An amazing week at @ecolsocaus.bsky.social conference held on the lands of the Kaurna people. Wonderful to catch up with colleagues and be inspired by excellent ecological research. Shout out to my Honours student Leon who presented on the big stage at his first conference! #ESA2025

This week I had my first opportunity to present my research at the Ecological Society of Australia’s conference poster session! A great opportunity and already looking forward to next year. #esa2025 @ecolsocaus.bsky.social

#LIBresearch: A new study introduces the Global Repository of Insect Traits (GRIT) — a worldwide initiative integrating insect trait data to make insects more understandable and comparable across ecosystems. → doi.org/10.1111/icad.70035 @cscherber.bsky.social

Hard to miss this Daisy, from weird mini Daisy to this larger more classic Daisy style, this is #Olearia rudis! Widespread in southwest and found in the southeast of Australia too, it’s common in breakaways and rocky outcroppings!

It's Australian Pollinator Week! 8-16 November Our native pollinators provide key ecosystem services, which contributes to maintaining our unique biodiversity. I photographed this little pollinator, a male 𝘏𝘺𝘭𝘢𝘦𝘶𝘴 𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘴, this week on Wangal Land. #australianpollinatorweek #ozpollinators

The final version is now available #AmJBot bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Check out the work by my colleague Prof Shauna Murray on the ongoing algal blooms and ecological crisis in South Australia

🌸 New article in @aobp.bsky.social reveals how moderate climate warming affects floral traits and reproduction across the flowering season in Impatiens oxyanthera, showing that plants don’t respond to heat the same way at every stage. Full #openaccess 👉 doi.org/qb9z #PlantScience

Too warm to buzz? Check out our newest paper on how warming temperatures affect bee buzzes in the Arctic. Well done to Charlie and Guadalupe and other coauthors for this nice study in the Swedish Arctic! @hfspo.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

SPECIAL ISSUE: Understanding novel fire regimes using plant trait‐based approaches With an outstanding cover photo by @markooiecol.bsky.social bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/15372197...

Great fun working with Lyndle Hardstaff, Megan Murray, and @zoexiro.bsky.social on our latest flammability project Toward a macroevolutionary understanding of live-leaf flammability in plant species of fire-prone forests @botsocamerica.bsky.social doi.org/10.1002/ajb2...

Discover a new data paper by Barberis, Bitonto, Costantino et al. where they make "Insect-flower interactions in the Mediterranean area: a Citizen Science dataset collated within the Life4Pollinators project" available: doi.org/10.26786/192...

Congratulations to my Honours student, Leon Sims, who graduated this week! Leon achieved First Class Honours for his thesis investigating how microclimatic variation in Australian Alps influences flowering and plant-pollinator networks. An outstanding achievement. Very proud supervisor here! 🐝🌸🪰🌼🦋

🌷New Research highlight showcases Arrowsmith et al. (2025), which shows that temperature alone can shift pollinators’ floral choices in diverse plant–pollinator communities. Such thermally-driven species interaction rewiring may have important consequences. ➡️ buff.ly/i5QrFjd @blancaac.bsky.social

🌸 Pollination syndromes are more flexible than we thought! Floral trait importance shifts with season and habitat type for different pollinator groups in Caribbean dry forest🐝 #pollinationecology @harrisia.bsky.social Read more:https://buff.ly/0BONQ68

A new review gives us a deeper understanding of the evolution of plant-pollinator interactions! A brilliant critical review of the Grant–Stebbins model of how plants evolve by Kathleen Kay and Bruce Anderson just published. Read more about it here: jeffollerton.co.uk/2025/09/12/a...

I recently completed work with my colleagues at CSIRO modelling the Murray River's food web

Had the pleasure to contribute to a new paper just published, led by Jo Bennett (CSU), on using environmental water to maintain wetland refugia and increase ecosystem resilience to severe drought www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

It was such an honour to present my research at UTS! Thank you to @zoexiro.bsky.social and @ecologybrad.bsky.social for the invitation and to everyone who came to listen to my talk 🌿

🐝🌸 With climate change, many organisms are shifting their ranges, but some are shifting in the opposite direction to what we expect. Insightful and entertaining seminar by Inna Osmolovsky @innaosmol.bsky.social on "Climate Change and Shifting Interactions: Where Do Species Go from Here?"

📖Published📖 Arnold et al. propose a design that will allow ecologists to simulate more realistic heat events in the field by combining a controllable convection heater system with a semi-enclosed chamber with adjustable vents 🌍 🧪 buff.ly/k2GJSA2

Bearded dragon spotted during field teaching. Wonderful camo!

Today is #nationalthreatenedspecies Day. This picture represents the halfway point of a long and heartbreaking project to create a visual display of Australia's 2200+ critically endangered, endangered, vulnerable and extinct plants and animals #redlist #threatenedspecies

Spent threatened species day surveying for...threatened species. Perfect weather for the Bathurst Copper Paralucia spinifera. Such stunning butterflies and so very threatened. Sad to see blackberry and scotch broom untreated and expanding on important sites.

📰Published📰 Do sun orchids mimic buzz-pollinated plants?🐝 buff.ly/Tr4POIp Check out a video about this research here!📽️ buff.ly/tMOYfPG

🌐 The @ipbes.net #NexusAssessment Report reveals critical interactions among nexus elements—biodiversity, water, food, health, and climate change. 🌏🧪 🚨 Explore how cascading effects like land-use change can reduce biodiversity⤵️

Happy Wattle Day!

infinitylists: A Shiny application & R package for rapid generation of place-based species checklists In #AppsPlantSci by @thebeachcomber.bsky.social @fontikar.bsky.social @hsauquet.bsky.social ‬& @willcornwell.bsky.social ‬ bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... @unswbees.bsky.social

Don't know what you are looking for? 🔍 We made something ✨ #Shiny ✨ using biodiversity data from {galah} to create location taxon lists for naturalists 🦉🦋🍄🐌🌳 @thebeachcomber.bsky.social @willcornwell.bsky.social @hsauquet.bsky.social

After a decade of photographing & writing, I finally have an advance copy of my book. It'll be launched 10 October in Wellington and should hit the shops 9 October. Many thanks to talented designer Duncan Munro & the wonderful people at Auckland University Press. #pukapuka #bloomscolling #bloomsky

I'm still buzzing after an amazing day at the Sydney Science Trail, Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan! #NationalScienceWeek I had a great time talking to the community about how pollination ecologists study and conserve plants and their pollinators 🌸🐝🌼🪰🪻🦋 #STEMEducation #Pollination

The early flowering Winter Donkey Orchid, #Diuris brumalis is in flower atm! These orchids like many of these types of Diuris mimic Pea flowers to fool pollinators! This species is common in the Perth hills and up to Mogumber where it often grows in gravely lateritic soils and outcrops

📢 Save the Date! Announcing the upcoming joint conference of the New Zealand Ecological Society & the Society for Conservation Biology Oceania, 30 November - 4 December 2026, in Tamaki Makaurau, Auckland. Looking forward to seeing you there! 🌿 confer.eventsair.com/2026-nzes-sc...

If you want a provocative paper, this is the one right now. I missed a reference to Locey and @ethanwhite.weecology.org paper, which made me think very deeply about this (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...).

♻️🆓: A functional view of flower–pollinator trait matching. A commentary on ‘Mismatching explained: constricted corolla tubes in Roscoea elevate the nectar’ doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

24 July is #EarthOvershootDay. That means humanity has used up Earth’s yearly natural resources budget in just 7 months. In 2024, the date was 1 August. The date keeps creeping earlier—but the trend can be reversed: www.genevaenvironmentnetwork.org/resources/up...

🌼🐝 Can plants respond to sounds made by pollinators with changes in floral nectar and aroma? Amazing seminar given by Tomás Matus @jtmatus.bsky.social at UTS RES Hub on 'Deciphering plant-to-plant and plant-to-insect communication mechanisms via volatile organic compounds'.

Methods paper by Ollerton et al. on how to improve data quality of plant-pollinator relationships in large data bases that would be worthwhile to become a standard for pollination research! doi.org/10.26786/192...

Question for #PlantScience BlueSky, what program are you using to assemble multi-panel figures nowadays? Trying to give guidance to authors on uploading high-res final files for one of our journal clients.

A team of scientists has discovered the secret to making ‘Boronia Babies’ is a tiny moth. Heliozelidae pollinate the weird flowers made famous by May Gibbs.

New research indicates Dargan Shelter was occupied as early as the last Ice Age and repeatedly visited during this cold period.

🗑️🐛Plastic pollution is a pollinator crisis — clogging nesting sites, contaminating flowers, and disrupting entire food chains. This #WorldEnvironmentDay, rethink plastic, protect #pollinators, and choose action to safeguard life. #BeatPlasticPollution 👇Links to further info in the post below.

Pollinators severely affected by microplastic: https://f.mtr.cool/ctcfllkaup New threats faced by bees:

Concern over pollinator decline has increased interest in ‘pollinator-friendly’ plants. Annual seed mixes are often grown in parks & gardens, but the choice of plants included is generally based on anecdote. Here we build an evidence-base for plants that are good for pollinators and people.

On this #BiodiversityDay, let’s remember: Fundamental shifts in how people view and interact with the natural world are urgently needed to halt and reverse #biodiversity loss. 🌍 - @ipbes.net #TransformativeChange Assessment Transformative change is necessary and possible! 🧪

Today we mark the International Day for Biological Diversity. It's a day to celebrate the beauty of nature but also to recognize its many values & how sustainable development & action for nature is one and the same ambition.🌍🧪 .— @nevilleash.bsky.social for #BiodiversityDay IPBES Officer-in-Charge

Stomatal transpiration and rapid programmed cell death ☠️ triggered by lowered ambient humidity causes anther tissue collapse for effective pollen release ! Happy to be part of this great PNAS story with @kampova.bsky.social, Matyáš Fendrych, and @svosolsobe.bsky.social! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Happy World Bee Day! 🐝 This year's theme, "Bee inspired by nature to nourish us all", highlights the critical roles bees and other pollinators play in agrifood systems and ecosystem health. Here's a Lipotriches bee buzz-pollinating a Dianella flower (Wangal land). #worldbeeday #ozpollinators

🔥🌱 From the upcoming #AJB Special Issue: “Understanding novel #fire regimes using plant trait‐based approaches" 🌱🔥 From plant traits to fire behavior: Scaling issues in flammability studies By Dylan Schwilk, Md. Azharul Alam, Nathan Gill et al. doi.org/10.1002/ajb2... #botany #plantscience

Hace unos días especulé aquí sobre la posibilidad de que las arañas cangrejo Synema globosum, que cazan en flores, pudieran transferir polen y actuar como polinizadoras. Esta mañana me encontré a esta jovencita desayunándose a una hembra de Panurgus y bien cargada de polen ella misma