Reading Karádi-Kovács et al.'s 2024 "Long-term recovery dynamics determined by the degree of the disturbance," in particular thinking on the attached plot, has had my gears going. Following a (large) disturbance event, environmental/community metrics overshoot, then oscillate and settle to baseline

The nacre and teeth on this pink heelsplitter!!

First site was at the Union covered bridge, one of just four remaining in the state!

Mussel surveys in northeast and central Missouri today, part of a broader effort DNR is undertaking to update the state's ammonia criteria

Some friends and I helped Missouri River Relief with a trash cleanup on the Missouri near its confluence of the Osage yesterday. Nice dreary and drizzly weather made the provided soup back on the bank all the better

bUg

foaming at the mouth over how much I love Oscar

Bugs rescued from the water of today's lake-paddling

Drought intensifies in the St. Louis area (among others in MO). Normally, the confluence of these two streams is 1. actually connected at the surface and 2. too deep for hip waders. I barely got my shins wet today

Opuntia blooms on the one individual growing on one sun-baked rock on Mizzou's campus

Primula meadia on the largest remaining tract of unplowed prairie in central Missouri, Tucker Prairie, as thunderstorms rolled past to the notth

Found my first flowering shooting stars of the year this weekend. They grow from a large curved bluff of limestone, contrasting the habitats I otherwise find them in, shaded forest floors (both more bottomland slopes and more mesic ridges). Will be checking on my other spots this week!

some highlights from this year's Sanguinaria canadensis, beloved bloodroot

Found a weeeird individual of Sceptridium dissectum (pic 1) that seems like they could be a hybrid between the fern's two forms, f. obliquum (pic 2) and f. dissectum (pic 3). Never seen anything like this!

Criminal conditions in St. Louis's Coldwater Creek. 0.00 mg/L dissolved oxygen, 0.0% DO saturation, high conductivity, and, undetected by these sensors, radioactivity from uranium waste dumped here during the Manhattan Project. No living aquatic life observed anywhere in the stream yet.

Every time we have a substantial snow forecasted and I have time off work, I try to make it into the Icebox to capture shots of the snow falling through the crack in the cave's ceiling. Today was finally a successful attempt. Bonus shot of the park's eponymous rock bridge. Love this place.

Not just lurking: I'm Garrett, he/they. Ozarks-based. I work with streams and citizen scientists. Graduate background in stream ecology. Previous work/study in mathematics, astronomy, & entomology. Increasingly tuned to botany & geology. Naturalist at heart. Amateur photographer. Politics: 🐵🔧