iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Louis Schipper

Andrew Barnes @barnesecodiv.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Published today in @nature.com, our study shows that the #foodweb trophic structure is critical for #ecosystemfunctioning. Read it here: rdcu.be/frxEl This has been an incredibly rewarding collaboration with many amazing scientists! 🌐🧪🦑🍁🌱 @waikatouniversity.bsky.social @idiv-research.bsky.social

Geographic distribution of the 318 food webs across four ecosystem types that were analysed to test how food web architecture modulates BEF relationships

36127

Reposted by Louis Schipper

Rebecca Priestley @rkpriestley.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Emerging Scientist Prize goes to Luke Harrington of University of Waikato. His work includes calculating contribution of climate change to extreme weather events 👏 #NZPMSciPrizes

2536

Louis Schipper @louisschipper.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Note to journals and editors: automatic "no" to review requests that give time lines of 2 weeks or less. I usually get them done in this time frame but I dont except anyone to get through my papers that quickly - in fact - take your time. 😁

010

Reposted by Louis Schipper

NZAS - New Zealand Association of Scientists @nzscientists.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

We're pleased to announce applications are now open for NZ Association of Science's 2026 Medals. The closing date for all applications is 5pm Monday 3rd August 2026. The medals are ... scientists.org.nz/Awards (1/7)

Picture of the NZ Association of Scientists medal

11211

Reposted by Louis Schipper

Pep Canadell @pepcanadell.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

1/n We just published a global assessment of GHG emissions from global rice cultivation. Led by Jingting Zhang & Hanqin Tian, this is part of the Global Carbon Project's efforts to constrain the Global Methane Budget & provide relevant data for GHG mitigation. theconversation.com/rice-feeds-b...

theconversation.com

Rice feeds billions of people – but its role in fueling climate change is growing

There are ways to reduce emissions without sacrificing yield. A new study shows how, and looks at a technique billed as ‘climate-friendly’ that makes emissions worse.

154

Louis Schipper @louisschipper.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

It is always a happy day when a student's work is published. A neat study that quantifies the importance of dung input on soil C stokcs in grazed pastures! authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

authors.elsevier.com

ScienceDirect.com | Science, health and medical journals, full text articles and books.

120

Reposted by Louis Schipper

Marc Daalder @marcdaalder.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Good morning! The Climate Change Commission has just released the first National Climate Change Risk Assessment in six years – and I've read the key document. In short: Climate change is here, we're not ready, but there's lots we can do to prepare. For more: newsroom.co.nz/2026/05/07/l...

newsroom.co.nz

Landmark report finds climate harming NZ now, will worsen with inaction

A major new report on the risks climate change poses to New Zealand has found targeted action now could avert the worst impacts, Marc Daalder reports

713080

Reposted by Louis Schipper

Mike Peacock @peatymike.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

A new peat paper in @mdpiopenaccess.bsky.social enaccess.bsky.social Problem is, it's chock-full of AI generated references, including several papers with my name on that don't exist. How did the reviewers not spot this? www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/16...

mdpi.com

7199

Louis Schipper @louisschipper.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

20 years ago I started teaching a Masters course on Soil and greenhouse gases with a mitigation focus. Naturally I show a graph of global temperatures each year in the first lecture. Depressingly looks like the temperature has increased by more than 0.5 C since I started teaching. #weneedtodobetter

030

Louis Schipper @louisschipper.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

There is a grand piano at the front the lecture theatre where I am going lecture on soil management. For some reason, this makes me happy. Note: I have no skills with music other than an eclectic taste. I am hoping one of the students can play to warm up the crowd.

020

Reposted by Louis Schipper

biometlab @biometlab.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026... We are having problems renewing home coverage. Forced to add home security & water turnoff meter (> $2k) just to renew. Alternative coverage would be $12k The atmosphere should not be a free sewer. Time to internalize these externalities.

theguardian.com

These US states want polluters to pay for the rising insurance costs of climate disasters

Proposals by California, Hawaii and New York lawmakers aim to hold fossil fuel industry accountable for soaring rates

0227

Reposted by Louis Schipper

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 04/02/2026

Landing in Dunedin Aotearoa in about 90 minutes for the start of a trip that represents the culmination of a dream I’ve had since I was ten years old.

odt.co.nz

Visiting academic to address spread of misinformation

For Carl Bergstrom, misinformation is like a living organism — it can travel across networks and spread through populations like pathogens. The...

2851944

Louis Schipper @louisschipper.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

A new soil lecturer position available at the University of Waikato (equivalent to Assistant Professor in US terms). elhs.fa.ap1.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

elhs.fa.ap1.oraclecloud.com

Lecturer in Soil Science

Teach and research soil science while shaping the next generation of environmental scientists at a globally ranked university.

111

Reposted by Louis Schipper

Te Pūnaha Matatini @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

Ngā mihi nui to our treasured Kaumātua Professor Tom Roa (Ngāti Maniapoto, Waikato, Ngāti Apakura), who has been made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit 🧵

1238

Reposted by Louis Schipper

Mark A. Hanson @hansonmark.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing: a 🧵 1/n Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820 Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/... Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...

A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below.

1. The four-fold drain
1.1 Money
Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for
whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who
created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis,
which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024
alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit
margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher
(Elsevier) always over 37%.
Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most
consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial
difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor &
Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American
researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The
Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3
billion in that year.

A figure detailing the drain on researcher time.

1. The four-fold drain

1.2 Time
The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce,
with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure
1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material
has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs,
grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for
profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time.
The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million
unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of
peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting
widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the
authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many
review demands.
Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of
scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in
‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow
progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to
volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier,
local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with
limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging
with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks
intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision.

A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below:

1. The four-fold drain
1.1 Money
Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for
whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who
created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis,
which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024
alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit
margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher
(Elsevier) always over 37%.
Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most
consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial
difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor &
Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American
researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The
Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3
billion in that year.

The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised
scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers
first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour
resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.

8644453

Reposted by Louis Schipper

Veronika Meduna @veronikameduna.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

I thought of the gold clam invasion in the Waikato mostly as a threat to ecosystems, but the clams' need for calcium to build their shells impairs arsenic removal during treatment, threatening drinking water for millions theconversation.com/gold-clam-in...

theconversation.com

Gold clam invasion in NZ threatens drinking water for millions of people

The invasion threatens more than water. Clams could foul dam intakes and reduce hydroelectric efficiency in a river that generates 13% of New Zealand’s power.

085

Louis Schipper @louisschipper.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

Excited to have this paper out, soil microbial growth Topt (and other metrics) increases by 0.22°C–0.27°C per 1°C warming along a longstanding geothermal gradient. Global Change Biology | Environmental Change Journal | Wiley Online Library onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Thermal Adaptation of Bacterial and Fungal Growth in a Geothermally Influenced Soil Transect

We examined how soil microbes adapt to long-term warming along a natural geothermal gradient in Aotearoa New Zealand (17°C–42°C). Laboratory incubations of these soils across multiple temperatures re...

050

Reposted by Louis Schipper

Ang (Angela) McGaughran @angmcgaughran.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

Also excited to be chatting about this tonight on www.rnz.co.nz/national/pro... - around 8.05/8.10pm if you're keen to tune in 🕸️🕸️🕸️

rnz.co.nz

Nights

Tune in to Nights with Emile Donovan every weekday from 8pm to midnight for a delectable buffet of creative ideas, open-minded conversations, music, musings and daily stimulation.

011

Reposted by Louis Schipper

James Renwick @cubaraglanguy.bsky.social · 14/10/2025

Good Lord!

0116

Louis Schipper @louisschipper.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

"Agriculture and Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay said the government had worked closely with industry and accepted a range of advice to determine a "practical target"." Imagine a business setting a "practical target" rather than success and being ambitious www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

rnz.co.nz

Scientists fear weaker methane target signals wider retreat from climate action

After cutting methane targets, New Zealand has a choice: shoulder the burden at huge cost - or cause more warming to the planet.

071

Reposted by Louis Schipper

Kirsty Johnston @kirstyjohnston.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

I thought I’d have a go at answering the question: what’s the flow on effect on emissions budgets from the methane cuts? The answer was worse than I had anticipated www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

rnz.co.nz

Scientists fear weaker methane target signals wider retreat from climate action

After cutting methane targets, New Zealand has a choice: shoulder the burden at huge cost - or cause more warming to the planet.

14211127

Louis Schipper @louisschipper.bsky.social · 12/10/2025

"Chief people officer Keri-Anne Tane said reduced funding and the sector going through reforms meant they had to pause taking on new graduates." www.rnz.co.nz/news/top/575...

rnz.co.nz

Shrinking job market forces scientists to pursue careers offshore

After 13 years studying for a biology degree, Ian has had to apply - unsuccessfully - for labouring jobs.

001

Reposted by Louis Schipper

Cate Macinnis-Ng @loraxcate.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

Applications for @ipcc.bsky.social AR7 Chapter Scientists close on 18th October. Great opportunity for emerging researchers from developing countries! 🧪🌎🌱

046

Reposted by Louis Schipper

Scientific American @sciam.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

Every year, the Ig Nobel Prizes honor the weirdest and most wonderful science out there—like studying how drunk bats fly or the physics of perfect pasta. It’s all real research, and it’s all hilariously brilliant. Because sometimes science makes you laugh… then think. 🎤🎥🎞️@tomlumperson.bsky.social

618541

Reposted by Louis Schipper

Chris Meder @evcurvefuturist.com · 13/09/2025

It feels slow not because of facts, but because the doom-narrative drowns out reality. 📉 The truth: solar doubled from 1,000 → 2,000 TWh in just 3 yrs, wind’s surging too. Fossils took decades. The fastest energy leap in history is here—don’t let fear blind you. ⚡🌞 #EnergyTransition #BESS #EVs #LFP

theconversation.com

Climate action can feel slow – but the fastest energy leap in history has begun

Weaning ourselves off fossil fuels is glacially slow – isn’t it? This pessimistic narrative doesn’t stack up against evidence of very rapid change in the real world.

25938321

Reposted by Louis Schipper

Te Ara Paerangi Com - Research Advocacy Capability @te-ara-paerangi.community · 06/09/2025

More cuts to the Marsden Fund. This time $20 million from the annual budget cut starting next year. This is on top of previous cuts by this government. They are trying to skip the 'priming the pump' step of public research as a driver of the economy. How well that is going to work? #NZPOL

rnz.co.nz

Fewer Marsden Fund grants after government cuts

A major research fund has been forced to slash its grant allocation by more than $20 million next year.

54524

Reposted by Louis Schipper

Rob @robmunter.nl · 26/08/2025

On behalf of the Netherlands, I’m sorry for all the whales that are killed by our windmills throughout the centuries. 🌬️

29522

Reposted by Louis Schipper

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 16/07/2025

1. Kevin Gross and I just posted a new science-of-science preprint. This one explores the looming peer review crisis. As many of you know, it's becoming significantly more difficult for journal editors to find scholars willing to serve as peer reviewers for submitted manuscripts.

arxiv.org

Will anyone review this paper? Screening, sorting, and the feedback cycles that imperil peer review

Scholarly publishing relies on peer review to identify the best science. Yet finding willing and qualified reviewers to evaluate manuscripts has become an increasingly challenging task, possibly even ...

22561221

Louis Schipper @louisschipper.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

We are looking for a technician to support our work on greenhouse gas emissions #ghg from drained #peat. We use eddy covariance and chambers. You will support a team of researchers and students in the waiber.com team www.seek.co.nz/University-o...

seek.co.nz

University Of Waikato Jobs in New Zealand, Job Vacancies - Jul 2025 | SEEK

Find your ideal job at SEEK with 22 University Of Waikato jobs found in New Zealand. View all our University Of Waikato vacancies now with new jobs added daily!

012

Reposted by Louis Schipper

Richard Waite @waiterich.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

New research from my colleagues out today looking at the environmental and social impacts of food crop-based biofuels in the US, where we now use >30% of the corn supply and >40% of the soybean oil supply (on tens of millions of acres of prime cropland) to produce only ~6% of US transport fuel. 🧪

wri.org

Increased Biofuel Production in the US Midwest May Harm Farmers and the Climate

The expansion of biofuel production as an alternative fuel source not only raises questions about sustainability, but about economic inequities among Midwestern small farmers.

12320125