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Uriel Menalled

@urielmenalled.bsky.social
1.6K followers 811 following 131 posts

Assistant Professor of Agroecology at Montana State University 🏔️ #Rstats Lab website: urielmenalled.github.io/lab-website

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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
What's the best organic no-till crop sequence for the Northeastern US? Tips: 1) Prioritize cash crop growth over cover crop biomass. 2) Use legume covers for non-legume crops. 3) Use high C : N cover crops for legume cash crops. Read more in my recent publication: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Selecting suitable predecessors: Ecosystem services from cover crops to reduce tillage and fertilizer - Scientific Reports
Scientific Reports - Selecting suitable predecessors: Ecosystem services from cover crops to reduce tillage and fertilizer
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Will it just be available on Windows? I know this is wishful thinking, but is there any chance we could get it on Linux or macOS?
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Cool article, but what a shame this was written by an AI author...
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
First fieldwork day at Montana State University in the books! We sampled soils from various berry species for a crop rotation study. This matters because berry farmers invest heavily in infrastructure (bird netting, trellises, etc.) that limits their rotation capacity when production drops.
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Anthony Ricciardi @ecoinvasions.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
... Part of the story is documented here: www.researchgate.net/publication/... and here: www.researchgate.net/publication/... The photos below show the contrast in forest understory in uninvaded (top) and invaded (bottom) sites on Christmas Island by the yellow crazy ant.
Impacts of invasion of Christmas Island rain forest by the yellow crazy ant. 
(Top) Uninvaded site with open understorey maintained largely by the foraging activities of the red land crab.

(Bottom) Invaded site 1–2 years after ant invasion with a dense & diverse seedling cover and thick litter layer. Photos by Peter Green.
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Journal of Applied Ecology @jappliedecology.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
📖 New research📖 These findings demonstrate that landscape forest cover plays a critical role in modulating edge effects in plant communities in this study system, but not all woody crop systems provide buffering benefits 🌳 🪾 🌲 👉️ besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
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New Phytologist @newphyt.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
✨ Paper spotlight ✨ (🧵1/4) Still standing: persistence traits capture belowground plant functions beyond resource exploration and acquisition nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Fig. 1 Conceptual linkages between traits and plant functioning lead to three dimensions of variation in the belowground functional space.
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
First day of work at Montana State University! It's official: I'm a professor now!
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IPES-Food @ipes-food.org · 06/08/2026
The same companies profiting from fossil fuels are driving the #climatecrisis disrupting food production. As conflict pushed up oil prices, 8 oil giants made $93bn in just 3 months. Meanwhile, farmers faced higher costs, harvests suffered, & food prices rose. www.theguardian.com/business/ng-...
theguardian.com
Revealed: major oil firms make $93bn profits amid war and climate crisis
Iran conflict windfall over three months reignites calls for companies ‘cashing in on human misery’ to pay for environmental damage
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Catboost seems really cool. One thing I’m a bit confused about is how it reduces the requirements for tuning parameters as is mentioned in the video on the website. Any chance you could provide some resources to explain how this is done?
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Couldn’t have done it without you!
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Very lightly: fortunately, my university hosts open-source models on their HPC and provides an API key that I can use to run these models in Positron. For some exceptions where Gemma 4-31B doesn't work, I'll lightly use Claude Sonnet 4.6 via GitHub Copilot.
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EcoSnippets @ecosnippets.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Eat Your Privacy Screen. Learn more here -> www.ecosnippets.com/permaculture/ed…
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
I agree that there’s some complexity, but far from setting up an actual currency, which can be traded on and invested in.
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
I mean, I'd be down to get paid too. But I'm concerned that relying on payment alone might encourage 'low-effort' reviews from people who aren't truly invested in the field. Especially in an era when it is not hard to build an AI editor agent, this could be problematic...
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
A universal credit system tied to ORCID to address the problems editors are having with finding peer reviewers. Honestly, it seems like a good idea: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... #STEM #Science 🧪
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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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
I also like that university-hosted #AI is more private than any promised privacy from a company. Makes me feel better about sharing data, code, and ideas with an #LLM, which is something I see colleagues do without inhibition to non-private AIs (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc.). (🧵 2/2)
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
I recommend academics look into university-hosted AI (🧵 1/2): I'm lucky enough to access Gemma 4-31B via my university's HPC using an API key to code in #rstats. For now, I've been able to avoid any (increasingly expensive) subscriptions with that and #GitHub Copilot's "free" educator AI tools.
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
As someone who regularly uses AI in coding, I was happy to see Posit continuing to develop their IDE's AI capabilities. But, it is slightly concerning to feel like it might become one of the default ways to code in RStudio/Positron. Posit even recommended AI subscriptions for students.
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
A nice article and presentation! One interesting thing to note has been Posit's change in attitude towards AI. From their cautious endorsement of Data Bot to their more complete support of AI in their talk last week, check it out: youtu.be/4er6aua7zyI?... I hope this isn't because of the $
youtu.be
Introducing Posit AI for Positron and RStudio
YouTube video by Posit PBC
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
I’ve just been hired to teach a data analysis course, and I plan to teach it in R. I’m having to rethink the structure of the course now that AI is so available. I’m thinking that my focus should be much more on model choice and evaluation rather than the coding. Are you restructuring your course?
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
Wow, nice! I've been wanting a package just like this!
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
plotly() is great
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
How?! Do you have a repo for this??
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
Great! It worked perfectly for me.
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
#rstats, now that Positron Databot is being replaced by Posit Assistant, does that mean that I will have to pay a subscription fee to use AI in Positron? Even if I use locally-hosted models? youtu.be/4er6aua7zyI?...
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Fortunately, my university hosts many models, so I don’t have to worry about using up my computer’s storage. Additionally, my university’s computation center is powered by green energy, which is huge for me. I definitely think that’s the move!
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Totally agreed. I didn’t even consider running local AI before two weeks ago.
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Exactly my point… Considering that Norway experiences cold temperatures for much longer than most other countries, it’s impressive that most cars there are electric.
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Ummm, and it’s not too cold in Norway?? Having spent much time in the Buffalo area and visited Norway, I can guarantee that Buffalo’s temperature is not too different than inland/Northern Norway.
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Especially impressive considering Norway’s cold climate would deter buyers concerned about battery life.
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Dang, I really like using Grammarly. What a disappointment...
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Wait, what do you mean by the "Grammarly thing"?
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
I'm curious what you mean by this. I use Grammarly but have been worried about it for a while now...
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Course material is intellectual property, and I haven't heard of any university claiming rights over it.
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Philip Boucher-Hayes @philipb-h.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
15% of fossil fuels extracted each year are used to make fertiliser, run farms, process foods and transport them. In a very real sense our food is made from oil and gas. We are about to feel a very painful food shock. 1/
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
Some really cool research!
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
🚨A new publication is out! 🚨 My first foray into chemical ecology and plant insect interactions.
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Agroecology Coalition @agroecology.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
🌱Episode 1 of Agroecology Uprooted by @iatp.bsky.social looks at the current food system and the potential for a radically sustainable approach to food and agriculture: Agroecology. 🎧 Listen here: www.iatp.org/agroecology-... #Agroecology #FoodSystems #FoodSystemsTransformation
iatp.org
Agroecology Uprooted Episode One: System Failure
As the war in Iran squeezes fertilizer and fuel supplies, there is renewed attention on the vulnerability of global food systems. But the roots of this current crisis go much deeper.
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Global Change Biology @globalchangebio.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
Climate Change Can Generate Enemy‐Free Space for Crop‐Feeding Herbivores 🔗 buff.ly/PyqDhA1
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
If anyone has thoughts on the questions at the end of the post, let me know! I'm currently trying to fit ML models to clustered data.
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
I just found a great resource to learn more about ML from @christophmolnar.bsky.social. For more, you can check out Christopher's amazing Substack: mindfulmodeler.substack.com?utm_campaign...
mindfulmodeler.substack.com
Mindful Modeler | Christoph Molnar | Substack
Better machine learning by thinking like a statistician. About model interpretation, paying attention to data, and always staying critical. Click to read Mindful Modeler, by Christoph Molnar, a Substa...
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
How to deal with non-i.i.d data in machine learning open.substack.com/pub/mindfulm...
open.substack.com
How to deal with non-i.i.d data in machine learning
Ignoring this common problem can lead to data leakage, overfitting, and overly optimistic evaluation.
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
Will collaborative editing be possible in Positron/RStudio?
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
How would hedge rows heat up your house??
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Oded Rechavi @odedrechavi.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
Every PI
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
The automation code worked! I made an edit to my publication list, and my website auto-updated it on the first of the month.
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
How far do birds spread plant #seeds? Here's a cool paper that answers that very question. Dispersal range across plant species: - mean = 9–45 km - max = 58–521 km In the context of #agriculture, this means constant weed seed rain. #ecology royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...
royalsocietypublishing.org
How far can frugivorous birds disperse seeds during migration?
Abstract. Long-distance seed dispersal plays a crucial role in shaping plant distributions. The annual migration of millions of frugivorous birds holds sub
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Fun paper on the infamous corpse flower. One of the most interesting findings was that pollution degraded plant volatiles. Potentially, some interesting links to urban ecology, where pollution could reduce plant-insect interactions. 🤔 agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Efficient Pollination Stinks: Corpse Flowers Use Floral Trapping and Persistent Emissions
Sulfur compounds dominated the female flowers of a Titan arum bloom, while the male flowers had more chemically diverse floral emissions We identified evidence toward the use of floral trapping d...
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Uriel Menalled @urielmenalled.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
I'm pulling publications from the Semantic Scholar profile (which I linked to my ORCID) because Google Scholar was blocking some of my automated requests. I also like that Semantic Scholars doesn't include conference abstracts.
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