Julian Olden

www.seattletimes.com/opinion/pres...

14 Aug

seattletimes.comEnding the roadless rule would put this precious WA resource at risk | Op-EdIn Washington roadless areas protect over 3,600 miles of river flowing through healthy, intact forests, from which 6% of the state gets its drinking water.

25 June

The Society for Freshwater Science is pretty awesome. Here is how I recognize the greatest of this society and all its passionate members. Cheers 🍺 www.freshwater-science.org @freshwaterscience.bsky.social

doi.orgSociety’s struggle with unwanted species: what centuries of history reveal about species bounty programs - npj Biodiversitynpj Biodiversity - Society’s struggle with unwanted species: what centuries of history reveal about species bounty programs

25 June

Species bounty programs, like bounty hunters charged to bring fugitives to justice, enlist the public to capture unwanted species through financial incentives. Check out our paper in npjBiodiversity, where we review the eight-century-long practice. @natureportfolio.nature.com doi.org/10.1038/s441...

25 June

This was a real labor of love and one of the most exciting pieces of research I've worked on. A real infatuation that persists today! Stay tuned for more as I continue to explore our intriguing and complicated history with species that we consider "pests". Reach out with 🤔 or 🗣️ inquiries.

21 May

A huge thanks to the many folks who made the LeRoy Poff career celebration such a wonderful event. Special thanks to Chris Funk, Dave Lytle and Deb Finn. @streambug.bsky.social @jdtonkin.bsky.social @freshwaterscience.bsky.social

16 May

Gearing up for another fantastic SFS annual meeting! Just finished the beer cap art for the student auction. I’m stoked about it! Revealed on Monday night or early here if this post gets 75 likes! @sfs-src.bsky.social @freshwaterscience.bsky.social

28 Apr

Wow, this is utterly insane and really sad for those of us dedicated to 100% human-generated science.

Benjamin Braun@benbraun.social

Since ChatGPT came online in late 2022, grant application numbers across 12 UK and EU funding bodies have increased by *57%*. For MSCA fellowships the number is *+142%*. I do believe that what we’re doing is insane and that we need to stop doing it IMMEDIATELY. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

doi.orgCross-ecosystem linkages between freshwater insects and riparian birds across the USA - Nature Ecology & EvolutionAquatic insects such as mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies are widely used for freshwater biomonitoring and could provide resource pulses to terrestrial insectivores. Here the authors show a positiv...

Continental-scale evidence that emergent aquatic insects sustain riparian birds, thus freshwater conservation offers considerable co-benefits to terrestrial ecosystems! A fun collaboration w/ postdoc @cschuerings.bsky.social @uwsafs.bsky.social @uwenvironment.bsky.social doi.org/10.1038/s415...

The EPT association with aerial insectivorous birds remained robust after accounting for riparian covariates describing the extent of urban, agricultural and canopy cover that may influence the magnitude and availability of emergent insect prey to foraging birds.

This study offers strong evidence that a mechanism long established in small-scale analyses - namely, emergent aquatic insects fueling terrestrial predators - scales up to continental biodiversity patterns. Thus, protecting rivers is also a strategy for sustaining birds and their ecosystems.

We combined aquatic insect data from >140,000 river sites with over 83 million bird surveys from eBird. After accounting for spatiotemporal proximity & survey effort during the insect-emergence & bird-breeding period, the final dataset had 14,177 locations & over 2 million bird obs for 288 species.

Aerial insectivorous birds exhibit more than 3-fold higher prevalence at sites with high compared with low EPT (insect) richness. This linkage holds across river types describing hydrology, temperature & geomorphology, with the strongest gains occurring in rivers with low baseline bird prevalence.

doi.orgNoise-induced annoyance and sleep disturbance from military aircraft trainingWhile much is known about the public health impacts of civil aviation noise, only limited research has investigated the consequences of military aviation noise,

17 Mar

New research! Noise-induced annoyance & sleep disturbance from aircraft training at Naval Air Station Whidbey Is. @uwenvironment.bsky.social @omfishient.bsky.social @sounddefenseall.bsky.social @quietcommunities.bsky.social doi.org/10.1121/10.0... Paper: www.researchgate.net/publication/...

doi.orgExtreme weather is transforming the world’s rivers. We need new ways to protect themRivers support billions of people but are among the least protected parts of nature. A major review shows what needs to be done as climate change accelerates.

25 Feb

A piece we wrote for The Conversation that associated with our recent paper "Extreme events and river biodiversity under climate change" in Nature Reviews Biodiversity @jdtonkin.bsky.social @tdatry.bsky.social and others Read-only link: rdcu.be/e4Dkv doi.org/10.64628/AA....

science.orgFishing ban halts seven decades of biodiversity decline in the Yangtze RiverChina’s rapid economic development has triggered an unparalleled freshwater biodiversity crisis since the 1950s. To restore fisheries resources, the Yangtze River Fishing Ban was implemented in 2021 t...

12 Feb

Fishing ban halts seven decades of biodiversity decline in the Yangtze River | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... A collaboration with Yushun Chen, Seb Brosse, @sjcfishy.bsky.social and other! @uwenvironment.bsky.social @uwsafs.bsky.social

@uwenvironment.bsky.social @uwsafs.bsky.social @cig-uw.bsky.social

10 Feb

FieldNotes@fieldnotes-uw.bsky.social

New Blog post! Rough Seas For Offshore Wind: The Legal Battles Shaping US Offshore Energy Development Our first blog this quarter from Xander Smith!! Check it out at the FieldNotes website: fieldnotesjournal.org/new-blog/202...

5 Feb

Super happy to have @ulaskimarta.bsky.social joining us at @uwsafs.bsky.social! Looking forward to working together!

This post is unavailable.

@fieldnotes-uw.bsky.social

5 Feb

Mismatches between invasive species policy, which relies on administrative borders, and scientific research conducted at ecological units complicate regulation, risk assessment, and biosecurity. Here we explore some solutions. www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Julian Olden reposted

FieldNotes

16 Jan

Welcome the editors for FieldNotes 2026! pt. 1 We're so excited to introduce the editors of our editorial team! Stay tuned for the remaining editors and other updates!

forbes.comImproving How We Track Progress For River ProtectionRivers have relatively less protection than do land or oceans and we lack effective mechanisms for measuring protection. A new study offers an improved mechanism for tracking progress.

26 Jan

‪Another wonderful CESAB FOOD-WEBS working group meeting in Montpellier! Super productive and creative time together. Funding: @frbiodiv.bsky.social

Julian Olden reposted

Jeff Opperman

@jjopperman.bsky.social

22 Jan

River need greater protection, but to date our methods for tracking protection status have been limited. In this post I describe a new method from @oldenfish.bsky.social @americanrivers.bsky.social and Conservation Science Partners - the Protected River Index www.forbes.com/sites/jeffop...

Julian Olden reposted

American Rivers

@americanrivers.bsky.social

10 Jan

🗣️ MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT: Over 80% of our nation’s 4.4M miles of rivers aren’t adequately protected! Our brand new peer-reviewed research with Conservation Science Partners published in Nature Sustainability shows just how vulnerable our rivers are. ➡️ Learn more: www.americanrivers.org/npra-explore...

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

Individual states can promote river protection through new or strengthened riparian buffer legislation, administrative rules, or agricultural/forestry best practices. Protecting rivers flowing through private lands, such as those offered by easements or land trust acquisitions/agreements, is key.

Expanding river-specific protections, such as new federal and state Wild and Scenic Rivers and Outstanding Resource Waters, would ensure effective, durable protection measures tailored to rivers.

Protection often does not coincide with other conservation objectives, where only a small fraction of watersheds with high biodiversity, habitat intactness and importance to drinking water supply are adequately protected.

Federal public lands have an outsized role in protecting rivers nationwide, and multiple-use lands provide a major opportunity to scale protections; weakening or eliminating existing environmental policy mechanisms would undermine these safeguards.

America’s rivers are alarmingly under protected. Just over one-tenth (12%) of rivers in the contiguous United States and less than one-fifth (19%) nationwide are currently protected at a level deemed viable, while two-thirds remain entirely unprotected under the mechanisms assessed in this study.

@profchrisharrod.bsky.social

Protection is overwhelmingly driven by land-based mechanisms, which are often spatially misaligned with hotspots of freshwater biodiversity and may inadequately safeguard rivers from upstream threats. Protection is also uneven across river types (intermittent rivers less protected) and geographies.

Julian Olden reposted

Chris Harrod

15 Dec 2025

hot off the press! Led by the mighty Marie Perga, including many members of the Fooδ-webs team, and kindly funded by the Foundation for Research on Biodiversity/CESAB besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.comA global estimator of C and N isotope baselines for fresh watersBaselines are the pebbles in the shoes of isotope ecologists. The extreme variability of the isotope composition of resources at the base of food webs governs the spatial differences of consumers'...

19 Dec 2025

Unraveling multipredator impacts in salmon-bearing rivers using quantitative DNA metabarcoding. A wonderful collaboration with @jwinkfish.bsky.social. @uwsafs.bsky.social @uwenvironment.bsky.social @uwfreshwater.bsky.social 👇 esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

24 Nov 2025

Late night, but there is no better feeling that having stable isotope samples all prepped! ⚛️🎉

24 Nov 2025

Finally found some time to reconnect with my caps. Red swamp crayfish in all its glory. Adding it to my office wall! @newbelgium.bsky.social @pikebrewing.bsky.social

21 Nov 2025

Sunrise from UW SAFS @uwsafs.bsky.social. Not a bad way to start the day! ☀️

13 Nov 2025

Is Facebook fueling the online trade in aquatic invasive species? Survey of hobbyists indicates that over half engage in peer-to-peer organism exchange, transport across state lines & release them into the wild. AI Podcast: open.substack.com/pub/oldenfis.... Paper: www.reabic.net/journals/mbi...

reabic.netreabic.net

6 Oct 2025

The current website of the US Department of Agriculture. What a nightmare.

fieldnotesjournal.orgFIELDNOTES

28 Sept 2025

I've been proud to serve as the faculty leader for this effort. It has been a pleasure to interact with passionate students and emerging science communicators for many years now! We publish annually. I encourage you to check out past issues and follow! @uwsafs.bsky.social @trevorabranch.bsky.social

FieldNotes@fieldnotes-uw.bsky.social

FieldNotes (fieldnotesjournal.org) is a student-run undergraduate journal and digital storytelling platform at @uwenvironment.bsky.social. We have focused on highlighting undergraduate research and publishing through-provoking articles about gnarly environmental issues since 2018. Please follow.

Fish ecologists routinely posit that functional trait analyses, founded either solely or in part on morphological traits, provide opportunities to guide global biodiversity conservation. Our paper just published in GEB sought to explore this claim. doi.org/10.1111/geb.... Read thread below.

doi.orgdoi.org

Importantly, we continue to believe that morphological traits hold VALUE in depicting habitat use, ecological diversity & offering insight into fish movement! But our results do raise concerns of whether such traits are ‘functional’ in that they are a reasonable proxy of a species' trophic ecology.

Funding: CESAB programme of @frbiodiv.bsky.social. Great list of co-authors and fun working group! @uwsafs.bsky.social @uwfreshwater.bsky.social @profchrisharrod.bsky.social @profchrisharrod.bsky.social

doi.orgIsoFresh: A global stable isotope database of freshwater food webs | Knowledge and Management of Aquatic EcosystemsKnowledge and management of aquatic ecosystems (formerly Bulletin Français de la Pèche et de la Pisciculture), an international journal on freshwater ecosystem

This study leveraged a comprehensive database of stable isotope values for fish communities worldwide. doi.org/10.1051/kmae.... And yes, stable isotopes have limitations ... isotopic vs. trophic niches. We cover all of this in our paper!

The growing enthusiasm for trait-based ecology, particularly approaches grounded in morphological traits, is increasingly shaping science. However, we caution that this enthusiasm should not overlook the limitations of morphological traits as a meaningful lens or currency for functional inference.

doi.orgdoi.org

Support of such claims depends on the fundamental, albeit often unspoken, assumption that morphological characteristics of fish, such as body size & shape, fin configuration, & the size & orientation of the mouth and eyes, serve as reliable indicators of their feeding strategies & prey preferences.

In a global test, we show that morphological traits show weak (ca. 10% var exp) associations with d13C & d15N for freshwater fish species. At the individual level, morphology explained 4% in isotopic variation within populations. Body size & jaw length explained some var, albeit not much.

26 Aug 2025

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!

6 July 2025

Just out: Few-shot transfer learning enables robust acoustic monitoring of wildlife communities at the landscape scale. Super great work by Gio Jacuzzi. doi.org/10.1016/j.ec.... Github release: zenodo.org/records/1569...

26 June 2025

Wonderful to be able to spend some time at @iea-udg.bsky.social at @univgirona.bsky.social with my host and friend @garciaberthou.bsky.social. Looking forward to my seminar in a few hours!

23 June 2025

A huge congrats to Dr. Diallo @jessdiallo.bsky.social! Many more great things lay ahead!

Jessica Diallo@jessdiallo.bsky.social

I'm excited to share that I've graduated with my PhD from @uwsafs.bsky.social, with a dissertation focused on the lifetime trophic ecology of fishes and invasive species management! 🐟 📈 🔬 Thank you to @oldenfish.bsky.social for your mentorship and support!