Scott C Stark
@starkfloresta.bsky.social
Associate Prof. Forestry Michigan State University. Forest functional and ecosystem ecology. Amazon rainforest-atmosphere interactions and Earth’s future. Tropical forest policy and management. Extracurricular: Rock, afrolatin, psych underground music fan
Leonardo Ziccardi’s excellent functional trait dissertation chapter out and highlighted in Funtional Ecology and MSU Ecology, Evolution and Behavior News!
eeb.msu.edu/news/study-r...
eeb.msu.edu/news/study-r...
Dispatches from the rainforest reveal how trees adapt as they climb
eeb.msu.edu
November 14, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Leonardo Ziccardi’s excellent functional trait dissertation chapter out and highlighted in Funtional Ecology and MSU Ecology, Evolution and Behavior News!
eeb.msu.edu/news/study-r...
eeb.msu.edu/news/study-r...
Nobel committee has thrown its hat in the ring to destabilize South America and legitimize Trumps attacks 😡
www.democracynow.org/2025/10/10/n...
www.democracynow.org/2025/10/10/n...
2025 Nobel Peace Prize for Anti-Maduro Leader María Corina Machado “Opposite of Peace”: Greg Grandin
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize to María Corina Machado, a leading Venezuelan opposition figure. Machado was set to run for president last year, but she was disqua...
www.democracynow.org
October 10, 2025 at 8:35 PM
Nobel committee has thrown its hat in the ring to destabilize South America and legitimize Trumps attacks 😡
www.democracynow.org/2025/10/10/n...
www.democracynow.org/2025/10/10/n...
Highlighting my student Leonardo Ziccardi’s excellent new paper and the cool collaborations that made this in canopy leaf level quantum yield research in the Amazon possible!
Jan IngenHousz Institute collaborators map photosynthesis deep – and high – in the Amazon!
New paper on some spectacular research by @leoziccardi.bsky.social @starkfloresta.bsky.social , JII's scientific director Dave Kramer and others.
Photos show Leonardo Ziccardi with the MultiSpeQ device.
New paper on some spectacular research by @leoziccardi.bsky.social @starkfloresta.bsky.social , JII's scientific director Dave Kramer and others.
Photos show Leonardo Ziccardi with the MultiSpeQ device.
June 18, 2025 at 9:19 PM
Highlighting my student Leonardo Ziccardi’s excellent new paper and the cool collaborations that made this in canopy leaf level quantum yield research in the Amazon possible!
And a commentary piece on Leo’s new Amazon forest in-canopy fluorescence paper! nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
SIF research in the tropics: the overlooked vertical dimension and its implications for interpretation and upscaling of photosynthesis
Click on the article title to read more.
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
June 9, 2025 at 3:14 PM
And a commentary piece on Leo’s new Amazon forest in-canopy fluorescence paper! nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
First big paper from my lab to share on Bluesky :) “Seasonal and intracanopy shifts in the fates of absorbed photons in central Amazonian forests: implications for leaf fluorescence and photosynthesis” - Ziccardi - New Phytologist - Wiley Online Library nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Seasonal and intracanopy shifts in the fates of absorbed photons in central Amazonian forests: implications for leaf fluorescence and photosynthesis
Recent studies have shown a linear relationship between solar-induced Chl fluorescence (SIF) and gross primary productivity (GPP) at large scales. However, this relationship diverges at finer leaf s...
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
May 29, 2025 at 5:47 PM
First big paper from my lab to share on Bluesky :) “Seasonal and intracanopy shifts in the fates of absorbed photons in central Amazonian forests: implications for leaf fluorescence and photosynthesis” - Ziccardi - New Phytologist - Wiley Online Library nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Reposted by Scott C Stark
Not a single time in this article glorifying the need for sprawl to address the US's affordable housing crisis is there a mention of the vast transportation costs of sprawling living patterns. Nor is there mention of the fact that sprawl is directly linked to disinvestment in urban cores.
America Needs More Sprawl to Fix Its Housing Crisis
The word has become an epithet for garish, reckless growth — but to fix the housing crisis, the country needs more of it.
www.nytimes.com
April 10, 2025 at 12:46 PM
Not a single time in this article glorifying the need for sprawl to address the US's affordable housing crisis is there a mention of the vast transportation costs of sprawling living patterns. Nor is there mention of the fact that sprawl is directly linked to disinvestment in urban cores.
How surprising is it that so many US institutions are seemingly open to an openly fascist authoritarian coup d'etat when the US has literally the highest incarceration rate on the planet? Land of the free, right.
April 6, 2025 at 4:54 PM
How surprising is it that so many US institutions are seemingly open to an openly fascist authoritarian coup d'etat when the US has literally the highest incarceration rate on the planet? Land of the free, right.
Reposted by Scott C Stark
Big ups to the Columbia trustees and administrators who convinced these absolute cretins they had the recipe to destroy American higher education.
Breaking News: The Trump administration intends to block $510 million in federal contracts and grants for Brown University.
Trump Administration Set to Pause $510 Million for Brown University
The administration has now targeted five schools’ federal funding as part of a pledge to combat what it considers to be antisemitism on university campuses.
www.nytimes.com
April 3, 2025 at 10:39 PM
Big ups to the Columbia trustees and administrators who convinced these absolute cretins they had the recipe to destroy American higher education.
Reposted by Scott C Stark
This is, in large part, pandemic revenge.
As far as these oligarchs are concerned, all science does is tell them stuff they cannot do.
They can't keep spewing carbon.
They can't keep businesses open as usual when millions are dying.
They have concluded that research is the enemy of profit.
As far as these oligarchs are concerned, all science does is tell them stuff they cannot do.
They can't keep spewing carbon.
They can't keep businesses open as usual when millions are dying.
They have concluded that research is the enemy of profit.
Absolute BLOODBATH at HHS/NIH/CDC this morning. Generation of scientists, health care officials being wiped out
t.co/LeABrGqDei
t.co/LeABrGqDei
April 2, 2025 at 2:29 AM
This is, in large part, pandemic revenge.
As far as these oligarchs are concerned, all science does is tell them stuff they cannot do.
They can't keep spewing carbon.
They can't keep businesses open as usual when millions are dying.
They have concluded that research is the enemy of profit.
As far as these oligarchs are concerned, all science does is tell them stuff they cannot do.
They can't keep spewing carbon.
They can't keep businesses open as usual when millions are dying.
They have concluded that research is the enemy of profit.
Reposted by Scott C Stark
NEW: @motherjones.com reports that one of the men renditioned to El Salvador is Neri Alvarado, who was working in Dallas as a baker. An ICE agent told him they were questioning all men with tattoos.
Neri has an AUTISM AWARENESS TATTOO in honor of his 15-year-old brother with autism.
Neri has an AUTISM AWARENESS TATTOO in honor of his 15-year-old brother with autism.
March 26, 2025 at 7:49 PM
NEW: @motherjones.com reports that one of the men renditioned to El Salvador is Neri Alvarado, who was working in Dallas as a baker. An ICE agent told him they were questioning all men with tattoos.
Neri has an AUTISM AWARENESS TATTOO in honor of his 15-year-old brother with autism.
Neri has an AUTISM AWARENESS TATTOO in honor of his 15-year-old brother with autism.
In the face of mostly deafening silence about political abductions happening on campuses, the fervor of opposition in Congress to the Signal leak is pretty rich. Having thought police disappearing people reported by collaborators is as bad a political situation as there is. We need to fight that.
March 27, 2025 at 1:06 AM
In the face of mostly deafening silence about political abductions happening on campuses, the fervor of opposition in Congress to the Signal leak is pretty rich. Having thought police disappearing people reported by collaborators is as bad a political situation as there is. We need to fight that.
That there’s a new quadrant of the ‘you’re fucked’ plane on the Trump event horizon is no comfort. However, that it’s as simple as a drunk guy who reads large text history books about Hitler’s greatest battles (allegedly) randomly texting people attack plans is a little relieving. I get that.
March 25, 2025 at 2:12 PM
That there’s a new quadrant of the ‘you’re fucked’ plane on the Trump event horizon is no comfort. However, that it’s as simple as a drunk guy who reads large text history books about Hitler’s greatest battles (allegedly) randomly texting people attack plans is a little relieving. I get that.
So a national security breach about bombing Yemen—a bad action btw—has the Democratic establishment livid when the arbitrary detention and pending deportation of green card students expressly for political beliefs exercised through legal 1st amendment speech—not even done after 9/11—was a ‘meh’?
March 24, 2025 at 10:36 PM
So a national security breach about bombing Yemen—a bad action btw—has the Democratic establishment livid when the arbitrary detention and pending deportation of green card students expressly for political beliefs exercised through legal 1st amendment speech—not even done after 9/11—was a ‘meh’?
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
MAGA's education policy ... MAIMS (Make America Ignorant Menial Serfs)?
MAGA's education policy ... MAIMS (Make America Ignorant Menial Serfs)?
US education department insiders warn student loan system at risk: ‘The gatekeepers are gone’
Mass firings spark concern as department employees say cuts set stage for widespread fraud and abuse
www.theguardian.com
March 24, 2025 at 8:31 PM
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
MAGA's education policy ... MAIMS (Make America Ignorant Menial Serfs)?
MAGA's education policy ... MAIMS (Make America Ignorant Menial Serfs)?
Reposted by Scott C Stark
Unique to America, our health care system is designed not to make people well, but to make CEOs & wealthy stockholders incredibly rich. The result: We have the highest infant mortality rate of any wealthy country on earth. How cruel, how immoral is that? We need Medicare for All.
March 23, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Unique to America, our health care system is designed not to make people well, but to make CEOs & wealthy stockholders incredibly rich. The result: We have the highest infant mortality rate of any wealthy country on earth. How cruel, how immoral is that? We need Medicare for All.
Reposted by Scott C Stark
This flew under the radar, but Trump revoked a minimum wage hike for companies that contract with the government.
An estimated 390,000 workers will now see significant pay cuts.
It's not surprising that Trump's populism is fake, but it's hardly ever been more clear.
An estimated 390,000 workers will now see significant pay cuts.
It's not surprising that Trump's populism is fake, but it's hardly ever been more clear.
March 21, 2025 at 9:30 PM
This flew under the radar, but Trump revoked a minimum wage hike for companies that contract with the government.
An estimated 390,000 workers will now see significant pay cuts.
It's not surprising that Trump's populism is fake, but it's hardly ever been more clear.
An estimated 390,000 workers will now see significant pay cuts.
It's not surprising that Trump's populism is fake, but it's hardly ever been more clear.
Perhaps share this with any normie ICE loving relatives or acquaintances to help them understand the bipartisan born bedlam that is the US immigration system in 2025 …? www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
I’m the Canadian who was detained by Ice for two weeks. It felt like I had been kidnapped
I was stuck in a freezing cell without explanation despite eventually having lawyers and media attention. Yet, compared with others, I was lucky
www.theguardian.com
March 19, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Perhaps share this with any normie ICE loving relatives or acquaintances to help them understand the bipartisan born bedlam that is the US immigration system in 2025 …? www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
I think we’re currently on track for the criminalization of climate science in the US, at least if this administration is not effectively opposed
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
US pulls back from gold-standard scientific climate panel
Trump officials bar NASA climate scientist from international meeting, and the space agency shuts down a team supporting the next global climate assessment.
www.nature.com
March 18, 2025 at 6:21 PM
I think we’re currently on track for the criminalization of climate science in the US, at least if this administration is not effectively opposed
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Illegal and unconscionable. Places scholars working on critical research in perilous situations while disrupting the research and sends a strong message to international scholars that the US is no longer functioning and will no longer be a global leader. Self sabotaging lunacy in short
This is written as if maybe these Fulbright scholars aren’t actually stranded, but yes, they feel stranded because they are. woub.org/2025/03/07/f...
Many Fulbright scholars say they feel stranded after the Trump administration suspended their funding
Fulbright scholars were among those in programs administered through the U.S. State Department who learned their funding has been frozen.
woub.org
March 8, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Illegal and unconscionable. Places scholars working on critical research in perilous situations while disrupting the research and sends a strong message to international scholars that the US is no longer functioning and will no longer be a global leader. Self sabotaging lunacy in short
One of the examples of USAID funding cut’s costs with well known deadly consequences. Murder is at the top of my list of things that are bad. Elon Musk ordered this, which makes him what exactly?
An estimated 300,000 children globally are expected to lose access to a nutrient-dense peanut butter that’s specially formulated to treat severe acute malnutrition.
Georgia Nonprofit That Produces Life-Saving Food For Kids Has Federal Contract Cut
An estimated 300,000 children globally are expected to lose access to a nutrient-dense peanut butter that’s specially formulated to treat severe acute malnutrition.
www.huffpost.com
February 28, 2025 at 11:44 PM
One of the examples of USAID funding cut’s costs with well known deadly consequences. Murder is at the top of my list of things that are bad. Elon Musk ordered this, which makes him what exactly?
Reposted by Scott C Stark
We are barreling toward a full blown constitutional crisis.
Trump's announcement that he's ending thousands of aid contracts FUNDED BY CONGRESS is unconstitutional and illegal - and horrible for our security.
1/ A quick🧵on what's going on.
apnews.com/article/trum...
Trump's announcement that he's ending thousands of aid contracts FUNDED BY CONGRESS is unconstitutional and illegal - and horrible for our security.
1/ A quick🧵on what's going on.
apnews.com/article/trum...
Trump administration says it's cutting 90% of USAID foreign aid contracts
The Supreme Court on Wednesday temporarily blocked a judge’s order giving the Trump administration a midnight deadline to release billions of dollars in U.S. foreign aid.
apnews.com
February 28, 2025 at 2:47 PM
We are barreling toward a full blown constitutional crisis.
Trump's announcement that he's ending thousands of aid contracts FUNDED BY CONGRESS is unconstitutional and illegal - and horrible for our security.
1/ A quick🧵on what's going on.
apnews.com/article/trum...
Trump's announcement that he's ending thousands of aid contracts FUNDED BY CONGRESS is unconstitutional and illegal - and horrible for our security.
1/ A quick🧵on what's going on.
apnews.com/article/trum...
Reposted by Scott C Stark
Reposted by Scott C Stark
"Undermining the NSF is not just a threat to universities and researchers — it is a threat to the well-being of every American."
www.chronicle.com/article/the-...
www.chronicle.com/article/the-...
The Rise (and Fall?) of the National Science Foundation
In the ’50s, America declared science an “endless frontier.” We may be reaching the end of it.
www.chronicle.com
February 25, 2025 at 1:41 PM
"Undermining the NSF is not just a threat to universities and researchers — it is a threat to the well-being of every American."
www.chronicle.com/article/the-...
www.chronicle.com/article/the-...
Reposted by Scott C Stark
I cannot express how frustrated and hurt I am by mentoring/training a lab member for five years, only to have them take an important job in government that was abruptly deleted a month after they took it.
February 24, 2025 at 3:18 PM
I cannot express how frustrated and hurt I am by mentoring/training a lab member for five years, only to have them take an important job in government that was abruptly deleted a month after they took it.