Hey, while I have you here, I wanted to share two of my lab's papers that came out right around the election when everyone was a bit distracted.
The first is by my former PhD student, @DulcineaGroff. She found that the establishment of seabird colonies in the Falklands 5000 years ago triggered a big ecosystem change on land. She was able to pick up this shift thanks to (you guessed it) poop! advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/43/e…
Seabirds eat in the ocean, and nest on land, so they're a kind of sentinel of global change. Long-term records like Dr. Groff's can help us protect these birds (and their habitats) as the climate warms in the Southern Ocean.
The second paper is by another former PhD student, Dr. Benjamin Seliger. He looked at the ranges of nearly 450 species of trees in North America, and found that on average, they're only found in about 50% of their available climatic habitats. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.111…
This could be because soils, fungi, or other factors are limiting trees more than climate in some areas. Or, some trees may be lagging behind climate changes in the last 21,000 years since deglaciation (!). Either way, some trees may need a hand to reach their future climates.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
