Iryna Dronova
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irynad.bsky.social
Iryna Dronova
@irynad.bsky.social

Environmental scientist, Associate Professor, UC Berkeley. Remote sensing, GIS, wetlands, biodiversity, urban ecosystems, natural climate solutions. Bridges among science, landscape practice, and policy. I stand with Ukraine. Opinions are my own. .. more

Environmental science 73%
Geography 19%
We have a US administration trying to bully Ukrainians into accepting Russia’s proposal that their sovereignty be undone. Aside from the naked injustice of this, there are five basic practical reasons why it would make the world far more dangerous.
(video)
snyder.substack.com/p/the-putin-...
The Putin-Witkoff Plan Worsens the War
Five Reasons the US should not help Russia subjugate Ukraine
snyder.substack.com

Reposted by Iryna Dronova

Scott Stephens and I have written an editorial on what we think is necessary to select for leadership in land management agencies so they are able to manage our public lands during rapid change. @ecologicalsociety.bsky.social
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

we rewatched recently and boy how well it has aged

Not much in East Bay either, fog and clouds

Reposted by Iryna Dronova

A Ukrainian owl just took down a Russian drone mid-air.
Owl vs Drone: Ukrainian Bird Takes Down Russian Quadcopter Mid-Flight, Video
An owl was filmed striking a Russian drone in Ukraine's Donetsk region, showcasing the rare interaction between wildlife and ongoing drone warfare.
united24media.com

*the modern English form of the word coming from Yiddish
This food trivia game card on "borscht" is yet another example of an attribution of a not authentically russian heritage as russian. There's a UNESCO nomination of Ukrainian culture on this dish - and it has versions and names in other Eastern European nations, the word itself coming from Yiddish.

Reposted by Iryna Dronova

A comprehensive review of urban biodiversity research co-authored by Associate Professor @irynad.bsky.social and ESPM alumni researchers showcases how nature can support the health and wellbeing of people in cities. Learn more: ourenvironment.berkeley.edu/news/impact-...

Bird nests can provide very interesting history glimpses and mysteries. www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti...
Found: 650-year-old shoe, in vulture nest
Many unexpected human artifacts have been preserved, for centuries, in vulture nests.
www.nationalgeographic.com

Reposted by Alessandro Rigolon

Will biodiversity actions yield healthy places? Check out this new review of human health outcomes associated with biodiversity‐focused urban greening (with several @natureatcal.bsky.social alums among authors): besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Will biodiversity actions yield healthy places? A systematic review of human health outcomes associated with biodiversity‐focused urban greening
Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

5 - In several instances, the tool could perfectly re-tell and interpret my instructions, but didn’t make any visible changes in the image, and had to be confronted on that to actually perform the change.

4 - When getting stuck on a certain request, the tool would suddenly change the style of the image. This happened with #3 and 4 above (#2 was the tool’s attempt to change its original vision for #1 actually following my instructions).

3 - The tool struggled with prompts like “Let’s go back to X number of steps ago”. When asked about it, it explained that it does not see the images in the same way a person does and that it can sometimes get stuck and can't accurately recall the previous version to correct it.

2 - The most difficult instructions seemed to be on specific thematic elements of the image and their topological relationships. Such as enlarging and elongating the central flower but keeping others intact, changing the number of leaves, changing the observer’s view angle, etc.

1 -The easiest instructions to follow seemed to be the ones on the general content and artistic style. To be clear, I did not explicitly name any artists or specific genres and instead commented on strokes, colors, and textures.

A small distraction. Do you ever see an image in your mind that would make a nice painting? I do but have no such skill. So I tried a small experiment in Gemini AI to recreate a specific idea of a painting. This took time and didn’t quite meet the goal, but here are some versions and observations:

Two more weaker ones today very close to the night one.

Reposted by Iryna Dronova

The second session of the English speaking National Wetland Inventory training course concludes today. Participants have made important progress in addressing data gaps and refining their approaches to National Wetland Inventories. #WetlandsMatter

It's wonderful to be back for Module 2 of this exciting event. Advances in geospatial tools and remote sensing are especially critical for supporting national wetland inventories and overcoming historical barriers with new strategies.
Module 2 of the English-speaking National Wetland Inventories training course has started in the Republic of Korea. The representatives that first met exactly one year ago are now back for a week on “Earth observation techniques & knowledge: best practices to support national wetland inventories”.

Reposted by Iryna Dronova

Module 2 of the English-speaking National Wetland Inventories training course has started in the Republic of Korea. The representatives that first met exactly one year ago are now back for a week on “Earth observation techniques & knowledge: best practices to support national wetland inventories”.
This new study led by our PhD alumna Sarah Hartman is a rigorous investigation of agricultural abandonment in Ukraine. It considers not only recent events but also trends since pre-2014 and shows how historical context is critical to understanding land changes. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Land abandonment as an indicator of Ukrainian agricultural resilience during Russia's war against Ukraine
Amidst the war, the resilience of Ukraine's export agriculture sector – among the top 10 worldwide and critical for food security – remains a global c…
www.sciencedirect.com

Reposted by Iryna Dronova

Reposted by Iryna Dronova

A reminder of the larger mission of higher ed--happy to see @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social embracing it: "Approaching the three-year anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine, the Campanile will play the Ukrainian national anthem Feb. 24." Thanks Daily Cal for the 2025 coverage. Video from 2024.
Ukrainian national anthem rings out at Cal campus — song of solidarity
YouTube video by KTVU FOX 2 San Francisco
www.youtube.com

Reposted by Iryna Dronova

A few hours ago, Russians hit a children’s playground in Ukraine with cluster munitions: a bomb that explodes with hundreds of little bombs that fly everywhere to maximize the killing. Russians sent this bomb to the playground full of kids. I don’t even know what to say anymore.

This very touching song by a Ukrainian artist is called "The Street" (Vulytsya). So much in this video reminds of our childhoods and very similar landscapes that live in our memories far from home. Some of these places are still waiting, others are not there anymore.
youtube.com/watch?v=Nc2x...
Вулиця
YouTube video by Jul'ka Kosivchuk
youtube.com
UC-Berkeley has an open-rank faculty position in our incredible Climate Equity and Environmental Justice (CEEJ) research cluster. It is an extraordinary interdisciplinary group working across multiple colleges and departments at the university! More information here: aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF04842
Assistant/Associate/Full Professor - Climate Equity and Environmental Justice - Rausser College of Natural Resources
University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!
aprecruit.berkeley.edu
Great NYT article today about how not to make problems with invasive species even worse, featuring @evecologist.bsky.social and @jmheberling.bsky.social
🌐🧪🌱
Free link: www.nytimes.com/2025/07/02/r...
Fighting Invasive Plants: The Ones We’ve Got and Those We Think Are Coming
www.nytimes.com
Just posted an OpEd in our local paper, the Brentwood Press, on defending science, as encouraged by
@wclivestream.bsky.social and others

@natureatcal.bsky.social

www.thepress.net/opinion/we-s...
We should not dismantle science across America
The Trump administration is destroying our scientific institutions, its infrastructure, and intellectual capital at an unprecedented pace. Scientists are being fired without cause from many federal ag...
www.thepress.net

Reposted by Iryna Dronova, He Yin

🆕 The first stunning images from our groundbreaking #Biomass satellite mission have been released – they mark a major leap forward in our ability to understand how Earth’s forests are changing and exactly how they contribute to the global carbon cycle 🌳🌍

www.esa.int/Applications...