New paper by fellow PhD student Mark Clifton @ the Plant Reproductive Ecology & Conservation Genomics Lab! This study investigates polyploidy and hybridisation in endangered, clonal Callistemon species from Victoria, Aus. doi.org/10.1071/BT25... 🌏 🌿 🧪

Polyploidy arises independently of hybrid status in clonal narrow-range endemic Callistemon from East Gippsland, Victoria

Three threatened narrow-range Callistemon species from East Gippsland are highly clonal, but differ in their evolutionary origins. Previous genomic studies

doi.org

1/ Given recent attacks on Camp Sovereignty & the fact that a little rich kid racist is assembling the troops agen this Sunday, it'd neat if lots of people attended this I reckon. 2–8pm Camp Sovereignty · Naarm Free concert + delicious food

Fires beyond fire-prone ecosystems: the erosion of beech forest doi.org/10.1111/gcb.... @globalchangebio.bsky.social Global warming weakens the flammability barrier & enables fire to spread beyond fire-prone ecosystems, into fire-sensitive spp 🧪🌍🔥🪴🌱🍁🌐 wildfire #ClimateChange #GlobalChange #Fagus

This article is excellent. It speaks volumes about how governments take so many in the environmental and conservation sectors and communities for granted theconversation.com/australia-ha.... As H5N1 begins to spread and devastate Australian wildlife the dire consequences of this are evident.

Australia has long relied on volunteers and wildlife carers. As bird flu spreads, they will need support

Volunteers have been a mainstay of conservation in Australia. As bird flu spreads, they must be supported – and kept safe.

theconversation.com

1/ A lil🧵collecting the illuminating public interest reporting of Pauline Hanson nemesis—"trashy journo" Sarah Martin Rinehart puppet, "Pauline Hanson & her chief of staff, James Ashby, flew to Florida on Gina Rinehart’s private jet in October & stayed at the mining magnate’s Palm Beach mansion"

Pauline Hanson travelled to US on Gina Rinehart’s private jet to attend CPAC

Exclusive: One Nation senator travelled on mining magnate’s Gulfstream 700 in October and stayed at Rinehart’s US$66m Palm Beach mansion

theguardian.com

Help shape the future of BHL 🌱 As we begin to modernise the BHL platform, we’re inviting BHL users to share their experiences through a 3–5 minute survey. Your responses will directly inform our priorities, identify problems, guide improvements, and shape a better BHL experience: bit.ly/4fpc75D 🧪

BHL User Experience

BHL is beginning a major modernisation of its platform. We’d like users to help shape what comes next. This 3–5 minute survey asks about how you use BHL and the improvements you’d like to see. Your r...

bit.ly

Two well needed hikes exploring Mt Langi Ghiran an imposing granite inselberg with its breathtaking views and diverse wildflowers.

Just published. A correspondence in @nature.com from Dr Marissa Parrott and I about the risk that the H5N1 strain of bird flu poses to Australian wildlife, including mammals, and the need for all of us to work together! rdcu.be/ftIkt

Now in summer, we can confirm that a large part of the beech (Fagus sylvatica) forests that burned in low‑intensity understory fires have died. This constitutes a clear case of a low‑intensity, high‑severity fire (I had expected bsky.app/profile/jgpa...) 🧪🌍🔥🌳🍁🪴 wildfires Picos de Europa, N Spain

juli g pausas@jgpausas.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Another novel disturbance: fire affecting beech (Fagus sylvatica) forests. It burned at low intensity (surface fire), but it is likely to have high-severity effects. Barniedo fire 8/2025, Riaño, León, Spain 🧪🌍🔥🌳🍁🪴🌱 wildfire

I am hiring! My former postdocs have all gone on to great ongoing roles, so I am now looking for 2 new postdocs in dynamic vegetation modelling: Modelling vegetation-fire interactions in Australia Modelling Australian vegetation distributions Details linked below - please share!

Its been a while! March was extremely hectic between working on submitting a manuscript for review, giving talks and general Masters work. Have a photo of some Grevillea pollen from the archives (Grevillea jephcottii, taken in 2022). The centre pollen grain is showing pollen tube growth!

After decades of environmental and biodiversity failure, the idea of relying on "nature markets" is just the latest sick joke from the neoliberals who brought us the destructive privatization of public services. #auspol

Yung En Chee@yungenchee.bsky.social · 6mo ago

In 2023, then Enviro Minister Plibersek said the heart of EPBC reforms—National Environmental Standards—would set "legally enforceable requirement for decision making – that approval decisions deliver a positive net outcome for nature" @euanritchie.bsky.social & I examine the reversal of promises

Very depressing results for my home town in the UK with Reform winning 24 out of 25 local council seats.

The mainstream media and parties in this country has almost entirely given up any pretence that they are here to serve democracy Some may think I'm helping fuelling the growing distrust in institutions but they don't need my help to pave the way for the far right to take over Utterly grim...

Been playing with an eye opening website from the Australian #Greens, new tax the 1% campaign. It calculates how many hours it takes Gina or other billionaires to earn your annual salary. 2.9 hr to earn the Australian median salary of $73k 😮😡 www.taxthe1percent.com.au

Tax the 1% | Australian Greens

Things are hard right now, but not for everyone. Use our brand new tool to compare your income and tax to Australia's billionaires and big corporations to see for yourself how rigged the system is, an...

taxthe1percent.com.au

At the same time the most immediate risk is a 25% chance of a super El Niño. Think heatwaves, think fire, think crop failure, think mouse plague ( oh we already have that in WA). Think only 7 months prep time. Would you catch a plane with a 25% chance of crashing ? 11/

a painting of a burning forest with a tree in the middle

Alt: a burning forest

media.tenor.com

🎉🆕📰🎉: Sexually deceptive orchids with distinct flower morphologies elicit different behaviours from a shared pollinator doi.org/10.1093/aob/... #PlantScience

'Scientists have issued a dire warning that the widespread death of key eucalypt species in Australian ecosystems could be imminent, due to global heating. Scientists gathered at the Snow Gum Summit last week to discuss combating the loss of an iconic tree'. www.melbournefoe.org.au/media_releas...

MEDIA RELEASE: Snow Gum Summit 2026.

Scientists warn climate change threatens ecosystems and water security at Snow Gum Summit: The Next Ascent (2026).

melbournefoe.org.au

🚨 New blog post estar: An R package to measure ecological stability🌍 Find out more about the estar package, which helps researchers analyse stability using the data they collect from real world systems 👇️ 🔎

estar: An R package to measure ecological stability

Post provided by Ludmilla Figueiredo Nature is very dynamic: forests transform through the seasons and regrow after fire, insect plagues happen with little to no forewarning, and animals like the F…

buff.ly

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

Probably a reach here but I'm looking for someone (early career maybe) who would be willing to mentor me as I navigate the post-PhD life. I feel lost on a lot of things and would be grateful to bounce ideas and experiences with someone who's been through a couple of years post-PhD. 😭

There's not too many upsides to getting up at 4am to measure plant traits but the sun rises aren't too shabby

I've been thinking about how Starmer and the Labour Together purge of the left in the party has done the opposite of what they intended. Instead of crushing the left they have liberated it from the shackles of the Labour Party. Fingers crossed for Hannah Spencer in Manchester 🤞

Zack Polanski@zackpolanski.bsky.social · 8mo ago

You can smell the Labour Governments panic. They're trying their hardest to discredit the new poll because it tells everyone that the alternative has well and truly arrived. Gorton & Denton is the Green Party Vs Reform.

X’s algorithms are not neutral tools, but an editorial force, shaping real worldviews. And unlike much of what you read on X, this finding is based on rigorous research. 👉 Read the full story: theconversation.com/a-few-w...

Yup. But not just because of AI. Scholar is the pet project of one of Google's early employees. I can't see it surviving his retirement. OpenAlex is our best alternative, we need to invest in improving their data.

Tomorrow I'll be presenting at #VicBioCon! I've got a speed talk in Plants and Pollinators 1 (at 11:45am) and have a poster that evening at 5pm. Come say hi and ask me about my Acacias! 😊

Acacia paradoxa has a broad SE Australian distribution, occurs across starkly different habitats, and has remarkably variable morphology. Here is a photo snapshot of some of the diversity captured during my honours field work. #InvasionEcology #Botany #AustralianBotany #Acacia #PopulationGenomics

I am simultaneously excited that there is so much to learn about the natural world and also frustrated that I don't have all the answers now. Two galls I'm seeing and here and there is nothing about them in the literature. Eremophila leaf galls and these spongy Banksia galls demand answers

Here's some impressive Mesostoa kerri galls on silver Banksia. Because we can roughly date Banksia with node counts we can tell that this Banksia has been infested for several years and because Banksia retain cones for years we also know this individual has not successfully produced any fruit.

Welcome and follow these two reprobates @em-stevenson.bsky.social and @jacobpmoore.bsky.social who are working on vry cool and interesting stuff @ La Trobe Uni. Emily is looking at high temperature threshold's for pollen viability and Jacob is working on the cryptic invasion of a common Acacia.