#StudentScicomm, diversity within an algae bloom, the origins of a vital mutualism, and population genetics in continuous space

The Molecular Ecologist Podcast made it to a second episode! Thanks for listening to our first one, and for all the positive comments. In addition to our "home" hosting service, Anchor.fm, you can now subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, and Spotify — or you can add the RSS feed URL directly to your podcast-management app of choice. Whatever service you use, consider taking a moment to rate or even review the podcast, which will help us build an audience.

On this episode,

• Stacy Krueger-Hadfield and Sabrina Heiser talk about Stacy's #StudentScicomm initiative, using science blogging as an assignment in graduate-level professional development and science courses.
• Kelle Freel describes the results of a community genetics survey of diversity within an algae bloom that travels the North Atlantic every year, by Bolaños et al. (doi: 10.1038/s41396-020-0636-0)
• R. Shawn Abrams previews an upcoming post about new research supporting the hypothesis that symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing bacteria had a single origin in the common ancestor of the clade that includes legumes, roses, and oaks.
• Jeremy Yoder recaps a new simulation study that shows how populations distributed continuously across space (which is to say, most natural populations) confound and complicate population genetic analyses, by Battey et al. (doi: 10.1534/genetics.120.303143)

The music in this episode is Leroy Anderson's "The Syncopated Clock," performed on piano by Markus Staab and available under a Creative Commons license via Musopen.