Justin D. Gay
@skookumchuck.bsky.social
Assistant Teaching Professor of Ecology @umontana & research fellow @USFS Missoula Fire Sciences Lab // Terrestrial ecosystem ecology, 🔥, soils and biogeochemistry // Affinity for C and N fluxes
On the hunt for some fat (for a semi-arid climate) mollisol A horizons. #soilsluething
August 28, 2025 at 10:59 PM
On the hunt for some fat (for a semi-arid climate) mollisol A horizons. #soilsluething
Soil texturing by feel may be more art than science but it sure is a gratifying skill to master (for those soil inclined 😉). @umontana.bsky.social
August 27, 2025 at 12:14 AM
Soil texturing by feel may be more art than science but it sure is a gratifying skill to master (for those soil inclined 😉). @umontana.bsky.social
Reposted by Justin D. Gay
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Please see our new paper just published in Global Change Biology: “Intensifying fire season aridity portends ongoing expansion of severe wildfire in western US forests”. 🧪🌍🔥
Please see our new paper just published in Global Change Biology: “Intensifying fire season aridity portends ongoing expansion of severe wildfire in western US forests”. 🧪🌍🔥
Intensifying Fire Season Aridity Portends Ongoing Expansion of Severe Wildfire in Western US Forests
Area burned by wildfire has increased in western US forests over recent decades. However, high-severity fire—fire that kills all or most trees—is also an important metric of fire activity given its d...
doi.org
August 21, 2025 at 6:32 PM
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Please see our new paper just published in Global Change Biology: “Intensifying fire season aridity portends ongoing expansion of severe wildfire in western US forests”. 🧪🌍🔥
Please see our new paper just published in Global Change Biology: “Intensifying fire season aridity portends ongoing expansion of severe wildfire in western US forests”. 🧪🌍🔥
Reposted by Justin D. Gay
I am pleased to share the most significant study that I have so far contributed to. We find overwhelming evidence that mechanical thinning and prescribed fire reduce subsequent wildfire severity across seasonally dry forests in the western USA. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
July 11, 2025 at 9:15 PM
I am pleased to share the most significant study that I have so far contributed to. We find overwhelming evidence that mechanical thinning and prescribed fire reduce subsequent wildfire severity across seasonally dry forests in the western USA. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Alright, let’s finally get to the bottom of this question: how do shorter high-severity fire return intervals impact soil carbon fluxes in subalpine conifer forests? Undergraduate research interns are on the case. 🕵️
July 9, 2025 at 2:14 AM
Alright, let’s finally get to the bottom of this question: how do shorter high-severity fire return intervals impact soil carbon fluxes in subalpine conifer forests? Undergraduate research interns are on the case. 🕵️
Reposted by Justin D. Gay
Let's dive into this a bit. A short and very incomplete thread on US Forest Service research. 1/
It’s finally in writing. The detailed President’s budget clearly wants to completely eliminate USFS Research
May 31, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Let's dive into this a bit. A short and very incomplete thread on US Forest Service research. 1/
It was a fun experience teaming up with UW engineers to explore the biogeochemistry of phosphorus recovery from dairy waste using cyanobacteria!
Can cow poop and cyanobacteria help close the nutrient loop? 💩🧪♻️
doi.org/10.1016/j.co...
Can cow poop and cyanobacteria help close the nutrient loop? 💩🧪♻️
doi.org/10.1016/j.co...
Redirecting
doi.org
May 6, 2025 at 4:57 PM
It was a fun experience teaming up with UW engineers to explore the biogeochemistry of phosphorus recovery from dairy waste using cyanobacteria!
Can cow poop and cyanobacteria help close the nutrient loop? 💩🧪♻️
doi.org/10.1016/j.co...
Can cow poop and cyanobacteria help close the nutrient loop? 💩🧪♻️
doi.org/10.1016/j.co...
An incredible wildcard gift from a student today—a hand-knit blanket for my newborn son, designed to mimic a soil profile! She hasn’t taken my soils course yet, so horizons were a creative shot in the dark. Thick, dark mollic epipedon up top, or clay- and Fe-rich kandic Bt? Mollisol or Ultisol?
May 5, 2025 at 7:27 PM
An incredible wildcard gift from a student today—a hand-knit blanket for my newborn son, designed to mimic a soil profile! She hasn’t taken my soils course yet, so horizons were a creative shot in the dark. Thick, dark mollic epipedon up top, or clay- and Fe-rich kandic Bt? Mollisol or Ultisol?
New required reading for our soil lab sections next fall?!
📢 New pub: Defining #soil science: Balancing fundamental research and societal needs, in Soil Science Society of America Journal doi.org/10.1002/saj2...
@teamrat.bsky.social & I argue, soil science, though crucial for solving environmental challanges, should not be defined solely by its applications
@teamrat.bsky.social & I argue, soil science, though crucial for solving environmental challanges, should not be defined solely by its applications
April 25, 2025 at 3:55 PM
New required reading for our soil lab sections next fall?!
What a resource! The overwhelmingly favorite topic in my physical geography course this year was atmospheric processes & clouds. This looks like a banger.
Today my new book "Clouds" is published by Princeton University Press. It is a science book, but written in a popular style. In a new undertaking, we use mid-to-late 19th century impressionist art to show the various forms of clouds. Available here press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
April 23, 2025 at 2:01 AM
What a resource! The overwhelmingly favorite topic in my physical geography course this year was atmospheric processes & clouds. This looks like a banger.
Reposted by Justin D. Gay
Some of us worship the old gods.
April 3, 2025 at 2:17 AM
Some of us worship the old gods.
Reposted by Justin D. Gay
#FireCon2025 CALL FOR PROPORSALS is OPEN 🔥submit your proposal by May 15th to host a workshop, special session, or fire circle discussion with us in NOLA⚜️
Details here: afefirecongress.org/call-for-pro...
Details here: afefirecongress.org/call-for-pro...
March 26, 2025 at 4:18 PM
#FireCon2025 CALL FOR PROPORSALS is OPEN 🔥submit your proposal by May 15th to host a workshop, special session, or fire circle discussion with us in NOLA⚜️
Details here: afefirecongress.org/call-for-pro...
Details here: afefirecongress.org/call-for-pro...
Reposted by Justin D. Gay
Have you ever had someone you care about the impacted by a tornado, a hurricane, an earthquake, a wildfire?
Evidence based decision-making helps keep us safe and ecosystems healthy.
Science helps protect us. Now it’s our turn to fight to protect the scientific enterprise in the US. #missoula 🧪
Evidence based decision-making helps keep us safe and ecosystems healthy.
Science helps protect us. Now it’s our turn to fight to protect the scientific enterprise in the US. #missoula 🧪
March 7, 2025 at 4:32 AM
Have you ever had someone you care about the impacted by a tornado, a hurricane, an earthquake, a wildfire?
Evidence based decision-making helps keep us safe and ecosystems healthy.
Science helps protect us. Now it’s our turn to fight to protect the scientific enterprise in the US. #missoula 🧪
Evidence based decision-making helps keep us safe and ecosystems healthy.
Science helps protect us. Now it’s our turn to fight to protect the scientific enterprise in the US. #missoula 🧪
As above, so below? It’s quite clear western conifer forests are facing substantial environmental forcing from both climate and associated fire regimes changes. How are below ground support systems for trees - such as beneficial mycorrhizae being impacted? How does this impact regeneration?
March 5, 2025 at 3:12 AM
As above, so below? It’s quite clear western conifer forests are facing substantial environmental forcing from both climate and associated fire regimes changes. How are below ground support systems for trees - such as beneficial mycorrhizae being impacted? How does this impact regeneration?
In 2022, 68% of US faculty were non-tenure track, up from 47% in 1987, yet the “vanishing tenure-track” trend remains largely absent from graduate student recruitment conversations. An important reality to confront, especially over these next 4 years. www.aaup.org/AAUP/comm/re...
Tenure and Teaching-Intensive Appointments
Recommendations on stabilizing the faculty infrastructure by converting contingent faculty positions to the tenure track.
www.aaup.org
February 26, 2025 at 6:00 AM
In 2022, 68% of US faculty were non-tenure track, up from 47% in 1987, yet the “vanishing tenure-track” trend remains largely absent from graduate student recruitment conversations. An important reality to confront, especially over these next 4 years. www.aaup.org/AAUP/comm/re...
Today I submitted my first research proposal as a PI. Not for a big grant, but a v v small one I helped write with an undergraduate. It may not be the typical career metric in my field, but for me, it feels like success. Especially in this new political climate. Early UG research support is 🔑
February 19, 2025 at 3:51 AM
Today I submitted my first research proposal as a PI. Not for a big grant, but a v v small one I helped write with an undergraduate. It may not be the typical career metric in my field, but for me, it feels like success. Especially in this new political climate. Early UG research support is 🔑
Fighting everyday here @umontana.bsky.social to combat “the extinction of experience” for my students - education doesn’t need to be (and shouldn’t be) a textbook. To quote Leopold “Is education possibly a process of trading awareness for things of lesser worth?”
Extinction of experience among ecologists
Fieldwork-based research and education in ecology are under multiple threats and are progressively declining. We call for greater attention to this on…
www.sciencedirect.com
February 8, 2025 at 3:13 AM
Fighting everyday here @umontana.bsky.social to combat “the extinction of experience” for my students - education doesn’t need to be (and shouldn’t be) a textbook. To quote Leopold “Is education possibly a process of trading awareness for things of lesser worth?”
Reposted by Justin D. Gay
New paper in #EcologicalMonographs w/ @monicagturner.bsky.social & E. Mavencamp! Among sparse/non-forested areas 34 years after the severe 1988 Yellowstone Fires:
- ~1/2 appear “locked in”;
- Plant communities shifted to resemble meadows;
- Aboveground C repartitioned w/ 96% stored in dead wood.
- ~1/2 appear “locked in”;
- Plant communities shifted to resemble meadows;
- Aboveground C repartitioned w/ 96% stored in dead wood.
Sparse subalpine forest recovery pathways, plant communities, and carbon stocks 34 years after stand‐replacing fire
Changing global climate and wildfire regimes are threatening forest resilience (i.e., the ability to recover from disturbance). Yet distinguishing areas of “no” versus “slow” postfire forest recovery...
doi.org
January 27, 2025 at 1:55 PM
New paper in #EcologicalMonographs w/ @monicagturner.bsky.social & E. Mavencamp! Among sparse/non-forested areas 34 years after the severe 1988 Yellowstone Fires:
- ~1/2 appear “locked in”;
- Plant communities shifted to resemble meadows;
- Aboveground C repartitioned w/ 96% stored in dead wood.
- ~1/2 appear “locked in”;
- Plant communities shifted to resemble meadows;
- Aboveground C repartitioned w/ 96% stored in dead wood.
Compelling data from Leuthold et al. highlighting the importance of pyrogenic organic matter (PyOM) in soil C stabilization in grasslands. Over 60% of labeled PyOM-C and 50% of PyOM-N remained after 10 years. Needless to say, fire is critical for biogeochem function. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Decadal persistence of grassland soil organic matter derived from litter and pyrogenic inputs - Nature Geoscience
Plant litter-derived mineral-associated organic matter that formed in the first year and pyrogenic organic inputs both persist on a decadal scale in grassland soil via distinct mechanisms, according t...
www.nature.com
January 27, 2025 at 4:09 AM
Compelling data from Leuthold et al. highlighting the importance of pyrogenic organic matter (PyOM) in soil C stabilization in grasslands. Over 60% of labeled PyOM-C and 50% of PyOM-N remained after 10 years. Needless to say, fire is critical for biogeochem function. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Justin D. Gay
Our new paper in #Ecosystems! Short-interval #fires in lodgepole pine change aboveground N stocks (a lot) but not total ecosystem N, tho available NO3- goes up. #GreaterYellowstone #FireEcology #NSFfunded W/ @nathankiel.bsky.social C Cleveland, J Warren, R Heumann
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Reburning Before Recovery: Effects of Short-Interval Fire on Subalpine Forest Nitrogen Stocks and Fluxes - Ecosystems
In forests adapted to infrequent (> 100-year) stand-replacing fires, novel short-interval (< 30-year) fires burn young forests before they recover from previous burns. Postfire tree regeneration is re...
link.springer.com
January 21, 2025 at 10:32 PM
Our new paper in #Ecosystems! Short-interval #fires in lodgepole pine change aboveground N stocks (a lot) but not total ecosystem N, tho available NO3- goes up. #GreaterYellowstone #FireEcology #NSFfunded W/ @nathankiel.bsky.social C Cleveland, J Warren, R Heumann
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Reposted by Justin D. Gay
The Association for Fire Ecology is now on Bluesky!🦋 Follow us to stay up-to-date with Fire Ecology Journal articles, fire ecology news and job posts, and Fire Ecology Chats podcast episodes. Learn more about us here: fireecology.org
January 3, 2025 at 8:33 PM
The Association for Fire Ecology is now on Bluesky!🦋 Follow us to stay up-to-date with Fire Ecology Journal articles, fire ecology news and job posts, and Fire Ecology Chats podcast episodes. Learn more about us here: fireecology.org
The W.A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation is hiring an Assistant Teaching Professor of Geographic Information Systems (NTT). Come be my colleague! I’d be happy to share more insights with those interested.
apply.interfolio.com/160413
apply.interfolio.com/160413
Apply - Interfolio
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December 12, 2024 at 3:15 AM
The W.A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation is hiring an Assistant Teaching Professor of Geographic Information Systems (NTT). Come be my colleague! I’d be happy to share more insights with those interested.
apply.interfolio.com/160413
apply.interfolio.com/160413