Blaine Martin
@martinecology.bsky.social
PhD Student | Dalling Lab at University of Illinois | STRI Panama | Forests, Fungi, Soils, Community Ecology | he/him 🍄🌱
https://blainedmartin.com
https://blainedmartin.com
Podocarp root culturing complete! This month was definitely a mad dash to collect, plate, and isolate. Finished with 202 isolates with over 75 unique morphologies, a few being quite dominate. Excited to sequence and identify these! 🧫🌲
#podocarpus #fungi #panama #tropics #ecology #
#podocarpus #fungi #panama #tropics #ecology #
June 24, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Podocarp root culturing complete! This month was definitely a mad dash to collect, plate, and isolate. Finished with 202 isolates with over 75 unique morphologies, a few being quite dominate. Excited to sequence and identify these! 🧫🌲
#podocarpus #fungi #panama #tropics #ecology #
#podocarpus #fungi #panama #tropics #ecology #
Culturing Podocarpus oleifolius from the Fortuna Reserve in Western Panama. I love the unique root morphology of this clade and watching their associated fungi emerge while enjoying life on Barro Colorado Island! 🌲 🍄🟫 🧫
#podocarpus #roots #fungalecology #mycology #tropicalecology #fungi
#podocarpus #roots #fungalecology #mycology #tropicalecology #fungi
June 15, 2025 at 3:36 AM
Culturing Podocarpus oleifolius from the Fortuna Reserve in Western Panama. I love the unique root morphology of this clade and watching their associated fungi emerge while enjoying life on Barro Colorado Island! 🌲 🍄🟫 🧫
#podocarpus #roots #fungalecology #mycology #tropicalecology #fungi
#podocarpus #roots #fungalecology #mycology #tropicalecology #fungi
Reposted by Blaine Martin
A Democratic Mayor arrested.
A Democratic Congresswoman indicted.
A Democratic Senator tackled and detained.
A Democratic State Representative killed.
A Democratic State Representative in critical condition.
We can all see where this is going.
A Democratic Congresswoman indicted.
A Democratic Senator tackled and detained.
A Democratic State Representative killed.
A Democratic State Representative in critical condition.
We can all see where this is going.
June 14, 2025 at 3:57 PM
A Democratic Mayor arrested.
A Democratic Congresswoman indicted.
A Democratic Senator tackled and detained.
A Democratic State Representative killed.
A Democratic State Representative in critical condition.
We can all see where this is going.
A Democratic Congresswoman indicted.
A Democratic Senator tackled and detained.
A Democratic State Representative killed.
A Democratic State Representative in critical condition.
We can all see where this is going.
Reposted by Blaine Martin
We often measure AM fungal colonisation assuming it tells us something about function. But… what does it tell us?
A short Letter where I ask what root colonisation really means for plant growth, P uptake, and defence.
#Mycorrhiza #fungi #plantmicrobiome
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
A short Letter where I ask what root colonisation really means for plant growth, P uptake, and defence.
#Mycorrhiza #fungi #plantmicrobiome
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
What does colonisation tell us? Revisiting the functional outcomes of root colonisation by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi
Click on the article title to read more.
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
June 4, 2025 at 6:38 AM
We often measure AM fungal colonisation assuming it tells us something about function. But… what does it tell us?
A short Letter where I ask what root colonisation really means for plant growth, P uptake, and defence.
#Mycorrhiza #fungi #plantmicrobiome
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
A short Letter where I ask what root colonisation really means for plant growth, P uptake, and defence.
#Mycorrhiza #fungi #plantmicrobiome
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Wrapping up field work in Panama these next couple weeks then headed to #MSAfungi25! Excited to meet other mycologist/fungal ecologist and talk about science. If you want to learn more about liana root-associated fungal communities stop by my poster 🍄🌲
June 13, 2025 at 2:54 AM
Wrapping up field work in Panama these next couple weeks then headed to #MSAfungi25! Excited to meet other mycologist/fungal ecologist and talk about science. If you want to learn more about liana root-associated fungal communities stop by my poster 🍄🌲
Reposted by Blaine Martin
From Brian McGill at Dynamic Ecology: why does it take so long for your papers to get reviewed? As Taylor almost said: It's you, hi, you're the problem, it's you. (*Not necessarily for EVERY value of "you") dynamicecology.wordp...
You’re probably why it takes so long for your paper to get reviewed and your excuses are bad
A weird thing happened in scientific publishing during COVID. And it hasn’t gone away. Publications went up 30-50%. And responses to requests to review went down 30-50%. I know the actual statistic…
dynamicecology.wordpress.com
June 11, 2025 at 12:03 PM
From Brian McGill at Dynamic Ecology: why does it take so long for your papers to get reviewed? As Taylor almost said: It's you, hi, you're the problem, it's you. (*Not necessarily for EVERY value of "you") dynamicecology.wordp...
Reposted by Blaine Martin
Published in the US today (UK in July) - looks amazing! 🤩
Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian
www.spiegelandgrau.com/forest-eupho... #queer #LGBTQ #pride #nature #PrideInSTEM #SkyBooks #BookSky 🌈📚
Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian
www.spiegelandgrau.com/forest-eupho... #queer #LGBTQ #pride #nature #PrideInSTEM #SkyBooks #BookSky 🌈📚
May 27, 2025 at 10:44 AM
Published in the US today (UK in July) - looks amazing! 🤩
Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian
www.spiegelandgrau.com/forest-eupho... #queer #LGBTQ #pride #nature #PrideInSTEM #SkyBooks #BookSky 🌈📚
Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian
www.spiegelandgrau.com/forest-eupho... #queer #LGBTQ #pride #nature #PrideInSTEM #SkyBooks #BookSky 🌈📚
Beautiful fungal pathogen damage on Castilla elastica (Caucho) saplings on Pipeline Road, Panama 🧫🌱
January 27, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Beautiful fungal pathogen damage on Castilla elastica (Caucho) saplings on Pipeline Road, Panama 🧫🌱
Reposted by Blaine Martin
If you want to learn about my work in tropical ectomycorrhizal mushrooms associated with the endangered black oak listen to this fun podcast from Mushroom revival!! 🌳 🍄🍄
New podcast: Journey to Colombia’s cloud forests with SPUN scientist Adriana Corrales. 🎧🌳
Hear first-hand from expedition leader Adriana as she explains her quest to identify mycorrhizal #fungi critical to the endangered Colombian black oak's survival.
Hear first-hand from expedition leader Adriana as she explains her quest to identify mycorrhizal #fungi critical to the endangered Colombian black oak's survival.
Finding New Mushroom Species in Colombia with Dr. Adriana Corrales
Today we travel to Colombia with Dr. Adriana Corrales to explore biodiverse cloud forests to search for new species of fungi. We dive into her research on the endangered mycorrhizal associations with…
buff.ly
January 24, 2025 at 9:41 PM
If you want to learn about my work in tropical ectomycorrhizal mushrooms associated with the endangered black oak listen to this fun podcast from Mushroom revival!! 🌳 🍄🍄
Reposted by Blaine Martin
Commit the sin of empathy.
January 25, 2025 at 2:40 AM
Commit the sin of empathy.
Reposted by Blaine Martin
How does variation in ectomycorrhizal fungal diversity affect tree growth? What are the knowledge gaps to more fully answering this question?
See my review out today in Fungal Ecology: doi.org/10.1016/j.fu...
See my review out today in Fungal Ecology: doi.org/10.1016/j.fu...
January 24, 2025 at 8:00 AM
How does variation in ectomycorrhizal fungal diversity affect tree growth? What are the knowledge gaps to more fully answering this question?
See my review out today in Fungal Ecology: doi.org/10.1016/j.fu...
See my review out today in Fungal Ecology: doi.org/10.1016/j.fu...
Reposted by Blaine Martin
Cliffs are extreme environments home to unique and diverse plants. ⛰️
Felipe Morales Armijo, a SPUN Underground Explorer, is researching how mycorrhizal fungi might help plants grow in these harsh cliff habitats. Learn more about the Underground Explorers Program: https://buff.ly/4iM6lMg
Felipe Morales Armijo, a SPUN Underground Explorer, is researching how mycorrhizal fungi might help plants grow in these harsh cliff habitats. Learn more about the Underground Explorers Program: https://buff.ly/4iM6lMg
January 22, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Cliffs are extreme environments home to unique and diverse plants. ⛰️
Felipe Morales Armijo, a SPUN Underground Explorer, is researching how mycorrhizal fungi might help plants grow in these harsh cliff habitats. Learn more about the Underground Explorers Program: https://buff.ly/4iM6lMg
Felipe Morales Armijo, a SPUN Underground Explorer, is researching how mycorrhizal fungi might help plants grow in these harsh cliff habitats. Learn more about the Underground Explorers Program: https://buff.ly/4iM6lMg
Reposted by Blaine Martin
A neat example of constructed wetlands in the middle of metropolitan Sydney. Compartmentalised to allow maintenance and vegetation management. Lots of aquatic insects (a lot of dragonflies buzzing about) but no mosquitoes. Green Square, Sydney.
January 21, 2025 at 10:35 PM
A neat example of constructed wetlands in the middle of metropolitan Sydney. Compartmentalised to allow maintenance and vegetation management. Lots of aquatic insects (a lot of dragonflies buzzing about) but no mosquitoes. Green Square, Sydney.
Great day in the field looking for Tachigali trees! 🌳☀️@dallingjim.bsky.social
January 21, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Great day in the field looking for Tachigali trees! 🌳☀️@dallingjim.bsky.social
Reposted by Blaine Martin
Sooooo if this whole "biological sex" EO is really happening, biologists are going to make as much noise about it as possible, right?
Professional societies, universities, individual research groups? It's really incumbent on us (that's a "biologists us" here) to make a BIG FUCKING STINK
Professional societies, universities, individual research groups? It's really incumbent on us (that's a "biologists us" here) to make a BIG FUCKING STINK
January 20, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Sooooo if this whole "biological sex" EO is really happening, biologists are going to make as much noise about it as possible, right?
Professional societies, universities, individual research groups? It's really incumbent on us (that's a "biologists us" here) to make a BIG FUCKING STINK
Professional societies, universities, individual research groups? It's really incumbent on us (that's a "biologists us" here) to make a BIG FUCKING STINK
Reposted by Blaine Martin
"One email at a time, one informational interview after another, I became comfortable, confident, and strategic in building my network of mentors."
One mentor isn’t enough, wrote Erika Moore in this 2021 #ScienceWorkingLife essay. https://scim.ag/3DWR4YV #NationalMentoringMonth
One mentor isn’t enough, wrote Erika Moore in this 2021 #ScienceWorkingLife essay. https://scim.ag/3DWR4YV #NationalMentoringMonth
January 19, 2025 at 3:07 PM
"One email at a time, one informational interview after another, I became comfortable, confident, and strategic in building my network of mentors."
One mentor isn’t enough, wrote Erika Moore in this 2021 #ScienceWorkingLife essay. https://scim.ag/3DWR4YV #NationalMentoringMonth
One mentor isn’t enough, wrote Erika Moore in this 2021 #ScienceWorkingLife essay. https://scim.ag/3DWR4YV #NationalMentoringMonth
Fun watching this mating display this morning in Gamboa
January 13, 2025 at 7:56 PM
Fun watching this mating display this morning in Gamboa
Finally started packing for my trip to Panama to complete field work for the first chapter of my PhD! I’m so excited to explore these unique habitats of tropical podocarp trees and do some science over the next few months!! It feels very full circle each time I return in a new stage of my life 🍄🟫🌲☀️
January 9, 2025 at 12:56 PM
Finally started packing for my trip to Panama to complete field work for the first chapter of my PhD! I’m so excited to explore these unique habitats of tropical podocarp trees and do some science over the next few months!! It feels very full circle each time I return in a new stage of my life 🍄🟫🌲☀️
I bet the mammoth enjoys this more than I do ❄️
January 6, 2025 at 10:17 PM
I bet the mammoth enjoys this more than I do ❄️
My eyes focus to the small Marasmius fighting for room on the bark of an oak tee. Among the mosses, centipedes, and lichens emerges this complex microcosm. My favorite thing about nature is how we can focus on different scales and still see the equaled beauty and complexity in all. 🍄🟫
December 25, 2024 at 10:55 PM
My eyes focus to the small Marasmius fighting for room on the bark of an oak tee. Among the mosses, centipedes, and lichens emerges this complex microcosm. My favorite thing about nature is how we can focus on different scales and still see the equaled beauty and complexity in all. 🍄🟫
Reposted by Blaine Martin
Researchers spend approximately 45% of their time on administrative activities related to #grants rather than actual #research. The current #competition in research #funding has significant drawbacks; evidence-based improvements of the funding system are required: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
The costs of competition in distributing scarce research funds | PNAS
Research funding systems fundamentally influence how science operates. This paper
aims to analyze the allocation of competitive research funding fr...
www.pnas.org
December 22, 2024 at 7:05 PM
Researchers spend approximately 45% of their time on administrative activities related to #grants rather than actual #research. The current #competition in research #funding has significant drawbacks; evidence-based improvements of the funding system are required: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Happy Winter Solstice 🍄☀️
December 21, 2024 at 3:45 PM
Happy Winter Solstice 🍄☀️
Reposted by Blaine Martin
Yes! Ask to speak with current *and* former students. In person/on the phone if possible. Ask direct questions about their experiences and lab culture (e.g., "if you were starting over, would you choose this lab again").
Early career researchers: ALWAYS tap into the whisper network before you join a lab.
December 10, 2024 at 8:26 PM
Yes! Ask to speak with current *and* former students. In person/on the phone if possible. Ask direct questions about their experiences and lab culture (e.g., "if you were starting over, would you choose this lab again").
Finals wrap up this week and I am officially done with my first semester of grad courses and teaching! Next stop, Panama in January for a few months to complete field work for my first chapter. Excited for this change in scenery and to leave freezing Illinois. 🍄🟫🌲
December 10, 2024 at 7:39 PM
Finals wrap up this week and I am officially done with my first semester of grad courses and teaching! Next stop, Panama in January for a few months to complete field work for my first chapter. Excited for this change in scenery and to leave freezing Illinois. 🍄🟫🌲
Reposted by Blaine Martin
Our first Bluesky post contains some good news for #fungi! After a long history of being unprotected, COP16 marked a huge advancement in the conservation of fungi. 🍄🥳
Thanks to work led by our partners at Fungi Foundation, The Fungal Conservation Pledge was introduced at #COP16. bit.ly/3Vl9GHL
Thanks to work led by our partners at Fungi Foundation, The Fungal Conservation Pledge was introduced at #COP16. bit.ly/3Vl9GHL
Why Fungi Could Get Higher Conservation Status And Why It Matters
The UK and Chile are proposing at the UN’s biodiversity conference COP16 in Colombia that fungi receive the same status to animals and plants. This could help foster and funding research.
bit.ly
December 5, 2024 at 3:50 PM
Our first Bluesky post contains some good news for #fungi! After a long history of being unprotected, COP16 marked a huge advancement in the conservation of fungi. 🍄🥳
Thanks to work led by our partners at Fungi Foundation, The Fungal Conservation Pledge was introduced at #COP16. bit.ly/3Vl9GHL
Thanks to work led by our partners at Fungi Foundation, The Fungal Conservation Pledge was introduced at #COP16. bit.ly/3Vl9GHL