Renata discusses her work through the Arnold Arboretum that included mentoring of local technicians on urban tree health.

An interview on the biodiversity analysis that involves dynamics of entire communities…

The Scientist describes the paper led by Tong Qiu on declining seed production with increasing tree size. An international team of researchers from 12 countries analyzed half a million trees representing nearly 600 species.

Clark recently discussed aspects of the Masting Inference and Forecasting (MASTIF) project with Melissa Suran at PNAS here. The PNAS paper is discussed in The Scientist.

Mondays, 12 eastern/6 Paris:

the Paris Agreement on Climate Change demands ”an effective and progressive response to the urgent threat of climate change on the basis of the best available scientific knowledge‘’. Unequivocal evidence suggests that recent global climate change is caused by human activities and leads to global warming, sea level rise, ocean deoxygenation and acidification, water shortage, crop and biodiversity loss, increased frequency and severity of storm events, as well as other local to global repercussions (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). Signatories of the Paris agreement have therefore pledged to hold “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels”, “recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change”.

The “Make Our Planet Great Again” program is a French – German initiative to foster climate change research and to support the implementation of the Paris Agreement. Within the “Make Our Planet Great Again” program, researchers from all over the world work together to improve Earth system observations, to detect impacts and suggest strategies to mitigate and adapt to Climate change and to find new solutions for the necessary Energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable resources.

The Make Our Planet Great Again seminar series takes place on Mondays from 16:00 to 17:00 Paris/Berlin time. The seminar series is an open event at which the Make Our Planet Great Again Laureates will inform about the latest developments in their research area.

Please join us by registering for this open seminar series at:

https://cnrs.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_AL5_VQCYQP6YVA7E79A_DA

You will find further information about the upcoming seminar topics in attached document.

Contrary to expectation, this study shows that seed production eventually declines with tree size and age. A global analysis finds that fecundity decline in large trees is pervasive, consistent with physiological decline, thus providing new evidence for tree senescence. Read more

See coverage in:

PNAS Research Highlights

The Scientist

le Figaro, 23 August

Duke Daily

Physics.org

INRAE

Tong Qiu, Marie-Claire Aravena, Robert Andrus, Davide Ascoli, Yves Bergeron, Roberta Berretti, Michal Bogdziewicz, Thomas Boivin, Raul Bonal, Thomas Caignard, Rafael Calama, J. Julio Camarero, Connie J. Clark, Benoit Courbaud, Sylvain Delzon, Sergio Donoso Calderon, William Farfan-Rios, Catherine A. Gehring, Gregory S. Gilbert, Cathryn H. Greenberg, Qinfeng Guo, Janneke Hille Ris Lambers, Kazuhiko Hoshizaki, Ines Ibanez, Valentin Journé, Christopher L. Kilner, Richard K. Kobe, Walter D. Koenig, Georges Kunstler, Jalene M. LaMontagne, Mateusz Ledwon, James A. Lutz, Renzo Motta, Jonathan A. Myers, Thomas A. Nagel, Chase L. Nuñez, Ian S. Pearse, Łukasz Piechnik, John R. Poulsen, Renata Poulton-Kamakura, Miranda D. Redmond, Chantal D. Reid, Kyle C. Rodman, C. Lane Scher, Harald Schmidt Van Marle, Barbara Seget, Shubhi Sharma, Miles Silman, Jennifer J. Swenson, Margaret Swift, Maria Uriarte, Giorgio Vacchiano, Thomas T. Veblen, Amy V. Whipple, Thomas G. Whitham, Andreas P. Wion, S. Joseph Wright, Kai Zhu, Jess K. Zimmerman, Magdalena Żywiec, and James S. Clark. 2021. Is there tree senescence? The fecundity evidence. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118 (34) e2106130118; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2106130118. pdf

(Duke and Grenoble INRAE contributors in bold font)

Duke University Opinion and Analysis: Domestic cats kill more than 2 billion birds each year, making them one of the largest human-caused threats to birds [read more]

Michał has obtained a 24-month Research Fellowship from the Bekker Program to join the INRAE group at Université Grenoble Alpes on MASTIF. He will work with Georges Kunstler, Benoit Courbaud, Valentin Journe, and Jim Clark on masting pattern and process.

Michal’s web site is here.

Becky Tang’s new paper shows how to improve estimates of distribution and abundance from ebird data by accounting for spatial bias in observation effort. Her paper received the Best Award from the Department of Statistical Science.

Tang, B., J. S. Clark, and A. E. Gelfand. 2021. Modeling spatially biased citizen science effort through the eBird database. Environmental and Ecological Statistics, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10651-021-00508-1.

The Best Award is given annually from the Department of Statistical Science, Duke University. Becky is recognized for her paper, “Modeling spatially biased citizen science effort through the eBird database” to appear in Environmental and Ecological Statistics

Kai Zhu is a former PhD student in the lab. The Ecological Society of America’s recognition is “based on his blending of classical ecological theories with modern computational tools to study global issues like climate change.” Read more.

Maggie for her research on drought impacts on wildlife in Kruger National Park and Renata for her urban forestry research. Of 2000 awards nationally this year, Renata and Maggie were among 18 fellowships awarded to Duke students. Announcement here.

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Maggie Swift: “An analysis of an African savanna community’s resilience to changing climate, water distribution, and management practices.”

Renata Poulton Kamakura: “Tree species growth and diversity in city forests and the implications for urban biodiversity conservation“

Biodiversity confronts climate change in the big-data era: promise and pitfalls for understanding and anticipating change recorded from 5 March 2021

The Editor’s Highlights selected the first MASTIF (Masting Inference and Forecasting) publication for this week’s recognition. The paper is here.

Additional coverage is here.

Coverage focus on Gilbert and Zhu’s coast redwood site is here.

The NatureNet Science Fellowship comes with salary, benefits, travel, and research funds. It will support Renata’s research on managing urban environments with rapid climate change.

The composition and structure of twenty-first century forests will depend on the seed production needed for tree populations to keep pace with climate change… [read more]

Greenwire: Climate change altering how trees produce seeds

Science Daily

Climate feedbacks drive east-west divide in forest seed production

Inside Climate News

This year, local birdwatchers are pleased to find that more northern birds are making their way farther south to make North Carolina their winter home… Lane Scher on evening grosbeaks in Durham

We teamed up with Roland Kays at North Carolina State University to generate a youtube channel for the data used in our biodiversity analysis. Each is a field demonstration by a different student or postdoc in the lab. These videos are being linked to the iNaturalist mastif project (Masting Inference and Forecasting) and vignettes that can be used for class. The video channel is here.

Supported by the National Science Foundation grant DEB-1754443

A collaborative effort centered in the Clark lab at Duke University is recruiting a Postdoctoral Associate in quantitative microbial dynamics. The position is funded by the National Science Foundation to evaluate the direct and indirect effects of environmental change on microbial dynamics. The goals of the study… [read more]

We are delighted to announce the winners of the 2019 New Phytologist Tansley Medal for Excellence in Plant Science, read more…