Hannah Dion-Kirschner
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hdkgeo.bsky.social
Hannah Dion-Kirschner
@hdkgeo.bsky.social
760 followers 900 following 67 posts
Terrestrial carbon cycle researcher invested in educational equity & Earth’s future 🌏 Postdocing at UChicago Ecology & Evolution
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hdkgeo.bsky.social
Wishing everyone a happy #WorldSoilDay!

My favorite soil fact is that, as long as it’s not submerged in water, any given soil is probably consuming methane from the atmosphere. Yup, even in the desert! Pictured: a Mojave field site where I’ve measured active microbial CH4 uptake from the air. 🌍🧪🦠
A view over a sparsely vegetated desert floodplain illuminated by afternoon sun. In the background is a dark reddish-brown cliff that is craggy in places. A small white autosampling robot sits on the ground next to a bush in a rocky desert wash. In the background are craggy reddish-brown ridges and a blue sky. The instrument is measuring atmospheric methane uptake by the soil.
December 6, 2024 at 4:18 AM
hdkgeo.bsky.social
I’m obsessed with the delicate stippled patterns on the petals of Calochortus, Mariposa lilies. Below are two of my lifetime favorite finds, including the only rare species I’ve spotted in nature: Calochortus excavatus, Inyo County star-tulip. Even the names are so evocative 🤩🌷
Calochortus venustus, the reduntantly named Butterfly mariposa lily. A flower with three visible petals that are wide and creamy white. Each petal comes to a gentle rolled point at the end. Each petal is decorated with a small area of fuchsia speckles right in the middle. Toward the center of the flower is a more dramatic pattern of maroon and lemon-yellow that looks like tie-dyed surrounding six pale pink stamens and a yellow style. Inside the flower is a small beetle with black-spotted yellow wings. Calochortus excavatus, or Inyo County star-tulip, a rare flower endemic to the Eastern Sierra in California. It has six creamy white petals in a rounded spade shape. At the interior base of each petal is an intense dark purple splotch surrounded by a halo of bright yellow. The six stamens are a brighter purple-pink and the stigma at the center is Barbie pink with three clearly defined lobes.
November 21, 2024 at 5:22 AM
hdkgeo.bsky.social
Getting this week off to a better start thanks to great friends, fresh air, and my favorite adventure buddy 🐶
A small brown and white dog with a red harness looking majestically down into a green forested canyon just before dusk.
November 11, 2024 at 5:50 AM
hdkgeo.bsky.social
How it’s going:
View from 42 meters above the Adolfo Ducke Forest Reserve outside of Manaus: dense green forest all the way to the horizon.
October 9, 2024 at 6:57 PM
hdkgeo.bsky.social
Has to be rhodochrosite for me, if it looks like delicious hard candy then it always has my vote (see also: spessartine)

cdn.britannica.com/57/122557-00...
Large, slightly transparent, bright reddish-pink rhodochrosite crystals with a visual resemblance to strawberry candy.
September 9, 2024 at 8:48 PM