The Global Change & Conservation Lab at the Missouri Botanical Garden is searching for a paid, summer intern to do independent research on climate change and plants as part of the Garden’s Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program. Anthropogenic climate change has profound consequences for the timing of biological processes (phenology) and the manner in …
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Using imprecisely located presences in SDMs
We’ve developed a new, simple, common-sensical method for using imprecisely georeferenced occurrence data in species distribution modeling and other biogeographic analyses! Collectively, imprecise records reflect thousands of years of person-work in collection, curation, and digitization, and yet they are routinely discarded by biogeographers before analysis because of the fear that their error will propagate through …
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enmSdmX on CRAN
I’m pleased as punch to announce that enmSdmX, a set of tools in R for implementing species distribution models (SDMs) and ecological niche models (ENMs), is now available on CRAN! The package includes functions found (nearly?) nowhere else for bias correction, spatial cross-validation, model evaluation, raster interpolation, biotic “velocity” (speed and direction of movement of …
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Climate change: “Better than we fear, worse than we hope.” — An interview with St. Louis Magazine
How will climate change affect plants growing in Saint Louis? The Missouri Botanical Garden is already finding out using its “climate change gardens”. Adam contributed to the story! Photo by Mike Miller
Postdoc in urban pollination
The Living Earth Collaborative at Washington University in Saint Louis sponsors a cohort of prestigious postdoc positions each year on ecology and conservation. This year, the program is inviting potential mentors to propose projects. Thus, we’re eager to hear for you if you’d like to apply for a postdoc position in urban pollination! Simply stated, …
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Goodbye (for now) to our summer REUs!
We have been honored to serve as the summer home for three wonderful undergraduates in the Garden’s Research Experience for Undergraduates program! Marina, Catherine, and Evelyn explored illegal trade in vulnerable plants, the role of phenology in invasions, and how bees respond to urban environments, respectively. Thank you to all of you an engaging experience, …
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Climate change alters plant mating systems
Matthew Austin‘s new open access paper in the American Journal of Botany on how climate has affected plant mating systems is making waves! Using herbarium specimens, Matt found that over the last 100 years, the rate of cleistogamy (asexual flowering) has decreased among Viola sororia, the common blue violet. This change was predicted by increases …
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In search of refuge
From outlaw bandit Jesse James to microclimate–please enjoy a mini-documentary on our microrefugia project! Update: This mini-documentary won a Regional Emmy from the Mid-America Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, plus a Bronze in the Council for Advancement and Support of Education’s Circle of Excellence competition!
Reconstructing species’ biogeographic histories through data integration
Watch Adam’s talk about combining species distribution models, pollen-density models, and demographic/genetic simulations to infer species’ biogeographic histories for the Modeling in Ecology and Evolution Meeting!
Overcoming the Hutchinsonian shortfall
Watch Adam’s talk on how we can overcome the Hutchinsonian shortfall, our critical lack of knowledge about species’ environmental tolerances!
Global Change & Conservation Lab of spring 2022!
This is us!
Climate-smart renewable energy siting!
We’re celebrating working with Rebecca Hernandez, Toni Lyn Morelli, Uzma Ashraf, Gwen Arnold, and Tyler Scott on a new project to reduce conflicts between renewable energy installations and biodiversity–funded by the Sloan Foundation!
Hand-made papermaking traditions in Viet Nam
Watch honorary lab member James Lucas’s well-attended talk about hand-made papermaking traditions in Viet Nam! As an economic botanist, James is interested in conserving and reviving this ancient art, and as a practicing origami artist, he’s personally vested!
Battle or synergy of the changes? Land use/land cover change versus climate change
UPDATE: Our article received Honorable Mention for Landscape Ecology‘s Best Article of 2021! Historically, climate change vulnerability assessments have been just that–assessments of how species are expected to be affected by climate change. Nonetheless, even if anthropogenic climate were not occurring, Earth would still be in the throes of a human-generated mass extinction, mostly due …
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What can community ecologists learn from species distribution models?
Stephen Murphy and Adam Smith are happy to see their article on how community ecologists can employ species distribution models to crack hard questions in community ecology! What can community ecology learn from species distribution models? [open access]Murphy, S.J. and Smith, A.B. 2021. Ecosphere 12:e03864. doi: 10.1002/ecs2.3864
Introduction to retroactive georeferencing of herbarium and museum specimens
Watch a video tutorial on the point-radius method, a standardized set of protocols for interpreting a verbal description of a location, plus calculating the uncertainty inherent in the description and the manner in which it is interpreted! This video introduces the point-radius method and a set of tools for implementing it. The method was originally …
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A “flowering pileup”: Matthew Austin in Scientific American
Matt Austin’s work analyzing an historical phenological record of Midwest plants was covered by Scientific American‘s “60-Second Science”! Listen as he transforms into a “human bee”–then gets scooped by a real one!
Welcome to Lauren and Ethan!
We are very happy to be the new academic homes of Lauren Jenkins and Ethan Abercrombie! Lauren will be working on an NSF-sponsored project comparing methods for reconstructing species’ biogeographic histories. Ethan is a grad student at Washington University in Saint Louis doing a lab rotation focusing on community thermophilizaton. Welcome, Lauren and Ethan!
An odd disjunction
Range disjunctions are common in the natural world and, in eastern North America, are thought to arise from barriers formed by the Mississippi River embayment, vicariance due to glacial flooding during the Pleistocene, colonization from separate glacial refugia, or long-distance dispersal in recent times. Led by Rebekah Mohn and Christy Edwards, our new paper in …
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Global Change Conservation Lab, Summer 2021!
That’s us! –> Interested in joining as a student, postdoc, intern, or volunteer? Please feel free to contact Adam (adam ::dot:: smith ::at:: mobot ::dot:: org).