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kateplantphys.bsky.social
Kate Johnson
@kateplantphys.bsky.social
3.4K followers 1.7K following 68 posts
Plants & climate extremes🌳| Art, words & nature | Marie Skłodowska-Curie #MSCA Postdoc fellow @creaf.cat | Co-manager of thatsscience.org (follow us!) thatssciencetas.bsky.social | Fulbright '21/22 | she/her 🏳️‍🌈|🌈🦋|🍉

From Lutruwita/Tasmania, in Barcelona 🌏
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kateplantphys.bsky.social
Kate Johnson @kateplantphys.bsky.social · Nov 5
The cover of @jxbotany.bsky.social is my painting of Tulip Poplar, a North-American native & global street tree that was the focus of our paper visualising freezing spread & freeze-thaw embolism in leaves!
A lovely way to finish this multi-year mutli-country project
🔗below
@brodersenlab.bsky.social
Watercolour painting of a young Tulip Poplar tree on the cover of 'Journal Experimental Botany', for volume 76, Issue 18, 2025
Reposted by Kate Johnson
seismatters.bsky.social
Has this been discussed here? #AcademicSky #Academia #ECR #HigherEducation

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
How contemporary academic structures constrain scientific creativity and hold back early-career researchers - Nature Human Behaviour
In this Perspective, Haubrock et al. argue that today’s scientific structures constrain creativity and that strategic conformity is a rational response. They discuss how this holds back early-career r...
www.nature.com
September 7, 2026 at 11:37 AM
Reposted by Kate Johnson
a-gthy.bsky.social
🌳🌡️ Our new paper is out! We show that during extreme heat stomatal decoupling occurred in mature holm oak trees; yet, this mechanism provided very little leaf cooling 🍂

academic.oup.com/treephys/adv...

@charlottegrossiord.bsky.social
@mdekauwe.bsky.social
& many others
August 19, 2026 at 10:49 AM
Reposted by Kate Johnson
charlottegrossiord.bsky.social
📢 We’re hiring a Postdoctoral Researcher in Plant Ecophysiology at EPFL/WSL in Lausanne!

🌿 Study physiological mechanisms of leaf browning under heat & drought stress
🔬 Experimental plant ecophysiology
🎓 Mentoring/teaching opportunities

Please share!

Apply here: apply.refline.ch/273855/1893/...
August 18, 2026 at 11:03 AM
Reposted by Kate Johnson
coeplantsuccess.bsky.social
📢 New publication 'Leaf Size in #Conifers: Global Associations With Climate and Evolutionary History' by Katya Bandow, Timothy Brodribb, Benjamin Halliwell, Matilda Brown, Kate Johnson and Gregory Jordan in Global Change Biology 🧪🍃

doi.org/10.1111/gcb....

#LeafSize #Phylogenetics
Leaf Size in Conifers: Global Associations With Climate and Evolutionary History
Global patterns in leaf size are linked to climatic trade-offs, so we explore these relationships in a major group of plants, the conifers. Using contemporary phylogenetic methods, we show that conif...
doi.org
July 13, 2026 at 2:01 AM
Reposted by Kate Johnson
julianschrader.bsky.social
New paper out in @newphyt.bsky.social by Tiantian Pan and others incl. @ianjwright.bsky.social @profchoat.bsky.social:

Fast growth comes at a cost: Fast-growing Eucalyptus are less drought-resistant, revealing a clear growth–survival trade-off.

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Evidence for a trade‐off between growth rate and xylem embolism resistance in 22 Eucalyptus species
Examples of cross-sectional images of branchlets at 4× and 40×.
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
June 12, 2026 at 8:59 AM
Reposted by Kate Johnson
wslresearch.bsky.social
🍁 Heat and drought are reshaping forests. @charlottegrossiord.bsky.social of WSL and EPFL is studying how forests and their ecosystem services are affected. EPFL has now awarded her a permanent associate professorship, congratulations🎉! www.wsl.ch/en/news/wsl-...

#forestecol #forest #heat #drought
July 16, 2026 at 3:23 PM
kateplantphys.bsky.social
Listen to Margaux talking hot leaves! 🔥🍃 @creaf.cat @snsf.ch thatsscience.org/2026/07/12/e...
thatssciencetas.bsky.social That's What I Call Science 🎙 @thatssciencetas.bsky.social · Jul 13
Have you tuned in to Ep. 332 yet?

Margaux Didion-Gency's exciting new research reveals that leaf shape may influence plant heat tolerance, listen to hear more!

@creaf.cat @snsf.ch @kateplantphys.bsky.social

#heatwave #climatechange #climateextremes #leaves #adaption #Scicomm
July 13, 2026 at 8:48 AM
Reposted by Kate Johnson
charlottegrossiord.bsky.social
Excited to share our new paper on leaf scorching. 🔥Early leaf browning during heat and drought is often interpreted as premature leaf senescence - but it may reflect rapid heat damage. Separating these processes is essential. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
@wslresearch.bsky.social
July 8, 2026 at 7:21 AM
Reposted by Kate Johnson
creaf.cat
We are celebrating🎊

Our researcher Margaux Didion-Gency was awarded 2nd #Prize for best poster at the NPH47 symposium on Extreme Heat🔥, held in Córdoba, Spain, early June!

It is great seeing how our #research is steadily acknowledged in the scientific community.

Check the site ➡️ buff.ly/tppK4Hi
June 18, 2026 at 5:02 PM
kateplantphys.bsky.social
Check out @botanykat.bsky.social's awesome new paper!!! 🍃
July 7, 2026 at 8:53 AM
Reposted by Kate Johnson
profchoat.bsky.social
PhD Scholarship to work in the beautiful Blue Mountains!

Drought and heat stress responses of temperate forest trees growing across a broad environmental gradient

Applications close June 30

Must be Australian citizen, permanent resident, or NZ citizen to be eligible.

PS2026_034_CS0791892_HIE
Blue Mountains
June 9, 2026 at 2:04 AM
kateplantphys.bsky.social
Great news!
ec.europa.eu European Commission @ec.europa.eu · Jun 9
We have concluded successfully concluded negotiations on Australia’s association to Horizon Europe.

Together, our researchers will drive progress in clean tech, digital transformation, health and climate resilience.

More: link.europa.eu/tbK4xj
June 9, 2026 at 10:19 AM
Reposted by Kate Johnson
creaf.cat
Encara no has vist els treballs guanyadors del concurs FLOh!RA🌺?

L'entrega de premis va ser tot un èxit i vam gaudir d'unes creacions artístiques amb molta sensibilitat naturalista🌿

🤗Aquí les podeu veure ➡️ flohra.art

@kateplantphys.bsky.social @creaf.cat @ec.europa.eu @horizoneu.bsky.social
Obres d'art guanyadores de FLOh!RA i propostes del públic/ FLOh!RA winning artworks and people's choice entries
Rok Zonta Ramon Aquest dibuix és un bosc petit. He escollit una tècnica que es diu…
flohra.art
June 2, 2026 at 7:01 PM
kateplantphys.bsky.social
It was a lovely night to conclude FLOh!RA!🎨🖌️

See all the winning artworks and those that were eligible for the people’s choice prize here: flohra.art

Thank you to all who participated, helped and supported

Keep noticing and celebrating plants!!🌳🌸

@creaf.cat @ec.europa.eu @horizoneu.bsky.social
May 28, 2026 at 2:50 PM
kateplantphys.bsky.social
Vote for your favourite artwork, of those eligible for People's Choice, in the FLOh!RA art competition here!

flohra.art

Voting closes May 17th 🎨🖌️

Find out more about the comp in Catalan, English and Spanish here: lstewart22.github.io/FLOhRA/
@creaf.cat
May 12, 2026 at 9:50 AM
kateplantphys.bsky.social
Come on forest- 🌳 and fungi-🍄 filled adventures in our latest episode with the wonderful Henna from @creaf.cat !
listen here or wherever you get your podcasts🎧:
thatsscience.org/2026/05/03/e...
thatssciencetas.bsky.social That's What I Call Science 🎙 @thatssciencetas.bsky.social · May 3
Find out why 'would I put my cows here?’ Is a key question in Henna Tyyskä’s research. Come on a journey under the forest floor to understand how history affects forest fungi!

@uab.cat
@creaf.cat
@kateplantphys.bsky.social

#fungi #ecology #forest #landusechange #genetics #Sciart #Scicomm
May 7, 2026 at 7:23 AM
Reposted by Kate Johnson
nadineruehr.bsky.social
🌲🌳 PhD opportunity: Forest Vulnerability to Hotter Droughts

Interested in forest ecosystems, climate extremes & tree stress resilience?

🎓 Dual PhD (KIT 🇩🇪 + Melbourne 🇦🇺)
🔬 Plant Ecophysiology Lab, Garmisch-Partenkirchen 🇩🇪
🌍 +1-year research stay 🇦🇺

👉 Apply here: t1p.de/g39co
April 16, 2026 at 12:02 PM
kateplantphys.bsky.social
Listen to the wonderful Marc from @creaf.cat!!🍃🎇
thatssciencetas.bsky.social That's What I Call Science 🎙 @thatssciencetas.bsky.social · Apr 27
What do Electrics, leaves and space have in common? ⚡🌿🌌 Listen to this week’s ep, and Marc will tell you!
@kateplantphys.bsky.social #scicomm #stemmpodcast #science #maths #electrics #leaves #ClimateChange #Scicomm
April 27, 2026 at 7:52 AM
Reposted by Kate Johnson
benwaltez.bsky.social
Well, I guess this is my first ever piece of breaking news - probably the biggest rare plant story in Australia this year. Over at @tasinquirer.bsky.social.

tasmanianinquirer.com.au/news/very-ex...
New site of critically endangered Tasmanian species found
A group of bushwalkers walking in remote southwest Tasmania has discovered a new population of a critically endangered plant, King’s lomatia.
tasmanianinquirer.com.au
April 21, 2026 at 9:14 PM
Reposted by Kate Johnson
alice-rosen.bsky.social
The first paper from my PhD is now out in the world 🌲📖 Modelling forest dynamics using IPMs and repeat lidar doi.org/10.1002/rse2...
Pipeline for integrating lidar data with structured demographic models for ecological inference. (a) Forest populations are surveyed at appropriate time intervals with a lidar scanner to produce high-resolution 3D point clouds. Point clouds are processed into canopy height models (CHMs) and digital terrain models (DTMs). (b) Individual tree segmentation is performed using a CHM-based algorithm (e.g. Dalponte & Coomes, 2016). (c) Relevant environmental variables are derived. For example, TWI is an indicator of soil moisture accumulation (Kopecký et al., 2021) and is calculated from the DTM. Local competition is inferred from the canopy density surrounding each tree, using the CHM. (d) Trees are matched across time points using a crown-matching algorithm (Battison et al., 2024; Olsoy et al., 2024), before measuring changes in size and classifying mortalities. (e) Continuous traits (e.g. height and crown area) are evaluated for their ability to predict survival and growth across the life cycle. (f) Selected traits and environmental parameters are used to model the vital rates using regressions. (g) The integral projection model (IPM) is constructed based on the selected vital rate models and key life history traits (e.g. mean life expectancy, longevity, generation time) are calculated. (h) Finally, IPM outputs are analysed to test ecological hypotheses.
April 11, 2026 at 5:46 PM
Reposted by Kate Johnson
chriswernerlab.bsky.social
Exciting research environment in a great team and a lovely working space
March 30, 2026 at 4:51 PM
Reposted by Kate Johnson
alyssakullberg.bsky.social
What happens when trees lose the ability to cool their leaves? 🌳
Although trees can acclimate to heat, drought disrupts thermoregulation, driving a hydraulic–thermal cascade and leaf scorching. 🍂
Just out in PNAS doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
April 7, 2026 at 1:25 PM
Reposted by Kate Johnson
wslresearch.bsky.social
Even trees can get serious sunburn. A new study by a WSL-EPFL team shows how #heat and #drought affect #trees and how they sustain damage when the two are combined. This helps us understand how they will react to a changing climate: www.wsl.ch/en/news/when...
When trees get ‘sunburn’
Young trees are able to withstand high temperatures, but only if there is enough water available in the ground.
www.wsl.ch
April 7, 2026 at 11:29 AM
Reposted by Kate Johnson
charlottegrossiord.bsky.social
🌿🌳Our new paper, led by the brillant @alyssakullberg.bsky.social, shows that trees acclimate to warming by preserving thermoregulation. Yet, with hot droughts, higher thermotolerance cannot compensate when hydraulic stress prevents leaf cooling. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... @wslresearch.bsky.social
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
www.pnas.org
April 8, 2026 at 5:56 AM
Reposted by Kate Johnson
creaf.cat
TIC TAC, TIC TAC⏰ Queden pocs dies per poder participar a FLOh!RA, el concurs en què l’art es converteix en missatger de la natura i la ciència🌿

Ja sigui a través de la pintura🎨, el cant🎤 o la fotografia📸, aprofita aquesta oportunitat per mostrar el teu talent i explorar la teva creativitat!
creaf.cat CREAF @creaf.cat · Mar 11
Quan va ser l’última vegada que vas parar realment atenció a una planta?

Nosaltres et convidem a fer-ho amb FLOh!RA: un concurs per reconnectar amb les plantes i fer una creació artística 🎨🌸

Inspira't! Pots guanyar premis ✨

Consulta les bases i participa-hi!
🔗 www.creaf.cat/ca/articles/...
March 31, 2026 at 9:41 AM