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer talks about burnout from covering the pandemic and how bird-watching gave him a new sense of hope.
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
Orchids are fascinating. This species can parasitize wood decomposing fungi to gain nutrition while remaining photosynthetic and thus growing more vigorously. Cool stuff. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Subterranean morphology underpins the degree of mycoheterotrophy, mycorrhizal associations, and plant vigor in a green orchid Oreorchis patens
The evolution of full heterotrophy from photosynthetic ancestors is a longstanding question in evolutionary ecology. Our study demonstrates that coralloid rhizomes in a photosynthetic orchid p...
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
While not a surprise, this is a valuable study that reveals urban tree health and potential benefits vary with conditions in urban areas. Those closer to water and green spaces do better than those more surrounded by hard-scaping. agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Canopy Temperature Reveals Disparities in Urban Tree Benefits
Using canopy temperature as a proxy, we show that urban tree health and function varies across Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN Trees in more urbanized areas and areas further from blue/green spaces exhi...
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
You just never know what may surface from the deep ocean. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/s...
nytimes.com
A Deep-Sea Fish of Nightmares Strays Into Shallow Waters
A scary-looking creature with “devil” in its name was spotted close to the surface off Tenerife, a Spanish island.
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
Keep going researchers and writers! We need the National Nature Assessment to be published. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/10/c...
nytimes.com
Trump Killed a Major Report on Nature. They’re Trying to Publish It Anyway.
The first full draft of the assessment, on the state of America’s land, water and wildlife, was weeks from completion. The project leader called the study “too important to die.”
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
Coordinated responses by experienced professionals can help limit the extent of disastrous wildfires. However, the current group in Washington would prefer to fire as many experience professionals as possible. How will they respond then? www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/m...
nytimes.com
The L.A. Fire Where Something Went Right
While some Angelenos cast around for someone to blame, a whole cooperative emergency-response system whirred to life.
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
Centipede shape - or perhaps dendritic - in the ice on a driveway after yesterday's freezing rain.
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
Northern boreal forests will probably experience significant changes in the next century - moving further north and increasing in density in colder areas. The southern edge of the forests will become less dense. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
pnas.org
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
Excellent bubbles in the ice on Lake Sharvy at the Green Oaks Field Research Center. You can't tell in the photo but the shallow bubbles are about 6 inches down, the deepest bubbles about 10 inches down.
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
Bad news for biodiversity - there is evidence for widespread declines in genetic diversity even in species that do not appear to be experiencing population decline. www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
Wide range of Earth’s species are showing a decline in diversity
The loss of genetic variation means species may be less resilient to climate change and other stressors
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
It is amazing how tiny birds survive harsh winter weather. I'm always glad to see them flock to my bird feeders. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/29/r...
nytimes.com
How Birds Survive Winter Cold: Adaptations and Behavioral Strategies (Gift Article)
Their feathers, roosting behaviors and adaptability help birds survive the cold, “nature’s proving ground.”
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
In the Andes, vicuna dung and microbial activity speed post-glacial succession. Can their activity keep with accelerating rates of glacial melt? www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Wild Andean camelids promote rapid ecosystem development after glacier retreat - Scientific Reports
Scientific Reports - Wild Andean camelids promote rapid ecosystem development after glacier retreat
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
When the political meets the scientific and ethical, let's hope scientific and ethical win. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/28/c...
nytimes.com
Could Trump Use the ‘God Squad’ to Override Environmental Law?
The president wants to convene the rarely used panel, which has the power to carve out exemptions to the Endangered Species Act. Here’s what to know.
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
Sunset over Hope Cemetery, Galesburg IL.
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
Two new truffle species described in North America. I especially like that taxonomic/ecological research was aided by truffle dogs. I need to train my dog to help me find truffles. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
Tuber cumberlandense and T. canirevelatum, two new edible Tuber species from eastern North America discovered by truffle-hunting dogs
Ectomycorrhizal fungi in the genus Tuber form hypogeous fruiting bodies called truffles. Many Tuber species are highly prized due to their edible and aromatic ascomata. Historically, there has been...
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
On a day when it is -17 C here, it is hard to imagine outdoor ice rinks and skating could disappear in the future. That is why our short term memories are so faulty. We need to look at long term trends in the data. www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/...
nationalgeographic.com
Canada's beloved outdoor ice rinks are melting away
Over the past 50 years, the length of skating season in some parts of Canada decreased by a third. By 2050, some regions may not see one at all.
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 17/01/2025
We learn so many new things everyday. Bird migrations may be facilitated by social interactions between birds of different species but similar size and flight speed. That is fascinating. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Social associations across species during nocturnal bird migration
An emerging frontier in ecology explores how organisms integrate social information into movement behavior and the extent to which information exchang…
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
Fascinating study of feral domestic dogs living around the Chernobyl exclusion zone. They are a genetically distinct population but their uniqueness does not appear to be due to mutations caused by exposure to radiation. www.science.org/doi/full/10....
science.org
The dogs of Chernobyl: Demographic insights into populations inhabiting the nuclear exclusion zone
Characterization of free-breeding dogs in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone establishes a mechanism for genetic mapping studies.
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 13/01/2025
A belated birthday recognition to Aldo Leopold who would have celebrated his 138th birthday on Jan. 11. Long may his ideas and writing continue to inspire conservationists and environmentalists everywhere.
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
Move evidence of species evolving in response to human domination of our ecosystems - www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Shrinking trees and tuskless elephants: the strange ways species are adapting to humans
As people have shaped the natural world, so wildlife – from mahoganies to magpies – has had to evolve to survive
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 07/01/2025
More bad news about climate change and food production. Climate change is already having negative impacts on apple production in areas of the US the produce large numbers of apples. There are some measures that may help mitigate those impacts. iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...
iopscience.iop.org
Changing climate risks for high-value tree fruit production across the United States - IOPscienceSearch
Changing climate risks for high-value tree fruit production across the United States, Shawn Preston, Kirti Rajagopalan, Matthew Yourek, Lee Kalcsits, Deepti Singh
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 30/12/2024
Raking away plant litter can enhance biodiversity during restoration projects. I love it when simple solutions produce good results. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Litter removal increases plant diversity by promoting both native and exotic forbs in heavily invaded coastal sage scrub in Southern California, U.S.A.
Litter produced by exotic grasses is known to negatively impact native species through multiple mechanisms. While litter removal is a potential restoration tool to recover native species, the effects...
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 28/12/2024
We keep finding new species. The world is such a fascinating place and we have so much still to learn. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Blob-headed fish and amphibious mouse among 27 new species found in ‘thrilling’ Peru expedition
Scientists surprised to find so many animals unknown to science in Alto Mayo, a well-populated region
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 24/12/2024
More sobering news about the future of tree diversity. Merely setting aside land and stopping deforestation is not enough. Animal pollinators and seed dispersers also must be saved. Not so merry new. nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
High extinction risk of the endemic tree flora in a hyper‐diverse region of the Amazon
The rapid global loss of biodiversity, especially in the Neotropics, underscores the need to understand how deforestation impacts endemic plant species' extinction risk and conservation status. Due t...
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
A new report that suggests tackling environmental problems in a holistic manner is the best way to solve the biodiversity crisis. It's a good idea but haven't we heard this before? www.nytimes.com/2024/12/17/c...
nytimes.com
A Biodiversity Solution Might Be Hiding in Plain Sight.
We tend to look at environmental problems in isolation. A holistic approach would be more effective, a new report says.
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
Another sad, no tragic, cautionary tale from the Arctic. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/15/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | My 500-Mile Journey Across Alaska’s Thawing Arctic
I had read about how the rapid warming of the Arctic was upending the landscape and its people. Now I’ve seen it.
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
In a former life I was an oceanographer studying how the Gulf Stream influences the distribution of zooplankton - especially copepods. Here is a drawing of one my favorites - Centropages hamatus. #crustmas
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
Wolves as pollinators? Now, that is an unexpected finding. The more we look, the more connections we see in nature. esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Canids as pollinators? Nectar foraging by Ethiopian wolves may contribute to the pollination of Kniphofia foliosa
Click on the article title to read more.
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
So maybe my inability to stop saying 'you guys' isn't so bad. McWhorter makes the case that it is now just a part of grammar. Strangely he doesn't note its regional origins. 'You guys' often seems to be a particularly Midwestern turn of phrase to us Midwesterners. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/05/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | Who Are You Calling ‘You Guys’? Everyone, Actually.
The story of how a gendered word became a universal pronoun says a lot about how language evolves.
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
This is a fascinating study of genetic changes in two populations of dogs living in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Also fascinating - the article includes a "plain English summary." More journals should do that. cgejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
cgejournal.biomedcentral.com
Population dynamics and genome-wide selection scan for dogs in Chernobyl - Canine Medicine and Genetics
Background Natural and anthropogenic disasters can have long-lasting impacts on the genetics and structure of impacted populations. The 1986 Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster led to extensive con...
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Clovis people preferred mammoths and other large mammals for their diet. Which leads me to wonder once again about how much of the extinction of Pleistocene megafauna was due to human hunting. www.livescience.com/archaeology/...
livescience.com
Early Americans ate tons of mammoth, 13,000-year-old bones from Clovis culture baby reveal
Radioisotopes in the bones of an 18-month-old boy who lived almost 13,000 years ago indicate that his mother ate mostly mammoths.
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
Our genus - Homo - contains multitudes. We learn more about our relatives every year. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Making sense of eastern Asian Late Quaternary hominin variability - Nature Communications
A greater degree of Late Quaternary hominin morphological variability is present in eastern Asia than previously assumed. Indeed, a number of distinct populations are present, some that now have new s...
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
Climate change keeps throwing us more curveballs - well more like high, hard fastballs right at our head - and we don't pay enough attention to make the necessary changes. Once upon a time The Blob was a sci-fi film. Now it is a disaster in the sea. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/01/c...
nytimes.com
What a Marine Heat Wave Reveals About Our Warming Oceans
An extreme heat wave off California’s coast seemed like an anomaly 10 years ago. But as the ocean warms, the catastrophe may be a glimpse of the future.
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 30/11/2024
For years here in the rural Midwest, the best place to find prairie plants has been in old pioneer cemeteries that were never plowed. It is good to see more cemeteries embracing native plants and natural landscaping as a way to help preserve biodiversity. www.nytimes.com/2024/11/29/c...
nytimes.com
Life After Death: America’s Cemeteries Are Rewilding
More burial sites are forgoing pristine lawns for drought resistant plants and wildflowers that help wildlife. Efforts picked up in the pandemic.
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 30/11/2024
Taking a brief holiday break in Bayfield, Wisconsin. Winter arrived just as we did.
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
Good news on the restoration front - cranberry bogs back to wetlands. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024...
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
Wow - evolution has achieved the perfect launch angle for maximum distance dispersal of spitting cucumber seeds. Nature is amazingly wonderful. www.nytimes.com/2024/11/25/s...
nytimes.com
Squirting Cucumbers Shoot Their Seeds Like Botanical Bombardiers
Scientists say they’ve worked out how the plant can fire its seeds up to almost 40 feet.
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
Our small projects - backyard gardens and similar - are beneficial to both the entire natural world and ourselves as we work to save as much biodiversity as possible. www.nytimes.com/2024/11/25/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | Donate This Holiday Season. Biodiversity Needs Your Help. (Gift Article)
Help for converting a garden, no matter how small, into a wildlife sanctuary.
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
My neighbor's red maple is at peak color in this soft gray light
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Yet more bad news about the effects of climate change - rivers turning toxic in the Peruvian Andes. www.nytimes.com/2024/11/19/s...
nytimes.com
Where Glaciers Melt, the Rivers Run Red
As the glaciers of South America retreat, the supply of freshwater is dwindling and its quality is getting worse.
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Stuart Allison @stuarta.bsky.social · 16/11/2024
A field trip to see excellent restoration work on the Squamish estuary and wetlands in BC.
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