Arthur Gessler
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arthurobuntspecht.bsky.social
Arthur Gessler
@arthurobuntspecht.bsky.social
#Ecosystem Science and Impacts of #Climate Change; #Forest #Ecology; #Biodiversity.
| Ecosystem Ecology group at @wslresearch.bsky.social |
| Professor at @usyseth.bsky.social |
| Head of the @SwissForestLab.bsky.social |
We found that variations in hydraulic traits of A. fabri as they age serves an adaptive purpose: they enable trees to achieve greater heights and enhance their hydraulic threshold.
October 20, 2025 at 4:21 PM
This makes science not really credible. I see nevertheless that approaches such as the ones of Zhu et al are important - as micro- and nanoplastics are likely a global threat. But we - the scientists- need to put our results into a realistic context - this is our core responsibility.
October 10, 2025 at 6:15 PM
This paper is a perfect example how trying to get newspapers-citable into the focus of a paper invalidates the really important findings (microplastics can reduce photosynthesis but we do not know how this might scale to our ecosystems - just because we have no data at all.
October 10, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Just imagine you go with machine learning from scarce lab data with almost no information on plastic pollution under real world conditions to crop and fishery yield losses as a result of that given pollution. I acknowledge that this is a first step - but you need to name the shortcomings.
October 10, 2025 at 6:05 PM
They (1) extrapolate plastic impact measurements on photosynthesis under controlled and highly artificial conditions to the real world (2) without valid data on global plastic pollution and (3) without any baseline for their model.
October 10, 2025 at 6:00 PM
We still feel that this later statement in their response letter is not congruent with the alarming statements in the original text: „These findings underscore the urgency of integrating plastic mitigation into global hunger and sustainability initiatives“ which seem to be targeted to press coverage
October 10, 2025 at 5:55 PM
In their response (www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...) some authors of the original paper state that „[they] believe it is scientifically sound and responsible to use currently available—albeit limited evidence—for preliminary assessments and to stimulate broader scientific and policy dialog“
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
October 10, 2025 at 5:49 PM
This is our critical assessment of www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... These authors claimed that they can calculate quite exact MP-induced real world global photosynthesis losses translating in a reduction of 22.15 to 115.73 MT·y−1 in main crop production and 0.32 to 7.39 MT·y−1 in seafood production.
A global estimate of multiecosystem photosynthesis losses under microplastic pollution | PNAS
Understanding how ecosystems respond to ubiquitous microplastic (MP) pollution is crucial for ensuring global food security. Here, we conduct a mul...
www.pnas.org
October 10, 2025 at 5:44 PM