Rachel Shepherd 🪴
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rmshepherd.bsky.social
Rachel Shepherd 🪴
@rmshepherd.bsky.social
250 followers 230 following 2 posts
PhD Candidate @ Syracuse University
Fascinated by all things soil ecology! Currently investigating tropical forest soil protists using genomics
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Rachel Shepherd 🪴
bes-soilecogroup.bsky.social
Soil Critters: Illuminating a Hidden World

Have you visited Frank Ashwood's website? We are obsessed with these photos! 🐜🐞https://www.frankashwood.com/macrophotography @frankashwood.bsky.social

Can you ID this species in the comments?

Send us your own photos to feature in our newsletter.
February 13, 2026 at 8:30 AM
Reposted by Rachel Shepherd 🪴
burnsajohn.bsky.social
Time lapse of an odd little monster. Presumably some kind of cercozoan from brackish water. #protistsonsky
February 6, 2026 at 10:17 PM
Reposted by Rachel Shepherd 🪴
hannahshulman.bsky.social
A poem I wrote while doing fieldwork at high-elevation ecosystems (@rmblscience.bsky.social) is now published online by Poets for Science!

poetsforscience.org/sub-alpine-o...
Sub-alpine omens - Poets for Science
Three-legged cow— Omen of endurance, of merciful husbandry, of balance learned on the ridges knife-edge, moving through the wound. Wolf at the treeline— Omen of return, of old laws testing new borders...
poetsforscience.org
December 9, 2025 at 5:46 PM
Reposted by Rachel Shepherd 🪴
hbrappap.bsky.social
And finally all at SyracuseU - @shaharsu.bsky.social @jessniblo.bsky.social for protein analyses, @rmshepherd.bsky.social for culturing, & @oliverio.bsky.social for leading this effort with me!
November 25, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Reposted by Rachel Shepherd 🪴
hbrappap.bsky.social
So happy to announce our new preprint, “A geothermal amoeba sets a new upper temperature limit for eukaryotes.” We cultured a novel amoeba from Lassen Volcanic NP (CA, USA) that divides at 63°C (145°F) 🔥 - a new record for euk growth!
#protistsonsky 🧵
November 25, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Reposted by Rachel Shepherd 🪴
thegsbi.bsky.social
🚨Check out the first blog of our GSB4 ECR series!🚨

Dr. Sabrina Sadiq discusses the path to discovering a vast diversity of viruses in Australian soils, and why we must know more!

📢Be sure to check out the talk at the #GSB4 conference in April!

www.globalsoilbiodiversity.org/blog-beneath...
Australian soils are rapidly expanding the known RNA virosphere — Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative
by sabrina sadiq, the university of sydney (australia) Soils and sediments harbour extraordinary biodiversity, with up to 10¹⁰ microbes per gram of soil. As RNA viruses likely infect all forms of lif...
www.globalsoilbiodiversity.org
November 18, 2025 at 2:55 AM
Reposted by Rachel Shepherd 🪴
micromaresca.bsky.social
Oh hey congratulations @oliverio.bsky.social @rmshepherd.bsky.social @hbrappap.bsky.social on the awesome thermophilic amoeba story!
biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social bioRxiv Microbiology @biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · Nov 25
A geothermal amoeba sets a new upper temperature limit for eukaryotes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.24.690213v1
November 25, 2025 at 3:25 AM
Reposted by Rachel Shepherd 🪴
evgenii-protasov.bsky.social
A Novel Protistan Trait Database Reveals Functional Redundancy and Complementarity in Terrestrial Protists(Amoebozoa and Rhizaria)
#protists #eukaryotes #amoeba
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
November 9, 2025 at 9:57 AM
Reposted by Rachel Shepherd 🪴
thegsbi.bsky.social
📣🪱 New Paper Alert: Novel tools for characterizing soil eukaryomes using NEON data 🪱📣

Open Access: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...
Characterising Soil Eukaryotic Diversity From NEON Metagenomics Datasets
Belowground eukaryotic diversity serves a vital role in soil ecosystem functioning, yet the composition, structure, and macroecology of these communities are significantly under-characterized. The Na...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
October 31, 2025 at 12:08 AM
Reposted by Rachel Shepherd 🪴
germusthermophilus.bsky.social
We are our best when we collaborate. 🧪🦠🔬🧬🌍🍄
This mural about the invisible #soil #biodiversity in Moers(🇩🇪) resulted from the collaboration between my friend Dr. Arne Schwelm, the people from sci:moers and the Stiftung für Umwelt und Entwicklung under the artistic direction of #cokyone.
A mural designed by members of sci:moers under the artistic direction of urban artist cokyone (https://cokyone.myportfolio.com), after the biodiversity analysis in soil done by Dr. Arne Schwelm. The organisms are a Gastrotrichia, Tardigrade, a nematode, a ciliate, a testate amoeba and the fruiting body of a fungus.
November 2, 2025 at 12:44 PM
Reposted by Rachel Shepherd 🪴
oliverio.bsky.social
Super cool update!! @rmshepherd.bsky.social was able to culture some thermophilic amoebae from our built environment steam vent samples on campus that can happily grow at at least 50C! They are most closely related to Fumarolamoeba (isolated from... yep... fumaroles!) #protistsOnSky #MicroSky
Amoebae in culture from nearby SUNY ESF steam vent
November 15, 2024 at 3:52 PM
Reposted by Rachel Shepherd 🪴
oliverio.bsky.social
sampling some local @sunyesf.bsky.social built environments (steam vents!) in pursuit of extremophile protists with
@micromaresca.bsky.social and @rmshepherd.bsky.social #MicroSky
#ProtistsOnSky
August 21, 2024 at 12:29 PM
Reposted by Rachel Shepherd 🪴
oliverio.bsky.social
Happy to share that work led by PhD student
@rmshepherd.bsky.social
is now out in Soil Biology & Biochem: sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

We sought to shed light on how soil micronutrients (Fe, Zn, Mn ...) regulate belowground microbiomes.

#MicroSky 🦠🧫🧪 #MicrobiomeSky
Micronutrients modulate the structure and function of soil bacterial communities
Soil micronutrients are increasingly recognized as critical regulators of biogeochemical cycling and terrestrial ecosystem processes. Despite substant…
sciencedirect.com
March 14, 2024 at 4:59 PM
rmshepherd.bsky.social
Hey AGU23! If you’re interested in soil + microbes, I’ll be presenting some of my research at 11am🥼🔬🧬
December 13, 2023 at 4:28 PM
Reposted by Rachel Shepherd 🪴
oliverio.bsky.social
our lab group decided to go super scary this year for halloween... 😱😱😱 coding error messages we've had recently 😱😱😱

@rmshepherd.bsky.social @nimshika.bsky.social @hbrappap.bsky.social
October 31, 2023 at 7:07 PM
rmshepherd.bsky.social
Smiling through the pain 🥲
September 16, 2023 at 12:02 AM