Andy Baker
andy-baker.bsky.social
Andy Baker
@andy-baker.bsky.social

Australian Research Council Laureate Professor at UNSW Sydney, investigating groundwater recharge, climate, geochemistry, and stalagmites. Not all at once, at least not most of the time. Posting more often at @[email protected] .. more

Environmental science 47%
Geology 24%

Reposted by Andy Baker

Eos @eos.org · 22h
“Water bankruptcy” is the only apt term to describe the world’s freshwater supply, according to a new @ununiversity.bsky.social report. 🧪 🌎 🌊 eos.org/research-and...
We Are "Living Beyond Our Hydrological Means," UN Report Warns - Eos
Humanity has overspent and depleted freshwater in the world’s aquifers, glaciers, wetlands, and other natural reservoirs to an irreversible degree, according to a new United Nations report.
eos.org
Elsevier has pulled a dozen papers by a finance professor in Ireland who oversaw the review of the articles and made “the final decision” to publish them in three journals he edited, according to the retraction notices.
Finance professor in Ireland loses 12 papers in journals he edited
Brian Lucey Elsevier has pulled a dozen papers by a finance professor in Ireland who oversaw the review of the articles and made “the final decision” to publish them in three journals he edited, ac…
retractionwatch.com

I should do some more statistics analyses, but yes, I think that is correct. In general I'm a weekend runner, but for the middle years I lived 20 km from Sydney and would run to work midweek.

It was for a practical reason. I didn't do the coding and I don't host the server, so this answer is vague. From memory, one year of data to explore was a compromise to allow interactive graphics while keeping the speed fast.

Reposted by Andy Baker

Imagine being a Doctor of Rockology! This certificate was presented to former University of Birmingham Head of Department Fred Shotton (1906–1990), clearly a #geologist with a good sense of humour!

#LapworthRocks #ThrowbackThursday #geologyrocks #geology #palaeontology #history #museum #archive

Updates on Cave Climate Data Collection in Australia

Back in 2020, in the depths of COVID lockdowns here in Australia, the Australasian Cave and Karst Management Association organised a cave climate ‘baseline monitoring’ project. The cave climate monitoring of Australasian caves continues. I last…
Updates on Cave Climate Data Collection in Australia
Back in 2020, in the depths of COVID lockdowns here in Australia, the Australasian Cave and Karst Management Association organised a cave climate ‘baseline monitoring’ project. The cave climate monitoring of Australasian caves continues. I last provided an update in July 2025. Six months on... Five and a half years since the start of the project, some cave organisations are still sending in the data.
andy-baker.org

AGU Honor Nominations Now Open for 2026

It is that time of year again, when you can nominate a colleague for an AGU Honour. The AGU is a global community supporting more than half a million advocates and professionals in the Earth and space sciences. Both nominator and nominee need to be AGU…
AGU Honor Nominations Now Open for 2026
It is that time of year again, when you can nominate a colleague for an AGU Honour. The AGU is a global community supporting more than half a million advocates and professionals in the Earth and space sciences. Both nominator and nominee need to be AGU members and affiliated to the Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology section. Nominations just opened and close on 13th March.
andy-baker.org

Some New Year's data wrangling with a messy time series with skewed properties, missing and poor quality data at times, different recording techniques, human error, etc. x-axis is time in years, y axis is kilometers. The hashing is #running

A sad and lovely piece co-authored by my UNSW colleague Rob Brooks on the recent passing of marine scientist and research leader Prof Emma Johnston AO.

theconversation.com/emma-johnsto...
Emma Johnston was a visionary scientist, environmentalist and leader, with an abiding hope for humanity
The University of Melbourne Vice-Chancellor, who has died aged 52, was driven by a deep love of science and a desire to safeguard the planet’s future.
theconversation.com

We've made an offer. Thank you to all who shared.

Soil Moisture and Vegetation are Key Predictors of Precipitation-driven Groundwater Recharge Occurrences in Southeastern Australia

Akhilesh Kumar has the first output from his PhD research available as a preprint here:
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Preprint servers don't stop for the holidays!
Soil Moisture and Vegetation are Key Predictors of Precipitation-driven Groundwater Recharge Occurrences in Southeastern Australia
Rainfall is commonly recognized as the primary control on groundwater recharge; however, rainfall alone often fails to predict recharge occurrences accurately i
papers.ssrn.com

Strength in numbers has served us well at my institution. Earth Science is in a School of Biological Earth and Environmental Sciences. Lower student intake in any one subject can often be covered by another.

Thank you, I didn't know that.

Things are a bit different here in Australia. Earth Science student numbers cycle up and down over time, without a long term trend. However, the long term average is low, and increasingly below what university management consider viable.

Exploring Drip Water Dynamics for Groundwater Recharge

The end of the year is approaching, and the papers and pre-prints are still coming from the groundwater and climate research team here and our collaborators. Here is a summary of our outputs the last three months of the year. All are…
Exploring Drip Water Dynamics for Groundwater Recharge
The end of the year is approaching, and the papers and pre-prints are still coming from the groundwater and climate research team here and our collaborators. Here is a summary of our outputs the last three months of the year. All are open-access, with links provided below Most recently, my photo made the cover of the Eos Buzz Newsletter, where Stacey Priestley (CSIRO) led this article with myself, Wendy Timms (Deakin), Margaret Shanafield (Flinders) and Martin Andersen (UNSW).
andy-baker.org

We have a PhD opportunity for someone interested in 3D mapping of Australian Caves to map water flow pathways from the surface to the groundwater. The PhD is based at UNSW in Sydney.

Details are below, please share!

andy-baker.org/2025/12/17/p...
PhD opportunity: 3D mapping of caves – Andy Baker
We have a PhD opportunity reopened now for someone interested in developing their 3D laser mapping skills. Specifically, the project aims to map cave ceilings at sites across Australia, to identify…
andy-baker.org

Very nice! La Nina = wet here across much of Australia, but also highly seasonal. Would you plan to design global maps for seasons? That would be cool.

Earth Science positions have been cut in many countries. Did you get a sense of whether that particularly affected #AGU25 numbers this year? (Writing as an Earth Scientist intentionally not entering the USA).
Attendance at US-based science conferences is bouncing around this year but generally down. #AGU25 has ~10k fewer this year! I explored these trends for @nature.com — including solutions to keep conferences local & productive:

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

🧪
Scientists skip key US meetings — and seize on smaller alternatives
Researchers are devising creative ways to get together as Trump’s policies curb travel to US gatherings.
www.nature.com

Reposted by Andy Baker

Eos @eos.org · Dec 16
Wildfire smoke, already a health hazard, may come with a dangerous hitchhiker: fungal spores.

Research presented at #AGU25 by @kobziar.bsky.social, @phin-lampman.bsky.social, & colleagues. eos.org/articles/fun...
Fungal Spores in Wildfire Smoke Could Cause Lung Disease - Eos
Mice exposed to fungi spready by wildfires developed symptoms, exposing a potential health hazard to humans that has been understudied.
eos.org

Eurokarst 2026

This is an international meeting on the hydrogeology of karstified Rocks - think caves, limestone and chalk and their water resources.

Which is held in Europe. Hence the title.

The abstract deadline is now open, and closes 15th January. Pass the word!

www.eurokarst.org
Eurokarst 2026 – The bi-annual european Karst conference / Aug. 31 to Sep. 4
The bi-annual european Karst conference / Aug. 31 to Sep. 4
www.eurokarst.org

Reposted by Andy Baker

First update from STOTEN in a while. Yet none of these ongoing issues are obvious from STOTEN's homepage. I'd be annoyed if I had been unaware and published with them in the past year.

Many thanks to the team at @eos.org for publishing this article on groundwater and when it gets replenished.

Do you know what weather and climate conditions are needed to recharge groundwater where you live?

@unswbees.bsky.social @ccrc.bsky.social
No OSPA at this year's #AGU25, which is disappointing, because it made sure that students had at least 3 scientists come to their poster, ask questions, and provide anonymous (hopefully productive) feedback afterwards. Does anyone know why it was dropped? @hydrology-agu.bsky.social or @agu.org

Reposted by Andy Baker

Early career academics: Remember that if you hope someday to "get noticed" by way of a meritorious award independently recognizing you for all of your contributions, then you really need to either *submit an application* for it or *convince your friends to nominate you*...
It's over.

Despite the fact that the academic council recommended against it, despite the fact that the program brought in more tuition than it cost, and despite the fact that Nebraskans need & deserve this expertise, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences will be cut.

www.dailynebraskan.com/news/adminis...
BREAKING: ‘This hurts’: UNL eliminates 4 programs despite faculty, student pleas
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln eliminates the Earth and atmospheric sciences 8-0, educational administration 7-1, statistics 7-1, textiles, merchandising and fashion design 7-1 programs.
www.dailynebraskan.com
Collapse of key Atlantic current could bring extreme drought to Europe for centuries, study finds. @swinda.bsky.social
That's an under-appreciated impact of #AMOC shutdown, of particular concern given the recent results showing much higher likelihood of this. 1/2
www.livescience.com/planet-earth...

Thanks to @agu.org @eos.org team for all their support, and the Australian Research Council for funding.

Providing an evidence base for policy makers and groundwater managers, and a new approach to constrain groundwater models and stalagmite records of past groundwater recharge.

Come and join us on this journey!

We have a new position paper, where we advocate for the wider use of underground observatories to understand how groundwater is replenished.

By directly observing these recharge events, we can make a direct link between groundwater replenishment, weather and climate.

eos.org/science-upda...
When Does Rainfall Become Recharge? - Eos
Counting drips in caves is helping to reveal how much precipitation is needed to start refilling underground aquifers.
eos.org
Important updates from @agu.org for those attending #AGU25 in New Orleans as the city is invaded by federal paramilitaries in operation “Catahoula Crunch”
New Orleans updates | AGU25
www.agu.org