@benrlee.com
Assistant Prof of Forest Ecology in southern Appalachia. Interested in climate change effects on forest plants, especially phenology, ecophys, and species interactions. He/him Views my own 🧪🌎🌱📜🌐 More at https://peacchlab.com
Bright yellow-green flowers of northern spicebush are visible at the end of a brown branch being held up by a man's fingers
An orange beetle with black spots sits on top of a small, bright yellow flower with branches and brown leaves visible in the background
#Spring is here! #Phenology #flowers
Prize for his work had he not tragically died at age 42 in a car accident. My family sued for defamation when the books were published but were told that, because the books portrayed him as a hero, that it wasn't technically breaking any rules.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjami...
A best selling series of books was written that fictionally depicted my grandfather as the father of the Korean nuclear program that was killed by the US before he could pass nuclear secrets to the homeland. In reality he was a theoretical physicist that likely would have won at least one Nobel
#ToReadPile
#ToReadPile
Jack Hughes (J'accuse) is an objectively funny name for an athlete that plays a sport invented by francophones
A person's hand holds up the tip of a spicebush branch to show swelling, globular floral buds
Dried putty-root seed husks that look like deflated balloons hang on a stalk above the forest floor with a putty-root leaf visible in the background
A purple and green leaf of a crane-fly orchid lies visible over otherwise brown leaf litter on the forest floor
Small new leaves of an aster are shown pushing up through leaf litter in the forst unserstory
Buds are swelling so the 2026 field season starts today. My condolences to all the other #phenology researchers personally victimized by climate change and progressively earlier field work 🙃
No. I'm not ready yet! Spring #phenology needs to wait.
NPR’s WEMU did a 10-minute interview with Olivia Vought, a
UMich Biological Station researcher & Classen lab post-doc, about changing winters and the benefits of persistent snow cover for forest productivity, water movement and carbon cycling. Listen or read the transcript: myumi.ch/8q9rn
Thanks!
Hi Neil, is there a link you can share that I can direct students to with the info in your images? I have a handful of senior/graduating undergrads that would likely be interested in applying. Thanks!
BREAKING: The Department of Education has ended its directive that attempted to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in schools nationwide.
This is a victory for academic freedom and education equity.
🚨🚨🚨
Attention science communicators!
🚨🚨🚨
The 2026 Science IRL mini-grant application is NOW OPEN!
Submit your creative ideas for connecting people with actionable science information *offline*.
The deadline for this round of grants is March 23, 2026.
Apply here!
forms.gle/4emvpRPddmEt...
🌍Come work with us!
We are hiring a postdoc in Climate Change Ecology. In this position, you will work on Climate Change synthesis research, and assist the upcoming IPCC report (CH14: impacts on terrestrial, freshwater and cryosphere) 🌿🐸❄️ Deadline: 8 March
More information: tinyurl.com/2c83uakz
Do trees talk to each other? How?
When trees grow, do they race each other?
What is the coolest thing you have found in the forest?
Y'all, the kids are alright
I get to chat about trees with a kindergarten classroom this week with @skypeascientist.bsky.social and I LOVE some of the questions they sent ahead:
How old is the oldest tree that you have met?
Do you draw pictures of your research and how do you share them with your scientist friends?
Pretty much the most important thing happening in the world right now.
www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-chi...
Do you have undergrads interested in collections-based research? Have them apply to go work with @jmheberling.bsky.social at CMNH! I cannot imagine a better place to work over the summer
Do you have undergrads interested in collections-based research? Have them apply to go work with @jmheberling.bsky.social at CMNH! I cannot imagine a better place to work over the summer
🌐🌎 Conspecific adult trees interact w/microsites to affect forest regeneration across climate-sensitive temperate-to-boreal forest biome transitions as shown by @nathankiel.bsky.social in an insightful analysis of our extensive forest demography data @sunyesf.bsky.social. Link in comments.
Read the RFP and watch your happiness turn to pure rage
Sorry to bring you down 🥲
Only for AI proposals
The Tumber-Dávila Lab, Dartmouth College Dept. of Environmental Science, is seeking a full-time lab manager/research assistant to contribute to research on belowground ecosystems response to global change.
COME JOIN US! 🧪🌳🌲🌎
searchjobs.dartmouth.edu/postings/84449
A downy woodpecker sits on a spruce on a sunny winter day. "Ahh... Febuary" it says. Close up on it correcting "Febrary" then "Febberary..." then finally "Frebrury"
Ferbruary #oldknees
In case anyone wants a little break, here are a few of my favorite facts that I learned in 2025, in no particular order.
Some trees benefit from, and may even encourage, getting struck by lightning because it kills their nearby competitors nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Fig. 6 Hypothesized trade-offs across vascular species illustrating a water use economics framework.
✨ Paper spotlight ✨
(🧵 1/7) From growth potential to drought survival: a trait- and time-based framework for plant water economics across vascular species
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
USA National Phenology Network 2025 annual report highlight on how we advanced science via the development of the Late Bloom Index map.
USA National Phenology Network 2025 annual report highlight on the winners of the PhenoChampions award, Mount Auburn Cemetery Citizen Scientists.
USA National Phenology Network 2025 annual report letter from the director.
USA National Phenology Network 2025 annual report infographic on participant and data metrics.
Our 2025 Annual Report is here! Below, excerpts from the report including a Letter from our Director,
@theresacrimmins.bsky.social, and highlights of #phenology
accomplishments made possible by our partners and observers!
Read the full 2025 Annual Report at www.usanpn.org/files/npn/re...
The Garden Club of America Iselin Fellowship in Public Horticulture supports experiential learning at public gardens for horticulture graduate students🌸
💰 $5k
📆 application due Feb. 1
www.gcamerica.org/scholarships...
When I forget to add a fill to my half-eye plot in R