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Dr. Hilary Rose Dawson @hilaryrosed.bsky.social · 17h

My institutional access is working. DM me your preferred email and I can send a PDF over.

Dr. Hilary Rose Dawson @hilaryrosed.bsky.social · 7d

There are some Indigenous-owned businesses that sell food made from bush tucker (eg, shop.indigiearth.com.au/products/wil...).
These particular fruits were brought to Canberra with the understanding that the seeds would return to Uluṟu. I'm not sure about the ethics of commercialising them.

Quandong Chutney 200g

This delightful condiment is crafted from the finest Australian ingredients and imbued with the signature apricot and peach flavour of the famed Desert Quandong. Infused with a sprinkle of select pepp...

shop.indigiearth.com.au

Dr. Hilary Rose Dawson @hilaryrosed.bsky.social · 7d

He's doing amazing work with his PhD. I'm consistently blown away by both his research and his dedication to meaningful collaboration with Aṉangu.

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Dr. Hilary Rose Dawson @hilaryrosed.bsky.social · 7d

So much to learn at the right-way science seminar organised by @scienceanu.bsky.social PhD candidate Jay Nicholson to highlight reciprocal collaborative research between Aṉangu and western scientists at Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa. We also got to taste mangaṯa quandong fruit and admire the intricate seeds.
🧪

Four people sitting at the front of the room ready to answer questions on a panel, including Jay on the right in a bright shirt.

Bowl of red mangaṯa quandong fruits and their large highly textured light brown seeds

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Reposted by Dr. Hilary Rose Dawson

Ligus @greyauk.bsky.social · 11d

Little side project 🐚🐌
(I got stuck on "1" of #sciartseptember )

🐡

Photo of ripped pieces of paper with snail shell sketches and four rubber stamp cuts showing snails shells. On the left side lie two lino cutting tools. Everything lies on a well-used wooded table top.

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Reposted by Dr. Hilary Rose Dawson

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 14d

Ponderosa pine smells like butterscotch.

Go ahead, sniff one the next time you're in the western US. Some say "vanilla", some say "oh no, my nose is covered in sap."

Let's talk about birds, butterscotch, forest fires, blue wood, & boring beetles.

But mostly this thread is about terpenes.

From a blog called "CreationsDawn", a photo of the author smelling a ponderosa pine. The author wears a green cap, light blue-green shirt and red camel pack. They are sniffing a tree with pine bark, with a sort of red-orange color. More trees in the background.

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Dr. Hilary Rose Dawson @hilaryrosed.bsky.social · 19d

Although the courses are over, the community is still going strong. We're busy analysing the data and writing papers to share what we discovered about plant traits and ecosystem processes in these beautiful places.

Check out our alumni pack for more cool plant-focused science!
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Dr. Hilary Rose Dawson @hilaryrosed.bsky.social · 19d

Courses focused on collaborating with local researchers in mostly understudied regions
1+2 China doi.org/10.1038/s41597-020-0529-0
3+5. Peru doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-02980-3
4. Svalbard doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02467-7
6. Norway doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-05509-4
7. South Africa (in review)

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Dr. Hilary Rose Dawson @hilaryrosed.bsky.social · 19d

Led by @vvandvik.bsky.social, @bjenquist.bsky.social, @audhalbritter.bsky.social and others, the Plant Functional Traits Courses trained students through the process of collecting and disseminating real, valuable data using FAIR and #OpenScience. Along the way, we built a lasting community.

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Eight people collecting data in a fenced off grassland plot with a stone cabin and breathtaking fjord views in the background.

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Dr. Hilary Rose Dawson @hilaryrosed.bsky.social · 19d

Three years ago, I joined this fabulous group of researchers in western Norway for the sixth Plant Functional Traits Course. Now, we've published the dataset covering morphological traits, spectroscopy, carbon flux, and more:

doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-05509-4

🧪 #OpenAccess #Botany #PlantTraits 🧵

A group of forty people arranged in chromatic order based on their colourful rain gear

A diagram describing the PFTC6 dataset, including leaf traits, leaf assimilation temperature responses, hyperspectral readings, canopy leaf temperatures, airborne multi-spectral imagery, CO2 fluxes, and microclimate, linking in with existing datasets on plant community and biomass.

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Dr. Hilary Rose Dawson @hilaryrosed.bsky.social · 19d

Thanks! Yeah, coarse IDs are really helpful, especially for experts in less commonly observed taxa. Wading through a bunch of unidentified plants and insects to find one bird or slime mould isn't easy. I encourage you to try some ID'ing next time you need a procrastination method.

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Dr. Hilary Rose Dawson @hilaryrosed.bsky.social · 19d

How do active heat + drought shelters affect soil arthropods?
New results from @tern-aus.bsky.social AMRF FutureClim experiment, including @scienceanu.bsky.social @biologyanu.bsky.social coauthors @jameslking.bsky.social + @pieterarnold.bsky.social

🧪 #SoilEcology #ClimateChange #Entomology #WildOz

RES Publications @respublications.bsky.social · 22d

New #OpenAccess research in #RESEcolEnt

Combined heat & #drought affect #abundance, #composition & #diversity of subalpine surface-active soil #arthropod communities
doi.org/10.1111/een.70015

#ChangingClimate
@sheborg.bsky.social @robwilsonmncn.bsky.social @callomac.bsky.social @wiley.com

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Dr. Hilary Rose Dawson @hilaryrosed.bsky.social · 19d

Thank you!

Dr. Hilary Rose Dawson @hilaryrosed.bsky.social · 19d

Yes, there is a way to mark it on your own obs! When you make the observation, you can select captive/cultivated. It might be phrased a little differently depending on the app you use but those are the key words to look for.

Screenshot of the iNat classic app upload screen with captive/cultivated set to 'yes'

Dr. Hilary Rose Dawson @hilaryrosed.bsky.social · 19d

I became a dedicated identifier when I learned that the top 1,000 identifiers contribute 70% of all IDs. I've benefited from their effort so I wanted to pay it back. As a side effect, I've also found out that ID'ing is a great and fun procrastination tool. I encourage you to try for yourself.

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$A big circle made up of little circles, each representing 1,000 iNaturalist users. A tiny fraction are in the top 8,000 identifiers, a little larger fraction represents the bottom 93,000 identifiers, and the rest are white indicating no identifications made. Next to it is a pie chart showing that the top 1,000 identifiers have contributed 70% of IDs, 1-2,000 top identifiers contributed 17% of IDs, 2-4,000 top identifiers contributed 7% of IDs, 4-8,000 top identifiers contributed 3% of IDs, and the bottom 93,000 top identifiers contributed 3% of IDs.$

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Dr. Hilary Rose Dawson @hilaryrosed.bsky.social · 19d

Take the time to occasionally review your IDs that have been marked as 'Maverick' and consider if you'd like to update or withdraw them. Paste this URL and change the last part to your #iNaturalist username to see your Maverick IDs: www.inaturalist.org/identificati... userid here]

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Dr. Hilary Rose Dawson @hilaryrosed.bsky.social · 19d

Remember that the observer may not be an expert so it's best to avoid or explain jargon. There's a curious and interested person on the other side and it's worth the extra time to use a friendly tone (rather than short-hand phrases) to engage them in the natural world.

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Dr. Hilary Rose Dawson @hilaryrosed.bsky.social · 19d

Be ready to have discussions about your identifications. New observers may need some guidance for why you're providing coarse IDs (to help the experts see the obs) or experts may want to discuss ID minutia. I've learned so much through these discussions so it's worth engaging in them.

11/14

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Dr. Hilary Rose Dawson @hilaryrosed.bsky.social · 19d

If you're adding a coarser ID to an obs, be aware that #iNaturalist has two ways to treat this. Are you disagreeing with the original ID or agreeing but aren't expert enough to be sure of the finer grain? Choose the green or orange button wisely.

10/14

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Dr. Hilary Rose Dawson @hilaryrosed.bsky.social · 19d

Found an observation that doesn't belong on #iNaturalist? Identifiers also play a key role in quality control. You can add a thumbs down in the 'Data Quality' tab if an obs isn't wild, has an inaccurate location, has different organisms in different photos, or other quality issues.

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Dr. Hilary Rose Dawson @hilaryrosed.bsky.social · 19d

Ready for more advanced #iNaturalist identifying? @carrieseltzer.bsky.social wrote a tutorial to help you grow as an identifier.

8/14

How to Become a Better Identifier · iNaturalist

www.inaturalist.org

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Dr. Hilary Rose Dawson @hilaryrosed.bsky.social · 19d

Daunted by all the observations when you first open up the identify tool on #iNaturalist?
1. Type in a place you're familiar with (counties or states are a good size to start)
2. Filter to a taxon you're familiar with or choose the ghostly leaf for unknown obs

7/14

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Dr. Hilary Rose Dawson @hilaryrosed.bsky.social · 19d

#iNaturalist has a great tool to speed up the identification process. Check out the tutorial (help.inaturalist.org/en/support/s...) and the etiquette page (forum.inaturalist.org/t/identifica...) and then go to inaturalist.org/observations/identify to try it out.

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Dr. Hilary Rose Dawson @hilaryrosed.bsky.social · 19d

#iNaturalist has observed a trend that new observers may be more likely to stick around if they receive an ID on their observation. Identifying helps grow our community.

5/14

Identification Pilot to Onboard New Users

We’re excited to announce a new pilot aimed at boosting retention by increasing identifications on observations from new users. This experiment is designed to explore whether more engagement from the ...

www.inaturalist.org

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Dr. Hilary Rose Dawson @hilaryrosed.bsky.social · 19d

Most people post to #iNaturalist so that they can learn more about species they see. Identifiers give back to the community by volunteering their knowledge to make this possible. Also, each obs needs at least two fine-grain IDs before it is research grade and archived on @gbif.org.

4/14

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