"Plant tissue lifespans: Solving a fundamental mystery in plant ecology". PhD opportunity for domestic (Australia/New Zealand) candidates, closes 30 September: www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
@westobymark.bsky.social
Scenarios for four Australian ecosystems in the year 2100 framed as state-and-transition diagrams. Some potentially important themes listed in following thread. connectsci.au/bt/article/7... @pieterarnold.bsky.social @julianschrader.bsky.social @ellapouton.bsky.social
really interesting analogy between learning in genomes and machine learning, with implications for both
Carl T. Bergstrom@carlbergstrom.com · last mo.1. A bit of evolutionary biology. I'm really intrigued by a new perspective piece from Steve Frank that explores connections between how natural selection creates systems that generalize and recent work in machine learning about the surprising capabilities of massively overparameterized systems.
Sad to hear of the passing of Robert Ricklefs - a giant of Ecology who simultaneously pushed forward big ideas at multiple biological levels yet took time for detailed natural history .. McGill does a nice job summarizing his impressive contributions 🌐🧪 dynamicecology.wordpress.com/2026/06/11/r...
Robert Ricklefs – in memoriam
Robert Ricklefs, a giant of ecology, passed away on Sunday. It is hard to overstate the extensive impact Bob had on the field. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in the US,…
dynamicecology.wordpress.com
Meet the Sunburst candy bolas spider! 🕷️🌈 So new it has no Latin name yet, just Cyrtarachninae, Araneidae. Spotted in Thailand. No web: it swings a sticky silk drop that mimics moth pheromones, luring males straight in 🌙✨. So rare, it may disappear before we name it! #Biodiful photo (c) N. Bay 🌍
🌱Do leaves and roots follow the same strategy? New research led by Yuzhi Zhu in Ecology Letters shows that leaf and fine root traits in subtropical forest plants are largely decoupled, with independent above- and below-ground resource strategies. 👇 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Non‐Correlated Variation of Leaf and Fine Root Traits in Subtropical Forest Plants
Using coupled above- and below-ground trait sampling on individuals of co-existing species, we quantified relationships between 18 leaf and fine root traits in two environmentally contrasting subtrop...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
New paper out in @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social led by @westobymark.bsky.social and others The term ecosystem condition can imply an objective benchmark for what a “good” ecosystem state is. We argue for ecosystem valuation instead: it makes clear that assessing ecosystems involves value judgments.
Ecosystem valuation: Concept, criteria and terminology
Furlaud et al. (2025) discussed how to measure ‘ecosystem condition’. Here, we argue that the term ‘ecosystem valuation’ should be preferred. ‘Valuation’ signals clearly that a social or political...
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
1. Kevin Gross and I have a new paper out today PLOS Biology. We used economic models based around screening games and the market for unpaid labor to highlight a meltdown cycle threatening peer review.
Screening, sorting, and the feedback cycles that imperil peer review
The process of peer review is vital to contemporary science, but is also under enormous strain. This study uses mathematical models to dissect the threats to the long-term viability of peer review, su...
journals.plos.org
A paper in Nature presents OpenScholar, an open-source language model that can outperform commercial large language models in performing accurate literature reviews. go.nature.com/3MozzFq #Academicsky 🧪
"Bond’s work leaves behind an inconvenient lesson for an era of climate urgency: that speed is not a substitute for understanding, and that good intentions, applied without care, can erase ancient worlds as efficiently as neglect." A beautiful tribute to William Bond. Forever missed by many.
William Bond, defender of grasslands
In recent years, one of the loudest ideas in environmental policy has been that trees are the planet’s universal remedy. Plant enough of them, in enough places, and carbon will be soaked up, water wil...
butlernature.com
Our new preprint out led by David Coleman, @westobymark.bsky.social and others: The most abundant plant species of Eastern Australia and our knowledge of their traits Just <1% of species make up 50% of the entire vegetation cover of Eastern Australia. doi.org/10.64898/202...
The most abundant plant species of Eastern Australia and our knowledge of their traits
ABSTRACT 1. The rule that most species are relatively rare and few are common has been of central importance to many branches of ecology. This rule also implies that just a few species make up the maj...
doi.org
🏆We are pleased to announce that our Eminent Ecologist for 2025 is Angela Moles! ✨Angela has collected a few of her favourite Journal of Ecology papers together here: buff.ly/86uQ6v5
Paper out in Ecology Letters! We - incl. @westobymark.bsky.social @biogeokreft.bsky.social and others - show that traits are linked to species’ colonisation and extinction probabilities on #islands — with direct implications for species persistence and the Equilibrium Theory of Island #Biogeography
Resurveyed Island Vegetation Reveals That Species Colonisation and Extinction Probabilities Are Linked to Traits
We show that species richness and community trait composition on 132 Australian islands remained stable over six decades, despite high species turnover. Colonisation and extinction probabilities were....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
www.publish.csiro.au/bt/Fulltext/... Reflection in Aust J Bot "Trajectories of ecology past and future" #ecology
Wind and frost have surprisingly strong effects on global patterns in leaf cuticle thickness! Latitude, biome and taxonomy matter too. Other climate variables not so much. #trait research from international team including @lawrensack.bsky.social @westobymark.bsky.social. doi.org/10.1111/nph....
Julian Schrader@julianschrader.bsky.social · last yr.New lab paper hot off the press in @globalchangebio.bsky.social by David Coleman and @westobymark.bsky.social Australia’s #islands may offer climate refuges, but ~40% of #plant populations—especially poorly dispersing species—will face hotter conditions beyond their current limits #ecology #nature
Excited to share our new paper led by Tsinghua Uni ECR Zhang Han: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/.... New model based on eco-evolutionary optimality explains observed seasonal and spatial trends in stem respiration, implies stem CO2 efflux down by >25% by 2100, reducing land carbon emissions.
Thermal acclimation of stem respiration implies a weaker carbon-climate feedback
The efflux of carbon dioxide (CO2) from woody stems, a proxy for stem respiration, is a critical carbon flux from ecosystems to the atmosphere, which increases with temperature on short timescales. Ho...
science.org
Going live in 2 hours... @jpodwyer.bsky.social and @sarperotto.bsky.social interview Bob Holt for @smtpb.bsky.social youtu.be/q8hX3S0xMJc?...
Robert D. Holt interview
YouTube video by SMTPB
youtu.be
New lab paper hot off the press in @globalchangebio.bsky.social by David Coleman and @westobymark.bsky.social Australia’s #islands may offer climate refuges, but ~40% of #plant populations—especially poorly dispersing species—will face hotter conditions beyond their current limits #ecology #nature
Future Climate Shifts for Vegetation on Australia's Coastal Islands
Climate warming is likely to be mild for the plants on coastal islands. Although average annual temperatures will increase relative to their current ranges, the hottest annual temperatures will remai....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
🌿The Value of Biodiversity Excited to share a new #EcolClip featuring world-renowned ecologist Prof. Peter Reich @umich.edu I found Peter's insights into the future of #biodiversity especially inspiring www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVLM... Please boost if you like it #ecology #science #nature #biology
The Value of Biodiversity with Prof. Peter Reich | EcolClips
YouTube video by EcolClips
youtube.com
📢 New publication 'Do trait–growth relationships vary with plant age in fire-prone heathland #shrubs?' by Lily Dun, Elizabeth Wenk, Daniel Falster, Mark Westoby and Ian Wright in Journal of Ecology 🧪 doi.org/10.1111/1365...
Do trait–growth relationships vary with plant age in fire‐prone heathland shrubs?
We demonstrate that key functional traits undergo shifts in their relationship with growth as plants mature. Therefore, it will be valuable to shift our understanding of plant strategies away from th...
doi.org
New paper out in @journalofecology.bsky.social led by Rudi Otto from Universidad de La Laguna (Tenerife) Primary succession and plant functional traits on an oceanic island Plant communities shift from fast-growing, wind-dispersed pioneers to slow-growing, animal-dispersed endemics as lava ages.
Primary succession and plant functional traits on an oceanic island
The Canary Islands island system reflects a directional succession governed by the selection of functional traits related to environmental conditions and acquisitive-conservative strategies as well a...
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
We're living in a landscape of novel ecosystems, emerging in every part of the world. The topic has been ably covered in this BBC article on "freakosystems" by Matthew Ponsford @interspecies.agency www.bbc.com/future/artic...
This Hawaiian island's 'freakosystems' are a warning from the future
Ecosystems which have never been seen before are being accidentally created by humans. They offer a stark look into the nature of tomorrow.
bbc.com
Elizabeth Wenk & colleagues from @unswbees.bsky.social are making it easier for scientists to align databases with the current taxonomic classifications of their study species #R #APCalign #AustralianPlantCensus doi.org/10.1071/BT24...
APCalign: an R package workflow and app for aligning and updating flora names to the Australian Plant Census
Here we present ‘APCalign’, an R package and accompanying browser-sourced application to align and update scientific names for Australian vascular plants to the most likely currently accepted name in ...
doi.org
New Research in Ecology Letters led by David Coleman: Island Plant Species Distributions Contracted at the Cooler Edge Compared to Mainland Why? We're not entirely sure — we'd love to hear additional hypotheses beyond the ones we proposed in the paper. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Island Plant Species Distributions Contracted at the Cooler Edge Compared to Mainland
Continental islands have long been used as ecological models for understanding species assembly dynamics in isolated habitat fragments, with direct applications to biodiversity and conservation. But ....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
News article about our recent paper in Nature on global impoverishment of natural vegetation by Conny Sattler (cosattler.com) and myself in @theconversation.com @aunz.theconversation.com theconversation.com/invisible-lo... www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Invisible losses: thousands of plant species are missing from places they could thrive – and humans are the reason
Many native plants are missing from habitats where they should thrive – even in wilder areas. Why? Human actions such as logging, poaching and setting fires.
theconversation.com
The next exciting instalment from @jradford-smith.bsky.social on how climate filters rainforest tree strategies in the Australian subtropics. Now available in early view at @ecography.bsky.social doi.org/10.1111/ecog...
inspiring and useful #functional #ecology tea towel, with much thanks to @ianjwright.bsky.social, Sharyon O'Donnell and Nathan Hart
📣 Register for our first #webinar of 2025! @westobymark.bsky.social is Prof. Emeritus in the School of Natural Sciences at Macquarie University. One strand of his research has defined #ecological strategy variation across plant species by means of quantitative traits. 📝: uqz.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
