Erin Hotchkiss

Instars logo featuring outlines of three aquatic insects

Applications for student travel assistance to attend the #2026SFS annual meeting through the Instars program are now open.

Undergraduates from historically underrepresented backgrounds interested in freshwater science are eligible to apply. (1/2)

The exit economy is here. Black Women are paying the highest price | Fortune This isn’t a blip. It’s a structural crisis. And it's not a recovery, it's a redistribution of opportunity.

Since February, according to my latest analysis, almost 600,000 Black women have been economically sidelined. The November 20, 2025, Jobs Report makes clear this isn’t a blip. It’s a structural crisis. That is not a recovery. It is a redistribution of opportunity.

Study after study shows that using LLMs is bad for cognition, bad for learning, bad for understanding, bad for mental health. So why are our schools and universities still relentlessly pushing them?

Unbreaking How the administration is breaking the government, and what that means for all of us.

This week, we updated our pages on data security and surveillance, immigration, the federal workforce, and medical research funding. Our brisk, rigorously cited weekly briefing is live at Unbreaking:

unbreaking.org/blog/this-we...

Overcoming barriers that limit the impact of ecological research Ecology and conservation researchers have diverse goals that often include both personal career aspirations and desires to enhance the well-being of the natural world and its inhabitants. Perception ....

Why do so many ecologists share common feelings of disconnection between their research goals and real-world impact? 🌍

Our new article in #FE&E explores the constraints that limit ecological research and how we can mitigate them. 👇

esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Can’t believe the whole country has to suffer through the return of Dickensian childhood diseases because the worst, most ignorant attention-demanders decided other people’s expertise makes them feel bad

New #PrePrint by #PhD @jodittmann.bsky.social open for discussion on @egubg.bsky.social investigating the question: 'Are #GhostForests a substantial source of #Methane from #Reservoirs?' 👻🪵
👇
egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/20...

Few things bug me more than higher ed leaders saying that we lost our mission and lost the trust of the public, when we have actually been the target of a decades-long smear campaign by the right wing that worked. The moment we’re losing our mission is right now, in capitulation.

Repeatedly! When I was researching for my article on Trump and the Supreme Court's latest threat to the Clean Water Act, I learned the Cuyahoga River caught on fire not once, not twice, but over a dozen times

ballsandstrikes.org/law-politics...

Urban Ponds and the Emerging Role of Garden Ponds: Ecosystem Services and Disservices, Multifunctionality, and Trade‐Offs Urban ponds and garden ponds—a specific subset of the former, usually located in private gardens—are both typical examples of ponds in the urban landscape. They deliver multiple ecosystem services bu...

In our new review in WIREs WATER, we synthesize knowledge on ecosystem (dis)services, multifunctionality, and trade‐offs in urban ponds and highlight garden ponds as a specific subtype that deserves more attention
🏙️🔵🏡
doi.org/10.1002/wat2...
@epcn.bsky.social

Scientists (especially early career researchers): How has your career been impacted over the last year of policy changes and funding cuts? Contact me here or on Signal if you have a story to share.

This week at Unbreaking, November 13 — Unbreaking As of yesterday, the longest-ever shutdown of the federal government has ended. We’ll be updating our timelines and explainers as the implications of this resolution become clear for all the issues we...

Last Wednesday marked the end of the longest government shutdown in US history, and Unbreaking will continue to update our resources as its effects become clear. In the meantime, our most recent briefing explores Medicaid and the loss of federal food safety oversight: unbreaking.org/blog/this-we...

Are you working with #OpenData to advance #freshwater #biogeochemistry? Consider submitting an abstract to share your science in our special session at #2026SFS!

Organized by Ashif H Abir, Wil Wollheim, me, & Kelly Aho @kellyaho.bsky.social. Abstracts due 16 Jan 2026. www.sfsannualmeeting.org 💧🌎🧪

The thing about the latest news in the Nuzzi/Lizza story is that RFK cost the nation its measles elimination status.

It is genuinely incredible to me how much evidence there is to support investing in the public good and how much animus there is to do this simple, effective thing.

We're hiring! LCSG seeks a program specialist to join our team [text superimposed on a picture of the Lake Champlain shoreline]

We're seeking a Program Specialist to lead communications, coordinate federal reporting, and support program initiatives for Lake Champlain Sea Grant and two allied programs. Learn more and apply online at www.uvmjobs.com/postings/84002.

Coarse land cover datasets bias Arctic-Boreal wetland methane budgets - Communications Earth & Environment Estimation of methane flux remained within 13% error at a resolution within 25 m, but resolutions coarser than 1 km often misclassified sites as methane sources instead of sinks, based on high-resolut...

Really pleased to be part of this new study led by Josh Hashemi showing that to accurately upscale CH₄ budgets, especially in complex landscapes, we need high-res data and land-cover classes that reflect the key enviro factors driving CH4 production and emissions

www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Post Doctorate Research Associate - Peatland Rhizosphere and Trace Gas Processes in Richland, Washington | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory PNNL is hiring a Post Doctorate Research Associate - Peatland Rhizosphere and Trace Gas Processes in Richland, Washington. Review all of the job details and apply today!

My colleague @avnimalh0tra.bsky.social is hiring a Postdoctoral Research Associate to investigate rhizosphere processes influencing methane (CH₄) dynamics in northern peatlands! Super cool opening -- please circulate careers.pnnl.gov/jobs/11061?l...

CSIRO to cut up to 350 research jobs in major overhaul After 440 positions were slashed last year, the CSIRO has announced more staff cuts across the country in a bid to remain financially viable.

“CSIRO has announced it will slash up to 350 jobs as the national science agency grapples with long-term financial challenges … with current funding failing to keep pace with the rising costs of running a modern science agency.”

Not “challenges”. They’re choices. 😡

Cascading Effects of Biological Invasion and Nutriment Enrichment Disrupt Freshwater Trophic Energy Pathways and Food Web Quality Freshwater ecosystems are globally threatened by multiple climatic and anthropogenic stressors, including facilitated biological invasion and eutrophication, and thus understanding their effects o...

Invasive species can disrupt food web energy dynamics by altering pelagic-benthic pathways. In this example, interactions between invasive species and nutriment enrichment influenced concentrations of LC-PUFAs in key consumers, indicating functional shifts in resource fluxes.

Two largest causes of death in the US are heart disease and cancer, but the media focuses on homicide and terrorism.

Actual causes of death in the US and media coverage of same.

And then we wonder why people have such a skewed understanding of the world.

@ourworldindata.org is a treasure. Thanks, @hannahritchie.bsky.social and colleagues.

ourworldindata.org/does-the-new...

Countries are gathering for climate negotiations. Here's where the U.S. stands Under President Trump, the U.S. has taken steps to roll back climate policies. Here are six significant changes.

Under President Trump, the U.S. has taken steps to roll back climate policies. Here are six significant changes.

I once listed on my annual activities report the time I spent on things like

strategizing with a fellow junior prof about how to avoid her harasser at a conference while still getting to network,

etc

just to make a point

Former UVA president Jim Ryan, who resigned over the summer due to pressure from the Trump Administration, just shared this 12-page letter with the Faculty Senate, detailing his experience with the Board of Visitors and DOJ.

It's a surreal--and troubling--read.

drive.google.com/file/d/1Is6x...

‘Unlawful coercion’: Trump can’t withhold funds or demand payment from UC, federal judge rules A federal judge ruled Donald Trump cannot demand that UCLA pay a $1.2 billion settlement that would have restricted academic freedoms.

NEW:

‘Unlawful coercion’: Trump can’t withhold funds or demand payment from UC, federal judge rules.

The judge has previously sided with UC scholars several times since June in halting Trump’s termination of science and health research funding. The latest ruling is arguably the most sweeping yet.

U.S. Congress considers sweeping ban on Chinese collaborations Researchers speak out against proposal that would bar funding for U.S. scientists working with Chinese partners or training Chinese students

“The prohibited activities would include joint research, co-authorship on papers, and advising a foreign graduate student or postdoctoral fellow. The language is retroactive, meaning any interactions during the previous 5 years could make a scientist ineligible for future federal funding.”

‪Going to EGU 2026?

👉Consider submitting an abstract to HS2.3.4: From pattern to process - Understanding the mechanisms of solute and particulate export from catchments (meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU26/sessio...)

Together with: Andreas Musolff, Camille Vautier &
@jlaknapp.bsky.social

If you have to get permission to teach in your area of expertise from people who are definitionally not qualified to adjudicate your expertise then you are no longer working at a university.

You’re working at a state propaganda factory.

Just gonna put this here for now
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
bsky.app/profile/jlst...

You can disagree and argue as much as you like but the point of evaluating something scientifically is that not every statement should be given equal credence because evidence matters