Alayna Mead
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alaynamead.bsky.social
Alayna Mead
@alaynamead.bsky.social
210 followers 360 following 13 posts
NSF PRFB postdoc at Penn State studying adaptation to climate in trees 🌳 #PopUpPoplars | PhD on California oaks | fan of nature and books | she/her
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alaynamead.bsky.social
Happy goldenrod season to all who celebrate (and bonus Coreopsis)
A spider with long green and brown striped front legs hides behind the petals of a yellow flower A black and white beetle trundles along the underside of a goldenrod stem A slightly blurry iridescent green bee takes off from a yellow goldenrod, with blue sky behind A yellow beetle with black spots sitting on a yellow goldenrod flower
September 28, 2025 at 4:04 PM
alaynamead.bsky.social
Hi #ESA2025! I'll be talking about phenology in a poplar hybrid zone at 3:45 this afternoon in the "Beyond Budburst–Connecting Phenological Transitions Among Tissues and Times in Woody Plants" session. Excited to hear some phenology talks!
Bright green, newly formed leaves growing from a poplar stem in a field.
August 11, 2025 at 6:02 PM
alaynamead.bsky.social
If you want to plant seeds adapted to future climates on Santa Rosa, you may want to use the southern Catalina and San Clemente populations. But they have more widespread introgression with another oak species. If this is a concern, some populations on adjacent Santa Cruz should be almost as good!
Heatmap showing climate suitability between pairs of planting sites and seed source sites. Figure caption: Climate suitability in 2050 when matching a sampled source site (columns) to a planting site (rows). Suitability was calculated for each grid cell where trees were collected for this study, and nearby grid cells with similar values were averaged for clarity. Planting sites (rows) are sorted by average suitability, with the optimal sites at the top. Columns are sorted geographically (roughly north to south and west to east). Under the ecosystem preservation approach, optimal source populations for restoring a given site can be selected by looking at climate suitability within a row. Under the species preservation approach, optimal planting sites for a given population can be selected by looking at climate suitability within a column.
January 3, 2025 at 9:49 PM
alaynamead.bsky.social
The benefit of this approach is that climate suitability can be compared for each possible pair of seed sources and planting sites to identify pairs that may reduce maladaptation to future climates. (6/)
Heatmap showing climate suitability between pairs of planting sites and seed source sites. Figure caption: Climate suitability in 2050 when matching a sampled source site (columns) to a planting site (rows). Suitability was calculated for each grid cell where trees were collected for this study, and nearby grid cells with similar values were averaged for clarity. Planting sites (rows) are sorted by average suitability, with the optimal sites at the top. Columns are sorted geographically (roughly north to south and west to east). Under the ecosystem preservation approach, optimal source populations for restoring a given site can be selected by looking at climate suitability within a row. Under the species preservation approach, optimal planting sites for a given population can be selected by looking at climate suitability within a column.
January 3, 2025 at 9:49 PM
alaynamead.bsky.social
So we used genomic offset to compare different conservation strategies with/without assisted gene flow: 1) Status quo 2) AGF to conserve existing island oak ecosystems and 3) AGF to conserve genetic diversity within the species by transplanting to the best future sites (5/)
Boxplots of genomic offset values for six different islands under four conservation strategies. In general, status quo and ecosystem preservation have higher offsets than species preservation. Figure caption: Comparison of genomic offsets under four management scenarios for the Channel Islands (A) and Guadalupe Island (B). Higher offsets represent greater maladaptation to future climate. Offsets were calculated for each grid cell that included sampled trees, referred to as “populations,” and are sorted by island. The status quo strategy indicates offsets for each population at its current site. In the ecosystem preservation strategy, the offset is given for a scenario in which the site is planted with the non-local population predicted to be best adapted to its 2050 conditions. In the species preservation strategy, the offset is given for the population on the island if it were transplanted to another site with the most optimal 2050 conditions, either when including the sampled sites or all sites on the islands. For (A, B), offset values are calculated separately, with transplantation only within the Channel Islands or Guadalupe Island, and the offsets are not comparable between the two plots.
January 3, 2025 at 9:49 PM
alaynamead.bsky.social
I'm super excited to share that our article on conservation genomics of Island Oak (Quercus tomentella) is now out in @evolappjournal.bsky.social! This was one of my PhD chapters and funded by CCGP and TNC. 🌾(🧵 below)
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
A tree growing on a hillside against a backdrop of fog on Santa Rosa island. Santa Cruz island is faintly visible on the horizon beyond the fog. Another couple of trees and green vegetation are seen in the foreground.
January 3, 2025 at 9:49 PM