iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Don't shoot the orange hulk, he's a good boy

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Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Wouldn't Dylan going electric be the bigger style or genre change?

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Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

They were a pop rock band fronted by Bob Welch (w/Christie McVie) for years before the Buckingham/Nicks era. There isn't a real change from something like 'Hypnotized' or 'Sentimental Lady' to the 1975 album. The move away from blues would have been earlier, maybe at Kiln House (1970).

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Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Can snow on most any day through the summer, perfect match for baseball

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Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I'm sad to not get the "snowed in in Wales" book as a season, or at least a holiday special

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Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Looks like she may have recently hatched young-of-year under her abdomen?

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Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

He's eating a hard-boiled egg from his coat pocket.

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Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

It's so tedious. The first time I took the train from Champaign to Chicago, there was a couple (maybe from the UK?) seated in front of me, who remarked to each other: "Can you imagine anyone in Europe tolerating this?"

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Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

I feel obligated to go with crawdad, which is what I called them as a kid in Wyoming, but I went to crawfish boils as a teen in Texas and have studied crayfish as a scientist for 20+ years.

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Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

I spent my first thirty years across Wyoming (1982-1992), Texas (1992-2000), Idaho (2000-2005), Arkansas (2005-2007), and Washington State (2007-2011), and I'm always impressed these things triangulate that background reasonably well. But crayfish/crawfish/crawdad is a trap for me.

Dialect map with warm colors (match) to the western US grading to coldest or mismatched colors in the southeast and especially northeast

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Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

With colleagues across museums in the US and Canada, we recently asked: what is North America's largest crayfish species? Which led to a more interesting follow-up question: why do the contenders all cluster at a similar upper size limit? New in Ecology at: doi.org/10.1002/ecy....

Dorsal view of a crayfish in a glass jar centered on its carapace. It is not a contender for largest in North America.

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Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

I think both the hair and the makeup together moves it too far from Peter Falk?

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Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

And I guess as a bonus: in the past 10-15 years, we've seen rusty crayfish populations crash in some of their invaded lakes. We'd like to know why. One possibility is a parasite called porcelain disease (studied by my colleagues like Lindsey Reisinger), that appears as milky tissue under the tail.

A ventral view of a crayfish with milky or opaque muscle tissue under its tail or abdomen

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Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

By loss of aquatic plants and direct predation on nests, rusty crayfish could also drive down sunfish populations, which had costs to anglers and tourist revenue in the region. But the crayfish invasion had neutral to positive effects (think smallmouth bass) for other fish species. 2/2

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Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

They were most likely bait releases that arrived in the 1960s and 1970s. Rusty crayfish became much more abundant than the native crayfish (at least in the right lakes - those with lots of rock), and could basically exclude aquatic plants and other inverts like snails from the lakes. 1/2

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Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Yep, this is rusty crayfish monitoring - we document other species we find (mostly virile crayfish), but rusties are >99% of our catch

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Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

A half century of invasive crayfish monitoring in northern Wisconsin continued this week with Cornell's recently retired David Lodge and first year University of Illinois PhD student Kaylin Wallen

Two researchers sit in the bow of a john boat with a bucket full of crayfish and a lake in the background under overcast skies

Roughly two dozen rusty crayfish in a shallow white bucket

A flowage between two lakes in northern Wisconsin with bright green vegetation on both shores under a sunny sky with scattered clouds

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Reposted by Eric R. Larson

Marianne Alleyne @cotesia.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

My Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign invites applications from entomologists with research portfolios in which INSECT BIODIVERSITY LOSS is a key element (at the assistant professor level). illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

Picture of a green tree-lined quad at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, with Foellinger Hall in the background. Skies are often this blue.

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Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

I find it interesting though that death propagates out as a cost of Bale's double life (workplace accidents, suicides of romantic partners, setting Jackman on his course), but propagates internally in Jackman's version of the trick. Bale gets other people killed; Jackman tries to keep it to himself.

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Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

If I could make an exact copy of myself and then split half of my life with that copy I would not do it; seems like a bad deal! But I also wouldn't drown dozens of me either. But I find it believable that Jackman is so obsessed with out-doing Bale that he'll do something really extreme.

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Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

The Bale twins tried, unsuccessfully and at great sacrifice, to share a life. It feels like Jackman's magician knew himself well enough to not want a copy around.

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Reposted by Eric R. Larson

🌾 Dr. Liz Anna Kozik 🌾 @chaseprairie.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

now THIS is a paper to get excited about!!!!! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment
Volume 159, October 2026, 105522

Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment
Roadside native species seeding practices of Midwestern US departments of transportation

Wesley J. Bollinger, Rabin Bhattarai, Jeffrey W. Matthews

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Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Another summer looking for the rare, native Pilose Crayfish (Pacifastacus gambelii) throughout the Bear River watershed of Wyoming, Idaho, and Utah

A researcher kicks through substrate while another researcher stands downstream holding a seine in a shallow, wadeable creek

A mottled red crayfish seen in the bottom of a white five gallon bucket

Upstream view of a small cascade in a creek with an arid mountain in the background under overcast skies

Two researchers measuring the width of a rocky stream with scattered cottonwoods on the floodplain in the middle distance

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Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

I like the shout from the audience when Neil starts 'Transformer Man'

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Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Absolutely the episode where the show hits its stride and then just keeps it for decades

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Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Always nice when the Society for Freshwater Science meeting is directly on a river #2026SFS

Wide, blue river passes under a tall concrete arch bridge

Clock tower over a placid, impounded river pool beneath a blue and pink dusk sky

Waterfall with a small rainbow in its mist looking across to a tall, concrete arch bridge on the opposing bank

Cobble seen on a riverbed through a still pool with a square clock tower on the opposite bank

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Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Was fantastic to celebrate David Lodge's career and outsized impact in invasive species research and policy at #2026SFS this week, and catch up with so many friends and colleagues working on these important topics

Roughly a dozen conference attendence standing on a stage before a project screen, from left to right: Matt Barnes (Texas Tech), Lindsey Reisinger (University of Florida), Eric Larson (University of Illinois), John Drake (University of Georgia), Bill Perry (University of Minnesota Duluth), David Lodge (Cornell), Romi Burks (Southwestern University), Kristy Deiner (Simplex DNA), Kara Andres (Illinois State University), Jon Bossenbroek (University of Toledo), Reuben Keller (Loyola University Chicago), Andy Mahon (Central Michigan University), and Chris Jerde (University of California Santa Barbara)

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Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Neil treats model trains as equally important to his life and career as music in his autobiography, it's wild

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Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Maturin returning to London with a predator pickled in a barrel of rum

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Reposted by Eric R. Larson

Nature @nature.com · 18/04/2026

Scientists have long pulled DNA from water and soil, but they have only just started to see the air as a source of genetic information go.nature.com/4tUdRcA

go.nature.com

The air is full of DNA — here’s what scientists are using it for

Nature - Airborne genetic material can be used to paint a picture of ecosystem health, watch for invasive species and even identify humans.

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Reposted by Eric R. Larson

Steve Carpenter @steve-carpenter.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Mechanisms for regime shifts differ in shallow versus deep lakes - commentary - tinyurl.com/4wepyjbu

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Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

Because of the Robert Plant circulating this week: spanakopedia.ordoliberal.com/subtitle/979...

Brock Sampson to H.E.L.P.eR: "Yes, and hobbits, too."

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Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Multi-metric indices are used to measure biological integrity in response to the US Clean Water Act. But can environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding plug into these existing tools? Our attempt for streams and rivers of Alabama now open access at the journal Environmental DNA: doi.org/10.1002/edn3...

A four panel (2 x 2) image of streams in northern Alabama with bedrock banks and forested riparian zones

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Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

Kelvin Sampson did go 5-5 against Idaho as head coach of Washington State between 1987 and 1994, so I think it's at least a coin toss for the Vandals, right?

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Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

Finished the season #6 in the country at 26-2 with wins over Washington, Wazzu, Oregon, Oregon State, and Iowa State. Only two losses were during a blizzard-impacted road trip at Montana (51-53) and Notre Dame (48-50 OT). You can wind up the Vandal old timers about being Gonzaga before Gonzaga.

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Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

+ Tim Floyd (1986-1988) and Larry Eustachy (1990-1993) who didn't get to the tournament; an interesting starter job in the 80s

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Bruce Webber @drbrucewebber.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

The interplay between climatic niche and spatial distribution can inform the management of non-native invasive species. Our findings reveal that the invasion risk for species with small geographic ranges may be greater than assumed. Read more (OA): doi.org/10.1016/j.ec... #bioinvasions 🌐🌏🧪

CLIMEX Match Climate Composite Match Index (CMI) overlaid with Tipuana tipu distribution location records, projected globally. Insets show the native range, part of South America, part of southern Africa, southwest Australia, and an area of eastern Australia with high levels of cultivation and/or naturalisation. Areas with an orange-red colour (CMI 0.8–1) had high CMI values. Areas with a blue colour (CMI 0.6–0.8) had a climate with moderate CMI values. Records of T. tipu are shown as open circles. Pink circles represent records of plants within the native range. All other colours represent plant records in the non-native range, with purple representing cultivated plant records, yellow representing non-cultivated plant records, green representing records with both cultivated and non-cultivated plants and brown representing plant records where the cultivation status was indeterminate.

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Reposted by Eric R. Larson

DrZP @zarahpattison.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

Love rivers?! Looking for an exciting PhD opportunity to better understand how to restore rivers at a landscape scale with multiple stakeholders?! Details below! @stir.ac.uk www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

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Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Apologies on the overly literal reply. If I had to do a filibuster, I would probably fill the first 3 hours on the Idaho/Boise State rivalry - I don't get many chances at it!

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Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Well, Moscow (University of Idaho) is a shorter drive to Seattle than to Boise and about 11 hours from Salt Lake City. Northern Idaho is more Pacific Northwest than Great Basin. Idaho's campus is also ~8 miles from Washington State University.

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Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Sort of? But it was always a series of streaks: Idaho won 12 straight into the 90s, and then Boise State dominated (12 straight) after both moved up to D-1A. But the overall series stands at 22-17-1. I think the streakiness contributes to the nastiness - Vandals expected to win but the world change.

Idaho versus Boise State football series results from Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boise_State%E2%80%93Idaho_football_rivalry

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Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

"The disc is here, I need to watch it" was a better motivator for me than "It's on my saved list, I'll get around to it." It was physically carried to me by multiple people. I have to return it. Watch the movie.

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Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

When I collected Okanagan Crayfish there in 2010, crayfish were hard to come by - a few individuals per multiple hours of diving nearshore. Abundances were higher in smaller lakes. Large Signal Crayfish active on the lake bed would really stand out, but it's of course a big lake. (2/2)

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Eric R. Larson @ericrlarson.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

Yeah, I wonder about the status of these observations over the past five years - no obvious Signal Crayfish at Okanagan Lake on iNaturalist (only one nearby) but the divers of course may not be iNat users. Have people kept encountering big Signal Crayfish in the lake? (1/2)

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