Tristy Vick-Majors
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tjvmajors.bsky.social
Tristy Vick-Majors
@tjvmajors.bsky.social
Wherever there's water | Microbial Ecology |Biogeochemistry | Asst Prof | #firstgen | whereverthereswater.org | opinions are my own
Nice new work out in Ecology Letters by Ozersky and colleagues, showing that high latitude lakes will likely feel the greatest impacts of warming winters. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #winter #limnology
Impacts of Changing Winters on Lake Ecosystems Will Increase With Latitude
Climate warming is particularly strong in winter and at high latitudes, driving changes in lake ice and snow cover. Using simple models, we show that the interaction between ice duration and seasonal....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
August 25, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Reposted by Tristy Vick-Majors
The National Science Foundation plans to abruptly end operation of the RV Nathaniel B. Palmer, the sole U.S. research ship capable of braving the farthest reaches of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. scim.ag/4mB8LOX
NSF plans abrupt end to lone U.S. Antarctic research icebreaker
Imminent termination of the RV Nathaniel B. Palmer shocks polar scientists
scim.ag
July 28, 2025 at 9:02 PM
Reposted by Tristy Vick-Majors
Are you an early-career biologist or ecologist who would benefit from an invited seminar? Would you like to come to UMaine next fall or spring to give a talk? Leave a brief comment with some info about what you do. I'm co-hosting our seminar series again, and am filling out our rosters.
July 30, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Read the entire thread for extra fun.
NEW: NSF will be kicked out of their building. Announcement will be made tomorrow by HUD Sec. and Governor of VA. HUD will take over the NSF building over the next two years.

NSF staffer: "There is no planning for NSF, no identified future location, appropriation for a new building or a move."
June 25, 2025 at 1:15 AM
Really helpful thread on today’s NSF Division of Earth Sciences webinar.
NSF Division of Earth Sciences Informational Webinar starting in less than a minute....

Will live post as things come up....
June 17, 2025 at 10:48 PM
Our @noaa.gov funded team is getting after it on Lake Erie this week, with PhD student An leading sample collection like a pro. Great Lakes, great carbon, great microbes, great students!
June 17, 2025 at 10:36 PM
I am sadly not at the @iaglr.bsky.social conference this week, but thanks to colleagues got some great photo evidence of my students sharing their posters!
June 5, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Reposted by Tristy Vick-Majors
Today on #World Environment Day, we’re launching 3 FREE courses on water sustainability: i) Climate change impacts on ice; ii) Indigenous relationships to water, and iii) Big data analytics. Enrol here: www.yorku.ca/research/wat...

Thank you to all of our contributors for sharing their expertise!
June 5, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Reposted by Tristy Vick-Majors
"Research that MISG funds is critical to understand Great Lakes ecosystems and the life they support."

For 50+ years, Michigan Sea Grant has provided science-based info, educational programs, and much more. Sign this letter to show your support for our continued federal funding: buff.ly/CerVNTt
June 2, 2025 at 12:21 PM
Reposted by Tristy Vick-Majors
OK, this is wild.

In September 2023, geophysicists across the world started monitoring a very odd signal coming from the ground under them.

It was picked up in the Arctic. And Antarctica. It was detected everywhere, every 90 seconds, as regular as a metronome, for *nine days*.

What the HELL?

1/
May 12, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Reposted by Tristy Vick-Majors
The State of Biodefense is beleaguered but resilient.

Watch below the Commission's State of Biodefense Address delivered by our Executive Director, Dr. Asha M. George, during yesterday's public meeting.

Read the testimony here: biodefensecommission.org/the-state-of...

youtu.be/R5VHNkHDMm4?...
2025 State of U.S. Biodefense Address
YouTube video by Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense
youtu.be
May 9, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Reposted by Tristy Vick-Majors
Everyone needs to understand that dismantling NSF will have devastating long term consequences in our competitiveness and innovation in science, technology and beyond. 1/
Exclusive: NSF faces radical shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions
Changes seen as a response to presidential directives on what research to fund
www.science.org
May 9, 2025 at 1:19 PM
I’m so pleased to see the important issues of planetary protection and biodefense being given attention, and honored to be part of the conversation. Many thanks to the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense for your work.
“Our work has shown that the diversity of microbial life in a subglacial lake rivals that on the surface - a testament to the tenacity of microbial life” - Dr. Trista Vick-Majors, Assistant Professor, Michigan Tech University. @tjvmajors.bsky.social
May 8, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Reposted by Tristy Vick-Majors
Your NOAA $$ at work! We're funding @tjvmajors.bsky.social at MTU to coordinate a "winter grab" of hard-to-get water samples. Last week, our director @newelllab.bsky.social joined @nicolewagner.bsky.social and her students from Oakland University to collect samples under Lake St. Clair's ice. (1/2)
March 5, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Reposted by Tristy Vick-Majors
Felt great to get out in the field for #winter #limnology #GreatLakes-wide sampling on Lake St. Clair yesterday with @nicolewagner.bsky.social as part of a @miseagrant.bsky.social funded project led by @tjvmajors.bsky.social. Just happened to be an all-women team. #womeninSTEM
February 25, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Reposted by Tristy Vick-Majors
“What part of diversity, equity, and inclusion do you have a problem with?”
www.science.org/content/arti...
U.S. early-career researchers struggling amid chaos
Uncertain funding, government firings, and distressed universities hit vulnerable groups especially hard
www.science.org
February 22, 2025 at 12:56 AM
These students rock! A great day sampling for @miseagrant.bsky.social funded Great Lakes Winter Grab on Lake Superior. MI Sea Grant work is critical to the health and understanding of our largest source of freshwater, and we are proud to do the science they support!
February 22, 2025 at 12:39 PM
Reposted by Tristy Vick-Majors
Firings are happening right now at the National Science Foundation. Essential staff are being cut.

This isn’t about the budget. If it was, they’d be going after the military (17%) or state appropriations (38%). NSF is 0.7% of the federal budget. All federal employees make up only 4% of the budget.
February 18, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Cutting overhead on new and existing grants will do dire damage to universities and scientific research.
National Institutes of Health radically cuts support to universities
Sudden and drastic change will make it hard for researchers to keep the lights on.
arstechnica.com
February 8, 2025 at 2:16 AM
Reposted by Tristy Vick-Majors
Worried about losing access to US federal data that may go off-line, or already is? You’re not alone—but duplication isn’t the answer.

Many ongoing efforts have already archived key datasets and many more are ongoing. Check out these existing resources and, if you can, support their work. 🧵
a man in a black shirt is looking at a screen with a red background
Alt: a man in a black shirt is looking at a screen with a red background
media.tenor.com
February 6, 2025 at 7:36 PM
The federal workforce does work that is critical to all of our every day lives. That work isn’t always visible. But we need you, federal employees! I know people are hurting or confused by the messages coming from OPM. Don’t resign. Hang in there. We see you, we appreciate you. You are not alone.
Trump wants to cut the federal workforce. Who they are and what that means
President Trump's efforts to cut the federal workforce by 10% might not save as much money as hoped and could have unintended consequences. NPR explains why.
www.npr.org
February 3, 2025 at 3:49 AM
Reposted by Tristy Vick-Majors
The world has been through anti-science cycles before, to disastrous results

On a detour on my lit review, a mosey through the history of our familiar friend, the standard onion (Allium cepa) brought me right to one of botany's greatest cautionary tales of what happens when ideology overrides data
January 23, 2025 at 9:50 PM
Reposted by Tristy Vick-Majors
Very excited to see some of my PhD work published after much (much) too long!

Using mesocosms and controlled ponds, we manipulated ice cover conditions and looked at the corresponding DO, light, and chlorophyll-a regimes.

aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Evaluating the influence of snow and ice conditions on under‐ice light regimes, dissolved oxygen, and primary production in shallow lakes using controlled manipulative systems
Shifts in hydroclimatic regimes associated with global climate change are affecting the timing and duration of winter ice-cover in temperate and high-latitude lakes. Less is known on how associated c....
aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
January 17, 2025 at 8:46 PM