1/At Macquarie Uni we are losing 50% of our units in my faculty. This is on top of cuts in 2020. We estimate by next year my faculty will be teaching 80% fewer subjects than pre Covid. Disciplines being cut do not have declining enrolments. @jennaprice.bsky.social @michaelwestbiz.bsky.social

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....

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.

Going live in 2 hours... @jpodwyer.bsky.social and @sarperotto.bsky.social interview Bob Holt for @smtpb.bsky.social

youtu.be/q8hX3S0xMJc?...

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

🌿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

📢 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...

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.

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...

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...

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/...

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...

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...

Melinda Pickup at Greening Australia coordinating transplants in Euc delegatensis

"John Raven, FRS, FRSE: a truly great innovator in plant physiology, photosynthesis and much more" link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Memorial Lecture Feb 26 2025 @ANU Fenner School. David Brand: The Evolution of Forestry into a Natural Capital Asset Class. fennerschool.anu.edu.au/news-events/...