Zoe Xirocostas
@zoexiro.bsky.social
Chancellor’s Research Fellow at the University of Technology Sydney | Board member @ecolsocaus.bsky.social | plant ecology, climate change, biological invasions, interactions, scicomm | invert-lover 🪲 and beach fiend 🏝️ | she/her | zoexiro.com
New virtual issue in AJB 🌿All Functional Trait Handbooks, from the landmark Cornelissen et al. (2003) to the latest on reproductive traits, are now collected in one place. 20+ years of protocols for measuring plant traits across species, ecosystems & continents. All free to read. 🔗 buff.ly/zXlFjQx
Cool critters found in boring places 1. Lantern stinkhorn 2. Hawk moth
🔥🌿We simulated heatwaves on alpine plant communities at Mt Hotham, Australia, and found no effect on survival, diversity, or reproduction. Heat alone might not be the main threat, as high rainfall may have helped plants tolerate heat stress. 📄 doi.org/10.1016/j.ec...
Finally, standardised protocols for measuring reproductive plant traits! This handbook covers 58 traits across flowers, fruits, seeds & seedlings. Designed for global applicability across diverse ecosystems and enables large-scale research 🌼 📖 buff.ly/TcagpiT
A Christmas lesson from plant ecology: why plants like holly and mistletoe may not be as well defended as we think: jeffollerton.co.uk/2025/12/24/a... Merry Christmas everyone! #ecology #biodiversity #Christmas
A Christmas lesson from plant ecology: why plants like holly and mistletoe may not be as well defended as we think
Christmas is a time of expectations, when we assume that familiar traditions will work as they always have. Some traditions are associated with plants such as holly and mistletoe. In ecology, we ma…
jeffollerton.co.uk
Nice way to wrap up 2025 🎓🌱 Published the final paper from my PhD! Across Europe & Australia, we found that common leaf defence traits don’t predict enemy release in introduced plants. A reminder that invasion success may hinge on factors we’re still missing. 📄 link.springer.com/article/10.1...
In poor taste: leaf palatability traits are not correlated with aboveground enemy release - Oecologia
Many species experience less pressure from herbivores, predators, or pathogens in their introduced range than in their native range. This phenomenon, known as enemy release, is one explanation for the...
link.springer.com
Excited to be in Edinburgh for #BES2025 🏴 If you’re around please come say hi tonight at my poster A4.21 👋
It was a big week for team AJB at #ESA2025! From the @csiropublishing.bsky.social stall to dinner tables, Social Media Editors/Guest Editors/Co-Editors in Chief caught up with colleagues to discuss all things ecology and publishing 🌱
So excited to hear that Olivia De La Mare, an MSc student in my research group, has won the 2026 Bundanon Ecological Researcher in Residence award. Science meets art, well done Liv! www.bundanon.com.au
Bundanon - An art museum embedded in the landscape
Bundanon is a place for research, creativity and connection to living cultures.
bundanon.com.au
Excited for the week ahead in Adelaide at #ESA2025! Started off slightly earlier than most as the Board got together to strategise at our annual Planning Day yesterday. Love working with such amazing and passionate people 💚
Currently listening to: the snap, crackle and pop of ballistic seed dispersal 🎶 💥
Look at this monstrous beauty!!! Double headed hawk moth caterpillar 🐛 .. good luck with the metamorphosis buddy
Some snaps from the field today in Heathcote National Park on Dharawal land 🌱
Saw a red beardie yesterday (YES that's really one of its common names!!!) - or for the scientifically inclined, Calochilus paludosus🧔♂️❗
🐝🌸 With climate change, many organisms are shifting their ranges, but some are shifting in the opposite direction to what we expect. Insightful and entertaining seminar by Inna Osmolovsky @innaosmol.bsky.social on "Climate Change and Shifting Interactions: Where Do Species Go from Here?"
It was such an honour to present my research at UTS! Thank you to @zoexiro.bsky.social and @ecologybrad.bsky.social for the invitation and to everyone who came to listen to my talk 🌿
Yvonne Davila@ydavila.bsky.social · 11mo ago🐝🌸 With climate change, many organisms are shifting their ranges, but some are shifting in the opposite direction to what we expect. Insightful and entertaining seminar by Inna Osmolovsky @innaosmol.bsky.social on "Climate Change and Shifting Interactions: Where Do Species Go from Here?"
🌱 New research from The Australian PlantBank reveals how 4 threatened Australian Grevillea species respond to temperature changes. Good news, 3 species show resilience to future warming, but G. iaspicula prefers cooler conditions & may struggle with climate change. Read more 🔗 buff.ly/b4pbbgv
The "living fossil" Wollemi pine🌲can self-fertilise! New research from #CharlesSturtUni shows this critically endangered conifer produces viable seeds without cross-pollination - which helps explain their low genetic diversity in natural systems 🧬 Open access paper 🔗 buff.ly/l3yG5Rt
Spent the past month in Greece 🇬🇷 on holiday and visiting family. But surprised to see so many reminders of Aus (Eucalypts) planted on so many islands! (could they be contributing to the wildfires Greece is being ravaged by? So many questions!)
📖Published📖 Arnold et al. propose a design that will allow ecologists to simulate more realistic heat events in the field by combining a controllable convection heater system with a semi-enclosed chamber with adjustable vents 🌍 🧪 buff.ly/k2GJSA2
A HIDDEN SABOTEUR: Pilostyles hamiltoniorum is a parasitic plant that lives INSIDE its host, only revealing itself through tiny flowers on the stems. New research shows this endoparasite slashes flower production by 52% in its host plants, despite being almost invisible! OA paper ➡️ buff.ly/gArS9tO
Hot off the press 🌱🔥
Brad Murray@ecologybrad.bsky.social · last yr.Great fun working with Lyndle Hardstaff, Megan Murray, and @zoexiro.bsky.social on our latest flammability project Toward a macroevolutionary understanding of live-leaf flammability in plant species of fire-prone forests @botsocamerica.bsky.social doi.org/10.1002/ajb2...
🔥🌱 From the #AJB Special Issue: “Understanding novel #fire regimes using plant trait‐based approaches" 🌱🔥 Toward a macroevolutionary understanding of live-leaf flammability in plant species of fire-prone #forests By @ecologybrad.bsky.social, @zoexiro.bsky.social, et al. doi.org/10.1002/ajb2...
🌎 My first paper is out in @globalchangebio.bsky.social ! We propose the Interaction Opportunists Hypothesis: changes in biotic interactions may drive species downhill, equatorward, or to shallower waters under #ClimateChange. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #RangeShifts #Ecology
Counterintuitive Range Shifts May Be Explained by Climate Induced Changes in Biotic Interactions
Climate change is expected to drive species uphill, poleward or into deeper waters. Yet many are shifting in toward the equator, downhill or to shallower waters, which is opposite to the expected dir...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Our paper on unifying theory around biodiversity–consumer relationships (pathogens & herbivores) is now out in TREE! I hope it helps those navigating the forest of theories & hypotheses in this space to see more clearly 🤓 Check out @fletcher-h.bsky.social great summary of the paper here 👇
Fletcher Halliday@fletcher-h.bsky.social · last yr.As a special Earth Day gift, our new paper integrating decades of related, but siloed research on how changing biodiversity drives plant disease and herbivory is out today in TREE www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Thanks to @idiv-research.bsky.social for supporting our sConsume working group!
Our paper on the integration of biodiversity-disease and biodiversity-herbivore relationships is out now! Thanks to @idiv-research.bsky.social for supporting us through #sDiv working group funding to bring together two typically disparate fields in ecology! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
As a special Earth Day gift, our new paper integrating decades of related, but siloed research on how changing biodiversity drives plant disease and herbivory is out today in TREE www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Thanks to @idiv-research.bsky.social for supporting our sConsume working group!
Towards an integrative mechanistic framework for biodiversity–consumer relationships
Terrestrial plant diversity plays a pivotal role in influencing the abundance, diversity, and impacts of herbivores and pathogens (collectively, plant…
sciencedirect.com
