Jonny Behrens

Save Science 🧪 , Protect the Health of All People and the Planet 🌳, Defend Democracy ✊. Find a local event to attend near you March 7!

If you’re in Knoxville help me plan ours 😆 ❤️ @standupforscience.bsky.social

The “Terrible Engine of Destruction” That Inspired Federal Science Funding What can we learn about the relationship between science and the American public from the story of plagues of locusts in the 1870s?

A fascinating read that everyone should check out! “By looking more closely at the locust, the enterprise can begin to examine how power people, powerful interest, and ideologies affect the landscape of science”

@issuesinst.bsky.social issues.org/locusts-fede...

E.P.A. to Stop Considering Lives Saved When Setting Rules on Air Pollution

The fact that air pollution protections save lives (and thus dollars) has long been an inconvenient fact for those who want polluting industries unfettered.

This move is indefensible and dangerous.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/c...

Jonny talking in a classroom

Honored to volunteer today with #HourOfCode teaching code to 3rd graders! They were excited to learn coding and how I use it daily to study our environment (e.g., monitoring oxygen in rivers for fish)! Thx UT-Battelle for the opportunity
@battelleactual.bsky.social
@departmentofenergy.bsky.social

Diverging fish biodiversity trends in cold and warm rivers and streams - Nature In the past three decades, fish abundance, richness and uniqueness have diverged across cold and warm streams, and the effects on native fish communities of stream warming and increases in introduced fishes have magnified each other.

Exciting collaboration with colleagues from the US and Frederik de Laender - lead by S. Rumschlag and Mike Mahon - on how climate change has lead to alterations in US fish diversity over the last decades. Paper just out: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Our new report explores the effects of greenhouse gas emissions on the U.S. health and welfare. Read more: nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/2923...

Biological community dynamics alter the timing, amount, & composition of insect biomass and metal export. In urban, impacted streams, altered composition and phenology of emergent insect communities can increase metal flux, posing elevated risk to consumers in paired terrestrial ecosystems!

Excited to share our new article w/ @drbiogc.bsky.social published in @freshwaterscience.bsky.social on the gravity defying act aquatic insects 🦟 undertake moving themselves and heavy metals from urban stream ecosystems into the waiting mouths of terrestrial predators 🐸🕷️!

One week away from Durham’s BeaverQueen Pagent! Celebrate the diversity of our human and wildlife communities during 🏳️‍🌈 month (& support an awesome watershed association). I’ll be voting (early & often!) from a distance 🦦🏞️

USGS’ biological research arm could vanish next week - High Country News Trump is on a multipronged mission to eliminate a science agency that conservationists, toxicologists, universities and more call irreplaceable.

USGS’ biological research arm could vanish next week www.hcn.org/articles/usg... via @highcountrynews.org

Stream with flowers in channels and grasses on banks

Excited to share today at @freshwaterscience.bsky.social #SUSE7 the amazing collaborative effort we undertook at/after SUSE6 to develop a framework of tools and principles to help communities preserve headwater streams!

I’m devastated to hear from EPA researchers that they expect to loose their jobs in the coming weeks as EPA ORD is closed. PLEASE spend a minute today to call your elected officials to share why this research is so important (article below overviews the importance of EPA’s research arm)

Trump’s EPA Cuts Are Going to Poison His Own Voters “It’s practically inevitable” that people will get sick, a current EPA employee said.

Research funded by EPA ORD gives water managers across the nation the data + knowledge they need to provide safe drinking water to every resident, regardless of zip code.

Thanks @newrepublic.com for spending time to talk and for this well written article! newrepublic.com/article/1936...

Research at EPA ORD inspired me to pursue a career to study/protect our drinking water resources so that every city, regardless of if they vote blue or red, has access to safe drinking water. EPA ORD is one of few agencies that fund research to ensure air is safe to breath + water safe to drink. 💔

It was a blast to join you in the field! It’s incredible how all that algae (& little caddisflies + chironomids munching within) made it through the storm - what resilient ecosystems!

USGS Faces Potential Office Closures At least 30 USGS buildings appear to be on the Trump administration’s chopping block.

The USGS plays a critical role in monitoring rivers nationally. As scientists we rely on the data to understand, for example, how streams that had historic flooding during Hurricane Helene are recovering (& the people who rely on them). Ask your reps to keep them open! ww2.aip.org/fyi/usgs-fac...

Dabble in stream metabolism and attending #SUSE7?

We’d love to see you at the urban stream metabolism workshop/working group! Details forthcoming, but we are excited to collaborate with everyone on a synthesis 😁

National Science Foundation suspends salary payments, leaving researchers unable to pay their bills An NSF online payment system remained down after the federal funding freeze was lifted, leaving early-career scientists scrambling to pay bills

The NSF postdoc fellowship is one of the most scientifically competitive programs that funds the next generation of scientists…the new administration’s policies left them without pay @statnews.com

📣Looking for a postdoc in watershed biogeochemistry? Apply to join the WaDE project and explore 🌳 terrestrial/💦 aquatic links + transport of metals and nutrients! Join a diverse team working at the cross-section of field sampling, lab analyses, and process-based models. jobs.ornl.gov/job/Oak-Ridg...

This sounds super neat! Fellow SFS’ers might interested :D @sfs-src.bsky.social

An ecologist in an urban stream by a storm pipe

For those at #AGU24, looking forward to sharing my research on #PFAS and chemical contaminants in urbanized watersheds at poster H51Q-0944 Friday (tomorrow) morning! 💧🛣️

Come by and say hello 😄

A heads up that this is today at #AGU24! Looking forward to an awesome conversation at 12:30 in Salon B 😄

Excited to catch up too!!

Picture promoting the late breaking session: TH23N - Scientific opportunities and needs post-Huricane Helene, Dec 10 12:30-13:30 at AGU.

Fellow #agu24 NC/VA/GA/TN/etc. watershed scientists (& friends) - check out this late breaking townhall Tuesday (TH23N) @ 12:30 to brainstorm ways to collaborate and study (from field to satellite) how our watersheds/ecosystems are responding after Hurricane Helene

Makeup, floss and hair dye use in pregnancy leads to more PFAS in breast milk – study ‘Forever chemicals’ pose health threat to developing children and linked with preterm birth, shorter lactation Higher usage of personal care products among pregnant or nursing women leads to higher levels of toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” in their blood…

Makeup, floss and hair dye use in pregnancy leads to more PFAS in breast milk – study

Imagery of Hurricane Helene flood impacts (before and after) in Erwin, TN.

With Hurricane Helene's devastation to Appalachian communities, we are starting to see how the destruction has changed the landscape, wildlife, and water quality nearby. Satellite images (👀 link) show massive amounts of sediment moved by the flood waters in Erwin, TN. www.planet.com/stories/erwi...

Thanks for organizing! Could I join also? 😁🦞

Thanks :) also sorry for sending twice, new to using the platform haha

Thanks for making this :D! Could I also ask to join?

Thanks for making this 😁! Could I also join?