Elle Barnes
LightNews LightNews
banner
ecoevoelle.bsky.social
Elle Barnes
@ecoevoelle.bsky.social
830 followers 1K following 18 posts
Salamander Lady. #Amphibian conservation + microbial ecology + disease + #genomics + #bioinformatics + community assembly | Asst Prof at RIT & JGI affiliate | 🐸🐕🧫🧬 🍕| BlackLivesMatter | she/her

https://megalabrit.weebly.com
Posts Replies Media Videos
ecoevoelle.bsky.social
We want to hear about your research! Spread the word and apply by Feb 1, 2026 🌎🐸🦠
gardconference.bsky.social GARD conference 2026 @gardconference.bsky.social · 22h
✨Call for Abstracts is OPEN✨

Exciting news: We are now accepting submissions for #GARD26 presentations! We have many formats and topics.

Apply now using our template & share this post with all your #amphibian & #reptile focused colleagues 🦎🐍🐢🐸

utconferences.eventsair.com/third-gard-c...
Abstracts - Third Global Amphibian and Reptile Disease (GARD) Conference - UT Conference Center
utconferences.eventsair.com
November 14, 2025 at 5:30 PM
ecoevoelle.bsky.social
Come be my colleague! Our college at RIT 🐅 has recently secured funding for four new professorships including one in #ecology & #evolution thanks to @simonsfoundation.org! ✨🧬🎉🧪🌎

www.rit.edu/news/simons-...
Simons Empire Faculty Fellowship to fund four College of Science positions
RIT’s College of Science will receive funding from the Simons Empire Faculty Fellows program for four junior tenure-track faculty positions.
www.rit.edu
November 2, 2025 at 6:37 PM
ecoevoelle.bsky.social
Are you a researcher studying amphibian & reptile disease? We want to hear about your research! Come join us at #GARD26 in Knoxville 🌎

Please share!

#conservation #herpetology
gardconference.bsky.social GARD conference 2026 @gardconference.bsky.social · 16d
🚨Two days remaining!🚨

Travel grant applications for #GARD26 are due Nov. 1st! Great opportunities for student/early career funding and/or for researchers coming from far away!

Apply now! 🐸🦠🐍🐢🌍🦎

#amphibian #reptile #disease #ecology

utconferences.eventsair.com/third-gard-c...
Travel Grants - Third Global Amphibian and Reptile Disease (GARD) Conference - UT Conference Center
utconferences.eventsair.com
October 30, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Reposted by Elle Barnes
gardconference.bsky.social
Applications for travel grants to #GARD26 are due Nov. 1st! We encourage diverse participation especially by those with limited financial resources and early career researchers. Join us in Knoxville! 🐸🐍🐢🌎

Apply: utconferences.eventsair.com/third-gard-c...

#herpetology #amphibian #reptile
Travel Grants - Third Global Amphibian and Reptile Disease (GARD) Conference - UT Conference Center
utconferences.eventsair.com
October 16, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Reposted by Elle Barnes
scifri.bsky.social
For thousands of years, humans have harnessed microbes to ferment beer and bread. But ecologist Rob Dunn asks: Who’s really in charge of this relationship?

buff.ly/BZyFzN6
“Our genes changed when we started to tangle with yeast and lactic acid bacteria, and theirs didn't. And so from the standard storytelling, we would say, well, they domesticated us.” -Dr. Rob Dunn
September 29, 2025 at 9:49 PM
Reposted by Elle Barnes
diogoverissimo.bsky.social
🌍 Languages of Life | Línguas da Vida | Bahasa Kehidupan 🗣️🌱

Biodiversity doesn’t speak only English. 🌳🐒
If species cross borders, our words should too.
New paper in @ConLetters : why saving life also means using more languages

🔗https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/conl.13139
September 30, 2025 at 11:53 AM
Reposted by Elle Barnes
jasonwilliamsny.bsky.social
Please share with anyone who cares about NSF support for graduate students and take 30 seconds to sign and leave a comment.

The deadline for the 2025 Graduate Research Fellowship Program is about one month away and literally no one can apply. #NSFGRFP

jasonjwilliamsny.github.io/grfp2025/
An Open Letter to U.S. STEM Leadership on the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program
An Open Letter to U.S. STEM Leadership on the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program
jasonjwilliamsny.github.io
September 25, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Reposted by Elle Barnes
chesterzoosci.bsky.social
An update to the Zoo Sphere of Influence model was recently published in the Biological Conservation journal (tinyurl.com/zoosphere)

This model, first conceived in 2023, originally set out to replace the 50-year-old perception of zoos and aquariums...

🌎1/4
Image shows a wheel with colourful wedges. The wedges are marked with words like 'sustainability', 'wellbeing' and 'policy'
September 25, 2025 at 8:28 AM
ecoevoelle.bsky.social
My amazing @ritscience.bsky.social student, Emma, attended Princeton EEB scholars program last week. So proud of her! She is looking for #PhD programs this cycle so if you are looking for a student that can bridge field, lab, and computational biology… she is the PERFECT person for your lab! 👩🏼‍🔬🧬✨
September 23, 2025 at 4:29 PM
ecoevoelle.bsky.social
Come join us as we plan for the Global Amphibian & Reptile Disease Conference 2026! 🐸🐍🐢🦎🦠🌎
gardconference.bsky.social GARD conference 2026 @gardconference.bsky.social · Sep 16
📢Are you interested in providing input for GARD26? Or just want to stay in the loop about the meeting? Join us for our first planning meeting!
Where: Zoom (DM 📨 for link)
When: 23 September 11am-12pm EDT
We will discuss next steps, deadlines, and finalize committees!
September 18, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Reposted by Elle Barnes
methodsinecoevol.bsky.social
📖Published📖

Neshat et al. introduce MicroEcoTools, an R package designed to test ecological framework predictions using microbial community data 🦠 🌎 🧪

Read the article here 👇

buff.ly/sXnPdhO
June 12, 2025 at 11:03 AM
Reposted by Elle Barnes
dirkscheffers.bsky.social
It’s a bacterium-eats-bacterium world…

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Bacteria poison and eat their neighbors
Bacteria leverage a secretion system to kill and scavenge nutrients from nearby competitors
www.science.org
June 13, 2025 at 6:45 AM
ecoevoelle.bsky.social
30+ dead turtles alongside NY Highway 90 killed by cars as they try to cross from @deptfishwildlife.bsky.social Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge 🤬😭 @governor.ny.gov we need wildlife crossings! @dec.ny.gov
June 7, 2025 at 3:58 PM
ecoevoelle.bsky.social
Another project from my time @jgi.doe.gov published @phytobiomesjournal.bsky.social ! Using a greenhouse soil transplant experiment we uncover the core microbiome of Camelina & show how past cropping regimes/precipitation can exert a legacy effect on microbiome assembly 🌾🦠🧬🧪
doi.org/10.1094/PBIO...
Image showing experimental design with map of Washington state showing increased precipitation from west to east. Soil was collected from field sites along this gradient and transplanted to the greenhouse where Camelina was grown in the soil under controlled conditions and their microbiome identified.
June 3, 2025 at 12:33 PM
Reposted by Elle Barnes
heidelyn.bsky.social
URGENT: The scientists' letter must be signed before May 19, when comments close. 🌎
May 15, 2025 at 7:54 AM
Reposted by Elle Barnes
fishsqueezer.bsky.social
Professors at USGS coop units were absolutely critical parts of my education at 3 different universities. They're probably affiliated with more useful conservation research than any other agency on earth. Join the rally to defend science next week!

🌎🐟🦉🐍🦊🌿🧪 #hydrology #Invert mobilize.us/s/JyAqUI
Virtual Rally to Save the Cornerstone of Conservation Science · National Wildlife Federation
We need YOU as we rally in support of _critical_ federal government services at risk of being lost forever. The U.S. Geological Survey Ecosystems Mission Area is responsible for many of the programs t...
mobilize.us
May 15, 2025 at 8:47 PM
ecoevoelle.bsky.social
In happier news: the MEGA Lab @rittigers.bsky.social celebrated the successful defense of our first MS student! ✨ @trminahan.bsky.social did an amazing job summarizing the last two years of research on salamander microbiomes. It is a MASSIVE dataset! Stay tuned for our preprint this summer 🐸🧬🧫🦠🌎
Student holding giant card signed by lab members Student presenting masters thesis called “environmental factors that influence the amphibian microbiome” Students sampling wild amphibians in the field
May 2, 2025 at 12:06 PM
Reposted by Elle Barnes
canopyrobin.com
Getting a doctorate is hard work and it absolutely sucks when people swap out that hard-won gender-neutral expert title for something that both ignores your expertise and dismisses your gender. Apparently I'm not the only one who feels like this because you bought enough pins for me to make more!
Two circular hard enamel pin badges that say "it's Dr, actually". One has a trans flag design and one has a non-binary flag design
April 28, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Reposted by Elle Barnes
vscooper.micropopbio.org
Important 🧵 if your research depends on genome assemblies from long (PacBio / ONT) reads. As @merenbey.bsky.social says, these may not be the genomes you are looking for. TLDR: the assemblers are wrong and predict too many small circular contigs.
April 28, 2025 at 3:47 PM
ecoevoelle.bsky.social
Our lab had a great time at our first #ImagineRIT event this weekend. Students talked to 500+ members of the public about their research in microbial ecology & genomics, and gave away lots of salamander swag! 🐸🧬👩🏼‍🔬👨🏻‍🔬🧪🌎🔬 @rittigers.bsky.social
Students teaching the public about salamanders Person dressed in salamander costume Person posing with giant salamander cut out Bacteria art using bacteria isolated from salamander skin
April 28, 2025 at 11:39 AM
Reposted by Elle Barnes
contaminatedsci.bsky.social
Our commentary on the elegant in vitro microbiome coalescence experiments from @goldmandoran.bsky.social @ksxue.bsky.social et al is out.

It was a pleasure to write about one of my favorite microbiome papers of the last few years.

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Mixing microbiomes in vitro reveals rules of community assembly | PNAS
Mixing microbiomes in vitro reveals rules of community assembly
www.pnas.org
April 7, 2025 at 7:41 PM
ecoevoelle.bsky.social
Happy salamander season to all who celebrate ✨🌈
Picture of spotted salamander in leaf litter Picture of spotted salamander in someone’s hands
March 21, 2025 at 11:42 AM
ecoevoelle.bsky.social
Amazing postdoc opportunity! Fletcher is a great mentor and wonderful human! Plus, Oregon is pretty darn beautiful.
fletcher-h.bsky.social Fletcher Halliday @fletcher-h.bsky.social · Feb 4
Please spread the word - I am looking for a postdoc to join my lab at @osubpp.bsky.social to study diversity and interactions of plants and pathogens in wild and working landscapes!

More information here: agsci-labs.oregonstate.edu/diseaseecolo...
Here's a photo of my favorite grass host, Dactylis glomerata, infected with ergot and stem rust in the beautiful Swiss Alps
February 5, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Reposted by Elle Barnes
olimeacock.bsky.social
Our framework explaining why ecological interactions change between contexts is out in Ecology Letters!
A lovely collaboration with @saramitri.bsky.social which provides experimentally-testable links between the physiology and ecology of microbes.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Environment‐Organism Feedbacks Drive Changes in Ecological Interactions
Ecological interactions are central to our understanding of the composition and function of communities, but attempts to use them as a theoretical foundation for experimental ecology have been confou....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
January 2, 2025 at 10:53 AM