Stephen T. Sharrett
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geastrum.bsky.social
Stephen T. Sharrett
@geastrum.bsky.social
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Lichenologist & Research Associate at Eastern Washington University. Co-creator at YSFWP (http://yardsaleforworldpeace.org).
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Reposted by Stephen T. Sharrett
rowenahill.bsky.social
Was a pleasure to contribute a small part to this massive WGS effort of Kew's fungarium! @estergaya.bsky.social @rbgkew.bsky.social

Check out the paper @newphyt.bsky.social 👉 doi.org/10.1111/nph.70472
A map of the world with countries coloured by how many accessions they have in Kew's fungarium, and pie charts for each country indicating how many accessions have had DNA extracted and their genomes sequenced
September 16, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Reposted by Stephen T. Sharrett
c0nc0rdance.bsky.social
Ponderosa pine smells like butterscotch.

Go ahead, sniff one the next time you're in the western US. Some say "vanilla", some say "oh no, my nose is covered in sap."

Let's talk about birds, butterscotch, forest fires, blue wood, & boring beetles.

But mostly this thread is about terpenes.
From a blog called "CreationsDawn", a photo of the author smelling a ponderosa pine. The author wears a green cap, light blue-green shirt and red camel pack. They are sniffing a tree with pine bark, with a sort of red-orange color. More trees in the background.
September 24, 2025 at 1:16 AM
Reposted by Stephen T. Sharrett
bitterwaterblue.bsky.social
I fired up the old newsletter machine for the first time in a while. In it, I take a lay of the land of the Western public lands extraction boom. TLDR: it's chaos.

Read more: sageandsand.substack.com/p/sage-and-s...
August 29, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Reposted by Stephen T. Sharrett
botsocamerica.bsky.social
Construction of the lichenized aerial mycelium in #Botryolepraria (Verrucariales; Eurotiomycetes; Ascomycota): A somatic structure unique among #fungi

New #AJB research by William Sanders, Maurizio Hernández, Sergio Pérez-Ortega, Asunción de los Ríos

doi.org/10.1002/ajb2... #plantscience #lichen
Instead of a thallus, the lichen-forming fungus Botryolepraria produces a three-dimensional aerial mycelium from which its unicellular green algal symbionts (Pseudostichococcus) hang like fruit from a trellis.
August 6, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Reposted by Stephen T. Sharrett
naomibot.bsky.social
In a time where a new crisis seems to drop every min due to the current political regime, two crises remain at center of all life on earth: biodiversity & climate. Our inability to plan, prioritize & rein in consumption leads us to a false choice between the existence of a whole species and a mine.
Commentary: A climate-saving lithium mine could doom an endangered desert flower
The dilemma at Nevada's Rhyolite Ridge offers a preview of the hard choices ahead.
www.latimes.com
August 3, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Reposted by Stephen T. Sharrett
sarahmackattack.bsky.social
I went into goblin mode last night and completed what is for sure the most unhinged zine I have produced to date.

I'll fold some up tonight and put them around and see how people react lol

If anyone is interested in printing one for your own enjoyment, here ya go drive.google.com/file/d/1eVEW...
caked up mother earth in her thigh high fishnets is stomping in her stripper heels looking back at it. The words say "Milfs for Mother Earth The earth is once again looking back at it in her fishnets but looks more coy in this one. The words say "Ok so climate change, a couple important things to note: 1) it's not too late to make a difference 2) Every 1/10th of a degree of warming matters 3) Governments need to do most of it 4) Acting as communities really matters. Here are some things we CAN do 1) Ditch cars, take transit 2) Switch to renewable energy 3) get solar for your roof 4)Share stuff, buy less 5) Don't use AI 6) talk to your friends and family about solutions. Details here (which points to a QR) Mother earth looks at you over her sunglasses over the words "Do something" repeated a bunch of times, then under her it says "Doing anything is better than nothing", "learn how" and a qr Mother earth is wearing a flower crown and peeking up from the bottom of the page. The words say "Biodiversity When it comes to protecting plants and animals, start by thinking local. Animals usually suffer most from habitat loss and climate change. Solving climate change is hard. Building habitat for wildlife is easier. Every action you take matters. Here's what we can do 1) Create good habitat by planting native plants 2) Stop using pesticides and get others to stop too 3) Kill your lawn, replace with useful plants 4) Fight to preserve wild spaces and to reclaim abandoned land 5) Encourage friends and family to do all this too"
July 29, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Reposted by Stephen T. Sharrett
kristinayoung.bsky.social
When we tell people that #biocrust can be a dominant form of ground cover in drylands, it can be hard to picture. Here's a perfect example from Canyonlands National Park in Utah showing how extensive biocrust cover can be!
July 15, 2025 at 10:25 PM
Reposted by Stephen T. Sharrett
metalichen.bsky.social
⚡ Attn anyone interested in algal genomics and lichen symbiosis! ⚡ New preprint: a near chromosome-level assembly of Trebouxia sp. A48 (member of T. decolorans species complex), the photobiont of Xanthoria parietina. 1/5 #lichen #alga #genomics
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
the top half shows two panels with microscopy images. Left is a light-microscopy image of a group of algal cells. The cells are round with different sizes. Two arrows point at sporangia: one looks as if someone stuffed 8 footballs in a thin elastic bag. The other is perfectly round and contains many small spores within. The right panel shows the same group of cells, but in fluorescent microscopy, where green color shows chloroplasts. In each cell the chloroplasts are globular with small lobes sticking out. The bottom half shows a photo of Xanthoria lichen - bright yellow and leafy growing on a tree branch
May 19, 2025 at 11:34 AM
Reposted by Stephen T. Sharrett
hellabarnes.bsky.social
worth calling your reps over, imo. they’re stealing your land.

www.hcn.org/articles/sen...
Senate Republicans want to sell 3 million acres of public land - High Country News
The majority of public land is too fire prone and far away from communities to even make sense for housing, research shows.
www.hcn.org
June 16, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Reposted by Stephen T. Sharrett
torreybotanical.bsky.social
Reminder - Don't forget about our grants! We offer #grants for undergrads & graduate students doing research, going to symposia or workshops, and more, and the deadline for submission is coming up soon - Feb 15! Details can be found here: www.torreybotanical.org/grants-awards/

#botany 🧪🌎🌿🍄🌾
February 9, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Reposted by Stephen T. Sharrett
manudalforno.bsky.social
ABLS Field Research Awards are now open! Check out the details at www.abls.org
February 7, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Reposted by Stephen T. Sharrett
spribille.bsky.social
Might be time to boost this again with new people arriving from fb. Thanks @paulrfoth.bsky.social for putting this together!

go.bsky.app/Kt6UtG6
January 9, 2025 at 7:50 AM
Reposted by Stephen T. Sharrett
martinjung.eu
Making starter packs seems to be the hot thing and I noticed that we don't have one for conservation scientists (🧪), so here we go go.bsky.app/3CZDnb2
So if you are an active researcher and would like to be added, reply here. Please no journalists or NGOs, there are other starting lists for that ;)
November 11, 2024 at 7:44 PM
Reposted by Stephen T. Sharrett
martinjung.eu
Because of popular demand we have now a number II Conservation Science starter pack since the first one is full since a while 🙃. If you are not yet on the first one, pass me message. I preferentially add folks with clear conservation research focus in profile and skeets.
go.bsky.app/9RdjmCX
November 24, 2024 at 4:04 PM