Graeme S. Cumming | Lightnews

Graeme Cumming

@gscumming.bsky.social

5.5K followers 1.4K following 300 posts

Ecologist of the frontiers... Prof at University of Western Australia & posting on ecology, conservation, academic life.

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Environmental science 60%

Geography 15%

Posts Replies Media Videos

Graeme Cumming @gscumming.bsky.social · 3d

The Stirling Ranges are home to many fantastic and unusual plants and animals…

Graeme Cumming @gscumming.bsky.social · 3d

Top of Bluff Knoll today (highest point in Western Australia!)

Picture shows a view from a granite-strewn mountain top over sweeping shrubs and fields, with some blue sky between white and grey clouds.

Reposted by Graeme S. Cumming, Robert Wolfe

Simon Evans @drsimevans.carbonbrief.org · 3d

COP30 TEXT ANALYSIS: One way to read dense COP text is to focus on the verbs. These are helpfully italicised – and for good reason.

MOSTLY INACTIVE: Carbon Brief analysis of the “global mutirão” text finds 69 inactive verbs, requiring no action, against 32 active verbs.
1/4

Reposted by Graeme S. Cumming, David N. Thomas

Ambio - A Journal of Environment and Society @ambio-journal.bsky.social · 10d

new publication:
Ecosystem accounting through first nations’ lenses: Integrating the SEEA-EA and Indigenous knowledge systems

open access link: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Ecosystem accounting through first nations’ lenses: Integrating the SEEA-EA and Indigenous knowledge systems - Ambio

The UN System of Environmental-Economic Accounting-Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EA) provides a framework for integrating information about the environment and the economy, organising information about e...

link.springer.com

Reposted by Graeme S. Cumming, Julie L. Lockwood

Anthony Ricciardi @ecoinvasions.bsky.social · 10d

There are no remote regions in a globalized world. The Antarctic region (ice-free peninsula, coastal waters, & surrounding islands) has been invaded by ~200 species of plants, animals, & microbes. Antarctica is connected to the world by global ship traffic. #bioinvasions
www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

Reposted by Graeme S. Cumming, Juan Rocha

Oikos @oikosjournal.bsky.social · 13d

🐦🌊When species are lost but functions persist: a trait-based perspective on Wadden Sea bird diversity dynamics

vist.ly/4d2fu

#BiodiversityLags #ColonisationExtinctionImbalance #DiffusionMaps #ExtinctionDebt #LongtermMonitoring #WaddenSea

Reposted by Tuomas Mattila

Graeme Cumming @gscumming.bsky.social · 14d

Note from an irritated editor: AI is starting to infiltrate peer review, or at least it looks a lot like it. If you’re planning to use an LLM to review someone else’s work for a journal, rather just don’t accept the review invitation. It’s easy.

a penguin holding a brain with the words hey you dropped this

ALT: a penguin holding a brain with the words hey you dropped this

media.tenor.com

Reposted by Graeme S. Cumming, David N. Thomas

Ambio - A Journal of Environment and Society @ambio-journal.bsky.social · 18d

New publication:
The gendered costs of human–wildlife conflict: A global systematic review

Open access link: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

The gendered costs of human–wildlife conflict: A global systematic review - Ambio

Human–wildlife conflict is a pressing worldwide issue with consequences that are experienced differently across groups of people. Societal expectations and gender norms ensure that the consequences of...

link.springer.com

Graeme Cumming @gscumming.bsky.social · 19d

Adventurous dragonflies!

Diversity and Distributions @consbiog.bsky.social · 19d

🌐Geographic isolation doesn’t limit #dragonflies and damselflies in the #Alps. Local #habitat, not distance, shapes communities, suggesting odonates disperse freely across mountain landscapes. ⛰️

🔗 doi.org/10.1111/ddi....

Reposted by Graeme S. Cumming, Daniel Hering

Diversity and Distributions @consbiog.bsky.social · 19d

Reposted by Graeme S. Cumming, Paul Caplat

Elina Mäntylä @elinamantyla.bsky.social · 19d

Granger et al. Multispecies sensory networks and social foraging strategies: Implications for population decline in procellariiform seabirds www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... #ornithology #seabirds

Multispecies sensory networks and social foraging strategies: Implications for population decline in procellariiform seabirds | PNAS

Multispecies sensory networks, where different species prioritize different sensory modalities and then use heterospecific information in a likely ...

www.pnas.org

Reposted by Graeme S. Cumming

Amanda Daria Stoltz, PhD @sciencebarbie.bsky.social · 20d

GUYS! IT'S FINALLY HERE! My first dissertation chapter has been published in Climatic Change!!! We read 194 papers on environmental justice on the coast and our findings are free for the public 🌊🌎🧪

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

No coastal justice without environmental justice: a systematic literature review of climate and coasts - Climatic Change

As the ocean warms, sea levels rise, and coastlines change, there has been a growing interest in environmental justice and climate justice on the coast. Here we conduct a systematic literature review ...

link.springer.com

Graeme Cumming @gscumming.bsky.social · 23d

Yes! And I assume also some selectivity by discipline

Graeme Cumming @gscumming.bsky.social · 23d

I’ve been wondering what the drop in funding and expertise in the US will mean for journals and citation numbers/rates. Am guessing a global decline in citations, IFs, (etc) due to reduced publications, possibly some shifts based on location (e.g., British society-run journals more robust than US?).

Gregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · 24d

Some charts for those who don't know the extent of the US public (and private) investment in research (particularly in biomedical research) compared to other countries and institutions. The destruction of the US' scientific institutions has global implications.

Reposted by Graeme S. Cumming

Prof Alessandro Tagliabue @altagliabue.bsky.social · 24d

Western Indian subantarctic phytoplankton blooms fertilized by iron-enriched Agulhas water 🌊

rdcu.be/eMTV2?utm_ca...

Western Indian subantarctic phytoplankton blooms fertilized by iron-enriched Agulhas water

Nature Geoscience - Recurrent phytoplankton blooms in the western Indian Subantarctic Zone are largely supported by iron-rich water transported into the region by the Agulhas Current, according to...

rdcu.be

Reposted by Graeme S. Cumming, Karen R. Lips, Evelyne de Leeuw , and 10 more Graeme S. Cumming, Karen R. Lips, Evelyne de Leeuw, Philip N. Cohen, Smith, Robert Wolfe, Aaron Sojourner, Margot C. Finn, Scott A. Imberman, Paul Nightingale, Wolfgang Huber, Julie Novkov, Kristina McElheran

Gregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · 24d

Reposted by Graeme S. Cumming, Euan G. Ritchie

Yung En Chee @yungenchee.bsky.social · 26d

Biodiversity Council's 2024-25 Biodiversity Concerns Survey of >3,500 Australians found that a majority
😟 are very/extremely concerned about biodiversity issues
☹️ think gov performance at Federal & State/Territory level is terrible/poor/average
💪 want action (96%)
💪 support pro-biodiversity policies

Horizontal stacked bar chart of Concern about biodiversity issues

From top to bottom, the issues are:
Potential impacts of bird flu on Australian wildlife
Impact of renewable energy developments on the environment
Native forest logging
Taking water from rivers to water crops
Land clearing for urban development
Land clearing for agriculture
Impacts of climate change on native wildlife
Decline / extinction of insects and pollinators
Impact ofweeds and feral animals on the environment
Increasing levels of waste and pollution
Loss of natural places
Possible extinction of native animals

Figure 3. This graph shows how concerned participants were about a range of biodiversity issues. A majority of people were very concerned or extremely concerned (blue groups) about all issues presented.

Horizontal stacked bar chart of Government performance for
Australia
State/Territory

Figure 7. This graph shows how participants have rated the federal (top) and their state/territory (bottom) government's performance in protecting nature. The majority of participants rated both as 'terrible', 'poor or
'average' (red and yellow colours).

Vertical bar chart of Do Australians want action for nature?
x-axis lists the categories (left to right): 'No more', 'A little more', 'Some more', 'A lot more' & 'A great deal more'

Figure 5. This graph shows how much more action participants think needs to be taken for nature protection and recovery. Results show that the vast majority (96%) believe at least some action is needed, with only 4%

Horizontal stacked bar chart on What pro-biodiversity policies do Australians support?

From top to bottom, they are:
Strengthen environmental laws to protect nature
Establish national standards for the protection of the environment from developments
Require native forest logging to be regulated by national environmental law
Establish a network of marine sanctuaries that protect at least 30% of different habitat types in Australia's....
Protect native species' habitat from developments such as mines and urban expansion
Establish new national parks to protect natural and cultural values
Investing in science to understand nature
Require businesses to report their impacts on nature
Require cat owners to keep their cat contained to their property
Remove taxpayer subsidies for industries or projects that damage nature
Humanely kill non-native (invasive) species that threaten wildlife and natural places
Increase investment for managing Indigenous Protected Areas in line with National Parks
Protect and conserve dingo populations as an important part of natural ecosystems

Figure 12. This graph shows levels of community support for a range of policies aimed at helping biodiversity. For each policy, a strong majority support the policy (blue bars), while some Australians neither support nor oppose (yellow bars), and a small percentage oppose the policies (red bars).

Reposted by Garry Peterson

Graeme Cumming @gscumming.bsky.social · 27d

Intriguing overview of changing ecosystem function at a continental scale.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Energy flows reveal declining ecosystem functions by animals across Africa - Nature

An ecosystem energetics approach, quantifying trophic energy flows across species, offers a unified framework for linking animal biodiversity loss to changes in ecosystem function and Earth system pro...

www.nature.com

Reposted by Graeme S. Cumming, Joaquín Hortal, Julie L. Lockwood , and 1 more Graeme S. Cumming, Joaquín Hortal, Julie L. Lockwood, Stephen D. Murphy

Chuliang Song @clsong.com · 29d

Ecology faces an accumulation of models but not an accumulation of confidence. Our new paper w/ Jonathan Levine www.nature.com/articles/s41... in @natecoevo.nature.com introduces a rigorous test rooted in queueing theory to falsify inadequate models and build confidence in useful ones.

Rigorous validation of ecological models against empirical time series - Nature Ecology & Evolution

Validating theoretical models against empirical data presents challenges. Here the authors present an assumption-light method to validate ecological models against time series data, along with a dedic...

www.nature.com

Reposted by Graeme S. Cumming

Dr. Dawn Wright @deepseadawn.bsky.social · Oct 26

🧪 🌊 🦑 🌎 #geogsky

Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · Oct 26

Yes, solutions for nature are also solutions for health!

This new analysis finds urban greening is "associated with a wide range of positive health outcomes including improved physical and mental health, increased physical activity, improved childhood development, and reduced exposure to harms."

Will biodiversity actions yield healthy places? A systematic review of human health outcomes associated with biodiversity‐focused urban greening

Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Reposted by Graeme S. Cumming

Patrick Waeber @powaeber.bsky.social · Oct 24

🌿 When trees die and rot, they release stored carbon. Australia’s rainforests now emit more CO2 than they absorb. A sign of rising heat & drought stress. Once sinks, now turning into sources. Similar patterns appear in parts of the Amazon 🌎

#Climate
#Forests
#TropicalRainforests
#Australia
#Amazon

Australian Rainforests Become the First to Emit More Carbon Than They Absorb

A new analysis finds tropical forests in Australia are not taking in enough carbon dioxide to keep up with the emissions from their decaying trunks, holding possible implications for global ecosystems

share.google

Reposted by Graeme S. Cumming, Julie L. Lockwood

Meg Daly @megdaly.bsky.social · Oct 23

This is an INCREDIBLE advance in our understanding of coral diversification. 🪸🎉 Fantastic new work led by @claudiavaga.bsky.social

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A global coral phylogeny reveals resilience and vulnerability through deep time - Nature

The most recent common ancestor of the stony coral Scleractinia dates to about 460 million years ago and was probably a solitary, heterotrophic and free-living organism.

www.nature.com

Reposted by Oliver L. Phillips, Graeme S. Cumming, Aníbal Pauchard , and 3 more Oliver L. Phillips, Graeme S. Cumming, Aníbal Pauchard, Patrick A. Jansen, Steve Carver, Thilina D. Surasinghe

International Biodiversity @ibioconsultants.com · Oct 23

Widespread #MountainEcosystem loss (2000-2020) is driven by human expansion ( #agriculture approx. 89% and #NaturalDisasters approx 11%)

Over half (approx 56%) occurred in #ProtectedAreas or #biodiversity hotspots, demanding urgent #conservation action 🌍

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Global loss of mountain vegetated landscapes and its impact on biodiversity conservation - Nature Communications

This study reports widespread loss of mountain vegetation worldwide from 2000 to 2020, with ∼89% attributable to human expansion, primarily agriculture. Over half of this loss occurred within protecte...

www.nature.com

Graeme Cumming @gscumming.bsky.social · Oct 21

What a ridiculously un-nuanced statement from a former colonial power. Do you know, for example, that King Shaka created a protected area at Hluhluwe-Imfolosi *before* British colonisation? Do your homework on South Africa's Biodiversity Economy and then take a long look in the mirror.

Graeme Cumming @gscumming.bsky.social · Oct 18

But you work where you live, right? If you were still in RSA you wouldn’t be doing projects on the US NE coast, or only tangentially as a collaborator.

Graeme Cumming @gscumming.bsky.social · Oct 18

I think there’s also a strong element of colonialism, and colonial legacy. Also resources of course. But hypothetically even if I had loads of funding, Americans would find it strange if I showed up in LA to work on urban cougars, or in Minnesota to catch and track ducks.

Reposted by Graeme S. Cumming, Dawn J. Wright, Adrian Vickers

Michael E. Mann @michaelemann.bsky.social · Oct 17

"Declining ocean greenness and phytoplankton blooms in low to mid-latitudes under a warming climate" | Our (Hong et al) new article in @aaas.org #ScienceAdvances: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Declining ocean greenness and phytoplankton blooms in low to mid-latitudes under a warming climate

Chlorophyll a is declining in low- to mid-latitude oceans, indicating reduced ocean productivity and fewer phytoplankton blooms.

www.science.org

Reposted by Tobias Kuemmerle, Éva E. Plagányi, Trevor A. Branch , and 1 more Tobias Kuemmerle, Éva E. Plagányi, Trevor A. Branch, Juan Rocha

Graeme Cumming @gscumming.bsky.social · Oct 17

Interesting. This says in words some stuff that has bothered me for a long time - like why European and American scientists get to parachute in to research the African fauna that I literally grew up with, but it would seem really odd if I started a project on moose or reindeer.

People and Nature @peopleandnature.bsky.social · Oct 17

🦒Biologists are often drawn to charismatic species but they do not always have the opportunity to study them. This study reveals some fierce competition in certain academic fields, and illustrates unequal social distribution of research opportunities➡️https://buff.ly/kjYUIBg

Reposted by Graeme S. Cumming

Chris Gug @gugunderwater.bsky.social · Oct 17

A young #argonaut #octopus (aka “paper #nautilus”) hitches a ride atop a muave stinger #jellyfish.

#papernautilus #symbiosis #muavestinger #🐙 #🪼 #blackwater #blackwaterphotography #blackwaterdiving #chrisgug #gugunderwater #gug #kumejima #okinawa #marinelife

Reposted by Graeme S. Cumming

People and Nature @peopleandnature.bsky.social · Oct 17

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