Category: Uncategorized
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New paper in PNAS: Human diets drive range expansion of megafauna-dispersed fruit species
We have a new paper on megafauna and human impacts on plants in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week. There are many New World plant species that produce large fruits – for example, avocados, cherimoya, or cacao, or some species of Pouteria and Inga. These species were originally dispersed (via consumption and…
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New paper: Structural and defensive roles of angiosperm leaf venation network reticulation across an Andes–Amazon elevation gradient
We have a publication on venation network architecture now out in Journal of Ecology. The study is focused on the drivers of network reticulation (looping) Some leaves have venation networks that do not form loops (e.g. Gingko biloba, the maidenhair tree), while others do (e.g. Citrus sinensis, the sweet orange). Why does this variation exist?…
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New publication – trait-climate relationships of New World woody and herbaceous plants
A few weeks ago I wrote about a co-authored study led by Ethan Butler in PNAS on mapping global plant trait distributions. This week we have a new paper coming out in Journal of Biogeography, led by Irena Šimova, that focuses on New World trait distributions using different data and approaches, and finds some complementary…
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Sky School in the city
At Sky School we are committed to inquiry-based and place-based science education. Most of our K-12 programs occur at our campus on Mt. Lemmon, but not all K-12 schools have the resources or time available to bring their students to us. Thanks to the hard work of our education director Rebecca Lipson, we have been…