Robots are joining a fight to protect fish and crops from elusive invaders in the Colorado River Invasive species are on the march in the Colorado River, threatening everything from endangered native fish in Arizona to Colorado’s juicy Palisade peaches.

www.kunc.org/news/2026-04...

This metric approximates the amount of native biomass co-opted, displaced, consumed, or replaced by the populations of invasive species. This isn’t a metric to measure the impact of invasions, simply a common currency to quantify how big invasions are.

How do we know the magnitude of a biological invasion? How do we compare invasions of tiny organisms like ants with that of larger ones like deer? Simple. Compare their total biomasses. In our new paper in Bioscience, we do just this.
doi.org/10.1093/bios...

When we talk about climate change, a lot of weird looking numbers can get tossed around. Metric tons, millions of tons, and so on.

How do we make sense of this, and put it all in context?

Welcome to “Carbon in Context” by Project Drawdown. It helps you see the bigger picture.

Check it out!

Emergent aquatic insects sustain riparian birds.
Turns out freshwater restoration and conservation can help terrestrial ecosystems!

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

Christian Schürings and @oldenfish.bsky.social

Meet Dolomedes aquaticus—a fascinating fishing spider.

They live on the banks of gravel-bed rivers in NZ & feed on aquatic insects by fishing from the margins. With back legs anchored and the rest of their body floating, they feed at night by sensing vibrations from prey through the water surface.

Mosquitoes reach Iceland for the first time as the Arctic heats up In what is possibly another sign of climate change, mosquitoes have landed in Iceland for the first time. For many years, the island was the only Arctic country that could claim to be mosquito-free. B...

phys.org/news/2026-04...

Freshwater migratory fish are in decline. Giving them ‘safe’ international passage could help | CBC Radio A global assessment on migratory freshwater fish species, published in March, found that there are 325 species of migratory fish crossing international borders that need deliberate action in order to ...

Why #freshwater migratory #fish need ‘safe passage’ globally as numbers decline

www.cbc.ca/radio/day6/f...

Knowing more, understanding less Models, optimism, moral courage, and the limits of knowing (Nexus Notes #26)

This fortnight’s Nexus Notes connects models, techno‑optimism, moral courage, Welsh stick chairs (!), and why so many arguments talk past each other. There’s a deeper pattern here about models, responsibility, and perspective.
🔗👇
predirections.substack.com/p/knowing-mo...

Indeed!

Short-term thinking is everywhere!

Thanks for looking into it.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it...

So well said!

Knowing more, understanding less Models, optimism, moral courage, and the limits of knowing (Nexus Notes #26)

This fortnight’s Nexus Notes connects models, techno‑optimism, moral courage, Welsh stick chairs (!), and why so many arguments talk past each other. There’s a deeper pattern here about models, responsibility, and perspective.
🔗👇
predirections.substack.com/p/knowing-mo...

‘It’s one of the most unsuitable sites in Canterbury’: 800 houses planned for flood zone Locals opposing the plan say the area sits on flood-prone, liquefaction-affected land bordered by the Styx River and is close to coastal inundation zones.

Short-term thinking rears its ugly head again in Christchurch. Developers here are aiming to make a buck at the expense of generations to come. The flood inages from 2022 should be enough to realise this is a bad idea.

Natural ecosystems spread risk across genes, species, space, time and strategy. Many human systems have optimised away such slack.
Here are some lessons from ecosystems for a world obsessed with efficiency.
predirections.substack.com/p/how-nature...

Save Denniston Plateau!

...(coldwater refuges, stable areas as sources of species that recolonise following extremes etc.). Monocultures of land use do not work in this sense. Let's focus on multifunctional landscapes.

We must think of rivers as the networks they are and focus on building resilience at the catchment scale. Local-scale restoration will not be sufficient. Rivers are networks that can transfer shocks downstream, but also provide sources of resilience within catchments if they are prioritised....

2. Climate change will only exacerbate the existing threats to our freshwaters. The impacts of climate related extreme events, like extreme floods, droughts and heatwaves, will be amplified by existing impairment.

We must do better at valuing our natural resources here in Aotearoa. Why we continue to let a few industries pollute for free while extracting resources from our land and shipping them overseas is beyond me.

1. While it's good to see some indicators on the improve, the fact that many indicators are still declining is completely unacceptable. More than half of rivers are showing organic pollution and nutrient enrichment and most lakes are in poor health.

I missed the deadline to publicly comment on the latest report on water quality in Aotearoa New Zealand. So here are a couple of thoughts beyond what I've already seen.

environment.govt.nz/publications...

Absolutely!

Natural ecosystems spread risk across genes, species, space, time and strategy. Many human systems have optimised away such slack.
Here are some lessons from ecosystems for a world obsessed with efficiency.
predirections.substack.com/p/how-nature...

Please don’t let this amazing dataset die. Spread the word.

We built a fragile society Modern society has optimised for efficiency at the expense of resilience

Agree, Russel. I wrote about how we’ve built a fragile society here: predirections.substack.com/p/we-built-a...

Climate Science Serving America Fellowship Our mission is to help the world reach “Drawdown" as quickly, safely, and equitably as possible.

Dear Friends,

Please send this to your networks. Project Drawdown is offering full-time, paid (with benefits) fellowships to scientists and engineers working on climate solutions in the public interest.

Deadline is April 17.

drawdown.org/careers/clim...

How nature spreads risk (and we don't) Lessons from ecosystems for a world obsessed with efficiency

How nature spreads risk (and we don't)
Lessons from ecosystems for a world obsessed with efficiency
predirections.substack.com/p/how-nature...