The peer-review system is so broken ... 1) I have a paper thats been in review for 194 days, the editor has so far invited 6 reviewers. 2) impactor factors are garbage 3) the statistics on days in review/acceptance, etc. are skewed 4) the system is biased (reviewer2 can tank the entire thing)

I wrote a thing about DMSTAr, a new open-source R package that brings a legacy wetland water-quality model out of spreadsheet/VBA land and into reproducible #rstats workflows. Because the swamp deserves reproducible code. 🌿💧 swampthingecology.org/news/2026063...

Hearing a peatland as "unmanaged and economically inactive" is strange to me. Having natural areas in of itself is economically active (ie ecotourism, conservation, water protection and security, etc). What it means no exploitation of natural capital (ie timber harvest, peat cutting, mining, etc).

New paper out in Freshwater Biology! We found that nutrient reductions in a hypereutrophic Québec lake led to a shift from colonial Microcystis toward filamentous Dolichospermum — a reminder that lake recovery is rarely simple. I 💚 working with stellar collaborators!! doi.org/10.1111/fwb....

Phytoplankton Regime Shift Toward Filamentous Cyanobacteria Following Nutrient Reductions in a Hypereutrophic Lake

Phytoplankton community responses to nutrient-management interventions in agricultural catchments remain poorly understood, particularly with respect to functional group transitions. Petit-lac-Sai...

doi.org

The Hawthorn (Crataegus spp.) has started blooming here in central NY!! In the UK, hawthorn typically blooms in May (giving it the name May Tree). It is also known to be an indicator of when it's time to plant temperature sensitive plants. We've been watching the trees in our woodland ... waiting.

youtu.be/AjssyTGB8bw?...

Touring the native plants for sale at Go Native Perennials near Skaneatles, NY.

YouTube video by The Pessimistic Gardener

youtu.be

Catching up on Beechgrove Garden episodes, one episode did a segment on grass/lawn (after winter). The presenter mentioned grass/lawns have ecological value. Everything I've read & observed lawns have limited ecological value. Meanwhile grasses, not the monoculture lawn have ecological value.

Yay!! happy #WorldCurlewDay These little birds are pretty amazing. I fell in love with them at a young age and always love seeing their subtropical north American cousins the white ibis.

RSPB Scotland@rspbscotland.bsky.social · 4mo ago

It’s World Curlew Day! Curlews are in trouble, but across Scotland people are taking action to make a difference 🙌 At RSPB Insh Marshes, we’re working to give Curlews and other waders the best chance of success with the support of volunteers, farmers and landowners: www.rspb.org.uk/scotland/new...

It might too many layers but I have @classicfm.com and Den stora älgvandringen (the great moose migration) playing in the background.

Something that always brings excitement and a smile on my face, hearing owls in our (and/or adjacent) woodland. Late afternoon, early morning it doesn't matter.

Is it just me or did Gardeners World drop the beginning music? Cramming more garden goodness into the limited hour of programming?

It's like the forest is happy to see me now that the snow is all gone (for now).

‪ 🌳 Do you want to contribute to research on how humans perceive forests? Take this quick, anonymous 10-min survey 🌲 👉 www.biodiful.org#/forest This will help us explore how people experience forest biodiversity! Please share on 🦋 & tag @biodiful.bsky.social to reach more participants 🙏💚 🌐🌍🦤🦑🪴🍁🧪

Hey fellow aquatic biologists! You should move to Buffalo! 💧🌎🧪

Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper@bnwaterkeeper.bsky.social · 6mo ago

We're hiring! This position will undertake various aspects of citizen science and restoration projects, including providing technical/scientific and advocacy support, community outreach, education, tours, special events and more. Deadline to apply is March 2. bnwaterkeeper.org/about/careers/

Whilst writing up a new R-package I had my music playing in the background. This morning was a lovely couple of hours of @classicfm.com. So many great pieces ... This afternoon required a little more umph, "The Blood of Cu Chulainn" came on, that song always gives me goosebumps.

🚨 #PhD opportunity 🚨 Disturbance Impacts on swamp and forested peatlands in southern Québec This project will quantify how disturbances affect carbon cycling and hydrology in swamp and forested peatlands of southern Québec More info here: wetlandresilienceresearchgroup.com/Opportunitie...

I'm so confused ... Apparently I'm in the UK/British corner of the BlueSky-verse ...

Theo Sanderson@theo.io · 6mo ago

I made a map of 3.4 million Bluesky users - see if you can find yourself! bluesky-map.theo.io I've seen some similar projects, but IMO this seems to better capture some of the fine-grained detail

The USDA postdoc fellowship is back! If you're interested in studying eutrophication issues in working lands, let's write a proposal together. Check my lab webpage for how to get in touch (ecostoich.weebly.com/join.html).

I love it when reviewers think they know what they are talking about to refute the paper but it turns out they dont ... don't challenage me on a statistical approach unless you made the method. If it made it into the paper, there was a lot of effort involved. Don't hate the GAM, hate the player. ;)

Last year I took part in an Evidence Synthesis Training Programme. As part of this training participants conducted a Rapid Evidence Assessment and drafted a policy brief. Here is a preprint of our work soon to be submitted for peer review. www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-8...

... somehow magically I got a pre-print rejected from a pre-print server because their screeners have determined that the manuscript type or its content is not suitable for posting as a preprint despite checking all the boxes and is required under the program we are working with. 🤦‍♂️

... and in the 11th hour reviewer #3 asks to include specific authors (but not references) in a manuscript to justify extending the discussion section of an already long paper. If these papers didn't make into the manuscript, you'd think there would be a reason. 😡

#rstats #trend #waterquality friends Quick question, I'm looking at changes in long-term trends in water quality (~4+ decades) using Kendall and Thiel-Sen (as 1 part). Thinking about doing a bootstrapped Thiel-Sen slope to look at variability... is it overkill?

A small moment of zen from the seasonal stream in our woodland.

Only thing holding me together right now is anxiety, caffeine, my daily escape with @classicfm.com and binging old episodes of Restoration Man with @georgeclarke.bsky.social on YouTube.

I'm hiring a postdoc to work with myself, Dr Jim Lyons and the entire NOAA Firebird team on the adaptive management part of our larger project focused on the impacts of prescribed fire on Gulf Coast wetlands Accepting applications until Feb 15th blogs.illinois.edu/view/7426/19...

Recently, I've been using ChatGPT to help me write better R code. At first I was hesitant to use any AI/LLM but so far its been a great tool to remove redundancy or choke points in my code.

@bes-peatlandsgroup.bsky.social Anyone planning on participating in the Defra peatland evidence review? www.iucn-uk-peatlandprogramme.org/get-involved...

Defra Commissioned Peatland Evidence Review | IUCN UK Peatland Programme

Information on the Defra Commissioned Peatland Evidence Review, contracted to the IUCN UK Peatland Programme from November 2025 - March 2027.

iucn-uk-peatlandprogramme.org

I don't think I'm anything special by any means (i.e. my 💩 does stink 😜😂 ), but I do feel like I should be doing more ... making more of a positive impact, being involved with more things, doing more things (professionally and personally). But not in a FOMO way if that makes sense.

1) With the plethora of data and more being collected with longer-term studies/analyses being developed, sampling frequency and data inventories are becoming more and more important to understand not only how the system has changed but how the monitoring has changed.