How do we know the magnitude of a biological invasion? How do we compare invasions of tiny organisms like ants with that of larger ones like deer? Simple. Compare their total biomasses. In our new paper in Bioscience, we do just this.
doi.org/10.1093/bios...

#Job opportunity! We are looking for a post-doc with experience in quantitative #ecology, preferably with modelling plant dynamics at large scale, to work 2 years with the fantastic @climatecocentre.bsky.social at @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social .

Rapid postfire color shift in a Mediterranean lizard We quantified dorsal luminosity and color composition of Psammodromus algirus in burned and adjacent unburned habitats at different times since fire. Lizards inhabiting recently burned areas displaye...

Final version now available & #OA
Rapid postfire color shift in a Mediterranean lizard
doi.org/10.1111/jzo.... | @jzoology.bsky.social

#Lizards inhabiting recently burned areas display lighter coloration, as a #thermoregulatory response

🧪🌍🔥🦎📏 #trait #fauna #zoology wildfire #fireecology #fire

Fig. 6 Hypothesized trade-offs across vascular species illustrating a water use economics framework.

#Viewpoint: From growth potential to drought survival: a trait- and time-based framework for plant water economics across vascular species

Volaire et al.
👇

📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

#LatestIssue #PlantScience

Extreme weather is transforming the world’s rivers. We need new ways to protect them Rivers support billions of people but are among the least protected parts of nature. A major review shows what needs to be done as climate change accelerates.

In bringing together global evidence, this research sets out a roadmap for how science and management can respond to these mounting ecological pressures → theconversation.com/extreme-weat...

Interested in iEcology and invasion ecology? Please check out our latest article published in Ecological Informatics. We investigated the efficacy of the Google Trends tool to be used in mapping the geographic distribution of alien plants in a region.
doi.org/10.1016/j.ec...

Bark traits and their influence on thermal resistance to wildfires: an experimental study across six tree species common in Central Europe - Fire Ecology Climate change is increasing the probability of wildfires in the non-fire-prone forests of Central Europe. Systematic knowledge on tree resistance to fire would help to improve the future management o...

Bark traits and their influence on thermal resistance to wildfires: an experimental study across six tree species common in Central Europe

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

In 2009, the combination of a cyclone, atmospheric waves and warm moist air triggered a record-breaking heatwave. It’s happening again.

👉 Read the full story: theconversation.com/anatomy...

One of the graphics of the paper on Anthyllis cytisoides resprouiting after drought, showing model predictions and observations of the data analysed in 2022 and 2023; fire occurred in 2021. For flowering and fruiting, the negative effects of drought are stronger on unburned plants (A and C). Burned plants produced nearly four times more flowers than unburned plants (B), and had a higher seed set and heavier seeds than unburned plants in both years (D and E).

Fire buffers drought impacts on reproduction in a resprouting shrub
nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Under drought, burned plants had ⬆️prob. of flowering, produced +flowers, set +seeds & heavier seeds, than unburned
Saiz-Blanco et al @oikosjournal.bsky.social

🧪🌍🔥🌿🪴🌾🌱 Anthyllis

Call to redesign cities for families: 'Walking is what keeps me sane as a parent' Opinion from Victoria University: When we plan with parents in mind, we build cities that are more compassionate, liveable, and healthy for all

"If we design cities that make parenting easier, we design cities that make living easier for everyone." A great article by my colleague Mirjam Schindler, and Dr Eva Neely.
newsroom.co.nz/2026/01/20/w...

Mapped: how the world is losing its forests to wildfires Wildfires now destroy twice as much tree cover per year as two decades ago – a crisis fuelled by climate change

Mapped: how the world is losing its forests to wildfires
www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

Wildfires now destroy twice as much tree cover per year as two decades ago – a crisis fuelled by climate change.

Wildfires in south Argentina rip through nearly 12,000 hectares of forest, threatening communities Wildfires in the Argentine Patagonia have burned nearly 12,000 hectares of land, threatening a power plant, a school and rural properties.

Meanwhile. This is the same global-heating-caused dessication seen in southern Australia: in south west WA, in south east SA, in Victoria.

apnews.com/article/arge...

Where will the next megafire break out? Climate change is making it tougher to predict We know that heatwaves often trigger bushfires. But predicting when and where large fires will break out is getting more difficult with a warming climate.

Where will the next megafire break out? Climate change is making it tougher to predict

by @rachaelnolan.bsky.social and @trentpenman.bsky.social

theconversation.com/where-will-t...

2026 begins with an increasingly autocratic United States rising on the global stage The US attack on Venezuela highlights a shifting American foreign policy that dismisses a rules-based global order and focuses on economic interests and military might.

The U.S. military action in Venezuela marks a turning point.

An international human rights scholar warns it reflects a shift toward unilateral, autocratic power, unconstrained by law and balance of power, and using force to impose the Trump administration’s will on other nations.

Gazing into the flames: A guide to assessing the impacts of climate change on landscape fire An understanding of fire and climate modeling must inform assessments of climate change impacts on landscape fire.

Gazing into the flames: A guide to assessing the impacts of climate change on landscape fire

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A history of New Zealand's wildfires - and what's to come Off the back of two devastating wildfires in Tongariro National Park, Kate Green takes a look back at some of the big ones, and a look forward at future risk.

Major fires are increasing in Aotearoa. "In the five decades from 1964 to 2015, there had been 19 such fires. In the past decade from 2015 to present day, there had already been 13."
www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Leonardo Ziccardi | Trait coordination reveals the fast-slow plant economics spectrum along the vertical canopy profile in central Amazonian forests In this ‘Behind the Paper’ blog post we get into the roof of rainforests as the author Leonardo Ziccardi guides us through the unique world of ancient Amazonian trees from the article &…

👀Behind the paper!👀

🌳By climbing into the canopy and studying trait variation across species and forest layers, author Leonardo Ziccardi explains how the emergent trees of the Amazon are dynamic strategists💡

Read it here👇
buff.ly/PnMrVkX

🧪🌍

In our new Biological Conservation paper, we show the potential of social media in improving #invasive species #distribution.

Incorporating social media data
🔍 identified new locality records,
🔍 expanded range size for 67% of species

Link: doi.org/10.1016/j.bi...
(1/6) @monashbiol.bsky.social

The role of AI in ecology’s computational carbon footprint Click on the article title to read more.

Should ecologists be worried about the carbon footprint of their own use of “AI” and LLMs?

esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

How do forests keep their cool? A 1.89 million Swiss Francs question. WSL forest ecologist Charlotte Grossiord receives an ERC Consolidator Grant to understand forest resilience to climate change.

🌲🌡️How do forests stay cool despite #heatwaves? Charlotte Grossiord (WSL/EPFL) receives an ERC #grant of just under 2 million Swiss francs to research how European #forests cope with “atmospheric drought” and which tree species are especially resistant to heat and #drought. www.wsl.ch/en/news/how-...

56 million years ago, the Earth suddenly heated up – and many plants stopped working properly It could be a sign of what’s to come.

When global temperatures shot up by ~6°C about 56 million years ago, plants were unable to thrive

The reduced ability of vegetation & soils to capture & store carbon may have kept temperatures elevated for >100,000 years

Today Earth is warming ~10 times faster than it did 56 million years ago

How social–ecological #networks can improve our understanding and management of #biologicalinvasions – new paper by Fiona Rickowski et al. now published in #BioScience doi.org/10.1093/bios... #InvasiveSpecies #nonnative #pests #conservation #alienspecies

Three books by W. Bond and collaborators: Fire and plants (1996), Fire in Mediterranean ecosystems (2012), and Open ecosystems (2019).

I'm very sad to say William Bond, of the University of Cape Town & Fellow of the Royal Society (@royalsociety.org ), has passed away. It is a great loss. He was an enthusiastic ecologist and a critical thinker. I learned a lot, and I still had a lot to learn from him. RIP. 😢

🧪🌎🔥🌿🌳🪴🌐 #PlantScience

Garden ponds often serve as potential sources of plant invasions As small aquatic habitats disappear at an alarming rate, private garden ponds may help compensate for the loss of natural habitats and support biodiversity in urban areas. However, as these ponds beco...

Garden ponds often serve as potential sources of plant invasions share.google/RmS1UyGblH8c...

Representative model plant and crop species studied in space, and research topics discussed at the Liverpool workshop. Translating fundamental and applied plant research into tangible products that can be integrated into sustainable space food systems and a fully operational Bioregenerative Life Support System should be a priority moving forward. This figure was created in BioRender (Gilliham, M. (2025) https://BioRender.com/r9wldfx).

Plants for space exploration and Earth applications

Fountain et al.

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

#plantscience

They're 'killing machines', wiping out native species. So why is it so hard to fight back against feral cats? Feral: How millions of feral cats are creating a 'bloodbath' across our native heartland.

www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/i... Grim but very good story by @kiwifarah.bsky.social on how absolutely awful introduced predators are. More trapping needed.

Is It Time for a New Era in Invasive Species Control? Regulations make it hard to introduce organisms that quash invasive species. Some experts see missed opportunities.

undark.org/2025/11/10/i...

Increased nitrogen deposition may facilitate an invasive plant species through interfering plant–pathogen interactions These findings imply that elevated nitrogen deposition may enhance the invasiveness of A. philoxeroides by influencing the interactions between the plant and its pathogens.

Increased nitrogen deposition may facilitate an invasive plant species through interfering plant–pathogen interactions - Lin - 2025 - Journal of Ecology - Wiley Online Library besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The path toward a unified trait space: synthesizing plant functional diversity Plant traits capture the remarkable diversity of ecological strategies, yet synthesizing this complexity into coherent frameworks remains challenging. Trait spaces have significantly advanced this ef....

The path toward a unified trait space: synthesizing plant functional diversity - Carmona - 2025 - New Phytologist - Wiley Online Library nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Humans Have Altered 97 Percent of Earth's Land Through Habitat and Species Loss The study, which did not include Antarctica, also identified opportunities to restore up to 20 percent of land ecosystems

A new study says only 3% of Earth’s land remains “untouched.” We’ve been editing the planet for millennia as a result of pushing animals/plants to extinction….reshaping entire continents.
www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/h...