gavin jones
@ecologyofgavin.bsky.social
ecologist, etc: https://gavinmjones.com
Pinned
It’s official: I’m joining the School of Earth, Environment, and Sustainability at the University of Iowa as an assistant prof starting Fall 2026!
I’ll be recruiting multiple grad students and postdocs to join my lab, so if you’re into disturbance ecology and conservation science… watch this space!
I’ll be recruiting multiple grad students and postdocs to join my lab, so if you’re into disturbance ecology and conservation science… watch this space!
One possible (or even likely?) outcome of the LLM and genAI craze might not be the continued death of expertise, but its rebirth.
When nothing can be trusted as real, people will crave humanity, human-verified reporting, and human-generated information. The bullshit machines will be shunned.
When nothing can be trusted as real, people will crave humanity, human-verified reporting, and human-generated information. The bullshit machines will be shunned.
January 5, 2026 at 8:26 PM
One possible (or even likely?) outcome of the LLM and genAI craze might not be the continued death of expertise, but its rebirth.
When nothing can be trusted as real, people will crave humanity, human-verified reporting, and human-generated information. The bullshit machines will be shunned.
When nothing can be trusted as real, people will crave humanity, human-verified reporting, and human-generated information. The bullshit machines will be shunned.
It’s official: I’m joining the School of Earth, Environment, and Sustainability at the University of Iowa as an assistant prof starting Fall 2026!
I’ll be recruiting multiple grad students and postdocs to join my lab, so if you’re into disturbance ecology and conservation science… watch this space!
I’ll be recruiting multiple grad students and postdocs to join my lab, so if you’re into disturbance ecology and conservation science… watch this space!
January 3, 2026 at 3:36 PM
It’s official: I’m joining the School of Earth, Environment, and Sustainability at the University of Iowa as an assistant prof starting Fall 2026!
I’ll be recruiting multiple grad students and postdocs to join my lab, so if you’re into disturbance ecology and conservation science… watch this space!
I’ll be recruiting multiple grad students and postdocs to join my lab, so if you’re into disturbance ecology and conservation science… watch this space!
A reviewer just asked us to cite his 1976 dissertation. What are we doing here
December 30, 2025 at 5:08 PM
A reviewer just asked us to cite his 1976 dissertation. What are we doing here
Thanks to AFE for this huge honor!
Congratulations to the 2025 AFE Award Winners! 🎉 Dr. Gavin Jones was awarded the Early Career Award and Dr. Heather Alexander was awarded the Distinguished Leader Award 🔥Read more here: https://fireecology.org/news/award-winners-25
December 23, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Thanks to AFE for this huge honor!
A day above the clouds. Mt. James summit ridge, northeast of Triple Divide Pass, August 2025 in Glacier National Park, MT.
December 23, 2025 at 5:34 PM
A day above the clouds. Mt. James summit ridge, northeast of Triple Divide Pass, August 2025 in Glacier National Park, MT.
‘It surprised me that Dersu was referring to boar as “people.” I asked him about it. “They people all the same,” he confirmed, “only different shirt.”’
- Across the Ussuri Kray, by Vladimir Arsenyev (1921). Translation by Jonathan Slaght @jonathanslaght.com
- Across the Ussuri Kray, by Vladimir Arsenyev (1921). Translation by Jonathan Slaght @jonathanslaght.com
December 20, 2025 at 12:45 AM
‘It surprised me that Dersu was referring to boar as “people.” I asked him about it. “They people all the same,” he confirmed, “only different shirt.”’
- Across the Ussuri Kray, by Vladimir Arsenyev (1921). Translation by Jonathan Slaght @jonathanslaght.com
- Across the Ussuri Kray, by Vladimir Arsenyev (1921). Translation by Jonathan Slaght @jonathanslaght.com
Driving at night being visually assaulted by an endless line of 1000 lumen headlights just to feel something
December 17, 2025 at 2:10 AM
Driving at night being visually assaulted by an endless line of 1000 lumen headlights just to feel something
This thread: the deep, irreplaceable value of writing. The beauty of failure and striving that LLMs take from you.
I've spent all day struggling to write a single page of a popular science article. I bang away at a word processor; give up; start diagramming on paper. Take some notes; draft a few sentences in pen; return to the computer...and very slowly I figure out what I was trying to say in the first place.
December 17, 2025 at 12:24 AM
This thread: the deep, irreplaceable value of writing. The beauty of failure and striving that LLMs take from you.
Dead academy theory
Grading and googling hallucinated citations, as one does nowadays, and now that LLMs have been around for a while, I've discovered new horrors: hallucinated journals are now appearing in Google Scholar with dozens of citations bc so many people are citing these fake things
December 16, 2025 at 1:10 AM
Dead academy theory
“USDA received overwhelmingly negative feedback on its plan to relocate thousands of staff and consolidate dozens of offices…The mostly negative feedback from stakeholders is not expected to deter the Trump administration… [which is] proceeding full steam ahead”
www.govexec.com/management/2...
www.govexec.com/management/2...
USDA received overwhelmingly negative feedback on its reorg plan from employees, lawmakers and locals governments
The department solicited comments and those who wrote in said a potential exodus of staff and loss of local interaction would prove harmful to farmers.
www.govexec.com
December 15, 2025 at 6:33 PM
“USDA received overwhelmingly negative feedback on its plan to relocate thousands of staff and consolidate dozens of offices…The mostly negative feedback from stakeholders is not expected to deter the Trump administration… [which is] proceeding full steam ahead”
www.govexec.com/management/2...
www.govexec.com/management/2...
Do you guys realize that we do not have to accept generative AI? Do you realize that the world still exists and people still exist and relationships exist and all of those things matter?
December 14, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Do you guys realize that we do not have to accept generative AI? Do you realize that the world still exists and people still exist and relationships exist and all of those things matter?
Seeing this at the end of a paper makes me want to die:
“Declaration of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process
During the preparation of this work, the authors used OpenAI's ChatGPT to assist with language clarity, structuring, and academic expression.”
“Declaration of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process
During the preparation of this work, the authors used OpenAI's ChatGPT to assist with language clarity, structuring, and academic expression.”
December 14, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Seeing this at the end of a paper makes me want to die:
“Declaration of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process
During the preparation of this work, the authors used OpenAI's ChatGPT to assist with language clarity, structuring, and academic expression.”
“Declaration of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process
During the preparation of this work, the authors used OpenAI's ChatGPT to assist with language clarity, structuring, and academic expression.”
I’m really concerned about early career scientists using generative AI in writing, because writing is how we think and reflect. There’s almost nothing *more* human than that, and to give that gift away to a machine is almost unconscionable to me
December 14, 2025 at 3:09 PM
I’m really concerned about early career scientists using generative AI in writing, because writing is how we think and reflect. There’s almost nothing *more* human than that, and to give that gift away to a machine is almost unconscionable to me
Reposted by gavin jones
I’m recruiting a PhD and MSC student for fall 2026 working on the movement ecology and conservation of Mexican spotted owls in SW forests and rocky canyonlands. Exciting partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratory. Great vibrant lab group, high impact research! 🦉
gavinmjones.com/opportunities/
gavinmjones.com/opportunities/
Opportunities
***PhD and MSc openings – Movement ecology and conservation*** I will periodically support graduate students, postdocs, and other staff through the Biology Department at the University of New…
gavinmjones.com
December 5, 2025 at 7:30 PM
I’m recruiting a PhD and MSC student for fall 2026 working on the movement ecology and conservation of Mexican spotted owls in SW forests and rocky canyonlands. Exciting partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratory. Great vibrant lab group, high impact research! 🦉
gavinmjones.com/opportunities/
gavinmjones.com/opportunities/
I’m recruiting a PhD and MSC student for fall 2026 working on the movement ecology and conservation of Mexican spotted owls in SW forests and rocky canyonlands. Exciting partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratory. Great vibrant lab group, high impact research! 🦉
gavinmjones.com/opportunities/
gavinmjones.com/opportunities/
Opportunities
***PhD and MSc openings – Movement ecology and conservation*** I will periodically support graduate students, postdocs, and other staff through the Biology Department at the University of New…
gavinmjones.com
December 5, 2025 at 7:30 PM
I’m recruiting a PhD and MSC student for fall 2026 working on the movement ecology and conservation of Mexican spotted owls in SW forests and rocky canyonlands. Exciting partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratory. Great vibrant lab group, high impact research! 🦉
gavinmjones.com/opportunities/
gavinmjones.com/opportunities/
Folks: I will be flying an ad for well funded PhD and MSc positions in the coming days. If you want to do movement ecology and conservation with these incredible animals… watch this space 🦉🌲
December 2, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Folks: I will be flying an ad for well funded PhD and MSc positions in the coming days. If you want to do movement ecology and conservation with these incredible animals… watch this space 🦉🌲
Should ecologists be worried about the carbon footprint of their own use of “AI” and LLMs?
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
The role of AI in ecology’s computational carbon footprint
Click on the article title to read more.
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 28, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Should ecologists be worried about the carbon footprint of their own use of “AI” and LLMs?
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Need to write a paper on owl study methods w/ “parliamentary procedure” in the title
November 16, 2025 at 8:25 PM
Need to write a paper on owl study methods w/ “parliamentary procedure” in the title
Traveling to the northern reaches of upper Michigan today. You would simply not believe the volume of Edmund Fitzgerald content I’m being served
November 10, 2025 at 2:33 PM
Traveling to the northern reaches of upper Michigan today. You would simply not believe the volume of Edmund Fitzgerald content I’m being served
Wake up babe sesame street just dropped some new iconic scicomm
October 21, 2025 at 11:29 PM
Wake up babe sesame street just dropped some new iconic scicomm
In such a beautiful piece about cultural burning, I was able to share a bit of my own work on how “good fire” can bring a host of benefits to wildlife and forests. Thanks @sadbumblebee.buzz for including me. And what a great spotlight on fire as a form of art, deeply human.
In June, the @washingtonpost.com sent me and @byaliceli.bsky.social to witness cultural burns in California. We learned how they encourage beneficial vegetation, reduce wildfire risk, and provide traditional food and craft sources for tribes in the Klamath region.
🎁: wapo.st/3J7BQTL
🎁: wapo.st/3J7BQTL
How indigenous practices can help protect forests
The Post followed cultural burning practices, an Indigenous tradition now permitted under California law and used to help protect forests from wildfires.
wapo.st
October 14, 2025 at 11:56 PM
In such a beautiful piece about cultural burning, I was able to share a bit of my own work on how “good fire” can bring a host of benefits to wildlife and forests. Thanks @sadbumblebee.buzz for including me. And what a great spotlight on fire as a form of art, deeply human.
My beard has crossed the size threshold where random dudes will give me a “hell yeah” in public
September 25, 2025 at 2:07 AM
My beard has crossed the size threshold where random dudes will give me a “hell yeah” in public
Got soaked on my bike home today like a cartoon character with a cloud directly over my head
September 18, 2025 at 1:59 AM
Got soaked on my bike home today like a cartoon character with a cloud directly over my head
Absolutely love this study. This is the type of creative experimentation we need to understand fire adaptations in animals. Huge kudos to Chris et al!
New paper out today with @biodiversityguy.bsky.social and @lizardlab.bsky.social
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
From anecdote to evidence: experimental validation of fire-cue recognition in Australian sleepy lizards | Biology Letters
Fire has shaped the evolution of both plants and animals. Animals exposed to fire throughout their evolutionary history are predicted to exhibit behavioural adaptations that enhance survival during fire. Here, we investigated whether Australian sleepy ...
royalsocietypublishing.org
September 17, 2025 at 11:45 AM
Absolutely love this study. This is the type of creative experimentation we need to understand fire adaptations in animals. Huge kudos to Chris et al!