Matthias Sprenger
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matthiasprenger.bsky.social
Matthias Sprenger
@matthiasprenger.bsky.social
980 followers 530 following 120 posts
Hydrologist working on catchment hydrology, ecohydrology, stable isotopes, and Critical Zone research, https://matthiassprenger.weebly.com/
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Matthias Sprenger
temporalecology.bsky.social
Our department at UBC is hiring for a professor of forest ecophysiology, including "tree ecophysiology; plant abiotic or biotic stress physiology; forest mortality and climate change responses; forest carbon balance; tree water relations; or nutrient use." Learn more at: tinyurl.com/5da56f5c
October 6, 2025 at 10:12 PM
Reposted by Matthias Sprenger
thirstygecko.bsky.social
Join the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona for our 2026 Dendrochronology Intensive Summer Course (DISC)! Spend 3 great weeks (May 18th to June 5, 2026) in the field, lab, and classroom learning first-hand how tree-ring research is done! ltrr.arizona.edu/summerschool
Dendrochronology Intensive Summer Course (DISC) 2026 | Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research
ltrr.arizona.edu
November 24, 2025 at 10:01 PM
Reposted by Matthias Sprenger
hydrohammond.bsky.social
Time to get your public comments in on the proposed Waters of the U.S. rule that would strip protections for countless wetlands and streams.

Trout unlimited has a tool on their page that will automatically send your message to the EPA as well as your representatives:

www.tu.org/conservation...
November 23, 2025 at 11:03 PM
Reposted by Matthias Sprenger
herbivoryn.bsky.social
Would you like to study #functional trait diversity and biogeochemical dynamics in rapidly changing #tundra ecosystems? Then this #PhD is for you! 👇 You will do fieldwork in #Alaska, #Svalbard and #Italy and work with amazing Matteo Petit Bon. Apply by Dec 19

herbivory.lbhi.is/2025/11/19/p...
November 23, 2025 at 10:12 AM
Reposted by Matthias Sprenger
carbonshed.bsky.social
Check out this site for current information on ICE sightings in North Carolina

ojonc.org
Ojo Obrero
Ojo Obrero: Immigration advocacy and community engagement platform
ojonc.org
November 19, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Reposted by Matthias Sprenger
benbondlamberty.bsky.social
My colleague @avnimalh0tra.bsky.social is hiring a Postdoctoral Research Associate to investigate rhizosphere processes influencing methane (CH₄) dynamics in northern peatlands! Super cool opening -- please circulate careers.pnnl.gov/jobs/11061?l...
Post Doctorate Research Associate - Peatland Rhizosphere and Trace Gas Processes in Richland, Washington | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
PNNL is hiring a Post Doctorate Research Associate - Peatland Rhizosphere and Trace Gas Processes in Richland, Washington. Review all of the job details and apply today!
careers.pnnl.gov
November 17, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Reposted by Matthias Sprenger
alexfrank.bsky.social
Work with #StableIsotopes in aquatic systems?

Submit your abstract to:

Session SS077
Stable Isotope Solutions to Aquatic Ecology Problems
ASLO‑SIL 2026 | Montreal | 12–16 May
Deadline: Nov 25

🔗 aslo.secure-platform.com/2026
#ASLOSIL26 #IsotopeEcology #AquaticEcology #Ecology #FoodWebs
November 17, 2025 at 9:40 AM
Reposted by Matthias Sprenger
danielepenna.bsky.social
Another great effort and teamwork from the past #WATSON #COST #Action www.watson-cost.eu to show a pan-European #database of #isotope #data in #soil #water and #xylem in #beech and #spruce #trees.

essd.copernicus.org/articles/17/...
And thank you @lehmannmm.bsky.social for the efficient leadership!
November 14, 2025 at 10:44 PM
matthiasprenger.bsky.social
I'm giving a chalk talk on Monday to Freshwater scientists in the Triangle Area that regularly come together in "Converge Meetings", initiated by @agdelv.bsky.social. I think of adding a Hydrology Bingo to go with concepts I'll be mentioning along the way. Distracting and silly? Or engaging and fun?
Photo of an example "Hydrology Bingo" sheet that contains scientific manuscripts that might come up during a chalk talk
November 14, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Reposted by Matthias Sprenger
tommaso-jucker.bsky.social
🚨Job opportunity🚨

We are hiring a 3yr research technician. If you love fieldwork, are passionate about forests & mountains, and want to up-skill in remote sensing, sensor networks and running field experiments this could be the dream job for you!
🧪🌳⛰️🛰️🌡️🍄

www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find/de...
Details | Working at Bristol | University of Bristol
www.bristol.ac.uk
November 14, 2025 at 9:38 AM
Reposted by Matthias Sprenger
carlbergstrom.com
I've been on the road so I'm behind the times—but if you wanted to destroy US science, I can think of no more expedient action.

Blatant unconstitutionality aside, fuck this backwards forwards and sideways.

www.science.org/content/article/u-s-congress-considers-sweeping-ban-chinese-collaborations
The Securing American Funding and Expertise from Adversarial Research Exploitation (SAFE) Act would deny federal funding to any U.S. scientist who collaborates with anyone “affiliated with a hostile foreign entity,” a category that includes four countries: China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. The prohibited activities would include joint research, co-authorship on papers, and advising a foreign graduate student or postdoctoral fellow. The language is retroactive, meaning any interactions during the previous 5 years could make a scientist ineligible for future federal funding.
November 14, 2025 at 3:03 AM
matthiasprenger.bsky.social
Today, 10 years ago I defended my PhD thesis at the Uni. of Freiburg! Look at this great doctoral hat my colleagues created that showed my field work activities back then. Markus Weiler as supervisor, 2nd supervisor @kjmcguire.bsky.social connected via video, & Christine Stumpp as external expert.
The top of my PhD hat decorated with a landscape depicting my field work conducted in Luxembourg study sites, where we drilled soil cores and sampled water for isotope analyses After defending my PhD thesis at the University of Freiburg I received a doctoral hat of which the top was decorated by my colleagues with scenes showing my PhD work. Here a photo of me with my supervisor Markus Weiler and external committee member, Christine Stumpp.
November 14, 2025 at 12:32 AM
Reposted by Matthias Sprenger
lireactivewater.bsky.social
Last #WARR in 2025!!

Drs. Theresa Blume (GFZ, Germany) + Holly Barnard (CU Boulder, US) on

Waters above + below ground:
How root uptake, transpiration, + subsurface stormflow connect drought, floods, ecosystems?

Register: psu.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

@waterbarnes.bsky.social
November 12, 2025 at 9:56 PM
Reposted by Matthias Sprenger
hansonmark.bsky.social
We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing:

a 🧵 1/n

Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below. 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. A figure detailing the drain on researcher time. 1. The four-fold drain 1.2 Time The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce, with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure 1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs, grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time. The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many review demands. Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in ‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier, local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision. A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below: 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Reposted by Matthias Sprenger
hansonmark.bsky.social
The Drain of Scientific Publishing details very clearly how for-profit publishers making >30% profit margins have corrupted any solution the research community has attempted.

Let's cut ourselves free.

Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: bit.ly/StrainQSS
Oligopoly: bit.ly/OligSciPub

12/12
The Drain of Scientific Publishing
The domination of scientific publishing in the Global North by major commercial publishers is harmful to science. We need the most powerful members of the research community, funders, governments and ...
arxiv.org
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Reposted by Matthias Sprenger
agu-sensing.bsky.social
Connect with us at #AGU25! The DS TC will be joining the Near Surface Geophysics section for an informal social, Wednesday, December 17, 7-9PM. Everyone is welcome! Mark your calendar & stay tuned for details. 🎉

Provide a tentative RSVP to help us plan:
RSVP: AGU25 DSTC Social Event
Please let us know if you are likely to attend the social event at The Rusty Nail on Wednesday (Dec.17) from 7-9pm. This will be a joint social with the Near Surface Geophysics Session and we need…
docs.google.com
November 11, 2025 at 11:30 PM
Reposted by Matthias Sprenger
agucatchhydro.bsky.social
This week in our #AGU25 #CatchmentHydrology Early Career series, we highlight: “Effects of Climate Change on the Hydrological Regime of a Mountainous Catchment: A Case Study from the Hindu Kush Himalayan Region” by
Malla Mani Kanta et al. (2025).
November 10, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Reposted by Matthias Sprenger
sholtodavid.bsky.social
Graphical Abstracts are my passion 08 Aug 2025 ($3090.00 APC)
August 10, 2025 at 10:55 PM
Reposted by Matthias Sprenger
newphyt.bsky.social
Improving the representation of plant water stress and water use in Earth System Models

Dukes et al. @dukesjeff.bsky.social @changliao.bsky.social @richphillipslab.bsky.social @scottmcadam.bsky.social

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Measurement-model-remote sensing framework to improve and scale predictions of ecosystem response to climate change across landscapes.
November 5, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Reposted by Matthias Sprenger
josephtumber.bsky.social
New Assistant Professor Posting:
@dartmouthears.bsky.social @dartmouthartsci.bsky.social
Stable Isotope Biogeochemistry and/or Geobiology
apply.interfolio.com/176517

🧪🌎
screenshot of job ad from link on post
November 5, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Reposted by Matthias Sprenger
leafwarbler.bsky.social
Amid all happy election results tonight, here’s one that’s giving me joy: my friend & colleague @louierivers3.bsky.social was elected to the Chapel Hill city council!
“His campaign priorities included preparing for climate change, expanding housing opportunities and expanding community engagement.”
November 5, 2025 at 4:16 AM
Reposted by Matthias Sprenger
elimartinezs.bsky.social
🚨Calling all #TreeRing lovers!🚨

Join us at #EGU26 for session CL1.2.1 Interdisciplinary Tree-Ring Research

Abstracts exploring tree rings from all perspectives and disciplines are welcome!

Submit here:
tinyurl.com/475xjjfu

K. Treydte, J. Jevšenak, A. Eckes-Shephard, @pieterzuidema.bsky.social
November 5, 2025 at 6:36 AM
matthiasprenger.bsky.social
P.C.D. (“Chris”) Milly, Horton Medal Awardee 2024:
"That prioritization of scientific career over private life stings even more as I’ve realized how our science is sometimes ignored anyway—or applied only selectively—to favor powerful, capitalist interests instead of a
sustainable common good."
November 3, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Reposted by Matthias Sprenger
gregggonsalves.bsky.social
Some charts for those who don't know the extent of the US public (and private) investment in research (particularly in biomedical research) compared to other countries and institutions. The destruction of the US' scientific institutions has global implications.
November 2, 2025 at 10:52 AM
Reposted by Matthias Sprenger
dartmouthears.bsky.social
We are looking to hire a full-time tenure-track Assistant Professor in the general areas of stable isotope biogeochemistry and/or geobiology! For more information and to apply see apply.interfolio.com/176517 -- review begins November 15!
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
apply.interfolio.com
October 28, 2025 at 8:59 PM