…And we’re back! After a lengthy hiatus, Bill and Steve return with an episode focused on the fall. Specifically, they look into why fall is the neglected season when it comes to climate change research. Is it a conspiracy? Is it a plot by the ‘deep state’ to play favorites with the seasons? Probably not, but the guys have some fun uncovering the possible reasons why the natural events that occur in the fall are more difficult for researchers to pin down and quantify.
And a special thanks to all of our fans who reached out, wondering if we were still alive. It did our hearts good to know that we were missed!
This episode was recorded on October 19, 2019 at Como Lake Park in Lancaster, NY.
Episode Notes
The authors of the article highlighted the need for more factorial experiments looking into climate change and the fall. Bill and Steve wondered what a ‘factorial experiment’ is, and, according to Wikipedia, it’s “an experiment whose design consists of two or more factors, each with discrete possible values or "levels", and whose experimental units take on all possible combinations of these levels across all such factors.” So, a factorial experiment would study the effect of each factor on the response variable. For example, it could track how climate change impacts, say, the departure date of yellow warblers or the ripening date of wild black cherries.
The guys also wondered what “phylogenetic signals” were. Several papers defined them as “the tendency for related species to resemble each other, more than they resemble species drawn at random from a phylogenetic tree.”
Thank you to the listeners who wrote in and reminded the guys that when trees hang onto their dead leaves, it’s called marcescence. But it’s not just leaves! Marcescence is the retention of any dead plant organs that normally are shed.
Finally, Bill and Steve wondered what the mountains of northern Mexico are called. They were likely thinking of the Sierra Madre Occidental.
Works Cited:
Gallinat, A.S., Primack, R.B. and Wagner, D.L., 2015. Autumn, the neglected season in climate change research. Trends in ecology & evolution, 30(3), pp.169-176.
Links:
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As always, check out Always Wandering Art (Website and Etsy Shop), who usually provides the artwork for our episodes!