Julian Olden

Fishing ban halts seven decades of biodiversity decline in the Yangtze River China’s rapid economic development has triggered an unparalleled freshwater biodiversity crisis since the 1950s. To restore fisheries resources, the Yangtze River Fishing Ban was implemented in 2021 t...

Fishing ban halts seven decades of biodiversity decline in the Yangtze River | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A collaboration with Yushun Chen, Seb Brosse, @sjcfishy.bsky.social and other! @uwenvironment.bsky.social @uwsafs.bsky.social

@uwenvironment.bsky.social @uwsafs.bsky.social @cig-uw.bsky.social

Super happy to have @ulaskimarta.bsky.social joining us at @uwsafs.bsky.social! Looking forward to working together!

Mismatches between invasive species policy, which relies on administrative borders, and scientific research conducted at ecological units complicate regulation, risk assessment, and biosecurity. Here we explore some solutions.

www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Welcome the editors for FieldNotes 2026! pt. 1

We're so excited to introduce the editors of our editorial team! Stay tuned for the remaining editors and other updates!

‪Another wonderful CESAB FOOD-WEBS working group meeting in Montpellier! Super productive and creative time together. Funding: @frbiodiv.bsky.social

Improving How We Track Progress For River Protection Rivers have relatively less protection than do land or oceans and we lack effective mechanisms for measuring protection. A new study offers an improved mechanism for tracking progress.

River need greater protection, but to date our methods for tracking protection status have been limited. In this post I describe a new method from @oldenfish.bsky.social @americanrivers.bsky.social and Conservation Science Partners - the Protected River Index

www.forbes.com/sites/jeffop...

So glad that you investigated this issue! PISS is crappy, and it needs to be called out.

🗣️ 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...

Expanding river-specific protections, such as new federal and state Wild and Scenic Rivers and Outstanding Resource Waters, would ensure effective, durable protection measures tailored to rivers.

Individual states can promote river protection through new or strengthened riparian buffer legislation, administrative rules, or agricultural/forestry best practices. Protecting rivers flowing through private lands, such as those offered by easements or land trust acquisitions/agreements, is key.

Federal public lands have an outsized role in protecting rivers nationwide, and multiple-use lands provide a major opportunity to scale protections; weakening or eliminating existing environmental policy mechanisms would undermine these safeguards.

Protection often does not coincide with other conservation objectives, where only a small fraction of watersheds with high biodiversity, habitat intactness and importance to drinking water supply are adequately protected.

Protection is overwhelmingly driven by land-based mechanisms, which are often spatially misaligned with hotspots of freshwater biodiversity and may inadequately safeguard rivers from upstream threats. Protection is also uneven across river types (intermittent rivers less protected) and geographies.

America’s rivers are alarmingly under protected. Just over one-tenth (12%) of rivers in the contiguous United States and less than one-fifth (19%) nationwide are currently protected at a level deemed viable, while two-thirds remain entirely unprotected under the mechanisms assessed in this study.

Image of river protection status in the United States

National assessment of river protection in the U.S.

Article: doi.org/10.1038/s418...
Policy Brief: doi.org/10.1038/s418...
Rivers Explorer: map.myriver.americanrivers.org

Collaboration b/t American Rivers, Conservation Science Partners, Univ WA @americanrivers.bsky.social

Thread 👇 | DM for PDF

A global estimator of C and N isotope baselines for fresh waters Baselines are the pebbles in the shoes of isotope ecologists. The extreme variability of the isotope composition of resources at the base of food webs governs the spatial differences of consumers'...

hot off the press! Led by the mighty Marie Perga, including many members of the Fooδ-webs team, and kindly funded by the Foundation for Research on Biodiversity/CESAB

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Unraveling multipredator impacts in salmon-bearing rivers using quantitative DNA metabarcoding. A wonderful collaboration with @jwinkfish.bsky.social.

@uwsafs.bsky.social @uwenvironment.bsky.social @uwfreshwater.bsky.social

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

A huge congrats Tim!

I enjoyed your talk Miguel. It was early for me (6:30 am), but it was well worth it!

Nah ... I end up buying caps on eBay. I mostly use uncrimped caps (i.e., before they are used).

Late night, but there is no better feeling that having stable isotope samples all prepped! ⚛️🎉

Finally found some time to reconnect with my caps. Red swamp crayfish in all its glory. Adding it to my office wall! @newbelgium.bsky.social @pikebrewing.bsky.social

Sunrise from UW SAFS @uwsafs.bsky.social. Not a bad way to start the day! ☀️

Thanks Corey!

Is Facebook fueling the online trade in aquatic invasive species?

Survey of hobbyists indicates that over half engage in peer-to-peer organism exchange, transport across state lines & release them into the wild.

AI Podcast: open.substack.com/pub/oldenfis....

Paper: www.reabic.net/journals/mbi...

The current website of the US Department of Agriculture. What a nightmare.

I've been proud to serve as the faculty leader for this effort. It has been a pleasure to interact with passionate students and emerging science communicators for many years now! We publish annually. I encourage you to check out past issues and follow! @uwsafs.bsky.social @trevorabranch.bsky.social

Interesting! I'm on my reading list for the week.

Absolutely ... and very much our message! Thanks for your comment.