Stephen Murphy (smurph)
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smurph.bsky.social
Stephen Murphy (smurph)
@smurph.bsky.social
7K followers 2K following 1.2K posts
Professor at U Waterloo - Sch Environment, Resources & Sustainability. Ecologist, EIC Restoration Ecology, Botanist, Protected Areas. Grasslands. https://uwaterloo.ca/environment-resources-and-sustainability/blog/you-break-it-we-fix-it
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Stephen Murphy (smurph)
josephpolitano.bsky.social
Finished Lowenstein's "Ways & Means" on the financial and tax reforms that won the Civil War for the Union—brilliant book that manages to make bond sales gripping & shows how many US institutions (land-grant colleges, Union Pacific, etc) we owe to wartime reforms
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Joey Politano's review of Ways and Means
5/5: "The Yankees did not whip us in the field—we were whipped in the Treasury Department" bemoaned one Confederate officer. The man was half right, as the well-earned American victories on the battle...
www.goodreads.com
November 10, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Reposted by Stephen Murphy (smurph)
elisabethbik.bsky.social
Unbelievable! How can this crap still be published?
sholtodavid.bsky.social Sholto David @sholtodavid.bsky.social · 13h
Reverse Image Forensics Challenge: Try to find a unique area in Figure 9 of this recent Scientific Reports paper: 10.1038/s41598-025-17456-6 [Aug 2025] - Annotated by ImageTwin.ai
November 11, 2025 at 4:22 AM
Reposted by Stephen Murphy (smurph)
paulwaldman.bsky.social
Let a single person feed their family with food stamps when they don't "deserve" the benefit and Republicans will be filled with such rage that they'll take away those benefits from millions of others.

Meanwhile the administration is doing this:

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/b...
With little public scrutiny, the Trump administration is handing out hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts to some of the country’s most profitable companies and wealthiest investors. The Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service, through a series of new notices and proposed regulations, are giving breaks to giant private equity firms, crypto companies, foreign real estate investors, insurance providers and a variety of multinational corporations.
November 11, 2025 at 2:36 AM
Reposted by Stephen Murphy (smurph)
fgenovese.bsky.social
During the Great Recession (2008-09) UK GDP fell by 6%. Thankfully, it mostly recovered after 5 years.

Since Brexit referendum (2016) UK GDP has fallen between 6% and 8%. Unclear whether and when it will fully recover.

www.nber.org/papers/w3445...
The Economic Impact of Brexit
Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...
www.nber.org
November 10, 2025 at 10:24 PM
Reposted by Stephen Murphy (smurph)
milanchytry.bsky.social
Our new paper in Ecology Letters, led by Jan Divíšek, shows that non-invasive alien plant species that successfully establish within local plant communities tend to resemble the resident native species. In contrast, invasive alien species usually differ from native plants.
doi.org/10.1111/ele....
November 10, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Reposted by Stephen Murphy (smurph)
esajournals.bsky.social
🆕 in "Ecological Monographs": Static models miss the mark—adding nonlinear, density-based facilitation helps predict coexistence, persistence, and realistic community dynamics

📄Neighbor density-dependent facilitation promotes coexistence and internal oscillation
doi.org/10.1002/ecm....
Schematic illustrating how species interactions can depend on neighborhood density and identity.
November 10, 2025 at 7:45 PM
Reposted by Stephen Murphy (smurph)
alanmaceachern.bsky.social
Informed, inspiring text. Beautiful, illuminating pix.

Congratulations, @ehiggs.bsky.social, Zac Robinson, @msanseve.bsky.social, Kristen Walsh, & @mountainlegacy.bsky.social!

@ucalgarypress.bsky.social & @nichecanada.bsky.social

press.ucalgary.ca/books/978177...
November 10, 2025 at 2:22 PM
smurph.bsky.social
Awesome Eric and everyone involved
ehiggs.bsky.social Eric Higgs @ehiggs.bsky.social · 1d
It’s out and it’s beautiful. Mountain Voices featuring photographs from @mountainlegacy.bsky.social went on sale Friday evening at our launch event at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies in Banff.
November 11, 2025 at 5:22 AM
smurph.bsky.social
@ehiggs.bsky.social fyi
erc.europa.eu European Research Council (ERC) @erc.europa.eu · 1d
Rob Marchant, Laura Pereira, Unai Pascual, and Thomas Hickler will use their ERC Synergy Grant to understand how nature and societies interact in and beyond mountain socioecological systems ⛰️

@rob-marchant.bsky.social @laurap18.bsky.social @upascual.bsky.social

👉 buff.ly/ZQhLp4h

#ERCSyG
November 11, 2025 at 5:21 AM
Reposted by Stephen Murphy (smurph)
helenczerski.bsky.social
Oh, I love this. A new species of sea anemone was discovered recently that parks itself on top of a hermit crab shell like a hat. It seems to feed partly off the crab's faeces, but it also excretes a hard shell that extends the crab's home. In return, it's carried around the seafloor like a king.
Pictures of a pink sea anemone sitting on top of a hermit crab shell.
November 10, 2025 at 9:57 PM
Reposted by Stephen Murphy (smurph)
erc.europa.eu
Rob Marchant, Laura Pereira, Unai Pascual, and Thomas Hickler will use their ERC Synergy Grant to understand how nature and societies interact in and beyond mountain socioecological systems ⛰️

@rob-marchant.bsky.social @laurap18.bsky.social @upascual.bsky.social

👉 buff.ly/ZQhLp4h

#ERCSyG
November 10, 2025 at 8:58 AM
Reposted by Stephen Murphy (smurph)
econovoau.bsky.social
#meetECONOVO - @jonastrepel.bsky.social is a PhD researcher working with Robert Buitenwerf, Elizabeth Le Roux and @jcsvenning.bsky.social. His research explores how large herbivores shape vegetation dynamics and plant diversity, including fieldwork in South Africa.
November 10, 2025 at 11:22 AM
Reposted by Stephen Murphy (smurph)
magdagarbowski.bsky.social
Hello! I’m recruiting three graduate students (MS or PhD) to start in summer or fall 2026 . Projects are broadly focused on the ecology, restoration, and management of rangelands, deserts, and forests. Please share!

Lab website: functionalrestoration.nmsu.edu
Students collecting vegetation data in the Organ Mountains Plants with soil and roots Students collecting plants from forest understory
October 23, 2025 at 3:47 AM
Reposted by Stephen Murphy (smurph)
sierrajech.bsky.social
CrustNet visits the California coastal scrublands! We set up a site at the Santa Margarita Reserve and were excited to find liverworts and a highly diverse community of moss and lichen. Gorgeous landscape!
November 8, 2025 at 11:29 PM
Reposted by Stephen Murphy (smurph)
mskellymhayes.bsky.social
My latest is a love letter to Chicago. "I see you stumbling through the stubborn, awkward rhythm of showing up, again and again. I see you fighting alongside people who sometimes frustrate and confuse you, and defending neighbors you may have never met, because you know they’re all your people."
In Chicago, We Run Toward Danger Together
"Faced with unrelenting state violence, Chicagoans have refused to be cowed," says Mariame Kaba.
organizingmythoughts.org
November 8, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Reposted by Stephen Murphy (smurph)
katiefield4.bsky.social
🌿🍄‍🟫🌱🍄We’re recruiting!!🌿🍄‍🟫🌱🍄

I’m looking for two postdocs and a technician to join my group @sheffielduni.bsky.social @sheffieldpps.bsky.social to work with me on my exciting @royalsociety.org Faraday Discovery Fellowship project, details for each post as follows:
November 8, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Reposted by Stephen Murphy (smurph)
adm0n.bsky.social
Hi.

Myself and 10-ish other people published this article today about global fire regimes. I hope you enjoy it. 🧪🌎🔥

Thank you for your attention on this matter!

dx.doi.org/10.1111/geb....
The Properties of Individual Fire Events Are Essential for Understanding Global Fire Regimes
Aim As fire activity changes globally, we need to better understand the spatial and temporal characteristics of the individual events that, when aggregated, constitute fire regimes. Most global stud...
dx.doi.org
November 8, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Reposted by Stephen Murphy (smurph)
meadekrosby.bsky.social
Thinking only of Rosalind Franklin today, and what was stolen from her (and so many other female scientists alongside her).
Rosalind Franklin and the damage of gender harassment
Spurred by a recent report on sexual harassment in academia, our columnist revisits a historical case and reflects on what has changed—and what hasn’t
www.science.org
November 7, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Reposted by Stephen Murphy (smurph)
seemasheth.bsky.social
Amy Angert and I are recruiting a #postdoc to participate in a collaborative NSF-funded study of demographic responses to climate across the geographic range of the scarlet monkeyflower. Please repost! jobs.ncsu.edu/postings/224...
November 7, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Reposted by Stephen Murphy (smurph)
benrlee.com
Just over one week left to apply to work as a PhD student with me in one of the most beautiful ecosystems in the US!
benrlee.com Ben R Lee, PhD @benrlee.com · Oct 3
🚨 Please repost widely!🚨

I am recruiting a PhD student to join my lab next fall to work on forest and climate change ecology projects in southern Appalachia! Come join me in one of the most beautiful, biodiverse, and understudied parts of North America. Details below and happy to answer questions
An ad for a PhD position to start fall 2026 working with me at ETSU. For more info, please email at LeeBR1@etsu.edu. A close-up picture of dimpled trout lilies active in early spring, still largely surrounded by the previous year's senesced tree leaves. A beautiful vista of the Blue Ridge Mountains from on top of Carver's Gap on the border between North Carolina and Tennessee.
November 7, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Reposted by Stephen Murphy (smurph)
socialmedialab.ca
When deception’s more profitable than honesty, users lose.

Internal documents suggest that Meta earns $3.5B(!) every 6 mo. from scam ads, revealing a deeper systemic problem: the economic incentive to tolerate “higher legal risk” content still outweighs any penalty. www.reuters.com/investigatio...
Meta is earning a fortune on a deluge of fraudulent ads, documents show
Meta projected 10% of its 2024 revenue would come from ads for scams and banned goods, and it internally estimates that its platforms show users 15 billion scam ads a day, company documents show.
www.reuters.com
November 7, 2025 at 4:14 AM
Reposted by Stephen Murphy (smurph)
newyorker.com
One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc
The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands
The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.
newyorkermag.visitlink.me
November 6, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Reposted by Stephen Murphy (smurph)
ijpsjournal.bsky.social
JA @ijpsjournal.bsky.social

Primers in the Plant Sciences: Tracing the history of angiosperm systematics through Liliales and Asparagales

@astragaler.bsky.social‬, @wile-phylote.bsky.social‬, @tribblelab.bsky.social

www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/epdf/10....

#PlantScience
IJPS cover in yellow with a cartoon phylogeny of the asparagales and liliales and the title of the primer
November 6, 2025 at 11:30 PM
smurph.bsky.social
The DFO, ECCC, NRCan, and Parks Canada ones are absolutely stupid - naturally, most allude to some miracle of what they think is AI (its actually generative GPT like slop and probably general large language models that can't do whatever hopium they have in mind)
budget.canada.ca/2025/report-...
Annex 3: Comprehensive expenditure review: Planned reductions by organisation | Budget 2025
Annex 3: Comprehensive expenditure review: Planned reductions by organisation — Part of Budget 2025.
budget.canada.ca
November 7, 2025 at 12:28 AM
Reposted by Stephen Murphy (smurph)
snowleopardnet.bsky.social
Behind every #wildlife conservation conflict lies an opportunity. Practitioners from around the globe have come together to share tools for #conflictmanagement & #coexistence.

A new toolkit, built from real experience, launches TODAY, November 6! Stay tuned.📢

#EthicalConservationDay
November 6, 2025 at 3:13 AM