Yesterday we were treated to an inspirational seminar from Dr Laura Williams from @westsyduhie.bsky.social all about the importance of tree diversity, novel ways to quantify it and its consequences for how forests function. Good luck with the richly-deserved DECRA Laura!!! Ping @bmedlyn.bsky.social

My day in photos (hours of driving excluded). Lots of talk about trees and lidar with @lilydun.bsky.social and the brilliant folks at ArborMeta.
The access code to the cafe toilet was an unexpected challenge.

Soils and topography drive large and predictable shifts in canopy dynamics across tropical forest landscapes Tropical forests can vary enormously in their 3D structure and dynamics across surprisingly small spatial scales. However, the drivers that underpin this local-scale variation in forest structure an.....

So proud of Beibei Zhang for leading this paper in @newphyt.bsky.social showing how soils & topography shape variation in canopy dynamics across tropical forest landscapes 🌳🔃🌐

Link to 📃: nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

A short 🧵

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).

cross-section of eucalyptus sapwood showing the arrangement of different cell types

Excited to share this paper led by ECR Tiantian Pan: Adaptation in eucalyptus wood anatomy to site climate, just published in PCE.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/.... Wonderful coauthors including
@julianschrader.bsky.social and @deannicolle1.bsky.social e1.bsky.social #FunctionalTraits

I had serious FOMO over the long weekend when @lilydun.bsky.social and @jradford-smith.bsky.social headed north to collect more data in scanned forest plots. Thanks to our amazing collaborators ArborMeta for scanning in such awesome places! 🧵 #lidar #TLS #FunctionalTraits #rainforest

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...

📢 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...

A beautiful day in Lamington National Park with @lilydun.bsky.social and Dr Bill McDonald (rainforest royalty) identifying trees in a scanned plot #TLS #lidar #Brachychiton

Bitter-sweet last week of field for my PhD. Gonna miss beautiful days like this up on Kosciuszko, not gonna miss crouching under drought shelters being bitten by ants all day. Now all that's left is data analysis and the write-up, easy!

I’m back in the beautiful Bunya Mountains, this time with @lilydun.bsky.social on the lookout for amazing #trees to capture with #lidar. The stylish ☂️ keeps your 2010 iPad dry @bapswijas.bsky.social 😭😭😭

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...

Expert identification blitz: A rapid high value approach for assessing and improving iNaturalist identification accuracy and data precision and confidence Citizen science data are increasingly used in research and conservation, so assessing and improving data accuracy is important. We recruited 50 experts to review a dataset of Western Australian plant....

New paper open access in @plantspeopleplanet.bsky.social: nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Cit sci data quality is a hot topic, and assumptions about ID accuracy are often made without evidence. We decided to test identification accuracy for a WA plants @inaturalist.bsky.social dataset

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...

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...

We’re hiring again! Our new Leader Systematic Botany role at Botanic Gardens of Sydney is an exciting opportunity to join a vibrant, diverse, and inclusive team of 15 scientists working on systematics, phylogenomics, and macroevolution of the Australian flora.
iworkfor.nsw.gov.au/job/leader-s...

Tall canopy with hues of green, dominated by Syzygium crebrinerve or purple cherry tree.

Another of our rainforest giants, Ficus watkinsiana or strangler fig, with Ella and Lily for scale.

Spent the last few days in World Heritage-listed Lamington National Park recensusing an old forest plot with @ecologyella.bsky.social, @lilydun.bsky.social and the indomitable Bill McDonald. Pictured are two of our old-growth rainforest giants - the strangler fig and purple cherry.

Only 8 days left to apply for our fully-funded 4 years #PhD position in island biogeography for plants!
Work with Prof Rampal Etienne and me at @unigroningen.bsky.social & Macquarie University in #Sydney.
Don’t miss this unique opportunity!

Please share widely!

Best talk of #ESAus2024
@jradford-smith.bsky.social eco-physiology of Australian rainforest trees

If you are at #ESAus24, may I interest you in my talk on "Understanding links between plant allometry, functional traits and the environment using first principles"?
10:30 AM today, Room 103.

Wow #ESAus2024 has been huge and exciting this year - I’ll be speaking on how we’re working to integrate plant drought physiology into conservation science tomorrow in the plenary 3 (scary large room!) at 11am

Had a great time at #ESAus2024 poster night! Lots of discussions about architectural and functional traits, sparking new ideas for my PhD. Thanks to everyone who stopped by! 🌱✨

A Functional Basis for the Assembly of Australian Subtropical Rainforest Tree Communities We surveyed rainforest tree communities across the Australian subtropics (spanning 600 to 2500 mm rainfall year−1) and measured functional traits on 285 (91%) of all recorded species. Hydraulic strat....

🔥 in Ecology Letters 🔥
#Traits describing hydraulic strategies and deciduousness explain the occurrence trends of almost 300 #rainforest #tree species across a steep rainfall gradient in Australia. #FunctionalTraits
dx.doi.org/10.1111/ele....