Author: richardson-lab

The 5 minute video that Mariah, George, Drew, and Andrew did with NAU TV’s Erik Sather, Redwood Survival, is now streaming on the WildSound FestivalReviews platform. Previously, the film won several awards, including: Best Nature Film, Environmental Film and Screenplay Festival, 2023; Official Selection, Flagstaff Mountain Film Festival, 2023; Award of Merit Special Mention: Nature / Environment / Wildlife, Best Shorts Competition, 2023; and Semi-finalist, Melbourne Independent Film Festival, 2023.

During spring break, Jen visited travelled to Hermosillo, Mexico to visit former visiting student Teresa Ibarra at the Universidad de Sonora (UniSon). She gave a talk in the Departamento de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas (DICTUS) on the importance of near-surface thermal measurements and their application in ecological research. The trip wasn’t just about science and academia; she also enjoyed some tourist time exploring the Gulf of California.

We’ve got some new papers to report:

First, postdoc Yujie’s paper on using the XGBoost machine learning algorithm for gap filling CO₂ flux data is now out in Agricultural and Forest Meteorology. A highlight is that the algorithm is particularly good at filling long gaps that can’t be filled using conventional methods. Additionally, XGBoost is flexible enough to make incorporating new drivers (such as phenological information from satellites or phenocams) very easy!

Second, the paper “Recommendations for developing, documenting, and distributing data products derived from NEON data“, has been published in Ecosphere. The paper emerged from the July 2023 NEON Data Products Workshop, which was organized by Andrew and other members of the first cohort of NEON Ambassadors. Thanks to Jeff Atkins for his leadership and seeing the manuscript through to publication, and to all the early career scientist coauthors for their contributions.

Third, the paper “Predicting end‑of‑season timing across diverse North American grasslands“, by former postdoc Alison Post, is now out in Oecologia. The paper develops and evaluates a wide range of models for senescence in grassland ecosystems across the US, using PhenoCam Network data products as a primary resource.

Fourth, collaborator Roberto Silvestro’s paper, “From Roots to Leaves: Tree Growth Phenology in Forest Ecosystems“, is now out in Current Forestry Reports. Andrew wrote the PhenoCam section, and former postdoc Tim Rademacher also contributed.

Finally, collaborator Yunpeng Luo’s paper, “Internal physiological drivers of leaf development in trees: Understanding the relationship between non-­structural carbohydrates and leaf phenology“, is now out in Functional Ecology. Yunpeng previously visited the lab for a week after the AGU fall meeting 5 or 6 y ago.

Jacob, Perry, and Andrew drove to north-western New Mexico last week to meet up with the ITS team at Navajo Tech and resuscitate the PhenoCam that was installed there three years ago. Unfortunately, the camera had to be replaced, but Andrew enjoyed the opportunity to engage in some tower climbing, and thanks to Dody Begay and Alex Perry, NTU ITS, the visit was a success!

This week, Jacob spent some time sharing the power of PhenoCams with the kiddos at Flagstaff’s De Miguel Elementary School. He taught a phenology lesson titled “Monitoring plants with cameras!” to Ms. Ten Haken’s (NAU alumna) 5th grade class. Students learned what phenology is and why it’s important, via an exploration of the PhenoCam Network map page. These sorts of outreach activities are crucial for getting kids excited about science and ecosystem ecology more specifically.

After the visit, Jacob reported that students “LOVED the map and had lots of questions about how phenology connects to things they’ve learned about already such as photosynthesis and astronomy.”

Thanks to Ms. Ten Haken for giving Jacob (and the lab) this outreach opportunity!

In mid-January, Jacob made a trip to the New Mexico desert for the annual Sevilleta LTER All-Hands Meeting. The All-Hands Meeting brings together Sevilleta scientists, land managers, and community members for a couple days of research updates, field visits, and collaboration creation. The meeting took place at the Sevilleta Field Station this year, which meant lots of lowkey science chats over meals and catching up with distant colleagues like Drew Peltier, former lab postdoc now an assistant professor at UNLV. Jacob presented a poster on his Mean-Variance Experiment (MVE) creosote physiology ideas and a talk about what the MVE PhenoCams are teaching us about biosphere-atmosphere interactions in drylands. Andrew shared a pre-recorded talk describing the history of PhenoCams at the Sevilleta. Photos show the group dinner after the first day of the meeting and the MVE PJ on a bluebird day.

At the Biology Graduate Student Symposium, Darby presented her research on carbon fluxes at the Bartlett Experimental Forest, where 20 years of data indicate a declining trend in carbon uptake driven by increasing ecosystem respiration. Her results show that ecosystem respiration is rising during both the winter months and the growing season. In recent years, carbon losses in winter have not been offset by carbon uptake during the growing season. Increases in soil temperature anomalies are a key driver of rising winter ecosystem respiration. Symposium attendees asked insightful questions, including: (1) What does a warming winter mean for plants? (2) Do you expect the carbon balance to continue declining? (3) Could this research influence climate policy?

Darby reported that, “Overall, it was an exciting opportunity to share science with an audience beyond ecosystem ecologists!”

Led by Jen, Mostafa, and Ben Wiebe, a report on the Great Thermal Bake-Off workshop, held at NAU’s historic Hat Ranch property in August 2024, has just been published in the AGU newsmagazine, Eos. Congratulations to the organizing team! Thermal remote sensing continues to be a hot topic!

Congratulations to Oscar Zimmerman, who passed his candidacy exam in late January. Oscar plans to research the seasonality of photosynthesis and tree growth in arid scrublands, but joked “I can’t wait to complete my thesis on tropical fish!” when the exam was over.

The photo shows Andrew, Oscar, and Oscar’s tropical fish.

Andrew is Co-I on the Sevilleta Long-Term Ecological Research proposal, led by PI Prof. Jenn Rudgers at the University of New Mexico, which has recently been awarded funding by the National Science Foundation. Andrew and Jacob are actively involved in the MVE (Mean x Variance Experiment), with 72 phenocams tracking daily changes in canopy greenness across 4 different biomes. You can read the UNM press release here.