Erin Hotchkiss
@fluvialbenthos.bsky.social
I am a scientist who works (& plays) in waterways to understand their health & function. Associate Professor in Biological Sciences & Global Change Center Faculty Affiliate @ Virginia Tech. UWYO/Emory alum. she/her. Posts=my opinions. www.hotchkisslab.com
The new #OMB rules would transform funding decisions. I don't know where I would be without #NSF funding. Thanks @agu.org for providing a way to submit comments about the latest set of disastrous OMB rule changes. Deadline Aug 24th #resist agu.quorum.us/campaign/dvw...
Submit your comment now to help stop NSF from implementing harmful grantmaking changes
A new proposed rule would rewrite the terms of U.S. science at NSF. Submit a comment today to fight back.
agu.quorum.us
Hey if you live in Virginia there is a primary election tomorrow, August 4! Statewide, there is a R primary for Senate. There are some congressional primaries for D and/or R. There are also many local primaries for D and/or R. Check the Virginia elections site to see what the primaries are for you!
Home
Search for your polling place in Virginia, and find out what's on the ballot for the next upcoming election.
elections.virginia.gov
WHONDRS Global River Image Network (GRIN) Collection Effort, a distributed science effort collecting river shoreline photos from around the world. docs.google.com/document/d/1...
WHONDRS_GRIN_Field_Protocol
WHONDRS Global River Image Network (GRIN) Collection Effort This protocol describes the collection of sediment photos and simple metadata to generate AI-enabled grain size and topography measurements ...
docs.google.com
What co-benefits do we gain when planting trees along stream margins? We don't fully know. Fully-funded PhD going now — mapping food webs across Mt Taranaki's "ring of restoration" 🌱🐟 Please repost among your networks Email: frank.burdon@waikato.ac.nz
This may dramatically slow down the attacks on science. It also provides a template for how to prevent the federal government from becoming a patronage state. It’s a big deal!
Politico@politico.com · 3d agoSenate finalizes funding patch that would block Trump’s grant overhaul
As climate change destabilizes the ground beneath our feet, geology is becoming a real-time science, Christian Elliott reports:
Climate Change Is Destabilizing the Ground Beneath Our Feet
Mountains are shifting, permafrost is melting, and the risk of landslides is rising.
bit.ly
Serious wildland-urban interface (WUI) fire situation in Spokane, WA amid "extremely critical/Particularly Dangerous Situation" fire weather conditions. Two separate fires, #OldTrailsFire & #FairViewFire, are actively burning near/in neighborhoods; mass evacs ongoing. #WAwx
🦋 Looking for an outdoor activity this weekend? The #MonarchBlitz starts TODAY! 🌿 Help track milkweed plants and monarchs by recording your observations on a community science platform like iNaturalist! Get started today 👉 www.cec.org/internationa...
Are you interested in an MS position and stream ecosystems? My lab (www.benjamintumolo.com) @bionmu.bsky.social is recruiting an MS student to join a collaborative NSF-funded project to study positive species interactions in streams. Apply by Nov 2, 2026 See here: docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Global fire emissions dashboard. Very well-designed and very sobering. apps.atmosphere.copernicus.eu/fire-emissio...
Fire Emissions Watch
Global wildfire emissions, tracked every day — carbon emissions, fire intensity and smoke for every country, from the CAMS Global Fire Assimilation System.
apps.atmosphere.copernicus.eu
I'm back! Each Friday night, I write a briefing on what happened in US science & higher ed. 🧪 July 31 (Year 2, Week 31) - student visas, asylum cases & ICE surge at airports - "Golden Age" & Vanderbilt reports - kangaroo courts, grant terminations & so much more buttondown.com/liminalcreat...
Year 2, Week 31
Jul 11-31, 2026 – the abracadabra of it all
buttondown.com
To the reviewer and AE who were *adamant* that we should delete these watercolors: FYI im getting loads of compliments on them. Everyone says we need more art like that in peer-reviewed pubs.
Rafael Marcondes@rafamarcondes.bsky.social · last mo.Also check out these GORGEOUS watercolors by Rice biology/art student Caroline Pollan!
Congratulations Violet Onsongo on her new #dragonfly paper! Evolution and biogeography of the widespread dragonfly genus Orthetrum (Odonata: Anisoptera: Libellulidae): Massive dispersal in the tertiary - Systematic Entomology - Wiley Online Library resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Evolution and biogeography of the widespread dragonfly genus <fi>Orthetrum</fi> (<fc>Odonata: Anisoptera: Libellulidae</fc>): Massive dispersal in the tertiary
Ancestral range reconstruction supports an early widespread Afro–Eurasian distribution, rather than a single-region origin, reflecting connectivity among Africa, Europe and Asia during the Tertiary......
resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Absolutely nuts: Google Earth now has a feature that lets you convincingly fabricate satellite imagery www.digitaldigging.org/p/how-to-pla...
Updated my applyingtoeeb.info site on applying to evolution and ecology grad school in the US to incorporate some of the latest immigration changes. Share with any REU or other students who might be considering grad school.
EEB Mentor Match is now open! But apps due soon (8/17). Mentees: get help applying for grad school or fellowships in ecology & evolution. Mentors: senior grads, post-docs, or faculty in these fields willing to give advice Org by Diversity Cmte of @asn-amnat.bsky.social Pls share! eebmentormatch.com
EEB Mentor Match
Visit the post for more.
eebmentormatch.com
Always happy to see new mapping tools for R. David Willinger's **{cartographr}** is a welcome addition to the spatial visualization ecosystem. The more the merrier! cran.r-project.org/package=cart... #rspatial #rstats #Cartography #DataViz #GeoSpatial
cartographr: Crafting Print-Ready Maps and Layered Visualizations
Simplifying the creation of print-ready maps, this package offers a user-friendly interface derived from 'ggplot2' for handling OpenStreetMap data. It streamlines the map-making process, allowing…
cran.r-project.org
Avocados come in 2 varieties - A-types start each day female and switch to male midday. B-types do the reverse. In work just published from the last chapter of my PhD, we show this system evolved 40+million yrs ago and is regulated by alleles of 1 transcription factor www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Balanced polymorphism in a floral transcription factor underlies the ancient rhythm of daily sex alternation in avocado | PNAS
In avocado and certain wild relatives in Lauraceae, a highly synchronized daily rhythm of floral sex timing promotes cross-pollination between two ...
pnas.org
Wildfire interacts with land cover to influence mercury concentrations in juvenile Steelhead in coastal California watersheds https://ow.ly/Wxhx50ZfYr2 📊: Abbott et al., Fig. 2 | cjfas-2025-0357
#MethodsMonday explores how researchers developed a framework to reduce subjectivity in processing floating chamber measurements from aquatic ecosystems. 📖 Minaudo et al. (2026) 🔗 aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... @restore4cs.bsky.social @caminaudo.bsky.social #AquaticScience
Linking Abundance and Activity of Ammonia-Oxidising Bacteria and Archaea in an Agriculturally Impacted First-Order Stream #microbiology #archaea #bacteria #ammonia #MicroSky enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Linking Abundance and Activity of Ammonia‐Oxidising Bacteria and Archaea in an Agriculturally Impacted First‐Order Stream
Ammonia-oxidising archaea (AOA) and bacteria (AOB) coexist in streambed sediments, but their contributions to nitrification remain unresolved. Using field sampling, sequencing, qPCR, microcosm incuba....
enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
I know so many women who are like 'I struggled my whole life with the most basic stuff' only to FINALLY get diagnosed with ADHD. Glad to see more discussion and I hope this results in better screening for girls.
ADHD looks different in women and poses unique health risks
For decades, ADHD was viewed as a childhood condition that mostly affected boys. Researchers now know ADHD manifests differently in girls, but many still go undiagnosed until adulthood.
npr.org
Garden ponds are easy to dismiss as too small to matter, but they contribute meaningfully to #urbanbiodiversity. Our new paper looks at what zooplankton live in garden vs urban ponds, and how fish and urban cover shape those communities. Check it out: doi.org/10.1002/lno....
Zooplankton communities and their responses to fish presence and urban cover across garden and other urban ponds
As cities expand globally, the ratio of artificial to natural freshwater habitats is increasing. While public urban ponds have been the subject of an increasing number of biodiversity studies, the bi...
aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Emails show how Virginia regulators downplayed data center health concerns
Emails show how Virginia regulators downplayed data center health concerns
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality stepped into a fight over powering AI facilities with natural gas turbines. It could shape the industry’s future.
dlvr.it
Stop everything! Ray Gagne has just finished the second edition of "The Plant-Feeding Gall Midges of North America" and it's freely available here: zenodo.org/records/2137...
The Plant-Feeding Gall Midges of North America
This revision of The Plant-Feeding Gall Midges of North America, originally published in 1989, began as soon as the earlier book was in press. Since then, more than half again as many records of plant...
zenodo.org
Job: Come work with me! Ready to turn your love for lakes into a career? Join the MSU Extension Center for Lakes and Streams as our new Inland Lakes Shoreline Educator! MS and experience with shoreline protection desired. Location: Upper Peninsula. careers.msu.edu. Search for posting # 1148258.
Drought experiments often feed process-based models used to forecast impacts of global change. BUT most experiments use relatively weak designs. By re-analyzing >1,200 effect sizes we found that the magnitude and certainty of drought impacts is much higher than previously thought. + details below!
INRAE_ecobiop@inrae-ecobiop.bsky.social · 2w agoNew article: Simple experimental designs are underestimating drought impacts on rivers. Our meta-analysis (1284 effect sizes, 53 experiments) shows BACI designs detect 2× stronger effects than simpler ones. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
“The spring…one of the only reliable bodies of water for 100 miles, is vital for wildlife and humans who have lived here for millennia. The specialness of A’al Vaipia cannot be overstated…it has been a home, gathering place and sacred site for water and ceremonies since time immemorial.”
Guardian Environment@environment.theguardian.com · 2w ago‘Total chaos’: the biological wonderland threatened by Trump’s border wall
A new analysis in Science of more than 116,000 bird songs has revealed that the astonishing variety of passerine birdsong is built from just eight basic acoustic motifs, like trills, whistles, and harmonic notes. https://scim.ag/4ft2KBF
The global biogeography of passerine songs
Although bird songs are classic models for understanding the evolution of vocal communication, their global diversity has long made the development of a unifying framework challenging. By analyzing th...
scim.ag
