I am so excited to share this paper which was published (in unformatted, Accepted form yesterday). Some of you know that this is my "unicorn" paper - I've been been working on this paper on and off for over 10 years. A few notes on it's significance to me....1/8 https://twitter.com/ESAEcology/status/1248694739601199104

First, it was the last piece of my post-doc research, started with a JSPS fellowship to spend a month in Japan in 2009. Just a few days before I was going to depart, I was offered my current job @michigantech . I did much of my negotiations while starting this data analysis 2/8

Through this project, I was able to bridge through my postdoc mentor (shredding leaves here) to his post doc mentor, Kurt Fausch (e-fishing here with my PhD student a few years back), who has been an important cheerleader and source of inspiration for me these past 10 years 3/8

I also had a chance to work with a group of amazing and inspiring collaborators, some of whom ended up as co-authors on this paper, and others have been continued sources of information and collaboration. Most co-authors are in this photo from Tomakomai in Oct 2008! 4/8

This paper reminds me of the friends I spent time with in Japan (Jenny and Fuyuki shown here!), and everyone I have discussed the project w/ at meetings and seminars over the years. I wrote much of the current iteration of this paper on sabbatical visiting @biogeobob in WY. 5/8

Finally, and most importantly, this paper is inspired by Nakano, who left us too early and with too much work to do. I never knew him, but I am so lucky to be part of the network of those who work in his shadow. His untimely death was 20 years ago on March 27th. 6/8

On March 27, Kurt sent a letter to Nakano's family and collaborators describing some of our recent work using data Nakano collected during his life, including this paper. The conclusion of the letter sums up perfectly why this paper is so important to all of us. 7/8

Finally, I know it a hard time all around, but if you have been inspired by Kurt and Nakano's friendship and scholarship and Kurt's work to keep Nakano's memory alive, consider supporting this scholarship endowment at CSU 8/8 https://advancing.colostate.edu/FAUSCH-NAKANO