More perfect union: BREAKING: The Senate just passed the legislation allowing the devastation of the Boundary Waters. The motion passed 50-49, and now goes to Donald Trump’s desk.
Republicans just handed the Boundary Waters to a foreign corporation.
For the GOP, it’s foreign billionaires first, America last.
Those last 3 plots only include 2005-2026 because before 2005 the formatting goes through different formats and it was a hassle to get it to work for me. Might be worth it to figure out for folks interested in those longer term trends!
Within life sciences, ecology awards are almost back to 4% of total awards (similar to 2005-2011's annual shares). Great to see a little bounce back after last year's jumpscare, suggesting the government still wants to invest in ecology in SOME form, after cutting it seemingly everywhere else
Looking at which application categories were offered this year, it looks like a big year for engineering students and a little comeback for life sciences after the very skinny awardee pool last cycle
The good news is that the total number of awards this year is the highest ever given! I was pretty surprised here given the state of science funding in the US
With the GRFP awards announcement, I thought it'd be fun to look at how this year stacks up against the history of the award (mostly prompted by the context of last year's cycle being relatively thin):
2,599 applicants offered NSF GRFP awards! Congrats to all the NSF GRFP award winners and recipients of honorable mention. https://www.research.gov/grfp/AwardeeList.do?method=loadAwardeeList
Massive and important positive news...
#NSF #GRFP awards are out.
2,599 awards!
+
1,440 Honorable Mentions.
A significant boost from last year.
Congratulations to the winners (and HM-s)!
& many thanks to the reviewers & program officers who made this possible.
www.research.gov/grfp/Awardee...
As climate change reduces landscape-scale habitat availability for insects that colonize ephemeral wetlands, population-level shifts in large branchiopods will likely further shift ephemeral wetland ecosystem function from its historic state, which may have large impacts for migrating birds
Insect colonization didn't change which large branchiopod taxa were present, but it did affect their body size, abundance, and reproductive timing (and did so differently across different taxa!).
New 🦐 paper out in Hydrobiologia (with one of my faves @bugginbusch.bsky.social )! We asked: how do resistant ephemeral wetland communities change when insects can't colonize? Short answer is: the species list stays the same, but the populations look different!
The National Science Foundation’s entire budget is $10 billion.
Covers of the 2 leading science journals this week
@science.org and @nature.com
www.science.org/content/arti... www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
As a compromise you could embroider some Dolichospermum or maybe a figure if you're feeling crazy
🗣️ MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT: Over 80% of our nation’s 4.4M miles of rivers aren’t adequately protected!
Our brand new peer-reviewed research with Conservation Science Partners published in Nature Sustainability shows just how vulnerable our rivers are.
➡️ Learn more: www.americanrivers.org/npra-explore...
Over the holidays, every single national wildlife refuge, plus some fish hatcheries and marine monuments were directed to conduct a system-wide review. Outrageous deadline of Jan 5 functionally eliminates public input & tribal consultation.
news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-...
My statement on President Trump’s actions in Venezuela.
The EPA has announced changes to the definition of Waters of the U.S. that leave critical systems supporting drinking water, floodwater storage, and biodiversity unprotected. Public comments on the changes are open until January 5, 2026.
Read SFS's response: freshwater-science.org/news/sfs-res...
The Trump administration just unveiled a plan to significantly narrow which bodies of water qualify for protection under the Clean Water Act. They proposed a new definition of what counts as a “water of the United States,” a change that would
dramatically reduce which waterways fall under federal pollution safeguards. Under the proposal, groundwater would be excluded entirely, and interstate waters would no longer receive automatic protection.
The rule also removes protections for ephemeral streams (waterways that flow only after rain or snow) despite their importance to downstream water quality. In short, this proposal rolls back long-standing protections and leaves millions of acres of waterways more vulnerable to pollution.
Surveying wildlife in a pond with water reeds, amidst farmland, trees, hills, woods in distance.
Often overlooked, small water bodies - streams, damp ditches, small bogs, ponds - support more rare species compared with larger habitats while high-quality ponds support about 2/3 of all freshwater plant + animal species in a landscape.
🧵 1/4
freshwaterhabitats.org.uk/news/start-w...
Cover of the October 2025 issue of Ecosphere
Alpine lakes among the dramatic peaks of Kings Canyon Nat'l Park grace Ecosphere's October cover. New research shows how introduced trout have impacts that ripple through the food web and reshape bird communities
Browse the full #OpenAccess issue: esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/21508925...
Our peer review system for scientific publishing
-we pay to publish our MSs
-pay to read other’s MSs
-and donate our time to review MSs
is bad enough without passive aggressive review reminders, touting the “quality” journal’s rapid turnaround time and asking why you are setting back science.
Economic loss from the White House's NSF FY 2026 Proposed Budget
New from #SCIMaP - analysis of the White House’s Proposed FY 2026 National Science Foundation Budget.
Take-home: Slashing NSF by >50% will lead to ~$11 billion in economic loss and extensive job loss and reduced training opportunities in communities nationwide.
Report: osf.io/e8rnc
a 🧵
More than 1800 detainees are missing after the closure of Alligator Alcatraz. Their families and lawyers can’t find them and they’ve vanished from the ICE database. Feels like this should be a much bigger story www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...
Nine former CDC directors, from Bill Foege onward, speak out about the incalculable harm that RFK, Jr. is doing to public health in the US and around the world.
Gift link.
How do i explain germ theory to my 4 month old so he knows to only put clean toys in his mouth
