Erik Gulbranson
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erikgulbranson.bsky.social
Erik Gulbranson
@erikgulbranson.bsky.social
Scientist, educator, studying Earth’s climate ⛈️ and ecologic history through the lens of soils⛰️and tree-rings🌳🪵.

Courage, Sacrifice, Devotion.

Gustavus Adolphus College. Ed. Board Mbr., Scientific Reports. Posts, re-posts, views and opinions are my own.
Pinned
Gustavus Adolphus College #soils and #paleoclimate undergraduate researchers presenting at #AGU2024
Reposted by Erik Gulbranson
This is great. I am not a fan of the oscillator example - makes it seem like a physics niche thing. But so useful for us population-thinkers. I might write up a post using a population dynamics differential equation example. If I can finish cloning myself. Yeah. www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE-h...
Why Laplace transforms are so useful
YouTube video by 3Blue1Brown
www.youtube.com
November 6, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Reposted by Erik Gulbranson
I feel like "the ocean makes half the O2 we breathe" is the chemical oceanographers version of the "gulf stream = AMOC" misunderstanding physical oceanographers deal with... 🌊
The ocean regulates our climate, nourishes hundreds of millions of people around the world, and produces about half of the oxygen on Earth. 🌊 ✨

So, when you take a deep breath this #NationalRelaxationDay, be sure to thank the ocean. 💙
November 5, 2025 at 10:18 AM
“Do you recognize that sandwich?”

Dying
Defense is now questioning Lairmore on cross-examination. They show a video still of the sandwich and wrapper on the ground, post-throw.

"Do you recognize that sandwich?" the attorney asks.

Lairmore won't confirm.

"I did not go back to collect it," he says.
November 4, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Has a moment of free-time, decides to look at social media for a change, has instant regrets.
A long-deranged and deeply depraved man with a pronouncedly and acceleratingly deteriorating mind announces that he intends to play with the large arsenal of nuclear weapons he controls.

But it's okay, because he's not seeking a third term.
October 30, 2025 at 1:29 AM
Feeses
Necro
Change one letter. Ruin a candy.
I’ll go first. Death Bar.
October 30, 2025 at 1:00 AM
Reposted by Erik Gulbranson
This is a truly astonishing image. The yellow spot is a planet (WISPIT-2b) orbiting a star (its light blocked by a coronagraph) carving out a 'lane' in the dusty ring-shaped planetary nebula from which it was born. A snapshot of our own solar system, as it probably looked 4.5 billion years ago.
August 28, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Reposted by Erik Gulbranson
Maps on the ballot? It's about time.
August 14, 2025 at 11:16 PM
Reposted by Erik Gulbranson
The $3 billion Climate-Smart Commodities initiative was scrapped by USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, who called it “the green new scam.” In its place: efforts aligned with Trump’s ‘energy dominance’ agenda.
Trump’s USDA resurrects one climate grant program, kills another
Many farmers who spent big on solar are finally getting reimbursed. But another climate program for agriculture is headed for the morgue.
floodlightnews.org
July 16, 2025 at 5:25 PM
I’m always saying this…
he was never a big factor in terms of life
he was never a big factor in terms of life
he was never a big factor in terms of life
he was never a big factor in terms of life
he was never a big factor in terms of life

HE WAS NEVER A BIG FACTOR IN TERMS OF LIFE
Q: Why do you think your supporters have been so interested in the Epstein story?

TRUMP: I don't understand it. He's dead for a long time. He was never a big factor in terms of life. I don't understand what the fascination is. The credible information has been given. It's pretty boring stuff.
July 15, 2025 at 11:48 PM
Reposted by Erik Gulbranson
New in Geoderma: "Cover crops alter soil physicochemical properties: A global meta-analysis" by Fulai Yan & Emmanuel Arthur. doi.org/10.1016/j.ge...
@AarhusUni_int
July 13, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Reposted by Erik Gulbranson
⚒️ Article: Mid-Holocene and the future warming induces a North Pacific response resulting in sustained winter precipitation deficits and drought over the Southwestern United States.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
North Pacific ocean–atmosphere responses to Holocene and future warming drive Southwest US drought - Nature Geoscience
Mid-Holocene and the future warming induces a North Pacific response resulting in sustained winter precipitation deficits and drought over the Southwestern United States, according to new palaeoclimat...
www.nature.com
July 10, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Energy conversions never cease to amaze
to give you an idea of how much energy is released in storms like the one hitting TX:
* per the WaPo, 1.8 trillion gallons of rain have fallen
* conversion of vapor to this much water releases 15 EJ
* if this occurred over 24 hours, it corresponds to 178 TW — 10 times what human society consumes.
July 6, 2025 at 1:17 AM
Reposted by Erik Gulbranson
📢🌍 Fascinating soil research alert!
This publication is a perfect example of how technology and process-based models can deepen our understanding of soil dynamics.
📖 Worth a read for anyone into erosion modelling or soil mapping: doi.org/10.5194/soil...
#SoilScience #Erosion #OpenScience #EGU-SSS
Using 3D observations with high spatio-temporal resolution to calibrate and evaluate a process-focused cellular automaton model of soil erosion by water
Abstract. Future global change is likely to give rise to novel combinations of the factors which enhance or inhibit soil erosion by water. Thus, there is a need for erosion models, necessarily process...
doi.org
July 4, 2025 at 6:41 AM
Reposted by Erik Gulbranson
In the interest of celebrating good things, former lab postdoc David Fastovich (and new Assistant Prof at University of Georgia!) has a new paper looking at rates of ecosystem change in response to past climate change: press release: phys.org/news/2025-07...

Paper: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Climate change outpaces trees: Forests face centuries-long lag in adaptation
Ecologists are concerned that forest ecosystems will not keep pace with a rapidly changing climate, failing to remain healthy and productive. Before the rapid climate change of the past century, tree ...
phys.org
July 4, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Guilty as charged.
Michael Russell on the attraction of geology cc @seismatters.bsky.social
July 4, 2025 at 12:53 AM
Reposted by Erik Gulbranson
"at least I owned the libs" - the last words from a man who dies from sepsis during the 90-mile drive to the closest hospital
July 3, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Reposted by Erik Gulbranson
The results of my 2024-25 academic job market experiment are in, and the numbers should be instructive to anyone considering university employment these days: don't. It's not worth your time, even if you've done all the work to get a PhD, even if it seems like a dream job.

Results breakdown below.
June 26, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Reposted by Erik Gulbranson
All I’m asking, as an American, is for another set of Americans on a hill to have the moral courage and tenacity to fight for the Republic

At the end of the day, this is the experiment of democracy
July 3, 2025 at 1:37 AM
In addition to that, and just thinking ahead here, a startling number, if not vast majority, of education degree programs are slated for the chopping block.

Bleak future for the education environment in Indiana.
So, here it is. Thanks to a new state law that was NEVER DEBATED, Indiana University has committed itself to abolishing majors in African-American/African Diaspora Studies: American Studies; Art History; French; Italian; Religious Studies etc. DOZENS of majors. www.ipm.org/news-section...
Indiana public colleges cut almost 20% of degrees
Public Indiana colleges and universities have eliminated 19 percent of their degree programs to meet requirements added to the state’s budget, according to the Commission for Higher Education.
www.ipm.org
July 1, 2025 at 1:34 AM
Reposted by Erik Gulbranson
Hydrology Paper of the Day @christina-hn.bsky.social on determining water uptake depth by stable isotopes: species differences and contributions of water from the subsoil and organic layer; how some trees are more resilient to drought; natural isotopes; and tracer experiments in northern Germany.
Excited to see the next chapter of my PhD published in #PlantBiology:
doi.org/10.1111/plb....
Another piece in the puzzle of tree-water relations and mixed-species forests!

@plantsciencedbg.bsky.social
@enricounigoe.bsky.social

#openaccess #isotopes 🍁
June 30, 2025 at 1:11 AM
How to attack every intro to geology prof.
"Eventually, the continent (Africa) will be torn apart and a new ocean will be formed.

That will take place over millions of years..."

pls stop fearmongering for clickbaits
June 26, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Reposted by Erik Gulbranson
See that orange blob?

That's probably a Saturn-mass planet orbiting its parent star, the light from which has been blocked.

A whole other planet in a system only a few million years old, possibly still undergoing formation and developing its own ring and satellite system.

111 lightyears away.
June 25, 2025 at 5:03 PM
The news is downright bad, and weird, lately. But my research team arrived back home from an excellent field season in Central Europe. With some surprises: iron accumulations (tech term=plinthite) in buried soils! Usually found in much warmer/humid areas. We’re excited to see what the IRSL ages say!
June 24, 2025 at 1:40 AM
Getting stung by one of these colonies is painful, yet endlessly fascinating. They’re like little pirate ships cruising the ocean with their 10s of meters long tentacles.
The Portuguese Man Of War Is Actually Four Distinct Species, study led by Yale University with Griffith University, published by @currentbiology.bsky.social

#SciComm🧪 by @grrlscientist.bsky.social

#MarineBiology #ecology #NewSpecies www.forbes.com/sites/grrlsc...
June 23, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Off to a great start…
“U.S. Officials Concede They Don’t Know Whereabouts of Iran’s Uranium Stockpile”

Mission accomplished!
🤦🏽‍♂️
U.S. Officials Concede They Don’t Know Whereabouts of Iran’s Uranium Stockpile
www.nytimes.com
June 22, 2025 at 11:49 PM