Jackie Webb

Vote for your favourite human dominated river. Go the Waikato!

Spent my week sampling weirs and rivers in regional SE Queensland with my MSCN student. It was hot work, but some absolutely beautiful and truely Australian waterways.

It's been a while since I've worked in flowing waters!

Mobilized heavy metals in the Artic.

"There are few places left on Earth as untouched as these rivers,". "But even here, far from cities and highways, the fingerprint of global warming is unmistakable. No place is spared."

Another indirect effect of climate change on freshwater ecosystems.

Never heard of BIOGEOMON? The joint ASLO-SIL would be a big one and I've been eyeing that one for a while...

I have my undergrad students in water science make a poster of their water quality data they collect over the trimester. My assessment instructions are pretty simple, but am happy to share it, along with some great poster examples if you like?

A stunning dreamy planty pond. Pond covered in pondweeds

We have been described as "THE BEST NGO THAT NOBODY KNOWS ABOUT"

Please help by following us & reposting!!!

The same student also captured an intriguing metallic layer that formed on one of the acidified ponds just one week into the experiment. I suspect this was organic oils from the decomposition of organic matter as supported by the low DO reading at the time. How cool is that?!

💠 Prolonged deoxygenation occurs within days following acidification
💠 Phosphate is mobilized, which occurs more gradually over the course of the experiment (4 weeks)
Some of these results are shown here in a snapshot from one student's poster presentation.
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Several students chose acidification as their pollution tool and the response in their separate mini ponds was consistent across the cohort:
💠 Upon a single acidification event, pH drops but recovers back to control levels
💠 Conductivity increases
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In a pseudo pond pollution experiment I had students undertake as part of their assessment for an undergraduate water science course @soaes-unisq.bsky.social, it was great to see how monitoring of simple water quality variables cumulated to multiple insights into water quality deterioration.
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Thanks Chelsea, and it's been great working with you also. Not everyone is a fan of artificial aquatic ecosystems, but am working hard to get this next paper accepted eventually!

Happy to be involved in this massive paper about overlooked artificial channels!

Lines in the landscape - Communications Earth & Environment Ditches have many overlooked environmental and societal roles, including impact on biodiversity and pollution, and management strategies to enhance their multifunctional landscape-scale benefits are n...

It's out! 🧪 "Lines in the landscape," on the under-appreciated importance of #ditches as diverse ecosystems: doi.org/10.1038/s432.... By @peatymike.bsky.social, @fluitans.bsky.social, @drtatariw.bsky.social, @timaukel.bsky.social, @jordannabergman.bsky.social, @juliecrabot.bsky.social, ...

It's turned out to be a really neat observational study. The first photo shows changes in root growth of some aquatic plants in response to N+P pollution, while the second photo shows the ecological collapse that occurred after a deoxygenation event following washing liquid pollution. 2/2

Currently marking some student poster assessments while on holiday as the kids nap, and am finding the visual results of their pond water pollution experiment very intriguing!

In my second year water science @soaes-unisq.bsky.social, students conduct a backyard mini-pond experiment. 1/2

Campus ponds are awesome! I reckon there is a real opportunity for these to be model demonstration sites of artificial pond management, and for long term data collection involving students.

Celebrating a 100 citation (Google Scholar) milestone for my pub on N2O sinks in farm dams!

Truly one of the most exciting datasets I've had the pleasure to work with and has profoundly altered the direction of my research. Still searching for answers!

Pub link 👉 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Quick trip to Brisbane this week to attend the 20th World Lake Conference.

It was a pleasure to be a part of the International Colloquium to explore global challenges facing lake systems. There was much agreement on including youth at all stages of integrated water management.

Recently, I did a little radio piece for ABC Southern Queensland Breakfast to explain where water flows after heavy rainfall and how Australia’s catchment systems operate.

👉If you're interested, you can listen to the interview here tinyurl.com/4b6vu678

Old carbon routed from land to the atmosphere by global river systems - Nature Using a global database of the radiocarbon content of rivers combining new and published measurements, isotopic mass balance suggests that about 60% of river CO2 emissions are derived from millennial ...

🌏Using a global database of the radiocarbon content of rivers, isotopic mass balance suggests that about 60% of river carbon dioxide from millennial or older carbon sources

Read the latest research article published in Nature by our former external editor, Joshua Dean
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

No advert out yet, but I will recruiting a 2yr postdoc, start date autumn 2025, at @livunigeog.bsky.social soon. Lowland and upland peatlands, GHGs, DOM and water chemistry. Plenty of fieldwork. Feel free to drop me a DM or email if you might be interested, and please spread the word.

Oh yes, I'm definitely adding goggly eyes to my floating saucers next time!

The day has arrived - first lecture for my brand new course, Catchment and Water Management. After many months and nights of work leading up to this moment, I'm nervous and excited to offer this course. Here's hoping the students appreciate it and there are not too many kinks to iron out!

Thanks Luke! Being out in the rain measuring thing made me reminescent of my early research days

Reading student feedback on my 2nd year ecology course:
"As a result of this course I am analysing my environment, noticing more interactions in nature and taking a more interested approach to bush walks and nature play with my children."
My job's done here, guys!🥲
#teaching #academia #ecology

How cool! A paper with my UofR crew has just been recognised as a #TopViewedArticle
Artificial water bodies are interesting!

Link to the paper:
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Recreational ditch

The students are now equipped with 7 sites worth of water quality data for their final assessment. I wonder what changes in water quality they will find as the rain consistently fell over the 3 days. The final highlight was all the amazing speakers of water professionals.

We explored the full water catchment system within Toowoomba. From water supply to urban streams, to potable and wastewater treatment, to farm creeks and irrigation, the students developed an appreciation for the complex challenges and societal needs that water managers face in today's climate.