Brooke Osborne (she/her)

Save NCAR from being dismantled today! The Trump Administration has vowed to dissolve the center that provides critical extreme weather and climate data for our nation.

If you are in the US and you would like to send a message to your elected representative about the proposed dissolution of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, @agu.org makes it easy with a template here: agu.quorum.us/campaign/151... #AGU25

AGU Science Policy Action Center See what policy issues the AGU community is talking about

agu.quorum.us/home/

Trump administration plans to break up largest federal climate research center Russ Vought, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said the National Science Foundation "will be breaking up" the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado.

“NCAR has played a greater role in advancing weather prediction & atmospheric modeling than perhaps any other single entity in the world,” says @weatherwest.bsky.social

Dismantling NCAR would be “like taking a sledgehammer to the keystone holding up our scientific understanding of the planet.” KH

#AGU25 folks, there is a rapid- response town hall TODAY on the #NCAR dismantling at 1 pm, La Nouvelle Orleans ballroom C (per an AGU media advisory)

Meet the 2026 team for the ESA Southwest Chapter! 🌵☀️ We're super excited to serve our community and support your science in any way we can! Got questions or ideas? Send them our way! Stay tuned for introduction posts of each of our amazing new leaders!

Drylands: The Dark Horse of Carbon Cycling [vc_row full_width=stretch_row css=.vc_custom_1617652492747{background-color: #23b7e0 !important;}][vc_column width=1/2][vc_single_image image=5371 img_size=600 x 600 alignment=center css=][/vc_column...

SUCH a pleasure to talk with Peggy at the Science Moab Podcast about dryland science:

sciencemoab.org/drylands-the...

Yessss new paper is OUT! Scott Ferrenberg led this effort to tease apart "nurse plant" effects in the Chihuahuan Desert.

Spoiler alert: don't underestimate the power of a little shade in arid systems

@scottferrenberg.bsky.social

rdcu.be/eH1O8

Quantifying potential abiotic drivers of the ‘nurse plant effect’ in two dominant shrub species of the northern Chihuahuan Desert - Oecologia Aggregations of plants surrounded by sparsely vegetated areas in drylands can arise when larger plants facilitate the recruitment of smaller “protégé” plants—a phenomenon referred to as the “nurse plant” effect. Numerous drivers can generate a nurse plant effect; efforts to simultaneously quantify multiple drivers are rare. Given higher densities of protégés beneath the foundational shrubs Larrea tridentata and Neltuma glandulosa, multiple potential mechanisms underlying the nurse plant effect were quantified in the Chihuahuan Desert, New Mexico, USA. As expected, there was a greater concentration of soil nutrients and lower photosynthetically active radiation and soil temperatures beneath shrubs. Throughout the study, however, soil moisture was consistently higher in interspaces despite the greater water holding capacity of soils beneath shrubs. Nutrient concentrations were greater beneath N. glandulosa than L. tridentata, while protégé numbers did not significantly differ among the species. The canopy size of both species was positively related to understory shading, and the size of N. glandulosa was positively related to soil nitrogen and microbial biomass. The results of this study suggest that much of the abiotic nurse plant effect of this low-latitude system is explained by radiation interception and concomitant reductions in temperatures experienced by protégé plants as opposed to the direct effects of shrubs on soil water availability. As global change pressures intensify in drylands, a loss of perennial plant cover could have negative effects on soil biogeochemical pools and plant diversity. Quantification of the mechanisms driving the nurse plant effect across environmental and climatic gradients could improve our understanding of plant community dynamics in drylands.

Our most recent labor of love, "Quantifying potential abiotic drivers of the ‘nurse plant effect’ in two dominant shrub species of the northern Chihuahuan Desert" #drylands #desert_ecology link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Climate rather than overgrazing explains most rangeland primary productivity change in Mongolia Rangelands are Earth’s dominant land type, supporting the livelihoods of more than 2 billion people. Concerns about rangeland degradation typically focus on overgrazing. But climate change may be a gr...

Climate rather than overgrazing explains most rangeland primary productivity change in Mongolia | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Wow I had the MOST fun kicking off this project with @rcoconnor.bsky.social and Daav! Excited to learn more about what these moss are up to over the winter months in a cold desert system

Come find the @esa-sw.bsky.social at #esa2025!!

Are you attending ESA this year? Are you a biocrust lover?

Come to COS 011 on Monday 1:30 pm to learn all about CrustNet and biological soil crusts. We are excited to recruit new collaborators and new sites for this project.
#esa2025
@womeninsoileco.bsky.social

Cheering on the National Academies today!! Thank you!

www.nationalacademies.org/news/2025/08...

Nurse plant shading is more important than soil fertility for dryland plant recruitment and diversity The significant influence of shading highlights the role of environmental factors in shaping plant communities of this dryland system, while the evidence of seed depletion combined with the influence...

Sweet new paper alert! Great study design to explore "fertile islands" in an arid system:
Nurse plant shading is more important than soil fertility for dryland plant recruitment and diversity - Ferrenberg - Journal of Ecology besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Starting in one hour!

Way excited for Savannah's defense next week!

If you love biogeochemistry and thinking about potential for soil carbon management, mark your calendar for Monday, July 28th @ 11:00 AM MDT (or stop by campus if you're in Moab 😉)

Public Zoom Link: usu.zoom.us/j/8144285688...

Navigating the possibilities and pitfalls of biocrust recovery in a changing climate Biological soil crusts are complex communities composed of lichens, mosses, bacteria, and cyanobacteria that create a living skin on the soil surface across drylands worldwide. Although small in size...

Our new review is out led by @michalaphillips.bsky.social examining #biocrust recovery amidst climate change 👇

bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Way excited for Savannah's defense next week!

If you love biogeochemistry and thinking about potential for soil carbon management, mark your calendar for Monday, July 28th @ 11:00 AM MDT (or stop by campus if you're in Moab 😉)

Public Zoom Link: usu.zoom.us/j/8144285688...

Global terrestrial nitrogen fixation and its modification by agriculture - Nature Biological nitrogen fixation may impose stronger constraints on the carbon sink in natural terrestrial biomes and represent a larger source of agricultural nitrogen than is generally considered in ana...

Excited to share our new global estimate of nitrogen fixation out now in Nature! This work sets a new gold standard for understanding how much nitrogen is fixed in the terrestrial biosphere. Huge thanks so Carla Reis Ely for leading this incredible work! urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=htt...

[Inaugural Blue Sky post!]

New paper out on #biocrust- plant interactions led by recent lab alumnus MS student John Bacovcin.

Morphological seed traits structure relationships between biocrusts and plant emergence: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Hi, Bluesky!

I am an Assistant Professor at Colorado State University.
based in #FortCollins, CO studying #drylands and #restoration with a focus on #plantecology, #biocrusts, #functionaltraits, and #rangelandecology.

I'm excited to connect about science here!

Take Action — Keep It Public Colorado's public lands are not for sale. Take action today. Help make sure our lands and waters are still accessible tomorrow.

Federal efforts to sell off or privatize our national public lands risk our way of life.

If you're based in CO, here are resources to tell your politicians that Colorado is not for sale.

keepitpublic.co/take-action

#KeepItPublic #PublicLands

Virtual Rally to Save the Cornerstone of Conservation Science · National Wildlife Federation We need YOU as we rally in support of critical federal government services at risk of being lost forever. The U.S. Geological Survey Ecosystems Mission Area is responsible for many of the programs tha...

I'm attending National Wildlife Federation's event, “Virtual Rally to Save the Cornerstone of Conservation Science” - sign up now to join me! www.mobilize.us/nwf/event/79...

May 8 -- Webinar Email Announcement Email subject line: NC CASC Webinar: Thursday, May 8, 11am -12pm MT Email Text Please join us for the NC CASC webinar on Thursday, May 8, 11am -12pm MT Title: Exploring the carbon effects of forest...

🚨Super cool webinar this morning (May 9 @ 11 AM MDT) from Toby Maxwell about the carbon benefits of restoration from annual grass invasions across the western US!

Details and flyer here: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Great to see this letter, led by @ecologicalsociety.bsky.social and signed by almost 70 scientific societies, advocating for continued funding of the U.S. Geological Survey's Ecosystems Mission Area.

Rapid Response Bridge Funding Program In the face of recent abrupt shifts in federal funding for education research, including large-scale terminations of National Science Foundation (NSF) research grant awards, we have developed a rap...

Do you have NSF funding that was terminated? Check out this opportunity for some bridge funding from a private foundation and pass it on:

www.spencer.org/grant_types/...

a netflix ad shows a woman talking to another woman at a vending machine ALT: a netflix ad shows a woman talking to another woman at a vending machine

We're hiring an assistant prof in global change ecology! Apply!!! We're vibrant, supportive, and interdisciplinary EEB community!

Plz note the weird dates: We're reviewing applications beginning on ✨August 15th✨. I'm part of the SC and happy to answer questions!

apply.interfolio.com/164677

Massive congratulations to soon-to-be Dr Savannah Adkins for her brilliance, perseverance, and bright future!

Voices: Research on dust in Utah has never been more important. Trump’s proposed cuts put our economy and public health at risk. “The loss of this science doesn’t just mean fewer data points,” writes Kristina Young. “It means fewer tools to protect water supplies, fewer insights to guide wildfire mitigation and fewer answers wh...

www.sltrib.com/opinion/comm...

📢 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