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New publication: An “unprecedented” map of Joshua tree populations

One of the biggest challenges for studying biodiversity is answering a seemingly simple question, where does this species live? If we know where a species occurs, we can describe the habitat that it needs, assess how large and stable its populations are, and make informed predictions about what will happen to those populations if we…

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Revive & Restore profiles the Yoder Lab’s “genomic inventory” of Joshua trees

Revive & Restore, a nonprofit devoted to supporting the application of genomic data in conservation biology, funded the Yoder Lab’s sequencing of 300 Joshua tree genomes in a “genomic inventory” of the species as part of their Wild Genomes initiative. In the spring of 2021, Yoder Lab members fanned out across the Mojave Desert to…

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WATCH: Workshopping a musical homage to Joshua trees

TREELOGY is a series of musical compositions commissioned by the Soraya, CSUN’s performing arts center, to celebrate three iconic tree species of California: coast redwoods, giant sequoias, and the Yoder Lab’s favorite, Joshua trees. TREELOGY premieres in just a few weeks, and this episode of the MusiKaravan vlog travels to Joshua Tree National Park to…

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New publication: Navigating conservation challenges in the Mojave Desert

The Mojave Desert, home to the lab’s favorite woody monocot (Joshua tree), encompasses some of the largest tracts of undeveloped land in the continental United States. That wilderness is under increasing pressure from suburban sprawl as climate change threatens to make its desert landscapes even less hospitable to the thousands of unique native plant and…

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New publication: Finding a population genetic fingerprint of coevolution

A new paper from the lab — coauthored with all three of the Yoder Lab’s graduate student alumni — is now online ahead of print in the journal Evolution Letters. In it, we analyze population genetic data from 20 pairs of plants and herbivores, parasites, and mutualists that live intimately on those plants to test for evidence that the associate species’…

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Cate MacGregor shows how Joshua tree’s super-specialized pollinators are adapted to climate, too

Master’s student Cate MacGregor successfully defended her dissertation this morning. Cate’s thesis project uses RADseq data to look for evidence of local adaptation to climate in populations of moths so specialized that we know next to nothing about their lives when they’re not on their host plant — the pollinators of Joshua trees. Working from samples…

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New publication: A career cost for LGBTQ researchers who can’t come out at work

Queer scientists who don’t feel able to openly express their minority identities in the workplace pay a cost in research productivity, according to results of a new Queer in STEM study, which is now online at PLOS ONE. This new paper, coauthored by Joey Nelson and Allison Mattheis, presents analysis of responses to the Queer…

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Mikhail Plaza uses linkage mapping to put Joshua tree evolution in its genomic place

Earlier today, Master’s student Mikhail Plaza successfully defended his thesis research, in which he built a linkage map for Joshua tree and used it to reexamine data identifying genetic loci that may play a role in local adaptation to climate and to specialized pollinating yucca moths. Mikhail’s project is among the first fruits of the…