Eric R. Larson
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ericrlarson.bsky.social
Eric R. Larson
@ericrlarson.bsky.social
Associate professor in freshwater ecology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Crayfish, invasive species, environmental DNA, and more. https://publish.illinois.edu/erlarson/
Do precipitation events have opposing effects on aquatic versus terrestrial environmental DNA (eDNA) recovered from streams and rivers? New from the lab at Ecological Applications: doi.org/10.1002/eap....
January 12, 2026 at 4:48 PM
Reposted by Eric R. Larson
National assessment of river protection in the U.S.

Article: doi.org/10.1038/s418...
Policy Brief: doi.org/10.1038/s418...
Rivers Explorer: map.myriver.americanrivers.org

Collaboration b/t American Rivers, Conservation Science Partners, Univ WA @americanrivers.bsky.social

Thread 👇 | DM for PDF
January 9, 2026 at 6:18 PM
Excited that our newly described Okanagan Crayfish makes an appearance on the CBC's cool species of 2025 list: www.cbc.ca/news/science...
Tarantula with XXL genitalia, 'death ball' sponge among cool species of 2025 | CBC News
A spider with extraordinary genitalia, a carnivorous caterpillar that wears its prey's body parts, and a tiny opossum are among the cool new species described by science in 2025.
www.cbc.ca
January 7, 2026 at 6:46 PM
Reposted by Eric R. Larson
I'm recruiting a Ph.D. student for Fall 2026.

Interested in comparative studies and trait evolution in fishes?

Send me an email with a CV and research interests. Please take a look at my website (jcorush.github.io ) for more information about my research.

#hybridization #minnows #mudskippers
Corush Lab
jcorush.github.io
December 4, 2025 at 12:38 AM
The Sangamon River of Illinois through the seasons. We visited this site every few weeks in 2025 to track changing stream communities with environmental DNA.
December 6, 2025 at 2:51 PM
New OA study led by Dr. Caitlin Bloomer of U. Illinois: can you predict good habitat for burrowing crayfish even if your model is trained on data from different burrowing crayfish species (doi.org/10.1111/fwb....)? Highly relevant to these hard-to-detect and identify animals.
December 4, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Riparian buffers help more than just streams and rivers in agricultural landscapes. Lab Masters student Olivia Reves used environmental DNA (eDNA) to quantify the benefit of riparian buffers to terrestrial wildlife in downstate Illinois; open access at doi.org/10.1111/1365...
December 3, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Reposted by Eric R. Larson
November 23, 2025 at 9:34 PM
New invasion note from southern Idaho, where we've rediscovered the non-native red swamp crayfish after a half century without detection (doi.org/10.3391/bir....). Intensive burrowing by red swamp crayfish could be a risk to canals and other irrigation infrastructure.
November 10, 2025 at 5:04 PM
New faculty position in the University of Illinois Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences for an assistant or associate professor of agroecology: illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree.... Position closes October 31st. Happy to answer questions about the dept / university / town.
September 24, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Reposted by Eric R. Larson
UPDATE: The 2025-2026 list of faculty and postdoc positions in ecology and evolutionary biology is out! Be sure to check out this active and helpful community run resources! docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
ecoevojobs.net 2025-26
docs.google.com
September 19, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Reposted by Eric R. Larson
September 12, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Completed my annual trip to northern Wisconsin, continuing population monitoring of invasive rusty crayfish (Faxonius rusticus) that extends back to the 1970s. Populations remain down, at only ~25% of past peak abundances, with surprising catches of large native snails in our traps.
September 6, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Reposted by Eric R. Larson
It was a real pleasure to participate in the Mazama Newt Workshop at Crater Lake hosted by the @oregonzoo.bsky.social and the National Park Service. Discussions focused on a recovery plan for the Mazama newt in light of an exploding invasive signal crayfish. Great to see @ericrlarson.bsky.social!
August 26, 2025 at 11:39 PM
Reposted by Eric R. Larson
The RELIX catalogues every plant species in 353 prairie remnants — parts of the native grasslands of the Midwest that were not converted to farmland during colonization.
New database catalogs plant species in latest effort to restore prairies
The RELIX catalogues every plant species in 353 prairie remnants — parts of the native grasslands of the midwest that were not converted to farmland during colonization.
www.chicagotribune.com
August 23, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Our search for invasive crayfish barriers includes more than just dams or irrigation diversions. Because the virile crayfish is intolerant of stream drying (doi.org/10.1086/725318), intermittent reaches could present barriers to upstream spread to permanent streams in the mountains.
August 19, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Crayfishing.
August 12, 2025 at 10:50 AM
The manager at this property noted they have problems with the invasive crayfish clogging irrigation infrastructure downstream of the diversion. Economic damages to agriculture from invasive crayfish are well-known on other continents, but I wonder if we've missed an impact in the arid western US.
This was another barrier where non-native crayfish passage was obvious before we started sampling. Here a small gate in one of the water control structures was clogged with carcasses from the upstream pool. I think this barrier is open to flow at times of the year when crayfish are moving around.
August 8, 2025 at 5:11 PM
This irrigation diversion looked promising as an invasive crayfish barrier. The diversion gates didn't appear to be climbable. Water is diverted into a buried pipe with screens to prevent fish entrainment. Concrete retaining walls extend into the riparian zone. Can crayfish get over or around this?
August 6, 2025 at 2:08 PM
A relief to add a new pilose crayfish site this week. This native species disappeared from the mainstem, low elevation Bear River in Wyoming between 1987 & 2007, replaced by the non-native virile crayfish (peerj.com/articles/5668/). Remnant populations are confined to higher elevation tributaries.
August 1, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Freshwater invaders pose unique challenges to species distribution (or ecological niche) models used in risk analysis. New in Freshwater Science (doi.org/10.1086/737200), I identify strategies to improve predictions of suitable habitat for emerging, data-poor freshwater invaders using these tools.
July 31, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Reposted by Eric R. Larson
The publications collected in this month's LTER Network News really demonstrated the wide range of impactful research the LTER does. Here's the list:

mailchi.mp/lternet/lter...
LTER Network News | July 2025
mailchi.mp
July 31, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Here's another potential invasive crayfish barrier: a concrete structure extending across a river channel associated with a municipal water supply diversion. Can crayfish get over/around this, or not?
July 30, 2025 at 3:00 PM
More hints that one of our study sites is a good place to catch crayfish
July 29, 2025 at 7:33 PM