I'm looking for a postdoc to work on an Australian Research Council Laureate Project on climate change responses, applying a Julia implementation of the NicheMapR package. The work could go in control theory, DEB theory or population process directions unimelb.wd105.myworkdayjobs.com/UoM_External...

one of Australia's worst weeds and can safely said to be more damaging than cane toads theconversation.com/should-this-...

Should this plant be declared one of the worst weeds in Australia?

Without a national policy, the spread of smothering buffel grass will continue unchecked.

theconversation.com

You can now model human heat exchange in R (and via a Shiny app). I started work on this with Shane Maloney (Uni of WA) way back in 2014, with Duncan Mitchell (Uni of the Witwatersrand) joining us along the way onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1... @globalchangebio.bsky.social @unimelb.edu.au

HomoTherm: An Open‐Source Approach to Modelling Heat Exchange in Humans and Other Hominins in Diverse Environments

We present ‘HomoTherm’, a human heat budget model for simulating humans and related species with diverse traits in diverse environments. It is part of the NicheMapR package for biophysical modelling ...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Help put pressure on the govt to fight the curse of buffel by declaring it a weed of national significance. Buffel is transforming our beautiful desert ecosystems through its dominance and alteration of fire regimes. It is arguably our worst invasive species invasives.org.au/how-to-help/...

Let the Desert Breathe: Demand National Buffel Grass Action

Across the heart of our continent, a dull straw-green tide is taking over. Buffel grass, Tjanpi kura (bad grass), Mama Tjunpi (devil grass) is transforming our deserts into dangerous monocultures that...

invasives.org.au

Urgent: Help Pacific Villagers save their Leatherback Turtles chuffed.org/project/emer...

Urgent: Help Pacific Villagers save their Leatherback Turtles

The Pacific Leatherback turtle faces an imminent threat of extinction due to recent US policy cuts halting conservation efforts. These ocean giants have roamed the Pacific Ocean for over 100 million y...

chuffed.org

A must read if you care about the arid zone: cosmosmagazine.com/australia/bu...

Can we keep our grass and control it too?

Buffel grass is one of rangeland Australia’s most wicked and unresolved challenges – a plant that is valued in some areas and despised in others.

cosmosmagazine.com

Here are some new Shiny apps that allow hindcasts of animal life histories using the microclimate, ectotherm and DEB models of NicheMapR: bioforecasts.science.unimelb.edu.au/app_direct/e... bioforecasts.science.unimelb.edu.au/app_direct/e... bioforecasts.science.unimelb.edu.au/app_direct/e...

New to BHL this week: more "Herpetofauna". Filled with observations, husbandry & traits data, this publication is hard to find both online & in libraries. We're hoping to have all volumes freely accessible on @biodivlibrary.bsky.social soon. #herpetology www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography...

📢 Big news from the Biodiversity Heritage Library: The Smithsonian will no longer host BHL’s central operations from Jan 2026. After 20 years, we’re entering a new chapter – seeking new funding and support to sustain our global staff and infrastructure. Please share. 🌱 #ILoveBHL #OpenAccess

Biodiversity Heritage Library@biodivlibrary.bsky.social · last yr.

Change is in the air for BHL! In 2026, BHL hosting will transition away from the Smithsonian, opening doors to reimagine our future. Rest assured, our 63 million pages of biodiversity knowledge remain secure and accessible. Learn what's next for BHL ➡️

Hi Bluesky, the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is the world’s largest #OpenAccess digital library of biodiversity literature and archives. We're a global consortium of 660 contributors who've made 63 million pages of biodiversity knowledge freely accessible online. www.biodiversitylibrary.org

This is a Len Beadell marker I photographed last weekend on the Gunbarrel Hwy in South Australia, surrounded by an ecological and social disaster called Buffel Grass. Anangu call it tjanpi mamu which means "devil grass" in Pitjantjatjara. It's steadily eroding the flora and fauna of our deserts.

How vulnerable are #amphibians to extreme heat? 🐸🌡️ Our paper in @nature.com shows that many amphibians are already overheating, and many more species will be impacted by climate warming globally. See the thread below for a digest 🧵 Link to the paper: doi.org/10.1038/s415... #Nature

New book out on invasions by the brilliant @benflips.bsky.social academic.oup.com/book/59515

The Ecology and Evolution of Invasive Populations

Abstract. Why do populations spread through space, and how do they change as they do so? In answering these questions, this book shows that phenomena as di

academic.oup.com

A great summary by @nicholaswu.bsky.social on a paper applying #NicheMapR to model climate change impacts on heat stress in frogs globally, led by @patricepottier.bsky.social. Note how different the +2 and +4 warming scenarios. Climate warming impacts on biology are very nonlinear. #UniMelb #ARC

Nicholas Wu@nicholaswu.bsky.social · last yr.

New paper in @nature.com led by @patricepottier.bsky.social! We demonstrated global vulnerability of amphibians to warming, threatening 10% of >5,000 species examined. How did we do it? See thread🧵 Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I’m in the Western Australian mining town of Kalgoorlie where I’ve set up a makeshift grasshopper brothel in a cabin at a caravan park. In this historically male-dominate town of humans one of the grasshoppers - Warramaba virgo - is all female …

DEB theory is on bluesky

Dynamic Energy Budget@debtheory.bsky.social · last yr.

Hello world! Are you interested in the world of metabolic theory? Follow us for more!

The late Eric Pianka made thousands of observations of desert lizard body temperature and activity. We used them to test biophysical models of their cost of living and projected the models to past and future climates in Africa and Australia #unimelb #ARC @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Climate change and the cost-of-living squeeze in desert lizards

Climate warming can induce a cost-of-living “squeeze” in ectotherms by increasing energetic expenditures while reducing foraging gains. We used biophysical models (validated by 2685 field observations...

science.org

Please circulate: Postdoc position on responses of Australian mammal pests to climate change. Part of my ARC Laureate Fellowship research. Lots of hands-on fieldwork. Learn about biophysical models. Remote locations. Collaboration with #EcologicalHorizons and #AWC jobs.unimelb.edu.au/en/job/91880...

Details : Research Fellow in Mammalian Movement Ecology and Energetics : The University of Melbourne

Careers at The University of Melbourne

jobs.unimelb.edu.au

This week I assisted with the annual pitfall trapping at Secret Rocks on the Eyre Peninsula. This beautiful place is a living arc for so many species of endangered wildlife, including Numbats, Malleefowl, Red-tailed Phascogales and the Sandhill Dunnart. 1/2

📖Published📖 Our latest review article presents 10 practical guidelines for ground-based research of terrestrial microclimates, covering methods and best practices from initial conceptualisation of the study to data analyses 🌎 🧪 Read more here 👇 https://buff.ly/41BKn8o

RIP Michael Leunig. Thank you for your reflections on our lives. Your mirror was whimsical, beautiful, wise & sometimes very uncomfortable. You made us love ducks, gaze at clouds & look deep within ourselves. www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12...

I like the last paper I published- In it collaborators and I test a classic hypothesis in ecology for the first time (that we are aware of) in plants. The take-home message is plants that like temperature variability may “win” in future climates. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10....

Climate Constrains Photosynthetic Strategies in Darwin’s Daisies: A Test of the Climatic Variability and Jack-of-All-Trades Hypotheses | The American Naturalist: Vol 201, No 1

Abstract Empirical evidence for the climate variability and performance trade-off hypotheses is limited to animals, and it is unclear whether climate constrains the photosynthetic strategies of plants...

journals.uchicago.edu

David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈@whysharksmatter.bsky.social · 2y ago

Science friends 🧪🌎🦑, @altmetric.com tracks Bluesky posts now! Quote or reply to this post with a link to the paper you’re best known for or most proud of, and a brief plain-language summary of what you found and why it matters! Let’s fill Bluesky with SCIENCE!

I'm sharing one that an exceptional MSc student led showing how plant growth trajectories, from seeds onward, can be predicted in different microclimates using a theory deeply rooted (sorry) in physics #DEBtheory @juliacon.bsky.social #NicheMapR. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Integrating dynamic plant growth models and microclimates for species distribution modelling

Climate is a major factor determining the distribution of plant species. Correlative models are frequently used to model the relationships between spe…

sciencedirect.com

David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈@whysharksmatter.bsky.social · 2y ago

Science friends 🧪🌎🦑, @altmetric.com tracks Bluesky posts now! Quote or reply to this post with a link to the paper you’re best known for or most proud of, and a brief plain-language summary of what you found and why it matters! Let’s fill Bluesky with SCIENCE!

I'm happy to use my first #Bluesky post to announce that there's now a shiny app for the endotherm model of the #NicheMapR package bioforecasts.science.unimelb.edu.au/app_direct/e...