Stephen Murphy (smurph)
smurph.bsky.social
Stephen Murphy (smurph)
@smurph.bsky.social

Professor at U Waterloo - Sch Environment, Resources & Sustainability. Ecologist, EIC Restoration Ecology, Botanist, Protected Areas. Grasslands. https://uwaterloo.ca/environment-resources-and-sustainability/blog/you-break-it-we-fix-it .. more

Environmental science 40%
Agriculture 29%

Reposted by Stephen D. Murphy

You should be ✨actively✨ quitting Twitter, not just pausing your posts.

Here’s what I wrote about leaving X/Twitter in November 2024, as an artist, power user, Community manager and communicator:
Nuked my Twitter. Here's why, and what's next. — Glendon Mellow
I nuked all of my tweets. Then I deleted the Twitter Community I spent years building. Then I went further. Deleted my DeviantArt portfolio, then ArtStation...
glendonmellow.com

This is so true. I also love to watch and listen to creeks when they are in this state.
Here is a video of a frozen creek that had begun to thaw, and the water was flowing beneath the thin ice on top. I took this because it was soothing and wonderfully bloopy and I wanted to listen to it for hours. You are all welcome to enjoy it, too. Let your brain settle here and rest for a moment.

The dream team of @phillipspobrien.bsky.social & @pkrugman.bsky.social; normally, I am not quite that effusive but as a non-expert, being able to see both scholars discuss the state of things is akin to when I was getting grad school classes from world experts in my own field

Reposted by Stephen D. Murphy

Had a session with @pkrugman.bsky.social where we discussed US foreign policy and world
affairs. Hopefully interesting if not entirely uplifting. open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...
Phillips O'Brien on Venezuela and More
And why America wins battles but loses wars
open.substack.com
Our first paper of 2026 is open access: "From control to cohabitation: Social-ecological insights on urban wildness narratives". Led by @maireadod.bsky.social along with Melissa Pineda Pinto, Erik Andersson, & @marcuscollier.bsky.social : www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#novelecosystems
From control to cohabitation: Social-ecological insights on urban wildness narratives
Narratives surrounding urban green space management have experienced significant shifts in recent years. While the command-and-control approach to urb…
www.sciencedirect.com
Here is a video of a frozen creek that had begun to thaw, and the water was flowing beneath the thin ice on top. I took this because it was soothing and wonderfully bloopy and I wanted to listen to it for hours. You are all welcome to enjoy it, too. Let your brain settle here and rest for a moment.

Blocking CNN was a good idea.
The videos show nuance? Fuck you, CNN. This was straight up murder.
cnn.com CNN @cnn.com · 3d
Three videos taken of the scene and reviewed by CNN, however, show nuance. What took place prior to the shooting remains unclear. | Analysis

Reposted by Stephen D. Murphy

Want to study the genomics of repeated adaptation with data from hundreds of species? New funding for non-Canadians @ grad or postdoc level. Internal competition at UCalgary with very short deadline so please get in touch ASAP!!
sshrc-crsh.canada.ca/en/funding/o...

Reposted by Stephen D. Murphy

We will be back and hopefully stronger supporters than ever 💪 In the meantime, our non-governmental organizations will keep the engagement going, and hopefully we can do for @ipbes.net what we are doing for US scientist engagement with IPCC ❤️ !

cpree.princeton.edu/news/2026/st...
Statement on US Withdrawal from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change by the US Academic Alliance for the IPCC
Yesterday’s announcement that the Trump Administration intends to withdraw the US from participation in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), along with a host of other global intergov...
cpree.princeton.edu

Reposted by Stephen D. Murphy

Have you ever quickly thrown a survey together and then ended up with data that was unusable?

It's because creating a quality instrument takes time. Taking your survey through these phases of pilot testing ahead of time, will result in better data.

datamgmtinedresearch.com/collect#pilo...

Reposted by Stephen D. Murphy

Very interesting to see an assessment of how well horizon-scanning performed in predicting the arrival of non-native invasive species in the UK. Overall, it seems like the approach worked pretty well - comforting to someone who's planning to use horizon scanning in the future shorturl.at/1Nhkr
Assessing the success of a horizon scanning approach in predicting invasive non‐native species arrival
We conclude that horizon scanning provides a rapid, affordable and successful mechanism to predict the arrival of high-risk INNS. We highlight the importance of citizen science, including biological ...
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Mike Konczal: Released this morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ labor share of income for Q3 2025 is the lowest on record.
🦋🌿Hiring 12 x Botanists or Entomologists for 2026 field surveys in England!

4-month, full-time roles from late April to early September.

Field sites in Yorkshire, Devon, Warwickshire, Kent/Sussex, Lincolnshire/Cambridge, Essex/Suffolk.

Apply now: ceh.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/CEH_Ca... 🧪

Reposted by Stephen D. Murphy

28-Year review of acute toxicity in rainbow trout and Daphnia magna exposed to industrial effluents in Ontario, Canada

#GreatLakes 🧪

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

pollution reduction led to a significant decrease in acute toxicity in Ontario industrial effluents
28-Year review of acute toxicity in rainbow trout and Daphnia magna exposed to industrial effluents in Ontario, Canada
Ontario’s Municipal/Industrial Strategy for Abatement (MISA) was a collaborative effort between government and industry to reduce the environmental im…
www.sciencedirect.com

Reposted by Stephen D. Murphy

The videos show nuance? Fuck you, CNN. This was straight up murder.

Reposted by Stephen D. Murphy

Shit happens, and for we wildlife ecologists, it's also super informative! What do eastern barred bandicoots (not tapirs) eat, I hear you ask?

Well, [email protected] Honours student, Ella Loeffler has the answers!

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
The Foraging Ecology of a Threatened Ecosystem Engineer Translocated to Island Safe Havens
Describing and quantifying the foraging ecology of wildlife is important for fundamental ecological theory and understanding the roles species play within ecosystems. Further, such information can be...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Reposted by Stephen D. Murphy

The U.S. is in the middle of a 12th wave of COVID. Career scientists at the CDC summarized this week in JAMA Internal Medicine that COVID continues to directly cause >100,000 deaths/year, with many excess deaths on top of that.

More at pmc19.com/data

Reposted by Stephen D. Murphy

Reposted by Stephen D. Murphy

Evaluating MPA success for Caribbean reef fish: the role of design, habitat, and management - Coral Reefs link.springer.com/article/10.1... 🦑🧪🌎🐠
Evaluating MPA success for Caribbean reef fish: the role of design, habitat, and management - Coral Reefs
Marine protected areas (MPAs) are essential tools for protecting marine ecosystems; yet, their effectiveness varies across regions. In the Caribbean, home to some of the world’s most degraded reefs,…
link.springer.com

I love that species. When I was doing more botanizing in the Appalachians (Pennsylvania) way back when, it was so awesome to come across this.

That is epic. And astounding.

The dexterity of the Talk Box usage was 'chef's kiss'
50 Years ago today I released Frampton Comes Alive, 50 years, wow!  Thank you all for making it the huge success it became.

Reposted by Stephen D. Murphy

Cicadas emerging in January and eclosing on our Christmas lights! 🤯🤯🤯 #OnlyInTexas
50 Years ago today I released Frampton Comes Alive, 50 years, wow!  Thank you all for making it the huge success it became.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" is a phrase I find myself using a lot with regard to academics behaving unethically (not, I emphasize that the OP Dr. @mehr.nz was behaving in that manner - see Dr. Mehr's thread for context for this)
Somebody who I blocked called this 'weaponizing IRBs'. Are you fucking kidding me? This study is approved by the UChicago IRB. I am a recruited participant following instructions for filing an ethics-related complaint. You should too if you have experienced harm from this study.

I hope it never gets unrung. The whole area is even more awesome now, I imagine. Get off the muni at Judah/La Playa, hit the whole Ocean Beach for a day.

Reposted by Stephen D. Murphy

Somebody who I blocked called this 'weaponizing IRBs'. Are you fucking kidding me? This study is approved by the UChicago IRB. I am a recruited participant following instructions for filing an ethics-related complaint. You should too if you have experienced harm from this study.

Nice
🚨 Job Alert! TT Assistant Professor of Marine Biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks! Looking for a candidate with a focus on coastal ecology. Come be my colleague! Please share.

careers.alaska.edu/jobs/assista...