iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The past several months I've been pushing really hard working on data analyses, writing papers, doing presentations, updating work flows, etc. This week I think I hit the wall ... It feels like screaming into the void, professional edition 🫩😔

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Happy belated #WorldRiversDay! The Everglades is more than a “River of Grass.” It is a landscape of rivers, creeks, estuaries, marshes, and mangroves, all connected by water. Restoring those connections strengthens the resilience of the entire ecosystem. 🌱🐊🌊

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Spent all afternoon wrestling with rjtools package template for a paper submission to get the quickest review decision known to man.

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Another outside scope of journal rejection 🫩 Unfortunately this one took longer than the others getting a full on peer review where reviewer 1 didn't apparently read the paper and reviewer 2 liked it, just not my writing style. Something is amiss in the universe, no snarky comments from R2!!

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Reposted by Paul Julian

Warwickshire Wildlife Trust @warwickshirewt.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Today, we celebrate the autumnal equinox 🍂 Do you want to learn how to spot an ancient woodland this autumn? 🌳 Visit our blog to find out what to look out for: www.warwickshirewildlifetrust.org.uk/blog/spot-ancient-woodland-during-your-autumn-walk 📸 Ben Porter

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

What happens when rising seas, freshwater flows, hurricanes, droughts, nutrients, and algae all enter the same ring? 🎪 Step right up to the Salt Circus! Taming the Salt Circus: Restoration, Rising Seas, and Algae Antics in Florida Bay 📅 17 Sept 2026 🕐 1:00 PM EST💻 Online sws.org/events/Event...

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

I've been working on a couple of rapid evidence assessment (in a supporting role and lead). It has opened a whole new world of wetland science and application. Its also cool to read papers and then get to (virtually) meet authors who are also involved in the reviews. So cool!!

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

A perfect example of how broken the peer reviewed literature system is broken. The editor invited 10 reviewers and 2 accepted. 🤦

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

The peer-review system is so broken ... 1) I have a paper thats been in review for 194 days, the editor has so far invited 6 reviewers. 2) impactor factors are garbage 3) the statistics on days in review/acceptance, etc. are skewed 4) the system is biased (reviewer2 can tank the entire thing)

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

I wrote a thing about DMSTAr, a new open-source R package that brings a legacy wetland water-quality model out of spreadsheet/VBA land and into reproducible #rstats workflows. Because the swamp deserves reproducible code. 🌿💧 swampthingecology.org/news/2026063...

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Hearing a peatland as "unmanaged and economically inactive" is strange to me. Having natural areas in of itself is economically active (ie ecotourism, conservation, water protection and security, etc). What it means no exploitation of natural capital (ie timber harvest, peat cutting, mining, etc).

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

New paper out in Freshwater Biology! We found that nutrient reductions in a hypereutrophic Québec lake led to a shift from colonial Microcystis toward filamentous Dolichospermum — a reminder that lake recovery is rarely simple. I 💚 working with stellar collaborators!! doi.org/10.1111/fwb....

doi.org

Phytoplankton Regime Shift Toward Filamentous Cyanobacteria Following Nutrient Reductions in a Hypereutrophic Lake

Phytoplankton community responses to nutrient-management interventions in agricultural catchments remain poorly understood, particularly with respect to functional group transitions. Petit-lac-Sai...

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

The Hawthorn (Crataegus spp.) has started blooming here in central NY!! In the UK, hawthorn typically blooms in May (giving it the name May Tree). It is also known to be an indicator of when it's time to plant temperature sensitive plants. We've been watching the trees in our woodland ... waiting.

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

Catching up on Beechgrove Garden episodes, one episode did a segment on grass/lawn (after winter). The presenter mentioned grass/lawns have ecological value. Everything I've read & observed lawns have limited ecological value. Meanwhile grasses, not the monoculture lawn have ecological value.

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Yay!! happy #WorldCurlewDay These little birds are pretty amazing. I fell in love with them at a young age and always love seeing their subtropical north American cousins the white ibis.

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

It might too many layers but I have @classicfm.com and Den stora älgvandringen (the great moose migration) playing in the background.

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

Something that always brings excitement and a smile on my face, hearing owls in our (and/or adjacent) woodland. Late afternoon, early morning it doesn't matter.

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Is it just me or did Gardeners World drop the beginning music? Cramming more garden goodness into the limited hour of programming?

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

It's like the forest is happy to see me now that the snow is all gone (for now).

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Reposted by Paul Julian

Nicolas Mouquet @nmouquet.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

‪ 🌳 Do you want to contribute to research on how humans perceive forests? Take this quick, anonymous 10-min survey 🌲 👉 www.biodiful.org#/forest This will help us explore how people experience forest biodiversity! Please share on 🦋 & tag @biodiful.bsky.social to reach more participants 🙏💚 🌐🌍🦤🦑🪴🍁🧪

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Reposted by Paul Julian

Sarah Whorley, Ph.D. 🦬⚔️ @dralgaegirl.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

Hey fellow aquatic biologists! You should move to Buffalo! 💧🌎🧪

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Whilst writing up a new R-package I had my music playing in the background. This morning was a lovely couple of hours of @classicfm.com. So many great pieces ... This afternoon required a little more umph, "The Blood of Cu Chulainn" came on, that song always gives me goosebumps.

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Reposted by Paul Julian

Dr Scott J. Davidson @wetlandresilienceresearchgroup.com · 11/02/2026

🚨 #PhD opportunity 🚨 Disturbance Impacts on swamp and forested peatlands in southern Québec This project will quantify how disturbances affect carbon cycling and hydrology in swamp and forested peatlands of southern Québec More info here: wetlandresilienceresearchgroup.com/Opportunitie...

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

I'm so confused ... Apparently I'm in the UK/British corner of the BlueSky-verse ...

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Reposted by Paul Julian

Jess Corman @limnojess.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

The USDA postdoc fellowship is back! If you're interested in studying eutrophication issues in working lands, let's write a proposal together. Check my lab webpage for how to get in touch (ecostoich.weebly.com/join.html).

Three lab members examining a farm pond covered in bright green duck weed. A bridge extends above the pond in the background.

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

I love it when reviewers think they know what they are talking about to refute the paper but it turns out they dont ... don't challenage me on a statistical approach unless you made the method. If it made it into the paper, there was a lot of effort involved. Don't hate the GAM, hate the player. ;)

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

Last year I took part in an Evidence Synthesis Training Programme. As part of this training participants conducted a Rapid Evidence Assessment and drafted a policy brief. Here is a preprint of our work soon to be submitted for peer review. www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-8...

researchsquare.com

A rapid evidence assessment on the impact of climate change on peatland carbon dynamics in South America

Peatlands are vitally important ecosystems characterized by a diversity of services spanning species, ecosystem, landscape, and global scales. Peatlands store globally significant amounts of carbon, m...

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

... somehow magically I got a pre-print rejected from a pre-print server because their screeners have determined that the manuscript type or its content is not suitable for posting as a preprint despite checking all the boxes and is required under the program we are working with. 🤦‍♂️

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

... and in the 11th hour reviewer #3 asks to include specific authors (but not references) in a manuscript to justify extending the discussion section of an already long paper. If these papers didn't make into the manuscript, you'd think there would be a reason. 😡

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

#rstats #trend #waterquality friends Quick question, I'm looking at changes in long-term trends in water quality (~4+ decades) using Kendall and Thiel-Sen (as 1 part). Thinking about doing a bootstrapped Thiel-Sen slope to look at variability... is it overkill?

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

A small moment of zen from the seasonal stream in our woodland.

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

Only thing holding me together right now is anxiety, caffeine, my daily escape with @classicfm.com and binging old episodes of Restoration Man with @georgeclarke.bsky.social on YouTube.

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Reposted by Paul Julian

Auriel Fournier @rallidaerule.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

I'm hiring a postdoc to work with myself, Dr Jim Lyons and the entire NOAA Firebird team on the adaptive management part of our larger project focused on the impacts of prescribed fire on Gulf Coast wetlands Accepting applications until Feb 15th blogs.illinois.edu/view/7426/19...

blogs.illinois.edu

Postdoctoral Research Associate - NOAA Firebird - Illinois Natural History Survey/PRI - Application Deadline: February 15, 2026

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

Recently, I've been using ChatGPT to help me write better R code. At first I was hesitant to use any AI/LLM but so far its been a great tool to remove redundancy or choke points in my code.

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

I don't think I'm anything special by any means (i.e. my 💩 does stink 😜😂 ), but I do feel like I should be doing more ... making more of a positive impact, being involved with more things, doing more things (professionally and personally). But not in a FOMO way if that makes sense.

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

1) With the plethora of data and more being collected with longer-term studies/analyses being developed, sampling frequency and data inventories are becoming more and more important to understand not only how the system has changed but how the monitoring has changed.

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

Have you ever looked at a complex model and wondered what variables explain the most variance, an idea from colleagues who live in the multiple linear regression world. Not sure if I did it right for GAMs, so I posted the question with reproducible code ... stats.stackexchange.com/questions/67...

lnkd.in

This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

It's like if you mentor somebody and invest time you benefit ... Strange 🤔 Yes, that was sarcasm. Accepting a student (as a graduate student) is an investment in the future and your legacy. It should be taken seriously. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

nature.com

What makes PhD students happy? Good supervision

Supervisors who invest in positive mentoring relationships with their PhD candidates also reap the benefits for their own research.

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

I've been listening to a lot of @classicfm.com lately, it makes me feel like I'm listening to a little box radio, sitting next to a fireplace in a comfy chair, sipping tea in some cottage in the Cotswolds or Lakes District. ... close, just 5000 km away. But still got the fireplace and comfy chair

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

Probably the last good weekend to catch the autumn colors, albeit muted due to the drought. As expected, there was a water/limnological based theme 😉. We visited ESF Pond 1 in Heiberg Memorial Forest, Clark Reservation State Park, Chittenango Falls State Park, and Nelson Swamp unique area (no pic).

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

Looking at the titles of manuscripts from the past is fun ... it seems much more relaxed. Like this one "Sveriges geologiska undersöknings torvinventering och några av dess hittills vunna resultat." roughly translated to "Sweden's peatlands geological survey and some results gained so far."

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 09/10/2025

I was reading a paper today about stable states ... and they have ASS throughout the paper as an acronym for Alternative Stable States. In the associated code, they have a data.frame where they combined two very large datasets and called it bigass ... couldn't stop laughing whilst reading the paper.

media.tenor.com

a man in a suit and tie is smiling with his eyes closed

ALT: a man in a suit and tie is smiling with his eyes closed

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 09/10/2025

While digging through some code from a manuscript I recently read ... yes, that rabbit hole I came across this line and I think I just found my new favorite set.seed(...) 🤣 set.seed(i+42) # Don’t Panic. “What is the meaning of life, the universe, and everything?” #Rstats

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

While I understand the intent of this message, it also doesn't negate the need for A) the user to read and understand the script and B) the developer to write functional code. My personal code usually has this in it to help my OCD brain function. But if I share the code I remove this line.

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 28/08/2025

Checked out Lake #George for #WorldLakeDay 🌊 Just 60 mi from Lake #Champlain, but water levels tell a different story: while trending down its not as drastic as Champlain 📉

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

Following up on Lake Champlain levels: USGS data show major tributaries (Saranac, Ausable, Boquet, Lamoille, Winooski, Otter) are at record-low summer flows. Most <5th percentile. Drought or shifting climate? 🌦️🌊 #fedopendata

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Paul Julian @swampthingpaul.bsky.social · 25/08/2025

Lake Champlain is at its lowest for this time of year in over 50 years, much earlier than it should be. To visualize this, I created a calendar plot that bins 50 years of lake stage data into quantiles. #OpenScience #RStats #DataVisualization

calendar plot of Lake Champlain for the last 50 years

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