Steve Voelker
@thetreecorener.bsky.social
Aspiring naturalist and plant nerd. I teach about Climate Change & Tree Physiology. Expert in plant ecophysiology, stable isotopes, dendrochronology. I also study fish otoliths. Husband and Dad. Assoc Prof of Forest Ecology & Mgt at Michigan Tech.
Students successfully completed the Dice Degrees Challenge this morning within a 50 minute class.
They had fun and I think this will help them better understand lecture materials where we look at a lot of time-series data for understanding evidence of climate change.
They had fun and I think this will help them better understand lecture materials where we look at a lot of time-series data for understanding evidence of climate change.
February 9, 2026 at 7:15 PM
Students successfully completed the Dice Degrees Challenge this morning within a 50 minute class.
They had fun and I think this will help them better understand lecture materials where we look at a lot of time-series data for understanding evidence of climate change.
They had fun and I think this will help them better understand lecture materials where we look at a lot of time-series data for understanding evidence of climate change.
Reposted by Steve Voelker
Looking forward to returning to my alma mater this week to give the @climasillinois.bsky.social distinguished alumni lecture! You can attend in person or watch online, link below. Tuesday @ 3.30PM central
calendars.illinois.edu/detail/3491?...
calendars.illinois.edu/detail/3491?...
February 9, 2026 at 4:08 AM
Looking forward to returning to my alma mater this week to give the @climasillinois.bsky.social distinguished alumni lecture! You can attend in person or watch online, link below. Tuesday @ 3.30PM central
calendars.illinois.edu/detail/3491?...
calendars.illinois.edu/detail/3491?...
Quote from a student's mid-term:
"Representative concentration pathways are like a choose you own adventure but for CO2"
"Representative concentration pathways are like a choose you own adventure but for CO2"
February 8, 2026 at 7:02 PM
Quote from a student's mid-term:
"Representative concentration pathways are like a choose you own adventure but for CO2"
"Representative concentration pathways are like a choose you own adventure but for CO2"
Prepping an intro to climate change exercise for Monday where groups of students will be creating 5 synthetic temperature time series based on the # of sides of the dice being scaled to atmospheric CO2 concentrations from 1900 to 2026.
February 6, 2026 at 6:06 PM
Prepping an intro to climate change exercise for Monday where groups of students will be creating 5 synthetic temperature time series based on the # of sides of the dice being scaled to atmospheric CO2 concentrations from 1900 to 2026.
Reposted by Steve Voelker
We're hiring a full-time technician to support radiocarbon analyses. If you have some experience with analytical instruments and background in chemistry, earth sciences, archaeology, and/or ecology, this could be the job for you! arizona.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...
Research Technician III, Tree Ring Laboratory
Duties and Responsibilities:Assisting with the meticulous preparation of samples for radiocarbon analysis following established protocols. This includ...
arizona.csod.com
February 5, 2026 at 2:40 PM
We're hiring a full-time technician to support radiocarbon analyses. If you have some experience with analytical instruments and background in chemistry, earth sciences, archaeology, and/or ecology, this could be the job for you! arizona.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...
Reposted by Steve Voelker
Cool new paper showing that prescribed + managed fire can restore historic fire regimes, using and validating new dendro methods to re-construct area burned histories. esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
February 5, 2026 at 9:44 PM
Cool new paper showing that prescribed + managed fire can restore historic fire regimes, using and validating new dendro methods to re-construct area burned histories. esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Reposted by Steve Voelker
Save the date!
48th New Phytologist Symposium: Forest interactions
📅 13–16 October 2026
📍 Leysin, Switzerland
www.newphytologist.org/events/48-nps
#PlantScience
48th New Phytologist Symposium: Forest interactions
📅 13–16 October 2026
📍 Leysin, Switzerland
www.newphytologist.org/events/48-nps
#PlantScience
Forest interactions
Explore plant interactions in forest environments at all levels from micro- to macro-scales and across the whole spectrum of plant biology.
www.newphytologist.org
February 4, 2026 at 1:02 PM
Save the date!
48th New Phytologist Symposium: Forest interactions
📅 13–16 October 2026
📍 Leysin, Switzerland
www.newphytologist.org/events/48-nps
#PlantScience
48th New Phytologist Symposium: Forest interactions
📅 13–16 October 2026
📍 Leysin, Switzerland
www.newphytologist.org/events/48-nps
#PlantScience
For this #TreeRingTuesday that I got to visit Santa Cruz Island in 2014:
This island is off the coast of Southern CA. I led tree-coring efforts to understand forest mortality patterns.
The island is home to dwarf foxes that are not afraid of people.
Really cool place I was lucky to visit.
This island is off the coast of Southern CA. I led tree-coring efforts to understand forest mortality patterns.
The island is home to dwarf foxes that are not afraid of people.
Really cool place I was lucky to visit.
February 4, 2026 at 4:17 AM
For this #TreeRingTuesday that I got to visit Santa Cruz Island in 2014:
This island is off the coast of Southern CA. I led tree-coring efforts to understand forest mortality patterns.
The island is home to dwarf foxes that are not afraid of people.
Really cool place I was lucky to visit.
This island is off the coast of Southern CA. I led tree-coring efforts to understand forest mortality patterns.
The island is home to dwarf foxes that are not afraid of people.
Really cool place I was lucky to visit.
Really cool paper integrating lead pollution within human hair led by Thure Cerling.
20 years ago I took the U of Utah Stable isotope course w/ @kevin-e-mueller.bsky.social (among others) where some of us were grinding up hair or shooting teeth with a laser in Thure's lab to obtain isotopic values.
20 years ago I took the U of Utah Stable isotope course w/ @kevin-e-mueller.bsky.social (among others) where some of us were grinding up hair or shooting teeth with a laser in Thure's lab to obtain isotopic values.
Lead (Pb) in archived hair in Salt Lake City.
"Lead (Pb) in archived hair documents a decline in lead exposure to humans since the establishment of the US Environmental Protection Agency "
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
"Lead (Pb) in archived hair documents a decline in lead exposure to humans since the establishment of the US Environmental Protection Agency "
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
February 3, 2026 at 2:02 AM
Really cool paper integrating lead pollution within human hair led by Thure Cerling.
20 years ago I took the U of Utah Stable isotope course w/ @kevin-e-mueller.bsky.social (among others) where some of us were grinding up hair or shooting teeth with a laser in Thure's lab to obtain isotopic values.
20 years ago I took the U of Utah Stable isotope course w/ @kevin-e-mueller.bsky.social (among others) where some of us were grinding up hair or shooting teeth with a laser in Thure's lab to obtain isotopic values.
Nevermind the jobs you had, tell me five classes you took in college:
Plant Taxonomy
Forest Harvesting Systems
Environmental Ethics
Psychology 101
Interior Architecture
Plant Taxonomy
Forest Harvesting Systems
Environmental Ethics
Psychology 101
Interior Architecture
Nevermind the jobs you had, tell me five classes you took in college:
Toni Morrison’s Beloved
Music Theory
Ornithology
Econ 101/102
Biochemistry
Though honestly my favorite undergrad experiences were research, e.g., studying electric fish communication (they sing electric love songs!).
Toni Morrison’s Beloved
Music Theory
Ornithology
Econ 101/102
Biochemistry
Though honestly my favorite undergrad experiences were research, e.g., studying electric fish communication (they sing electric love songs!).
Nevermind the jobs you had, tell me five classes you took in college:
Comic Fiction
Seminar in World Music (learned to play music from Indonesia and Ghana, got into ethnomusicology)
Italian
Intro to Philosophy
Artificial Intelligence /ducks
Comic Fiction
Seminar in World Music (learned to play music from Indonesia and Ghana, got into ethnomusicology)
Italian
Intro to Philosophy
Artificial Intelligence /ducks
January 31, 2026 at 4:21 AM
Nevermind the jobs you had, tell me five classes you took in college:
Plant Taxonomy
Forest Harvesting Systems
Environmental Ethics
Psychology 101
Interior Architecture
Plant Taxonomy
Forest Harvesting Systems
Environmental Ethics
Psychology 101
Interior Architecture
Reposted by Steve Voelker
Scientists have long relied on tree rings to learn about solar storms.
A Tansley review published this week shows that trees don’t all record this carbon in the same way. Understanding those differences is key to interpreting Earth’s history of space weather.
www.eurekalert.org/news-release...
A Tansley review published this week shows that trees don’t all record this carbon in the same way. Understanding those differences is key to interpreting Earth’s history of space weather.
www.eurekalert.org/news-release...
How tree rings help scientists understand disruptive extreme solar storms
A study published this week shows that how trees store and use radiocarbon left over from ancient solar storms can tell scientists a lot about these ancient storms and help them refine estimates of…
www.eurekalert.org
January 29, 2026 at 3:35 PM
Scientists have long relied on tree rings to learn about solar storms.
A Tansley review published this week shows that trees don’t all record this carbon in the same way. Understanding those differences is key to interpreting Earth’s history of space weather.
www.eurekalert.org/news-release...
A Tansley review published this week shows that trees don’t all record this carbon in the same way. Understanding those differences is key to interpreting Earth’s history of space weather.
www.eurekalert.org/news-release...
Reposted by Steve Voelker
@agu.org has a tool to help you submit a comment to NSF on the importance of NCAR: agu.quorum.us/campaign/154...
#SaveNCAR
#SaveNCAR
Share your comments on NCAR with NSF
Tell NSF the future that you want for NCAR by 13 March
agu.quorum.us
January 30, 2026 at 2:43 AM
@agu.org has a tool to help you submit a comment to NSF on the importance of NCAR: agu.quorum.us/campaign/154...
#SaveNCAR
#SaveNCAR
Reposted by Steve Voelker
Led by Roel Brienen, our paper in @natcomms.nature.com "Contrasting pathways to tree longevity in gymnosperms and angiosperms" is finally out and formatted.
Other bluesky folks contributing to the paper were @yellowbuckeye.bsky.social and @rmtrr.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Other bluesky folks contributing to the paper were @yellowbuckeye.bsky.social and @rmtrr.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Contrasting pathways to tree longevity in gymnosperms and angiosperms - Nature Communications
Tree longevity is thought to increase in harsh environments, but global evidence of drivers is lacking. Here, the authors find two different pathways for tree longevity: slow growth in resource limite...
www.nature.com
January 26, 2026 at 9:58 PM
Led by Roel Brienen, our paper in @natcomms.nature.com "Contrasting pathways to tree longevity in gymnosperms and angiosperms" is finally out and formatted.
Other bluesky folks contributing to the paper were @yellowbuckeye.bsky.social and @rmtrr.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Other bluesky folks contributing to the paper were @yellowbuckeye.bsky.social and @rmtrr.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Steve Voelker
Really excited to see this paper out!! Led by @vtcoop.bsky.social we show that if you use cold and warm paleoclimates together, you can reduce uncertainty in Earth's climate sensitivity by quantifying the pattern effect and more precisely constrain future climate change www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Paleoclimate pattern effects help constrain climate sensitivity and 21st-century warming | PNAS
Paleoclimates provide examples of past climate change that inform estimates of modern
warming from greenhouse-gas emissions, known as Earth’s clima...
www.pnas.org
January 23, 2026 at 3:36 PM
Really excited to see this paper out!! Led by @vtcoop.bsky.social we show that if you use cold and warm paleoclimates together, you can reduce uncertainty in Earth's climate sensitivity by quantifying the pattern effect and more precisely constrain future climate change www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Reposted by Steve Voelker
This must be weird news to see if you’re one of the literally hundreds or even thousands of university administrators who preemptively censored faculty, scrubbed websites, changed the names of centers, etc.
Trump administration drops legal appeal over anti-DEI funding threat to schools and colleges. This leaves in place a federal judge's ruling that the anti-DEI effort violated the First Amendment and federal procedural rules. (Via AP) apnews.com/article/dei-... #ncpol #nced
Trump administration drops legal appeal over anti-DEI funding threat to schools and colleges
The Trump administration is dropping its appeal of a federal court ruling that blocked a campaign against diversity, equity, and inclusion threatening federal funding to the nation’s schools and colle...
apnews.com
January 23, 2026 at 1:45 PM
This must be weird news to see if you’re one of the literally hundreds or even thousands of university administrators who preemptively censored faculty, scrubbed websites, changed the names of centers, etc.
Reposted by Steve Voelker
Train Dreams, shot in the PNW and an adaptation of Idaho writer Denis Johnson's novel, received four Oscar nods. In @highcountrynews.org today: how the film was seen through the eyes of a modern logging crew laborer.
The film adaptation of Denis Johnson’s novella, Train Dreams, reflects the beauty, and heartache, of working in the forests of the Pacific Northwest.
‘Train Dreams’ is an ode to the lonely labor of forestry - High Country News
The film adaptation of Denis Johnson’s novella, Train Dreams, reflects the beauty, and heartache, of working in the forests of the Pacific Northwest.
www.hcn.org
January 22, 2026 at 5:37 PM
Train Dreams, shot in the PNW and an adaptation of Idaho writer Denis Johnson's novel, received four Oscar nods. In @highcountrynews.org today: how the film was seen through the eyes of a modern logging crew laborer.
Last October, on a hunch I checked out this undeveloped lake on industrial timberland in the UP.
It is mostly surrounded by ~200 to >250 year old white pines and hemlocks. There were many ducks, fish and a pair of swans that day.
The foresters/loggers have been keeping this one a secret.
It is mostly surrounded by ~200 to >250 year old white pines and hemlocks. There were many ducks, fish and a pair of swans that day.
The foresters/loggers have been keeping this one a secret.
January 20, 2026 at 10:05 PM
Last October, on a hunch I checked out this undeveloped lake on industrial timberland in the UP.
It is mostly surrounded by ~200 to >250 year old white pines and hemlocks. There were many ducks, fish and a pair of swans that day.
The foresters/loggers have been keeping this one a secret.
It is mostly surrounded by ~200 to >250 year old white pines and hemlocks. There were many ducks, fish and a pair of swans that day.
The foresters/loggers have been keeping this one a secret.
With the risk of exposing my naivete -- is there a succinct catch-all term that is the opposite of refugium/refugia (in this case I am thinking about plant species)?
January 19, 2026 at 8:44 PM
With the risk of exposing my naivete -- is there a succinct catch-all term that is the opposite of refugium/refugia (in this case I am thinking about plant species)?
Reposted by Steve Voelker
Massive update to the Global Wood Density Database out today @newphyt.bsky.social led by the brilliant Fabian Fischer. What an amazing community resource!
🧪🍁🌐
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
🧪🍁🌐
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
January 17, 2026 at 2:05 PM
Massive update to the Global Wood Density Database out today @newphyt.bsky.social led by the brilliant Fabian Fischer. What an amazing community resource!
🧪🍁🌐
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
🧪🍁🌐
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Reposted by Steve Voelker
🍁Funding for new PhD students ($40k/yr) & postdocs ($70k/yr) coming from outside Canada. Contact me if interested in #Ecophysiology at #UBC in #Vancouver! Possible topics: leaf physiology, thermal ecology, microclimate, scaling, tree physiology, forest ecology, more! michaletzlab.org
Please share!
Please share!
January 15, 2026 at 5:49 PM
🍁Funding for new PhD students ($40k/yr) & postdocs ($70k/yr) coming from outside Canada. Contact me if interested in #Ecophysiology at #UBC in #Vancouver! Possible topics: leaf physiology, thermal ecology, microclimate, scaling, tree physiology, forest ecology, more! michaletzlab.org
Please share!
Please share!
At a local arts and crafts fair before Xmas I saw this bowl and immediately grabbed it and looked over my shoulder in case Frank Costanza was about to rain blows down upon me.
For this #Tree-RingTuesday here is a sugar maple bowl that has over 125 tree-rings.
For this #Tree-RingTuesday here is a sugar maple bowl that has over 125 tree-rings.
January 14, 2026 at 1:48 AM
At a local arts and crafts fair before Xmas I saw this bowl and immediately grabbed it and looked over my shoulder in case Frank Costanza was about to rain blows down upon me.
For this #Tree-RingTuesday here is a sugar maple bowl that has over 125 tree-rings.
For this #Tree-RingTuesday here is a sugar maple bowl that has over 125 tree-rings.
Reposted by Steve Voelker
🌳PhD Opportunity in plant ecophysiology🌡️ Join EPFL (Switzerland) for fully-funded 4yr PhD on tree responses to air drought and heat. Climate chamber + long-term experiments to uncover physiological thresholds under climate change. www.epfl.ch/labs/perl/pe...
PhD Position: Tree Physiological Responses to Atmospheric Drought
We invite applications for a fully funded four-year PhD position at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, with a planned start date in June 2026. The selected candidate wil...
www.epfl.ch
January 7, 2026 at 4:25 PM
🌳PhD Opportunity in plant ecophysiology🌡️ Join EPFL (Switzerland) for fully-funded 4yr PhD on tree responses to air drought and heat. Climate chamber + long-term experiments to uncover physiological thresholds under climate change. www.epfl.ch/labs/perl/pe...
Reposted by Steve Voelker
'Yes, forest trees die of old age. But the warming climate is killing them faster' #ClimateEmergency #Globalwarming #trees #eucalypts #plantscience #ecology 🪴🌳🌾🌱🌡️ theconversation.com/yes-forest-t...
Yes, forest trees die of old age. But the warming climate is killing them faster
The warming climate is killing Australia’s forest trees at a faster rate. This offers a glimpse of what may lie ahead for forests globally.
theconversation.com
January 7, 2026 at 1:10 AM
'Yes, forest trees die of old age. But the warming climate is killing them faster' #ClimateEmergency #Globalwarming #trees #eucalypts #plantscience #ecology 🪴🌳🌾🌱🌡️ theconversation.com/yes-forest-t...
Reposted by Steve Voelker
Fully funded PhD opportunity in my lab to study threatened plant species responses to drought and heat. This is part of mu recently funded DECRA fellowship.
January 6, 2026 at 12:43 AM
Fully funded PhD opportunity in my lab to study threatened plant species responses to drought and heat. This is part of mu recently funded DECRA fellowship.