Juan Rocha

Motherfucking wind farms…

Reconsidering space-for-time substitution in climate change ecology - Nature Climate Change Ecologists often leverage patterns observed across spatial climate gradients to predict the impacts of climate change (space-for-time substitution). We highlight evidence that this can be misleading n...

New paper out on the dangers of using patterns across spatial climate gradients to predict what will happen with changing climate. That includes species distribution modeling. Space-for-time substitution can be misleading in sign, not just the magnitude of effects.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Applications are open for SFI's 2026 Complexity Postdoctoral Fellowships

If you’ve recently earned a Ph.D. in any scientific field and want to pursue independent, transdisciplinary research, consider applying.

Deadline: October 1, 2025
Apply here: santafe.edu/sfifellowship

Decreasing Stem Growth in Common European Tree Species Despite Earlier Growth Onset

📄 buff.ly/Qrnjd5I

General reminder that if you really enjoy/appreciate a paper, you can reach out to the authors and say so! Trying to incorporate that more in my own practice… so much work goes into papers, it’s always great to hear when they’re useful/used.

I am no longer chairing defenses or joining committees where students use generative AI for their writing
statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2025/07/18/i...

Tell your librarians...!

Announcement of the recommendations of the Nobel Laureate Assembly for the Prevention of Nuclear War Nobel Laureate Assembly for the Prevention of Nuclear War

This week, the Nobel Laureate Assembly for the Prevention of Nuclear War, a group of Nobel laureates and leading nuclear experts, met to discuss today's nuclear challenges.

During this session, the Assembly announced its list of actionable recommendations for preventing nuclear war. Watch for more:

Precipitation Pulse Dynamics Are Not Ubiquitous: A Global Meta‐Analysis of Plant and Ecosystem Carbon‐ and Water‐Related Pulse Responses

🔗 buff.ly/REFtkSE
@ecophysism.bsky.social

EPA eliminates its scientific research arm The move to dismantle the Office of Research and Development comes as Trump officials cut the agency’s total staff by 23 percent.

As long as I live, I will never understand how "it should be easier for chemical companies to poison the water my family drinks" became a politically popular position

www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

EPA eliminates research and development office, begins layoffs The Environmental Protection Agency said Friday it is eliminating its research and development arm and reducing agency staff by thousands of employees.

The EPA has eliminated its research division, which for decades has provided the science behind regulations on clean air, clean water, and toxic chemicals.

The US can afford to monitor, research, and regulate the impacts of industries on human and environmental health. We are just choosing not to.

A reminder: 40% of all bulk shipping is simply moving fossil fuels around. Horrors like this happen constantly.

And when they don't happen, and the fuels arrive "safely", their use destroys the world we depend on.

Seventh Workshop on Trait-based Approaches to Ocean Life The 7th Workshop on Trait-based Approaches to Ocean Life will bring together scientists to discuss how functional traits shape marine ecosystems, using experimental, statistical, and modeling approach...

Trying to develop predictive theory for how biology works in the ocean? Interested in unifying traits? Keen to hang out in a beautiful place with amazing people? Consider joining us in a couple of weeks at the 7th #TraitBasedApproaches workshop in Asilomar! carnegiescience.edu/seventh-trai...

A Century of Loss: Long-Term Dry Woodland Decline and Its Implications for India’s #Megafauna

#Newpaper by @tamannakalam.bsky.social along with @matthiasbaumann.bsky.social, @arashghoddousi.bsky.social, @tkuemmerle.bsky.social ‬ and others!

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

The super-funding of T&Co.'s own paramilitary -- otherwise known as ICE -- is for me the scariest part of the BBBill. Read here for Kovensky's reporting and Skocpol's historical analysis .This story needs more & wider coverage. Please help to spread the word.

talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/criti...

Taylor’s law predicts unprecedented pulses of forest disturbance under global change - Nature Communications Large pulses of disturbance have been observed globally in response to climate change. Using Taylor’s Law, the authors show that those pulses were not unpredictable but expected given a strong scaling...

As the mean rate of forest disturbance is increasing, so does its temporal variance. Proof that Taylor's law also applies to disturbance ecology, and a warning of more severe future extremes. Paper led by @corneliussenf.bsky.social w/ @tommaso-jucker.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Having just run a hiring process, my #1 piece of advice is *do not let AI create your resume or cover letter*.

I bet I read the same letter 50 times and 50 more with word salad (~45%).

Ask a real person(s) with hiring experience to help. It’s normal to ask — part of networking.

#ConservationJobs

Germany slashes development aid to boost defense spending – DW – 06/30/2025 Germany is ramping up defense spending — while cutting funds for development cooperation. Aid organizations warn of the consequences for millions of people in a world beset by wars and crises.

Germany's draft Federal Budget indicates 1bn Euro cut in devt assistance - biggest cuts falling on humanitarian assistance - "Humanitarian emergency aid is being slashed by 53%, to about €1 billion." www.dw.com/en/germany-d...

Nature conservation policies are biased toward forests and neglect grassy ecosystems worldwide Globally, grassy ecosystems (including grasslands, savannas, shrublands, woodlands, and tundra) cover 30 to 40% of the land and provide important benefits such as climate change mitigation and adaptat...

Nature conservation policies are biased toward forests and neglect grassy ecosystems worldwide | Science

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Please share: PhD scholarship opportunity in mathematical ecology on the value of information for improving ecological management, open to international students, with a great team @hugepossum.bsky.social, Katriona Shea, Kate Helmstedt, & me at UQ, Australia 🌍 🧮, study.uq.edu.au/study-option...

Conference of Complex Systems 2025: Satellite Session Food Systems This session at the Conference of Complex Systems in Siena, Italy, invites contributions that apply complexity science frameworks to understand and transform food systems.

Shape the Future of Food Systems at CCS 2025!

How can complexity science unlock solutions for sustainable supply chains, food security & climate resilience?

Submit a 1-2 page abstract + figure by 10 July 2025 is.gd/laMmRc

@arifosch.bsky.social | @ymoreno.bsky.social | S. Baum @csh.ac.at

Human capital, unequal opportunities and productivity convergence – A global historical perspective 1800-2100 - WID - World Inequality Database Human capital, unequal opportunities and productivity convergence – A global historical perspective 1800-2100 This study investigates the relationship between human capital, inequality of opportunity,...

How much investment is needed to close the global gap in health and education, and over what timescale?

New study by @nitin-k-bharti.bsky.social A. Gethin @markjmn.bsky.social @zhexunmo.bsky.social @thomaspiketty.bsky.social & Li Yang.

🔗Study and key findings wid.world/news-article...

Biocultural vulnerability exposes threats of culturally important species | PNAS There are growing calls for conservation frameworks that, rather than breaking the relations between people and other parts of nature, capture plac...

Biocultural vulnerability exposes threats of culturally important species
Reyes-García+
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

"propose a framework to globally assess the biocultural status of specific components of nature that matter to people and apply it to culturally important species (CIS)."

Marine heatwaves under global warming - Nature Satellite observations and Earth system model simulations reveal that marine heatwaves have increased in recent decades and will increase further in terms of frequency, intensity, duration and spatial...

"Our results suggest that MHWs will become very frequent and extreme under global warming, probably pushing marine organisms and ecosystems to the limits of their resilience and even beyond, which could cause irreversible changes"

#ClimateCrisis

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

A two star Amazon review of the book complaining about the black and white figures.

🪡 A heads-up about the Geocomputation with R book: some copies were mistakenly printed in black & white instead of full color. If you received one, please contact me or the publisher for a replacement. A new, correct copy will be sent to you!

www.routledge.com/contacts/cus...

#rstats #rspatial

Since 2001, Gavi saved 18.8 million lives with vaccines, and USAID saved 91 million years with Rx for HIV, TB, malaria, and other diseases. In this week's newsletter, I consider what happens next, now that the Trump administration is cutting off funding of both. buttondown.com/carlzimmer/a...

RaukR is an #rstats summer school (~1.5 weeks) I've taught at a few times. Highly recommended for content (of course I'm biased 😁), smooth organization, and an amazing location (Visby 🏰 on the island of Gotland in Sweden 🇸🇪). Intrigued? Sign up to get notified when RaukR 2026 opens for registration.

Will we habituate to the decline of democracy? The recent attack on science in the US is not only undermining knowledge; it is also undermining democracy. In a healthy democracy, public policy is guided by evidence, and truth is the shared foundat...

"The diminution and marginalization of science are thus central parts of the erosion of democracy itself."
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Text from the 1990 global change research act (see link above).

The US Global Change Research Program's website, including all its sub-domains that host the National Climate Assessments and related reports, is now offline.

The 1990 Global Change Research Act (see below) mandates its research findings be available to all federal agencies & departments.

Trump team axes contracts with publishing giant Springer Nature The action comes as high-ranking US officials criticize top journals as ‘woke’ and ‘corrupt’.

Trump team axes contracts with publishing giant Springer Nature

At first, NIH told me its contracts with SN were active and that they help “advance scientific discovery”.

Hours later, HHS said the opposite: "Precious taxpayer dollars should not be used on unused subscriptions to junk science.”