Out in @science.org this week. Soils drive convergence in the regulation of vascular tension in land plants. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
#plantscience
#ecophysiology
How do alpine plants respond to warming?Intraspecific trait shifts depend on precipitation and growth form, with stronger responses in forbs than graminoids.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
@joshua-erkelenz.bsky.social @sonyageange.bsky.social @joe-atkinson.bsky.social @vvandvik.bsky.social
Beautiful photo of the snow and campus Wanben! It makes me miss Aarhus 🥲
Key links:
Plant Ecophysiology Lab
sites.google.com/view/ilainem...
The team's researcher profiles
researchers.adelaide.edu.au/profile/ilai...
researchers.adelaide.edu.au/profile/sami...
researchers.adelaide.edu.au/profile/joe....
Adelaide Uni CV template
adelaideuni.edu.au/content/dam/...
PhD Opportunity in Plant Ecophysiology – Adelaide University We are looking for an PhD candidate to join an exciting research project focused on understanding heat and drought combined impacts on threatened plants’ mortality. Key Objectives: Describe drought sensitivity in juvenile and mature individuals of threatened plant species. Disentangle the effects of elevated temperature, soil dryness, and atmospheric water demand on the sensitivity of threatened species to hotter droughts. Model threatened species’ risk of mortality under current and future hotter droughts. Eligibility: Australians and international applicants with a completed Master's degree (GPA > 5.0) and/or a completed 4-year Bachelor with Honours (GPA > 5.0) in Plant Biology or related areas; Proof of English proficiency (e.g. IELTS score > 6.5 or equivalent qualification), only for applicants who speak English as a second language. Strong analytical and programming skills in R or Python. Genuine interest in studying plants with previous experience in plant ecology and/or physiology. Effective writing skills; a passion for reading, writing, and continually improving as a communicator. Ability to drive in Australia is desirable but not essential. Start Date: April 2026 (negotiable) Duration: 3.5 years Benefits: PhD scholarship (tax-exempt stipend of $36,500 AUD p.a. + $3,000 AUD p.a. top up); Higher stipend rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander candidates ($ 53,608 p.a.); Relocation allowances for both domestic and international candidates; Single Overseas Student Health cover for international applicants. 100% tuition fee waiver. How to Apply: Email the following documents to ilaine.matos@adelaide.edu.au before the 15th of February 2026. Women and people underrepresented in research are encouraged to apply. 1-page cover letter explaining why you are interested in this position and your previous experiences relevant for this opportunity. Curriculum Vitae in the Adelaide University format.
✨ PhD opportunity studying drought and heatwave effects on threatened plants ✨🔥
Funded by an ARC DECRA awarded to the amazing Dr Ilaíne Matos and co-supervised by Dr Sami Rifai and me!
Limited by the character limit here, so please see the attached flyer for all the details - please share widely!
Beautiful Sunset in Kaingo Private Game Reserve, one of our fieldsites
A white rhino in Dabchick Wildlife Reserve, one of our fieldsites
Woody savanna landscape in Swebeswebe Nature Reserve, on of our fieldsites
Overview of the reserves in our study sites. Shows the location of 10 included reserves with pictograms indicating the largest herbivore in each.
Excited to share that my first PhD chapter just got published in @animalecology.bsky.social! You can check it out here: doi.org/10.1111/1365.... Based on fieldwork in the beautiful Waterberg Biosphere Reserve in South Africa, we show that.. (1/3)
Finished up the annual sampling and a spray treatment for @joe-atkinson.bsky.social and I @bugnet.bsky.social sites out at Fowlers Gap. Blue skies and red earth always a great backdrop for fieldwork
A group of 30 people stand in a tilled field surrounded by auger holes with seedlings ready to plant
A great day out yesteday planting a diverse mix of tubestock with a bunch of other keen volunteers for the BioR planting festival at Frahns Farm! We were lucky to get a beautiful day, as the cold and rain arrives this week. Good luck little seedlings!
Very much enjoy the "so-and-so (a botanist)"
Rainforest with buttressed trees, palms and a strangler fig in a shaded understory.
Congratulations to @jradford-smith.bsky.social for making the cover of @ecography.bsky.social with his stunning photo of subtropical #rainforest at Mt Glorious, less than an hour from Brisbane in beautiful Queensland (1 of 2).
Super inspiring paper and nice pic! I can feel the leeches on my ankles just looking at it 😂
The rapid assessments accurately identified species as threatened in 84% of cases despite much less time and data per species. Importantly they were accurate in identifying Critically Endangered species (67%) and Endangered species (54%). 2/4
New paper out! After the 2019-2020 #fires in Australia our team undertook #IUCN Red List assessments of fire affected #plant species, to handle the volume we undertook paired rapid and full assessments and compared their accuracy 1/4
doi.org/10.1016/j.bi...
Please share. We are hiring domestic/international #PhD students to work on citizen science, insect migration/conservation at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. If interested, please email me. You can find more about our research interests here. shawanchowdhury.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...
🌱 New paper in @funecology.bsky.social examines how roots drive the growth of juvenile grasses in response to manipulated soil moisture doi.org/10.1111/1365...
Led by SAM AHLER (INSTAAR+EBIO), the team's results improve understanding of grass population dynamics & help guide grassland restoration
Thanks Caroline! Looking forward to catching up in June
Earless Dragon Tympanocryptis tetraporophora on red clay
Two quadrats sit on bare red clay
Another quadrat sits on bare red clay with scattered dying plants
An open vista of a semi arid chenopod shrubland/grassland mosaic with blue sky and scattered clouds
Had a great week before our at the Fowlers Gap Arid Zone Research Station doing the annual sampling of our (me and @loveyouleafyou.bsky.social) DRAGNet experimental site. Pretty crispy this year with some pretty fast cover estimates... A lot of bare ground...
Three storey red brick and sandstone building with sign "school of botany" with Joe standing on steps in main entrance
Selfie in front of entranceway
Red brick and sandstone building with a green lawn in foreground and a bright blue sky
Over the moon to say today is my first day as a Lecturer in Botany at the University of Adelaide. I am character limited so will just be brief other than to say how grateful I am for the amazing support and encouragement I have received from mentors and collaborators. Can't wait to get started!
The third part of my PhD work is now out on Early View in @ecography.bsky.social, available #OpenAccess. 🌐🐚
We were interested in how macroecological patterns recreated from OBIS data might differ from those seen in the field and across methods -
nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Very happy to also say that New Scientist covered our paper last week too - www.newscientist.com/article/2472...
With some nice comments from overseas colleagues too 🌐🌿🦬🌍
The #biosphere is changing: Check our global mapping of ecological novelty in wild #ecosystems (due to #climatechange, #defaunation & floristic disruption) - just out in @natureecoevo.bsky.social ♨️🐘🌿🌐 Big thx to @mattkerr.bsky.social for the huge effort! #novelecosystems #invasivespecies #megafauna
Read our new study on mapping ecologically novel conditions - out now in Nature Ecology and Evolution 🌍🦬🌿
Headline finding is that 58% of the biosphere is experiencing highly novel conditions, but nowhere was low - we really are living in a novel world.
1/6 Paper Alert📢📢📢
New publication from #ECONOVO on the widespread ecological novelty across the terrestrial biosphere🌱
Read the article here:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Key take homes below👇
Interesting paper on the potential complex impacts of varroa mites on Australian plants. Honey bees can promote fragmented populations of river red gums (Eucalyptus camaldulensis), one example of a +ve interaction potentially threatened. Check out Tom's thread and get involved in the iNat project!
New paper! How does age affect plant trait-growth relationship? Does how you measure growth matter? 🌱📏Big thank you to @ianjwright.bsky.social for giving me the opportunity to lead this when I was just a research assistant. doi.org/10.1111/1365...
#ECONOVOStories 🌍✨
@joe-atkinson.bsky.social, @mattkerr.bsky.social, @cmlmagneville.bsky.social, and @seh-pang.bsky.social attended the BES Annual Meeting 2024, sharing insights on from their research at ECONOVO!
#ECONOVO #Ecology #Biodiversity #AarhusUniversity #BritishEcologicalSociety
Wow, what a beauty!
Who does all the lovely drawings for the journal? E.g. the poster and the other callout posts
The EcoEvo Many Analysts project is out! Was great to be a part of this project expertly led by a cracking team. Really important results, showing how variable analytical decisions drastically affect study outcomes, the flow on to perceived quality during peer-review, and more!
rdcu.be/d8V4L
