“It is perhaps beyond obvious that the Trump Administration would look at a forest and see board feet of timber. But the gutting of the Forest Service couldn’t come at a more inopportune moment.”

Opinion | NASA Flew by the Moon, but Behind the Scenes, Its Science Is a Chaotic Mess

Worth the read, happening in other agencies as well as NASA. Loss of scientists, congressional funding not being dispersed. Artemis II is still great (!) but can’t mask attacks on science.

NASA Flew by the Moon, but Behind the Scenes, Its Science Is a Chaotic Mess www.nytimes.com/2026/04/08/o...

We are hiring! Interested in doing a PhD and excited about forest management, ecosystem services, simulation modeling and beta diversity? Come work with us @edfm-tum.bsky.social at @tum.de, full job ad here: cloud.edfm.ls.tum.de/index.php/s/...

U.S. Forest Service unveils extensive closures of research facilities Cost-cutting move is expected to cause resignations and turmoil

What will happen to the 82 USFS experimental forests around the country? Many sites have decades-long experiments that are tracking how forests are changed by timber harvesting practices and climate change. As I say here, “you can't just pick up an experimental forest site and move it to SLC.”

Not only will you work on birds, but also bats, skinks, geckos & frogs. This research would come up with conservation strategies & a climate change extinction risk atlas for #NewZealand. Applications close 27th April 🦜🦇🦎🐸

Excellent piece on wetlands, one of the habitats that experienced large losses and provides key #EcosystemServices

New paper in Ecosystems led by @biogeobob.bsky.social! Fun NSF-funded collaboration tracing the immediate & delayed whole-stream respiration of dissolved organic carbon using 13C-glucose & 13C-fescue leachate additions + 13C-DIC analyses w/ Michelle Baker & Stephen Plont. 💧🌎

These changes to the USFS, the loss of the regional offices and excellent long-term scientific research, will be devastating. I hope it can be stopped.

April 1 is supposed to be peak snow in California. Forget that this year An extremely warm March melted most of the snow in California's Sierra Nevada. The early melt fits a long-term pattern as greenhouse gases push temperatures higher.

Today is the unofficial end of the California rainy season and the last official snowpack survey. There's basically no snow, and the reason is #climatechange.

“This particular year is as clear an indication of the influence of climate change as anything we’ve seen”
www.latimes.com/environment/...

Ecosystems Ecosystems is an international journal that bridges fundamental ecology, environmental ecology, and environmental problem-solving across diverse temporal and ...

Check out the new issue of ECOSYSTEMS, great studies in ecosystem ecology across a wide range of systems and scales. We welcome your manuscripts! Top-notch editorial board, quality reviews, timely publication. @steve-carpenter.bsky.social @springernature.com

link.springer.com/journal/1002...

Snowpack decline kindles more severe fire in the western United States Snowpack decline kindles more severe fire in the western United States, Balik, Jared A, Coop, Jonathan D, Parks, Sean A

1/5
NEW paper alert! 🧪🔥

A lot of you know that snowpack is currently at a record or near-record low in many watersheds in the western US.

A logical question is thus: how will the low snowpack affect wildfire in the coming months?

Read the thread for key findings ...

Summer School 2026: Blue-green biodiversity. Research and practice at the interface of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems The WSL-Eawag Biodiversity Center is pleased to announce the fourth summer school on blue-green biodiversity.

⏰ Three weeks left to apply to our Summer School on Blue-Green Biodiversity, a joint effort by @eawag.bsky.social and @wslresearch.bsky.social.
💧🌳 Join us in Davos to learn more about aquatic & ecosystems from an interdisciplinary lens.
biodiversitycenter.wsl.ch/en/events/de...

Moderate global warming does not rule out extreme global climate outcomes - Nature Extreme global climate outcomes may occur even under moderate 2 °C warming and may turn out to be more extreme than model-averaged projections at 3 °C or 4 °C warming.

Extreme global climate outcomes are possible even at 2°C of warming

In our new Nature study led by @bevacquae.bsky.social with Jakob Zscheischler and @janasillmann.bsky.social, we show that even moderate warming of 2°C could lead to extreme outcomes.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Together with @juditlecinadiaz.bsky.social & @monicagturner.bsky.social, we synthesized studies on post-disturbance forest reorganization. Key insight: Self-replacement is common across biomes, i.e., disturbances act as catalysts of change only under specific conditions doi.org/10.1111/geb....

Map of U.S., from coolwx.com, showing locations currently experiencing record-breaking temperatures. There are countless such locations in the Western U.S., with hundreds of red dots (locations breaking daily record highs) and dozens of pink dots (locations breaking March monthly record highs). The region of record heat extends from the Pacific Coast to the Great Plains, and from Canada to Mexico.

Fair to say that the Western U.S. heatwave has reached record-shattering status, with dozens of locations breaking all-time March monthly heat records & some now approaching *April* records. Swath of record heat extends clear from Pacific to Great Plains, & from Canada to Mexico.

Well put, Gavin-I will use this in my fall graduate seminar, we discuss these issues! @uwmadscience.bsky.social

@wernerrammer.bsky.social et al. have developed a cool new tool to visualize forest simulation output. EcoViz offers both photorealistic and symbolic visualizations of future forest trajectories. Looking forward to using this in science communication! @ecography.bsky.social doi.org/10.1002/ecog...

Climate change will increase forest disturbances in Europe throughout the 21st century Wildfires, insect outbreaks, and storms cause large pulses of tree mortality. Climate change amplifies these forest disturbances, yet their future magnitude and extent remain uncertain. Here, we simul...

Across Europe, climate-driven forest disturbances, such as wildfires and insect outbreaks, are expected to increase over the next century, according to a new large-scale modeling study in Science, substantially altering forested landscapes continent-wide. https://scim.ag/4uwZMmH

What the National Center for Atmospheric Research means to the atmospheric sciences Born out of a time of great need for the federal government, NCAR plays a role with few analogues.

What the National Center for Atmospheric Research means to the atmospheric sciences physicstoday.aip.org/news/what-th...

As climate and disturbance regimes change, forest reorganization is key to maintain the forest carbon sink. Great new work led by @christinadollinger.bsky.social w/ @monicagturner.bsky.social, @akkym.bsky.social and many others. dx.doi.org/10.1029/2025...

Post doctor (3 years) within mountain plant community and ecosystem processes across a globally distributed experiment

Great postdoc opportunity in Sweden!! With the one and only David Wardle 🧪🌐
www.umu.se/en/work-with...

Attention folks in the weather, climate, disaster, wildfire, and Earth science communities: NSF has just published a new "Dear Colleague" letter inviting feedback (by Mar 13) on the proposal to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). www.nsf.gov/funding/...

@monicagturner.bsky.social @goodgracious23.bsky.social

This is something we stressed in our lab for all writing—but no blog post! So maybe remembering grad school, too!

NASA’s Largest Library Is Closing Amid Staff and Lab Cuts

I’m sick about this. Priceless artifacts and useful information. Gone. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/31/c...

PhD students’ taste for risk mirrors their supervisors’ Learned risk-taking behaviours can persist for years after leaving the lab — and even after taking on a new research topic.

A researchers’ propensity for risky projects is passed down to their doctoral students — and stays with trainees after they leave the laboratory

go.nature.com/4sHq58H

Great opportunity (and a lovely city, too)

Congrats @ecologyofgavin.bsky.social as a member of your PhD committee. So fun to see folks thrive!

The 5 stages of the ‘enshittification’ of academic publishing Academic publishing now shows the same decline that has hit social media and online marketplaces.

The 5 stages of the ‘enshittification’ of academic publishing
#academicSky

theconversation.com/the-5-stages...

‘I rarely get outside’: scientists ditch fieldwork in the age of AI In the race to embrace new technologies, some ecologists fear their field is losing touch with nature.

New technologies are revolutionising ecology, with more data than ever available at our fingertips. But what are the costs and perils of ecologists doing less field work?

Interviews with several BES members in this fascinating @nature.com article