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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Happy Earth Day! Protecting our beautiful life-sustaining planet should be one of the highest priorities of every person.

A bright orange California poppy is set in the foreground of green covered hills.

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

High spring tides also mean exceptional low tides! I did some tidepooling, despite a little rain, at Lands End, SF. Finding a bunch of kelp crabs was very cool!

A few kelp crabs at the edge of rock and sand in the intertidal zone.

Branched dark seaweeds cover a rock at low tide.

Large and small rocks interspersed with sand in the intertidal zone.

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

Very high spring tides (aka #kingtides though that is not a technical term) in San Francisco Bay today and tomorrow. This morning at Crissy Field the water was nearly up to dune vegetation. Driving into the city I saw flooding in Marin including an on-ramp to US101.

Hi water levels reach dune vegetation in San Francisco, with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

It’s always great to see endangered plants out in the field. We have a few endangered species at a few of our sites!

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

I can’t complain when this was my office for the day! We are conducting plant surveys for San Francisco Bay’s #WRMP (Wetland Regional Monitoring Program).

Three kayakers at high tide in a tidal slough near the Napa River.

A vegetation plot showing a square quadrat, tall vegetation, and a small chalk board with a plot name enscribed on it.

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 01/09/2025

We saw whales off Point Reyes National Seashore this weekend!

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

Tidal swamps have freshwater and brackish-tolerant shrubs and trees, including Sitka Spruce, twinberry, willows, and crab apples in the Pacific Northwest.

Backlit leaves of crabapple with small developing fruits

Sitka spruce and shrubs in Poole Slough in the Yaquina Estuary, Oregon

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

This project is a partnership of OSU, Wild Salmon Center, the Institute for Applied Ecology, and local landowners. Yesterday we worked in the Umpqua Estuary with Butler Creek Farm.

Adding two data loggers into a groundwater well in a tidal marsh.

A red sign indicating “Butler Creek Farm” in the shape of a cow hangs from a pole over a fence.

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

We are starting a new project on the Oregon coast to better understand the drivers of tidal swamp distribution - elevation, salinity and groundwater. These data will help inform #restoration of these carbon-rich but now rare #estuary ecosystems dominated by trees and shrubs.

A large tidal creek with emergent marsh to the right and tidal coniferous forest to the left.

Emergent marsh in the foreground and tidal forest behind it.

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

It is a beautiful day on the central Oregon coast and we had a great low tide this morning! Featured creatures: sea palms, a red alga, and giant green anemones.

Rocky coastline in Oregon with a seagull flying over dark rocks

Rocky intertidal with mussels, gooseneck barnacles, and golden sea palm kelps

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

Today I was able to return to field work in Poole Slough, a lovely branch of the Yaquina Estuary in Oregon, after about a decade away. We set up channel and groundwater monitoring stations in tidal marsh and tidal swamp.

A wide tidal channel winds through tidal marsh on the central Oregon coast

A PVC pipe marks a groundwater monitoring station in a tidal swamp on the Oregon coast

Backlit leaves of crab apple in a forested tidal swamp on the Oregon coast

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

Fun to find a ton of moon jellies floating into the Coos Estuary last evening on a rising tide.

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

Helenium bigelovii, which apparently also ranges into Oregon. I’d love to see H. autumnale in a tidal wetland!

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

I had a lovely field day this week in Suisun Marsh in the San Francisco #Estuary where a lot of marsh plants are still very much in bloom! - Helenium, Grindelia, Triglochin, and Trifolium pictured here

Blooms of Helenium - rounded yellow inflorescences

Several yellow sunflower like blooms of Grindelia, gumweed

Small purple flowers in a spiral around a flowering stalk

Several purple flowers, shaped like pompoms in marsh vegetation

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

Sea Grant, a program of NOAA which funds coastal research, education, and community outreach - is unfortunately a target for the current administration's draconian reductions in science funding. Sign a letter of support for Sea Grant here: sga.seagrant.org/letters-of-s...

sga.seagrant.org

Support Sea Grant Funding – Sea Grant Association

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

Beautiful photo of that species!

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

Yes pickleweed is native to the whole west coast of the US. I’ve seen it from San Diego marshlands to Washington!

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

Eden Landing in South San Francisco Bay used to have a tidal station in the 1970s. I had been wondering where the tidal benchmarks might be. Found one 😂 #wrmp

A tidal benchmark on a bent metal rod protrudes out of a salt marsh

A corroded disk that was an old tidal benchmark

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

That excitement when you find something new in the otherwise pickleweed (Salicornia pacifica) dominated marshes of San Francisco Bay!

A field data sheet showing some salt marsh plot data

A salt marsh vegetation plot dominated by pickleweed

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 28/06/2025

I tripped at my field site yesterday and shattered my quadrat so I now have a new one ready for plant surveys. The simple field gear is often my favorite!

A PVC square quadrat on a wooden outdoor table

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

Tidal marsh vegetation surveys for the new Wetlands Regional Monitoring Program (WRMP) in the San Francisco Estuary are well underway! These surveys at 17+ sites across the estuary will occupy much of my working time over the next few months. @sfestuaryinstitute.bsky.social

A square PVC plot frames a Pickleweed marsh

Two PVC posts and a square quadrant frame a tidal marsh vegetation plot in Suisun Bay

A cluster of golden flowers in the sunflower family at Suisun Marsh

A tidal creek winds through a salt marsh in Marin County California. The creek is almost devoid of water at low tide but the sediments are golden brown due to diatoms on their surface

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

We are also establishing accretion plots, collecting elevation data with RTK-GPS and measuring groundwater time series. The WRMP seeks to study the Bay’s tidal wetlands over the long term and is a partnership of SFEI, SFEP, UC Davis, OSU, USGS, SF NERR and others!

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

This week we collected the first standard transect vegetation data in SF Bay’s new Wetlands Regional Monitoring Program (WRMP)! Over the next few months we will survey 17+ sites from South Bay to Suisun Bay.

A square PVC quadrant in a salt marsh in San Francisco Bay

A field researcher looks ahead into a tidal slough while riding on a small boat

A square quadrant frames a vegetation plot with tall marsh sedges

Tall sedges rise at the edge of a tidal channel in a Napa River tidal marsh.

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 15/06/2025

Interesting. This species can have such an interesting range of morphologies. In California some thalli have smooth and even wiry bladelets!

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 07/06/2025

I had a few days of field work in San Francisco Bay tidal marshes this week, and while my focus wasn’t plants, I came across several rare and unusual beauties: soft birds beak, Delta tule pea, and Zeltnera. #estuary #wrmp

Soft birds beak flowers growing among salt marsh succulents

Bright pink five petals flowers of Zeltnera growing in brown grass

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

New spring growth on coast redwood, Sequoia sempervirens, at left and Dawn redwood, Metasequoia glyptostroboides, at right from the #ucdavis arboretum.

Pinnate leaves of a redwood branch showing lighter green leaves at the branch tips

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 27/04/2025

Some flowers and ferns from a short #bioblitz at Fernandez Ranch, Martinez, Calif yesterday: Colllinsia, Lupinus, ?Dryopteris, Pentagramma.

Several purple and white flowers arrayed in a whorl around a herbaceous stem

Small lupine in grass with small blue flowers

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 20/04/2025

Spring wildflowers at Pt Reyes Natl Seashore: Ceanothus, Iris, Trillium, and Lupinus.

Clusters of sweet-smelling California lilac flowers

Single flower of light purple-white Iris

Several Trillium with three dark green leaves and single purple flowers

A dense cluster of purple and white lupines

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Reposted by Chris Janousek

Adi Khen @adlysia.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

Red, brown, and green seaweeds #PhycologyFriday

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

I’m curious if there are time series that go back farther than the 1980s. Also is there a good estimate of preindustrial CH4 concentrations, perhaps from ice cores?

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

Spending time with charismatic megaflora. Joshua Trees (Yucca brevifolia) in Death Valley Natl Park.

Close up of a Joshua Tree’s spiny leaves

Color photo of a large Joshua Tree and a small cloud in the sky

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

Various photography stuffs over the weekend. #film #cyanotype #alternative.processes

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

Not that I can think of off the top of my head. We have some older groundwater data from a few SF Bay-Delta sites from circa 2016-2017 that we haven’t published yet

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

At this point we are looking at daily, monthly, and seasonal fluctuations in groundwater level in a set of marshes across SF Bay. The data loggers also record temps. Eventually it would be great to add salinity sensors too.

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

Fortunate to have a near-perfect field day in San Francisco Bay. Set up some tidal marsh vegetation plots and started some groundwater level time series. #estuary #wrmp

Tidal marsh landscape with brown pickleweed, green gumplants, and a line of clouds low on the horizon

Tidal marsh landscape with a shallow marsh pond and clouds low on the horizon

Lowering a small black pressure sensor into a groundwater well in a tidal marsh

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Reposted by Chris Janousek

David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈 @whysharksmatter.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

Today, a broad coalition of scientific professional societies who represent over 92,000 scientists are speaking out against the politicization and demonization of Federally funded science and government scientist jobs. It was an honor to help the Union of Concerned Scientists with this! 🧪🌎

ucsusa.org

48 Scientific Societies Representing Almost 100,000 Scientists Ask Congress to Protect the Future of Science

48 scientific societies representing almost 100,000 scientists signed on to a letter asking Congress to protect the future of science

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

I’ve been doing some alternative process photography recently to help maintain sanity. Here are 3 prints of an underwater iPhone image of giant kelp while snorkeling off Catalina Island in 2023. Cyanotype at left, salt print on platinum rag paper in middle, salt print on watercolor paper at right.

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

Salt print of giant #kelp from Southern California for #PhycologyFriday. Salt printing is a 19th century printing technique with salt and silver nitrate.

A monotone print of several interweaving fronds of giant kelp underwater.

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Reposted by Chris Janousek

AGU (American Geophysical Union) @agu.org · 28/02/2025

🚨 #NOAA is essential for weather forecasting, climate research, and public safety. AGU stands with the scientific community in urging Congress to protect and strengthen NOAA, not dismantle it. Our economy, environment, and safety depend on it.

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

Good to momentarily focus on the small beauties around us even as nonsense spreads like wildfire in the US. Most of the fruit trees are now in bloom in our yard :)

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

My research paper proofs arrived on a Sunday night, right before two days of field work and of course they want them back in 48 hours. 😵‍💫

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Chris Janousek @janousekwild.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

One of the functions of benthic algae in tidal marshes is stabilizing sediment and promoting plant recruitment. This example from San Francisco Bay seems to show that - little pickleweed seedlings emerging in a patch of Vaucheria (a yellow-green alga).

Small succulent seedling emerge from a dark green mat of benthic algae in a San Francisco Bay salt marsh.

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