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Published on January 5, 2025 in Santa Cruz Sentinel By Rita Aksenfeld, newsroom@santacruzsentinel.com You might think watching grass grow is boring, but grasslands have a lot to tell us about climate change. While it might take years for forests to respond to climate change, California’s grasslands are constantly adapting to their new, warmer environment. The regions across the state where different grasses and wildflowers grow, called the California Floristic Province, host thousands of native and [...]

Published on December 8, 2024 in Monterey Herald By Anna FitzGerald Guth, newsroom@montereyherald.com John Steinbeck once described the corridor between Monterey and Salinas as the “pastures of heaven” for the grasslands flowering with blazing orange California poppies and other local species. But his poetic description now serves as just a snapshot in time of a changing landscape. Climate change is altering regional grasslands at remarkable speed as species that thrive in hotter, drier conditions dominate [...]

From: Michigan News New paper: Zhu K, Song Y, Lesage JC, Luong JC, Bartolome JW, Chiariello NR, Dudney J, Field CB, Hallett LM, Hammond M, Harrison SP, Hayes GF, Hobbs RJ, Holl KD, Hopkinson P, Larios L, Loik ME, Prugh LR (2024) Rapid shifts in grassland communities driven by climate change. Nature Ecology and Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-024-02552-z Although all ecosystems are affected by a changing climate, the impacts can take a while to appear. Changes in [...]

On September 26-27, 2024, the lab (coordinated by Yiluan Song) was pleased to host Dr. Tong Qiu from Duke University. During his visit to MIDAS and IGCB, Dr. Qiu presented a seminar titled "Forest regeneration in a rapidly changing world: Consumers, habitat, and climate change." His seminar focused on the impacts of climate and habitat changes on seed production. In addition to the seminar, Dr. Qiu led a workshop on "Joint species distribution model to [...]

During the week of July 15, Kai Zhu and Yi Liu participated in a macrophenology workshop at the Environmental Data Science Innovation & Inclusion Lab (ESIIL) in Boulder, Colorado. Throughout the workshop, Kai and Yi had the opportunity to connect with individuals from diverse institutions who shared their interests. Together, they generated innovative ideas and devised a plan for their next steps.

We are excited to announce that our paper, Prediction-based approach for quantifying phenological mismatch across landscapes under climate change, by Drs. Yiluan Song, Steven B. Munch, and Kai Zhu, has received an Honorable Mention for the 2023 Landscape Ecology's Best Article Award. Our team is honored to be acknowledged among the top contributions to the field. Congratulations to all authors and contributors!

Study shows climate change is moving tree populations away from the soil fungi that sustain them   From SEAS News   By Kelcie Walther | May 28, 2024   As our planet warms, many species are shifting to different locations as their historical habitats become inhospitable. Trees are no exception, but their shift to new areas has been lagging behind those of other plants and animals. Now, scientists show that the reason for this lag might [...]

The lab is celebrating the successful completion of two remarkable students, Carolina Arguiano and Ruoyu Wu. Carolina was a visiting PhD student from the National University of La Plata in Argentina, supported by the Fulbright Program, and worked on forest mycorrhizal modeling during her visit to the lab. Ruoyu, on the other hand, worked on fungal spore phenology in the lab for her thesis as a master's student in SEAS. As they move on to [...]

Peter Adler and Michael Stemkovski from Utah State University visited the lab and IGCB to discuss the collaborative project on ecological acclimation.

On April 12, the lab visited the University of Michigan Herbarium, guided by Dr. Brad Ruhfel. We were impressed by the vast collection of specimens and the potential that the herbarium data could provide for research. On a related note, Kai and Yiluan published a Commentary in New Phytologist on this topic last year. Zhu K, Song Y (2023), Harnessing herbaria to advance plant phenology research under global change. New Phytologist, 6, 2057-2059. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.19088