Chelsea Clifford
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ditchontologist.bsky.social
Chelsea Clifford
@ditchontologist.bsky.social
500 followers 860 following 200 posts
Sometime aquatic (socio-)ecologist 💦🌱🦟👥🏖️🌽🐄🛣️🏡🛥️🛶⛲️👩🏻‍🔬👩🏻‍🏫
Also: 🤕♿️✊🤝🐈📘🥾🏞️🎨🎻🧘🏻‍♀️
She/her/hers
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Chelsea Clifford
globalstewards.bsky.social
"If the smartest young minds in the world were dedicated to figuring how a declining population could support its elders, we would achieve that goal," he said. "I think we'd have a happier world, for people and wildlife."
www.npr.org/2025/11/01/n...
Could smaller families 'rewild' the planet — and make humans happier?
Many economists and business leaders are raising alarms about falling birthrates. But advocates for lower human populations say a less crowded world will be happier and more sustainable.
www.npr.org
November 1, 2025 at 10:19 AM
Reposted by Chelsea Clifford
jeremymberg.bsky.social
Well reported story on the PBS News Hour about science cuts and the ongoing and potential brain drain.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLvO...

Thanks to Terrance Tao and other scientists at various career stages for having the courage to speak out.

Watch and share!

1/7
Top researchers consider leaving U.S. amid funding cuts: 'The science world is ending'
YouTube video by PBS NewsHour
www.youtube.com
October 30, 2025 at 11:36 AM
Reposted by Chelsea Clifford
cmbeale.bsky.social
Over the next few weeks I'll be sharing some fun PhD opportunities. Today, if you're into hydrology, forests and wading 🪶 in Scotland this one might be for you! 🧪 www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Rather famous scottish landscape with the west highlands railway looping through mountains. A forest plantation is evident. A few small people on the left are doing their best not to be recognised.
October 31, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Reposted by Chelsea Clifford
rachelburch.bsky.social
Welcome November, paintings by Edwardian artist Edith Holden.
Two books open at starling and bird paintings
November 1, 2025 at 11:00 AM
ditchontologist.bsky.social
Minor caveat: I do think PhD programs should yield folks able to work in field after, not just profit from student tenure as engines of academia (which, accurate; avoid phdcomics.com/comics/archi...). Student careers likely remain an afterthought, though, & scholars must exist for jobs to persist.
November 1, 2025 at 12:28 PM
Reposted by Chelsea Clifford
npr.org
Rats aren't just a nuisance. They can carry diseases and are a leading causes of property damage. One community in Massachusetts is trying a novel approach to rat reduction: Birth control. n.pr/43NUYNH
Too many rats? Birth control is one city's answer
Rats aren't just a nuisance. They can carry diseases and are a leading causes of property damage. One community in Massachusetts is trying a novel approach to rat reduction: Birth control.
n.pr
November 1, 2025 at 11:23 AM
Reposted by Chelsea Clifford
us.theconversation.com
What cemetery plants mean: A horticulture extension specialist explains how flowers, trees and other botanical motifs honor those buried beneath #DayOfTheDead #DioDeLosMuertos
Symbolism of cemetery plants: How flowers, trees and other botanical motifs honor those buried beneath
Many plants and flowers have symbolic meanings, and their presence on a grave may reflect something unique about the deceased.
buff.ly
November 1, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Reposted by Chelsea Clifford
egu.eu
💰 Do you need #financial #support to attend #EGU26?

#EGU is here to ease your participation!

Submit your abstract by 1 December 2025 and get support through one of our three participation support schemes for #EGU26!

👉 Learn more here: egu.eu/5AKEKI
📸: Jerome Mayaud on imaggeo.egu.eu
Image description: A road leading towards mountains. Text reads: 'travel support, fee waivers, and EDI participation support. Deadline to submit your abstract by 1 December 2025 for financial support."
November 1, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Reposted by Chelsea Clifford
higherjobz.bsky.social
PhD in Plant Ecology – University of Tübingen, Germany
Fully funded | HYPERSAPCE project on metal hyperaccumulation
Eligibility: MSc in Ecology or related field
Deadline: 10 December 2025
Details: higherjobz.com/phd-plant-ec...
#PhDPosition #Ecology #Europe #AcademicJobs #ResearchJobs #ScienceCareer
PhD in Plant Ecology – University of Tübingen | HigherJobz
Apply for a fully funded PhD in Plant Ecology at the University of Tübingen, Germany. Join a top research team. Deadline: 10 December 2025.
higherjobz.com
November 1, 2025 at 4:51 AM
Reposted by Chelsea Clifford
zelalemt.bsky.social
🚨 We’re hiring! Join the Plant–Soil Microbiome Ecology & Innovation Lab
@UBC 🌱
Multiple positions available — details here 👉 lnkd.in/grbiN2Fc #MscPhDposition #Postdoc #Microbiome
October 31, 2025 at 11:57 PM
Reposted by Chelsea Clifford
emfurd.bsky.social
New audio story in Eos today! Ditches and moats are subbing in for witches and ghosts this Halloween. 🧙‍♀️👻
October 31, 2025 at 3:39 PM
Reposted by Chelsea Clifford
eos.org
Justice for ditches! Researchers are seeking to raise the profile of research into canals, dikes, moats, conduits, and gutters, also known as ditches. eos.org/articles/the... 🧪
The Role of a Ditch in the Matrix - Eos
These constructed waterways are often a “no-man’s-land” between terrestrial scientists and limnologists. But ditches’ role in transport, agriculture, biodiversity, greenhouse gas emissions, and even a...
eos.org
October 31, 2025 at 12:53 PM
ditchontologist.bsky.social
Shell middens suggest that Native Americans likely over-harvested oysters somewhat in the York River around 200 AD, then collectively organized to manage sustainably for 1,400 years, even through socio-political transitions. 🦪 -Martin Gallivan (hosted by Gloucester Historical Society 10/26/25)
October 30, 2025 at 8:15 PM
ditchontologist.bsky.social
Prescribed burns in salt marshes may not have some of the biogeochemical benefits associated with commercial biochars because marsh burns tend to be low temperature. -Andrew Wozniak, NERRS Science Collaborative (umich.zoom.us/webinar/regi...) 🧪
Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: The Effects of Prescribed Burns of Phragmites australis on Salt Marsh Ecosystem Services: An Ecosystem-based Management Approach. After registering, you wil...
Phragmites australis is an invasive grass species that affects many marshes along the U.S east coast, often displacing native grasses. Removing Phragmites has been a decades-long management goal as ma...
umich.zoom.us
October 30, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Reposted by Chelsea Clifford
brianmannadk.bsky.social
Code Switch team at @npr.org looks at the Population Shift by exploring how this trend has been leveraged by controversial 'pronatalist' figures. How Elon Musk and JD Vance plan to 'save civilization' with more babies : Code Switch www.npr.org/2025/10/29/n...
How Elon Musk and JD Vance plan to 'save civilization' with more babies : Code Switch
What do conservatives like JD Vance and tech executives like Elon Musk have in common? They, like other pronatalists, want to “save civilization” by having more American babies. But it wasn’t that lon...
www.npr.org
October 29, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Reposted by Chelsea Clifford
wolvendamien.bsky.social
…As can this conversation between Michelle Martin, @geedee215.bsky.social, and @baparker.bsky.social on the shared eugenicist roots of "overpopulation" and "pronatalism":
www.npr.org/2025/10/28/n...
The racial history of the 'overpopulation time bomb' and 'pronatalism' movements
Code Switch explores the racial history of two seemingly opposing movements that inform today's declining birthrates.
www.npr.org
October 28, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Reposted by Chelsea Clifford
thinkingautism.com
"When I began saying 'I’m autistic& disabled' something shifted. I stopped apologizing for my limits& started protecting my capacity. I stopped pretending my energy was endless& started recognizing it as finite, sacred& worth conserving." @lovettejallow.bsky.social:
open.substack.com/pub/lovettej...
If You’re Autistic, You Are Disabled
Why denying disability reinforces ableism and costs lives.Autism is disability, not disorder. This essay confronts internalised ableism, explains the social vs medical models, and reclaims disabled id...
open.substack.com
October 27, 2025 at 4:57 PM
Reposted by Chelsea Clifford
legolostatsea.bsky.social
Hair barrettes/slides, all found washed up on Cornish beaches.
#plasticarchaeology #Anthropocene
October 28, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Reposted by Chelsea Clifford
peopleandnature.bsky.social
🌱New Research: Carbon and corms: Introduced ungulates and saltwater intrusion variably impact coastal floodplain ecosystem services in the Laynhapuy Indigenous Protected Area, northern Australia ➡️ buff.ly/XUMG9Jl
October 15, 2025 at 11:03 AM
Reposted by Chelsea Clifford
ymalhi.bsky.social
Our new review on the “circular seabird economy”
- how seabirds circulate nutrients betwem ocean and land, supporting ecosystems and livelihoods …https://www.nature.com/articles/s44358-025-00099-w
The circular seabird economy is critical for oceans, islands and people - Nature Reviews Biodiversity
Seabirds are top predators and nutrient cyclers in marine island ecosystems, but are threatened by risk of extinction. This Review explores the circular seabird economy around islands and discusses ho...
www.nature.com
October 28, 2025 at 8:28 AM
Reposted by Chelsea Clifford
gkalinkat.bsky.social
here's a nice ditch expression from my past field work in @aubenews.bsky.social
an aquatic emergence trap, resembling a small pyramid, floating on a drainage ditch in the sunset
October 28, 2025 at 12:21 PM
Reposted by Chelsea Clifford
hugbox.bsky.social
Me, watching a show entirely unrelated to ecology:

Is that phrag??
It IS phrag, UHG!!
A frame from The Umbrella Academy, featuring a lot of phrag, aka phragmites, a reed grass that’s very invasive and nearly impossible to get rid of in the Midwest
October 28, 2025 at 2:13 AM
Reposted by Chelsea Clifford
deepseadawn.bsky.social
"It's past time to recognize that university administrators aren't going to lead the way out of this, [setting] the stage for leadership... from faculty, staff, & students, [where] most if not all progress in higher ed over the past 100 yrs has occurred."
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
#AcademicSky
Higher education fails at collective action
In the latest development in the ongoing combat between universities in the United States and the Trump administration, the Department of Education has presented them with what it calls a “compact.” I...
www.science.org
October 27, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Reposted by Chelsea Clifford
mcsweeneys.net
"You encounter a strange, cult-like group that lives in almost total isolation from the outside world. They jealously guard their arcane knowledge and practice some exceedingly cruel rituals."
Critically Acclaimed Horror Film of the 2010s or Your PhD Program?
1. You encounter a strange, cult-like group that lives in almost total isolation from the outside world. They jealously guard their arcane knowledg...
buff.ly
October 27, 2025 at 1:29 AM
ditchontologist.bsky.social
🧪
colincarlson.bsky.social Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · 14d
For anyone who has received a standard NSF grant since 7/1 (from a core directorate - not a special program for e.g., infrastructure or community of practice) - can you confirm if this is now standard language? Trying to gauge this
trevondlogan.bsky.social Trevon Logan @trevondlogan.bsky.social · 15d
The Python Software Foundation was recommended for a $1.5M grant from the National Science Foundation. The terms of the award said PSF could not work on DEI, whether or not the grant funding was used for it.

PSF therefore declined the funding.

Science suffers, but commitment to core values remains
October 28, 2025 at 4:05 AM