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dukesjeff.bsky.social
Jeff Dukes
@dukesjeff.bsky.social
6.3K followers 950 following 1.3K posts
🌎🌱Climate change science and global change ecology at Carnegie Science. Professor (by courtesy) at Stanford.
[Private account, not representing employer]
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Jeff Dukes
kinarnicholas.bsky.social
Hydrology Paper of the Day @dukesjeff.bsky.social on plant hydraulics in Earth System Models: challenges with capturing complexity and spatial variability; water stresses and transpiration in the context of drought and species-specific ecology; the challenges of scaling; and testing new models.
dukesjeff.bsky.social Jeff Dukes @dukesjeff.bsky.social · 5d
Just published this new paper, with a bunch of fantastic colleagues, with many suggestions for "Improving the representation of plant water stress and water use in Earth System Models." Access is free online. We have some great figures, thanks to Victor Leshyk. 🧪🌐🌳🌎
November 7, 2025 at 3:56 AM
dukesjeff.bsky.social
“These things came [to California] clearly from another region, another country — and that means all of our waterways are at risk,” Ransom said, calling the mussels a “serious emerging threat” to farms, water supplies, and recreation.

www.mercurynews.com/2025/11/06/e...
‘Emerging threat’: An invasive species is upending life in the Delta, with no help on the way
One year after the discovery that golden mussels had invaded the Delta, thick colonies coat boats and piers and threaten water supplies for cities and farms. Yet the state has no specific funding o…
www.mercurynews.com
November 7, 2025 at 4:25 AM
dukesjeff.bsky.social
Just published this new paper, with a bunch of fantastic colleagues, with many suggestions for "Improving the representation of plant water stress and water use in Earth System Models." Access is free online. We have some great figures, thanks to Victor Leshyk. 🧪🌐🌳🌎
November 5, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Reposted by Jeff Dukes
doctorjackpine.bsky.social
www.space.com/space-explor...
An image of the article title discussing the rapid closure of buildings and divestment of laboratory capabilities at NASA’s GSFC
October 31, 2025 at 11:00 AM
Reposted by Jeff Dukes
I had missed this article earlier. An example of what we're losing, in terms of science that could make a difference for people in this time of climate crisis. Just one relatively small research group at one university (my own #NorthernArizonaUniversity). Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/c...
He Studied How Emissions Are Heating Up U.S. Cities
www.nytimes.com
October 31, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Reposted by Jeff Dukes
droughtnet.bsky.social
The latest DroughtNet paper is out in Science today! Using coordinated experiments across six continents and 74 sites, the International Drought Experiment found differences between the effects of extreme droughts and more typical droughts... (1/3) www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Drought intensity and duration interact to magnify losses in primary productivity
As droughts become longer and more intense, impacts on terrestrial primary productivity are expected to increase progressively. Yet, some ecosystems appear to acclimate to multiyear drought, with cons...
www.science.org
October 16, 2025 at 8:46 PM
Reposted by Jeff Dukes
droughtnet.bsky.social
We are really excited to announce… that our next big DroughtNet paper will be published… next week. And that’s about all we can say for now! 😁
🧪🌐🌎🌍🌏
🚫💧☘️🌾🗓️
A view from underneath a rainout shelter made of clear corrugated plastic slats on a wood frame at the Purdue Wildlife Area, near West Lafayette, Indiana. These shelters reduced precipitation in a restored prairie as part of the International Drought Experiment. Credit: Jeff Dukes
October 11, 2025 at 9:54 PM
Reposted by Jeff Dukes
plantaeofficial.bsky.social
Plant Science Research Weekly -- Senescence to nutrient cycling: Top-down effects of climate change (New Phytol.) @dukesjeff.bsky.social (Summary by Xavier Ozowara) buff.ly/oOvMxnX

#PlantaePSRW
Senescence to nutrient cycling: Top-down effects of climate change | Plantae
Precipitation plays an important role in shaping leaf tissue composition, and as climate change progresses, we’ll likely see dramatic shifts in precipitation regimes. Changes in leaf tissue…
buff.ly
September 18, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Reposted by Jeff Dukes
renatobrgh.bsky.social
New paper led by T. Eren Bilir in AGU Advances—proud to be a coauthor: Satellite-Constrained Reanalysis of the Global Land Carbon Sink. doi.org/10.1029/2025...
Satellite‐Constrained Reanalysis Reveals CO2 Versus Climate Process Compensation Across the Global Land Carbon Sink
CO2 ${\text{CO}}_{2}$-driven terrestrial C gains are ∼4 times greater than climate-driven losses during 2001–2021 and are mainly in live biomass reservoirs In the global sum, CO2 ${\text{CO}}_{2}...
doi.org
September 4, 2025 at 9:58 PM
dukesjeff.bsky.social
Threats from invasive species are on the rise in the US as federal job cuts lead to a black market boom ... for ants www.marketplace.org/episode/2025...
Federal job cuts lead to a black market boom ... for ants
There's a black market trade for everything — including ants. (Yes, even ants.)
www.marketplace.org
September 4, 2025 at 3:16 PM
dukesjeff.bsky.social
In the Scars of L.A.’s Wildfires, Ecological Lessons Bloom www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/m...
What the Bloom After L.A.’s Wildfires Reveals About Our Ecological Future
www.nytimes.com
August 26, 2025 at 8:19 PM
dukesjeff.bsky.social
New paper from the (long-finished) Boston Area Climate Experiment shows how water stress during plant growth affects the chemistry of leaves, with later consequences for decomposition rates. Led by Vidya Suseela's lab at Clemson. 🧪 #drought
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Climatic stress‐induced changes in plant chemistry alter the compound‐specific degradation of litter during decomposition
Plant litter decomposition sustains ecosystem productivity and modulates soil carbon cycling. Drought directly impacts decomposition by decreasing soil moisture and indirectly by altering plant tiss.....
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
August 25, 2025 at 4:40 PM
dukesjeff.bsky.social
Trump administration takes aim at satellite that measures carbon dioxide and crops

This would be such a huge waste. Glad to see my @carnegiescience.bsky.social colleague @annamichalak.bsky.social quoted.

www.npr.org/2025/08/04/n...
Why a NASA satellite that scientists and farmers rely on may be destroyed on purpose
The Trump administration has asked NASA staffers to draw up plans to end at least two satellite missions that measure carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, according to current and former NASA employees.
www.npr.org
August 4, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Reposted by Jeff Dukes
feistywren.bsky.social
For gardeners in the Northeast US, here's an article about a new resource on native plants: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/07/25/s...
Planting guide: How to keep up with the evolving climate - The Boston Globe
What’s in, what’s out as our climate warms: A guide to four climate-resilient gardens
www.bostonglobe.com
July 25, 2025 at 9:43 PM
Reposted by Jeff Dukes
dphuber.bsky.social
www.reuters.com/legal/litiga...
US farm agency fires 70 foreign researchers following national security review
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said it has fired 70 foreign contract researchers after a national security review intended to secure the U.S. food supply from adversaries including China, Russia, North Korea and Iran.
www.reuters.com
July 19, 2025 at 4:44 AM
Reposted by Jeff Dukes
weiweizhan.bsky.social
Interested in how plant intrinsic water-use efficiency (iWUE) responds to rising CO2? Our new paper shows that CO2-enhanced iWUE is mainly driven by reduced canopy conductance, while stimulation of ecosystem photosynthesis is less detectable given current data length. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reduced water loss rather than increased photosynthesis controls CO2-enhanced water-use efficiency - Nature Ecology & Evolution
A machine learning approach using long-term observations of eddy covariance finds that the increase in plant intrinsic water-use efficiency under higher CO2 levels, across diverse ecosystems, is drive...
www.nature.com
July 11, 2025 at 5:40 PM
dukesjeff.bsky.social
Great NYT article today about how not to make problems with invasive species even worse, featuring @evecologist.bsky.social and @jmheberling.bsky.social
🌐🧪🌱
Free link: www.nytimes.com/2025/07/02/r...
Fighting Invasive Plants: The Ones We’ve Got and Those We Think Are Coming
www.nytimes.com
July 7, 2025 at 5:46 PM
dukesjeff.bsky.social
This program has supported so many exceptional scientists over the years. It's been a great investment in US science.
leafwax.bsky.social Jessica Tierney @leafwax.bsky.social · Jul 7
As of today, all current NOAA Climate and Global Change postdoctoral fellows have been furloughed due to the Dept of Commerce not releasing the funding for the program. In addition no new Fellows were awarded this year. cpaess.ucar.edu/cgc
NOAA Climate & Global Change (C&GC) Postdoctoral Program | Cooperative Programs for the Advancement of Earth System ScienceNOAA Climate & Global Change (C&GC) Postdoctoral Program | Cooperative Progra...
cpaess.ucar.edu
July 7, 2025 at 5:42 PM
dukesjeff.bsky.social
What makes some non-native plants so successful? Using a massive US-based dataset, Blumenthal et al show non-natives have "fast" traits, which should help them compete in resource-rich contexts. But being new to the system provides additional advantages.

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Why are non‐native plants successful? Consistently fast economic traits and novel origin jointly explain abundance across US ecoregions
Are non-native plants abundant because they are non-native, and have advantages over native plants, or because they possess ‘fast’ resource strategies, and have advantages in disturbed environments?.....
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
June 24, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Reposted by Jeff Dukes
andrewdessler.com
Really good article by @voosen.me about how the scientific community can provide actionable information to stakeholders. This is really the cutting edge of climate science.

Local predictions of climate change are hazy. But cities need answers fast | www.science.org/content/arti...
Local predictions of climate change are hazy. But cities need answers fast
Scientists are figuring out where “downscaled” climate models struggle—and how they can be improved
www.science.org
June 7, 2025 at 2:16 AM
dukesjeff.bsky.social
How do dominant plants' functional traits affect biomass responses to global change? New paper by Mingyan Hu et al uses the large Manipulation Experiments Synthesis Initiative (MESI) database to find out.
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....
Plant functional traits affect biomass responses to global change: A meta‐analysis
The positive effects of elevated nutrient on belowground biomass were more pronounced for communities dominated by “fast” species. In communities dominated by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi-associated ...
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
June 6, 2025 at 9:53 PM
dukesjeff.bsky.social
Taking action on climate change is like pushing a boulder, @katharinehayhoe.com told @chrfield.bsky.social today @stanfordwoods.bsky.social, with govt policy as the undulating path beneath. The terrain has gotten a lot steeper lately (up AND down), but she’s optimistic we’re still making progress.
Katharine Hayhoe and Chris Field sit on a stage, discussing effective strategies for climate communication and action
May 20, 2025 at 2:47 AM
Reposted by Jeff Dukes
drsimevans.carbonbrief.org
Could this be the biggest climate story of the year?

For the first time on record, China's emissions are falling due to clean energy growth, not slow power demand

Full analysis + outlook by Lauri Myllyvirta:

www.carbonbrief.org/...
1/7
May 15, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Reposted by Jeff Dukes
jvwilkening.bsky.social
Recently, all the AAAS Science & Tech Policy Fellows at EPA were terminated from our positions with little notice and for no clear reason. This effectively ended a partnership that had been going since 1980 and which had brought hundreds of scientists to the EPA as fellows, many of whom stayed. 1/7
May 6, 2025 at 10:02 PM
Reposted by Jeff Dukes
ericcolumbus.bsky.social
🚨🚨 Deranged letter from Education Secretary Linda McMahon to Harvard’s president, cutting off federal funding for any new grants.

Worth reading in full. It is NUTS.
THE SECRETARY OF EDUCATION WASHINGTON, DC 20202 May 5, 2025 Dr. Alan Garber Office of the President Harvard University Massachusetts Hall Cambridge, MA 02138 Dr. Garber, The Federal Government has a sacred responsibility to be a wise and important steward of American taxpayer dollars. Harvard University, despite amassing a largely tax-free $53.2 billion dollar endowment (larger than the GDP of 100 countries), receives billions of dollars of taxpayer largess each year. Receiving such taxpayer funds is a privilege, not a right. Yet instead of using these funds to advance the education of its students, Harvard is engaging in a systemic pattern of violating federal law. Where do many of these "students" come from, who are they, how do they get into Harvard, or even into our country—and why is there so much HATE? These are questions that must be answered, among many more, but the biggest question of all is, why will Harvard not give straightforward answers to the American public? Harvard University has made a mockery of this country's higher education system. It has invited foreign students, who engage in violent behavior and show contempt for the United States of America, to its campus. In every way, Harvard has failed to abide by its legal obligations, its ethical and fiduciary duties, its transparency responsibilities, and any semblance of academic rigor. It had scrapped standardized testing requirements and a normalized grading system. This year Harvard was forced to adopt an embarrassing "remedial math" program for undergraduates. Why is it, we ask, that Harvard has to teach simple and basic mathematics, when it is supposedly so hard to get into this "acclaimed university"? Who is getting in under such a low standard when others, with fabulous grades and a great understanding of the highest levels of mathematics, are being rejected? Harvard has even been embroiled in humiliating plagiarism scandals, exposed clearly and plainly in the media, with respect to your then… running the institution in a totally chaotic way. Harvard alumnus and highly successful hedge fund manager Bill Ackman noted that, under her leadership, Harvard has become "a political advocacy organization for one party." Ackman has called for the resignation of Pritzker, concluding that the "[t)he mismanagement here is Penny Pritzker" and noting that any serious corporation would have removed her after a litany of recent failings and the fact that, incredibly, "Harvard is not in a good financial position." According to Ackman, one of the world's foremost finance experts, Harvard's so-called S53 billion endowment is "massively overstated as far as what it's really worth," and Harvard has irresponsibly taken out $8 billion in debt. If this is true, it is concerning evidence of Harvard's disastrous mismanagement, indicating an urgent need for massive reform-not continued taxpayer investment. If Harvard prefers not to change, then Harvard should have no problem using its overflowing endowment to fund its bloated bureaucracy. At its best, a university should fulfill the highest ideals of our Nation, and enlighten the thousands of hopeful students who walk through its magnificent gates. But Harvard has betrayed this ideal. Perhaps most alarmingly, Harvard has failed to abide by the United States Supreme Court's ruling demanding that it end its racial preferencing, and continues to engage in ugly racism in its undergraduate and graduate schools, and even within the Harvard Law Review itself. Our universities should be bastions of merit that reward and celebrate excellence and achievement. They should not be incubators of discrimination that encourage resentment and instill grievance and racism into our wonderful young Americans. The above concerns are only a fraction of the long list of Harvard's consistent violations of its own legal duties. Given these and other concerning allegations, this letter is to inform you that Harvard should no longer seek GRANTS from the fede… Federal Agencies. The Administration's priorities have not changed and today's letter marks the end of new grants for the University. These requests will advance the best interests of Harvard University, so it can reclaim its status as a respected educational institution for the future leaders of America. Thank you for your attention to this matter! Sincerely, Linda E. McMahon Secretary of Education
May 6, 2025 at 12:27 AM