Tim Curran
@timcurran.bsky.social
Assoc. Prof. of Ecology at Lincoln Uni, Aotearoa/New Zealand. Scientist, teacher, dad, bibliophile, cricket tragic, snorkeler, rockpooler (fond of crabs). Uses traits to understand plant responses to disturbance. Likes to BBQ plants.
📢 Have you seen the new research out in NZJE this week? 👀 🦌 Deer in the headlights: sleepwalking our way to a native forest catastrophe 🦌 Lead author: David Norton (University of Canterbury) Link to full paper below 🌿 newzealandecology.org/nzje/3639
Deer in the headlights: sleepwalking our way to a native forest catastrophe | NZES
A slowly unfolding native forest crisis is currently occurring in Aotearoa | New Zealand (hereafter New Zealand) because the numbers of deer in many native forests have risen rapidly to unsustainable ...
newzealandecology.org
Sea turtles are being used to help forecast cyclones… here’s how. Oliver ridley and flatback sea turtles to the rescue! Christopher C Chapman et al 2026 Environ. Res. Lett. 21 124025 #cyclone #weather #turtle #australia #POV
“The entire National Science Foundation budget is less than what we spent in the first week of the war with Iran. The National Institutes of Health,… accounts for a fraction of 1 percent of all federal spending” www.nytimes.com/2026/06/20/o...
Opinion | The Science That Turned Lizard Venom Into GLP-1s Is Under Attack
nytimes.com
We will soon be advertising a 3-year postdoctoral position at Bristol aimed at enhancing our modelling capacity to better characterise vegetation recovery & legacy effects following fire. Please keep us in mind if this is your speciality 😀 🔥🌳 🌱
It's Tree of the Year time Aotearoa! There are some beauties in the finalist list. Vote for rākau o te tau by the end of June. 🌳🌳 www.treeoftheyear.co.nz
Home | Tree of the year / Rākau o te tau | New Zealand
We want you, New Zealand, to nominate and vote for the greatest trees in the country. It’s not about the biggest or oldest, it’s about trees that play a part in our lives, our history and our future.
treeoftheyear.co.nz
We face multiple crises that demand action: biodiversity loss, climate change, land degradation. But tackling these in isolation is perilous. @zslofficial.bsky.social's new report, authored by leading scientists and policy experts, details how approaches to address one crisis can exacerbate others.
Eco-literate children can be stewards of nature – here’s how to boost environmental education theconversation.com/eco-literate...
Eco-literate children can be stewards of nature – here’s how to boost environmental education
How we train the next generation is critical to nature recovery.
theconversation.com
To me, this looks like a setup for the kind of fire season Australia experienced in 2019-2020. But there’s plenty of time for nature to give us an off-ramp from that future. And I’ll certainly welcome that luck.
Dr. Jeff Masters@drjeffmasters.bsky.social · 2mo agoMay 2026 had the second-worst May drought conditions in contiguous U.S. history, with a Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) of -6.93. The only worse May: the Dust Bowl year of 1934 (a PDSI of -7.03). Three of the top-10 months for worst U.S. drought since 1895 have been in 2026:
Warming winters are changing NZ’s landscapes, bringing insect pests, smaller fruit and carbon loss theconversation.com/warming-wint... @loraxcate.bsky.social
Warming winters are changing NZ’s landscapes, bringing insect pests, smaller fruit and carbon loss
Warmer winters mean insect pests like wasps will likely spread further, while weedy plants and rats invade alpine zones, shrinking the refuge for endangered birds.
theconversation.com
news.mongabay.com/2026/06/the-... By @bengoldfarb.bsky.social
The long and winding road to safe highways: Inside the global movement to reconnect habitat
One of the busiest highways in the western U.S. is I-25, a concrete artery that runs north to south across the state of Colorado, funneling roughly 100,000 cars per day through the fast-growing exurbs...
news.mongabay.com
Flammability of native perennial grasses in temperate Australia is influenced by dryness, fire intensity, and species. Habtamu Getnet Gessesse, Alex Filkov, @itsnotfairman.bsky.social @trentpenman.bsky.social & Lauren Bennett connectsci.au/wf/article/d...
Flammability of native perennial grasses in temperate Australia as influenced by dryness, fire intensity, and species.
Background. Grasses significantly influence bushfire behaviour in fire-prone landscapes, yet their contribution to flammability under changing climate and
connectsci.au
National bushfire outlook puts areas of NSW and WA at heightened risk
Bushfire outlook shows increased risk in parts of NSW and WA
A dry winter in some parts of Australia is expected to make bushfire conditions "tricky" by spring.
abc.net.au
There were many interesting burns from our flammability research in New Caledonia earlier this month, but this was perhaps the most spectacular! Casuarina collina burns fast but for a short time!
A great achievement for an excellent scientist and wonderful person! So glad that she is associated with our department. blog.doc.govt.nz/2026/05/21/n...
Meet the DOC scientist behind an exciting new tool for Predator Free 2050
DOC scientist, Elaine Murphy, talks about a new sausage bait she's developed to target stoats, and why she's a big believer in Predator Free 2050.
blog.doc.govt.nz
Job opportunity in Plant Science at Adelaide University in South Australia. Learn more at jobs.adelaide.edu.au/jobs/lecture...
Certainly, "unprecedented" seems justified for this fire in the Afroalpine vegetation of the Rwenzori Mountains (Uganda–DR of Congo), at least for the last 12,000 years! Sediments from a lake at 4010 m asl. Mason et al. www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧪🌍🔥🌳 wildfire envsci geoscience
California wildfire resilience funding on the brink. open.substack.com/pub/cepp/p/c...
California Wildfire Resilience Funding on the Brink Following Legislative and Regulatory Changes
The passage of SB 840 and recent proposed amendments to the state's Cap-and-Invest program leave critical wildfire resilience funding, and funding for other policy priorities, at risk of disappearing.
open.substack.com
New job posting to join our team for an early career scientist(s) interested in the intersection of wildfire, electricity, insurance and resilience policy. If this sounds like you, please apply! If not, please share with your contacts. careersearch.stanford.edu/jobs/electri...
Electricity and Wildfire Research Fellow, Stanford Law School in School of Law, Stanford, California, United States
The Climate and Energy Policy Program (CEPP) of Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment and the Environmental and Natural Resources Law &.....
careersearch.stanford.edu
Please do not try to clock “balanced list of threes” as an AI tell because that’s been classic rhetorical structure for going on three millennia and it’s baked into all our writing now, I‘m begging people to read more old things
📢 New publication hot off the press in NZJE! 🌿 A critical review of the inclusion of mātauranga Māori in published environmental research 🌿 Lead author: Tara McAllister (Te Manawahoukura, Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, New Zealand) @taramcallister.bsky.social newzealandecology.org/nzje/3632
A critical review of the inclusion of mātauranga Māori in published environmental research | NZES
Globally there has been a burgeoning consensus that drawing from Indigenous knowledge in environmental management improves outcomes. Over the past two decades, in Aotearoa | New Zealand there has been...
newzealandecology.org
Huge congrats to Shanta Budha-Magar on another PhD paper being published! High Resprouting of Plants Within 16 Months of Wildfire in a Dry Grassland in Aotearoa New Zealand With @njday.bsky.social and @buckleyhannah.bsky.social rsnz.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
High Resprouting of Plants Within 16 Months of Wildfire in a Dry Grassland in Aotearoa New Zealand
Wildfires are projected to increase in severity and frequency in dryland ecosystems due to climate change. To predict how plant communities will respond to these changes in wildfire patterns, it is v....
rsnz.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
The headline says it all. Reporting by @virginiagewin.bsky.social brings you some of the daily joys of a career in science from researchers around the world. Best. Day. Ever. What does a good day in science look like? www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Best. Day. Ever. What does a good day in science look like?
Struggling to remember why you picked a career in science? Here are some heart-warming tales to jog your memory.
nature.com
We had so many great anecdotes, we're planning a Part 2. Get in touch directly with @virginiagewin.bsky.social if you have a story to share about your best day in science and what made it so.