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25.01.2022 Centre for Applied Water Science Associate Professor Mark Lintermans has resigned as Chair of the NSW Fisheries Scientific Committee in response to the fast tracked approval of the Snowy 2.0 scheme. https://www.australiantimes.co.uk//snowy-2-0-threatens-to/

25.01.2022 Our IAE Seminar Series is back! Slightly different for Semester 2 as we have taken our seminar virtual! Today we have Alejandro Trujillo-Gonzalez speaking on 'Biosecurity molecular screening using eDNA technology'. All future talks will be updated on our website: https://www.canberra.edu.au/res/institutes//seminar-series UC Faculty of Science and Technology #WeAreUC

24.01.2022 Congratulations to IAE Rod Ubrihien and his colleagues for their paper on chronic copper exposure in the Planorbid Pouch Snail Isidorella newcombi. The concentration of Cu in the biosphere is elevated through a range of human activities, including mining, smelting, refining, manufacturing, and waste disposal. Although copper is an essential element, playing an important role in a wide range of biological functions, elevated concentrations of copper are toxic to biota. Copper ...toxicity occurs through nonspecific binding to proteins and oxidative stress. In this paper, the authors show that exposure to Cu concentrations of 60 g/L caused 100% mortality and that Cu concentrations of 15 g/L prevented reproduction. Snails exposed to Cu concentrations as low as 10 g/L showed signs of stress as indicated by lysosome membrane destabilisation (LD). LD could be used as an early warning stress biomarker for responses to exposure to copper, at a higher level of biological organisation. You can read more about it in Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicolicology (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-020-00767-2

24.01.2022 Congratulations to Lasanthika Thewarage, Dumie Dissanayake and their colleagues for their recent paper appearing in Acta Parasitologia. The paper clarifies the morphology and phylogenetic relationship of the nematode Parabronema smithii which infects wild Asian elephants in Sri Lanka. Dumie's contribution from the IAE was to undertake the phylogenetic analyses. The work was undertaken primarily through the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. Thewragem K.D., Dissanayake, D.S.B., Perera, U.s., Bandara, A.t., Perera, B.V.P., Wickramasinghe, S. and Rajaoajse R.P.V.J. (2020). Morphology and molecular characterization of Parabronema smithii (Cobbold, 1882) (Nematoda:Habronematidae) from Wild Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus maximus) fo Sri Lanka. Acta Parasiologica. DOI:10.2478/s11686-020-00193-3.

24.01.2022 A paper came out today in Genome Biology and Evolution which identifies sex chromosomes in the water skink Eulamprus heatwolei from the Canberra region. This species was previously reported, to great fanfare, as a viviparous lizard with temperature-dependent sex determination. Our work is a collaboration led by the team of Diego Cortez (Center for Genome Sciences, UNAM, CP62210, Cuernavaca, México) with contributions from Duminda Dissanayake and Arthur Georges of the IAE. We... found that E. heatwolei present XY chromosomes and that Y chromosomal region is 79-116 million-years-old and shared between water and spotted skinks. So this species has temperature induced sex reversal rather than TSD, and opens the possibility that TSD is yet to be discovered in a viviparous species. Read more? Genome Biology and Evolution, evaa104, https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaa104

23.01.2022 VIDEO 1: Recap the Krebs Lecture 2020 through live scribing done by GAVIN BLAKE - Scribe on the night as Prof David Lindenmayer spoke on Fire, Forests and Fauna #Krebs2020 University of Canberra

23.01.2022 Good to see IAE research, and in particular Team Pogona research, featured as part of this great ABC series The Great Acceleration. https://iview.abc.net.au//gre/series/1/video/DO1845H006S00

21.01.2022 Congratulations to IAE's Peter Unmack, Foyez Shams and Tariq Ezaz, and regular visitors Zuzana Majtánová (Czech Academy of Sciences) and Kornsorn Srikulnath (Kasetsart University), for their new paper on chromosomal diversification in rainbowfishes. Rainbowfishes (Melanotaeniidae) are the largest monophyletic group of freshwater fishes occurring in Australia and New Guinea, with 112 species currently recognised. Despite their high taxonomic diversity, rainbowfishes remain poorly studied from a cytogenetic perspective. This paper redresses that deficiency, and presents karyotypes for five species covering all major lineages of this group of fishes. Read all about it in Genes2020,11, 818; doi:10.3390/genes11070818

21.01.2022 Congratulations to Shayer Alam, Tariq Ezaz and their team on the publication of their paper in Genes. The paper looks at chromosome commonality across dragon lizards. They show a complex history of successive rearrangements important in understanding the evolution of sex chromosomes and sex determination. You can read all about it here -- https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4425/11/6/698

21.01.2022 And another success with Holsworth. Phil Pearson from the IAE has been successful in securing funding from the Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment Fund for his work on "Nest Site Selection and the Consequences of Sex-Reversal on Offspring Phenotypes in an Australian Lizard". These grants are highly competitive so it is a feather in Phil's cap to secure this funding and, in tight times, it will make a great difference to his progress. Well done Phil.

20.01.2022 Taxonomy is all about bringing new biodiversity to light and documenting it in a rather formal way for future posterity -- what is it we have in the biodiversity bank. All the more important when we are entering a period of exceptional loss of biodiversity, much not yet documented by science. But that documentation, the nomenclatural side of things, can become quite tangled and a barrier to effective communication. If you did not realise that, have a look at ouu recent paper ...that came out today in Zootaxa. Complex argument and detective work that re-establishes the name Chelodina rugosa for the northern Australian snake-necked turtle, which we expect to be met with "hoot hoots" by the residents and turtle affectionados of the Northern Territory having set up permanent residency in their local with restrictions eased. I can almost hear them from here, and even detect a smidgeon of the taste and smell of beer on tap. The article is open access. Have a read to see how taxonomists spend their time during lockdown. Shea, G., Thomson, S. and Georges, A. 2020. The identity of Chelodina oblonga Gray 1841 (Chelonia: Chelidae) reassessed. Zootaxa 4779:419437. http://georges.biomatix.org//b50/5ec48fb504981597347923.pdf

19.01.2022 Good to see a paper out today by IAE's Peter Unmack and his colleagues addressing important questions pertaining to conservation translocations and reintroductions for the endangered Murray hardyhead (a fish for those who do not know). The paper describes how genetic data have guided translocation and reintroduction efforts in recent years. The authors advocate the use of assisted gene flow as a central component of continuing efforts to rescue this species from imminent extinction. You can read about it in more detail in the journal Aquatic Conservation https://doi.org/10.1002/aqc.3408. [STRUCTURE plots ...... my favorite]

19.01.2022 Centre Spotlight: Institute for Applied Ecology, University of Canberra In May we headed to the nation’s capital to showcase research that’s improving our under...standing of the environment and enhancing decision-making for natural resource management and sustainable development. Read the story here: https://www.tern.org.au/centre-spotlight-uc-iae/

19.01.2022 The 2019-20 fires had a devastating impact on many families and their livelihoods, but most people are acutely aware of the impact on native wildlife, with many species already brought closer to extinction by extensive land clearing, habitat modification and the tyranny of 1000 cuts. In this paper, led by Michelle Ward of the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science at UQ, and to which our own Mark Lintermans has contributed, the authors used remotely sensed data and... species distribution models, to show that the fires burnt around 97,000 square km of vegetation across southern and eastern Australia, habitat for 832 species of native fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. The authors conclude that to avoid further species declines, Australia must urgently reassess the extinction vulnerability of fire-impacted species and assist the recovery of populations in both burnt and unburnt areas. Population recovery requires multipronged strategies aimed at ameliorating current and fire-induced threats, including proactively protecting unburnt habitats. Go to the original source: Ward, M., Tulloch, A.I.T., Radford, J.Q. et al. Impact of 20192020 mega-fires on Australian fauna habitat. Nature Ecology and Evolution (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-1251-1

18.01.2022 After a long, long sleep with the editors, our article on MicroRNA dynamics during hibernation of the Australian central bearded dragon is finally out. Led by UNSW PhD student, Alex Capraro, who of course did all the work, this research profiled microRNA expression in the dragon using small RNA sequencing of brain, heart and skeletal muscle from individuals in late hibernation and four days post-arousal. We identified differentially expressed microRNAs in all tissues and cor...related this expression with known and predicted target mRNAs, largely involved in metabolic processes as you might expect. In brain however, neuroprotective pathways were identified as potential targets regulated by microRNAs. Thus microRNAs appear necessary for modulating the shift in cellular metabolism and for regulating neuroprotective processes in the brain during hibernation. Alex's is the first of its kind in a hibernating reptile and provides key insight into this ephemeral phenotype. Go Team Pogona. You can read more in Scientific Reports (2020) 10:17854, doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-73706-9

16.01.2022 Post-Doc Research Fellow James Hitchcock wanted to find out the impact storm events have in polluting waterways with microplastics. Looking at his local Cooks River estuary, he found after a major storm event in October 2018 that microplastic particles had increased more than 40 fold from the storm.

16.01.2022 Congratulations to IAE PhD student David Thuo on his recent paper on the Cheetah. It appeared recently in the journal Zoology. Accurate information on what an animal consumes is important for conservation planning, especially for wild large carnivores that exist in human-dominated landscapes where they are prone to direct conflicts with local people. David and his team, including supervisor Dianne Gleeson, used faecal DNA metabarcoding to identify the vertebrate taxa commonl...y eaten by cheetahs. There emphasis was on livestock predation by cheetahs residing in the Maasai Mara and Amboseli ecosystems in Kenya. The study shows that cheetahs capture a diverse range of prey including birds, wild ungulates of various sizes, and occasionally on domestic animals. Faecal DNA metabarcoding is a valuable complement to traditional dietary analysis methods. Well done David. See more

15.01.2022 Hot off the presses. A new paper in Conservation Science and Practice reports results from screening frogs across Papua New Guinea for Chytrid fungus. Thankfully, none was detected, confirming the island of New Guinea as one of the last bastions against this devastating disease. New Guinea hosts 6% of the world's frogs and is the largest landmass where Chytrid, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, remains undetected despite being largely climatically suitable for its persistence. ...B. dendrobatidis was surveyed by swabbing live frogs in the Gulf Province and Eastern Highlands Province and by examining museum specimens from a range of sites and elevations. Over a large geographical range, all 442 samples were negative for B. dendrobatidis. The authors argue that Papua New Guinea remains at risk and would benefit from a national disease surveillance program for chytrid fungi and pre-emptive actions, designed to reduce the risk of pathogen transmission. Measures should include improved biosecurity protocols for trade and travel and continued disease surveillance in areas of probable entry and spread. Congratulations to all the authors, including IAE alumna Deb Bower (UNE) as lead author, IAE staff and students Arthur Georges and Yolarnie Amepou, and also Simon Clulow as senior. Let's hope it leads to greater vigilance by the PNG authorities and logging, mining and petroleum interests.

15.01.2022 Congratulations to Rui Cao and Jamie Gondora of the University of Sydney and their colleagues, including current and former staff of the IAE, for their recent paper in Conservation Genetics on the genetic structure of the freshwater crocodile in the Kimberley of northern Australia. The freshwater crocodile is an Australian endemic found in the freshwater reaches of rivers across northern Australia. The study detected significant population structure across drainages of the Ki...mberley, with some instances of contemporary geneflow. This will inform conservation management in a poorly known region of remote Australia. You can read more by going directly to the article. Cao, R., Somaweera, R., Brittain, K. Fitzsimmons, N., Georges, A. and Gondora, J. (2020). Genetic structure and diversity of Australian freshwater crocodiles (Crocodylus johnstoni) from the Kimberley, Western Australia. Conservation Genetics 2020. https://doi-org.virtual.anu.edu.au/10.10/s10592-020-01259-5

12.01.2022 Great to see IAE involvement in this exciting initiative. Genomics is not only transforming medicine, crime investigation and understanding of human evolution, but has big impacts on how much we can come to understand about the animals and plants in the world around us. This $1M initiative of Bioplatforms Australia will not only accelerate research on the unique biota of the Australian continent, but will enable us to address questions that were previously unanswerable. It is an exciting time to be at the interface of genomics and ecology!!

11.01.2022 Congratulations to Julie Strand from Aalborg University, Denmark, and her co-authors including Tariq Ezaz from the IAE for their recent paper highlighting the value of biobanking as one of the many tools available in support of conservation of amphibians and reptilians. 32% amphibian and 20% reptilian species are either threatened or endangered. While production of viable offspring from cryopreserved amphibian germplasm and from reptiles from cooled spermatozoa is has been ac...hieved, research is needed to improve the efficiency of cryopreserved germplasms for future use in biobanks. This could include include culture of fibroblast cell lines coupled with appropriate pluripotent stem cells and advanced reproductive technologies, but further research is needed to add these approaches to the arsenal. Such research will help provide further unique and invaluable resources for species conservation and management. Strand, J., Thomsen, H., Jensen, J.B., Marcussen, C., Nicolajsen, T.B., Skriver,M.B., Søgaard, I.M., Ezaz, T., Purup, S., Callesen H. and Pertoldi, C. (2020). Biobanking in amphibian and reptilian conservation and management: opportunities and challenges. Conservation Genet Resour https://doi.org/10.1007/s12686-020-01142-y

10.01.2022 Missed the Krebs Lecture last night? We have you covered! Watch the video now via the University of Canberra YouTube page! #Krebs2020

10.01.2022 VIDEO 2: Recap the Krebs Lecture 2020 through live scribing done by GAVIN BLAKE - Scribe on the night as Prof David Lindenmayer spoke on Fire, Forests and Fauna #Krebs2020 University of Canberra

10.01.2022 Pig nosed turtle release back to the wild in a collaboration between Exxon Mobil, POM Nature Park, the Piku Biodiversity Network and the IIAE at the University of Canberra. These turtles were collected as eggs 5 years ago and grown in captivity to a size that helped get them past the heavy predation they suffer on hatching. A proof of concept. Well done Yolarnie and the POM Nature Park team, especially Brett Smith who put in the hard yards on husbandry. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_j0UKY5MqE Maybe also look at this article to see the devastating collateral damage being done to the conservation efforts in PNG by Cov-19. POM Nature Park needs help!! https://www.theguardian.com//coronavirus-closures-threaten.

10.01.2022 Congratulations to Matt Young from the IAE in securing funding from the Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment Fund for his research on Next-Generation DNA Sequencing to define management units and investigate wildlife trafficking for Australian freshwater turtles. Great stuff will come of this. Well done.

10.01.2022 Good to see the PBN firing on all pins with a new garbage initiative. The PBN is an NGO that arose from the IAE Piku Project funded by ExxonMobil PNG. Go Yolarnie.

09.01.2022 Congratulations to IAE's Lizzi Wandrag, Sarah Bates, Richard Duncan and their colleagues from CSIRO, London and the Nederlands for their paper that just appeared in the New Phytologist. Phylogenetic signal refers to the observation that species that are more closely related will tend to be more similar by virtue of that relationship, which provides a potential source of confounding when comparing species responses to experimental treatment. The team clarifies whether there ...is a phylogenetic signal in the outcome of experiments on plant-soil feedbacks. They found that distantly related plant species showed more divergent responses to the microbiota than did more closely related plant species, in each other's soil. From this they infer an evolutionary response in how plants interact with soil microbiota, with strongly contrasting feedback responses among some plant lineages. You can read more about it in the paper which is open access. Well done guys. https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.16768

09.01.2022 A new paper has appeared in Conservation Letters that addresses the issue of how much native habitat is required in working landscapes to ensure biodiversity values are not unacceptably eroded. This policy perspective was written by a number of authors including IAE's Peter Bridgewater. International agreements aim to conserve 17% of Earth's land area by 2020 but include no areabased conservation targets within the working landscapes that support human needs through farming,... ranching, and forestry. The authors argue for We argue for increasing native habitats to at least 20% of working landscape area where it is below this minimum, and in some particular habitats, there should be a restoration target of at least 50%. They finish with the point that the post2020 Global Biodiversity Framework is an opportune moment to include a minimum habitat restoration target for working landscapes that contributes to, but does not compete with, initiatives for expanding protected areas, the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (20212030) and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Let's hope they are successful in making a difference in the face of ever-growing human influence on natural and modified landscapes.

07.01.2022 New paper just out from Tariq Ezaz and his South American collaborators on the chromosomes of what is arguably the second most beautiful turtle in the universe. The Amazonian red side-necked turtle is an endemic Amazonian Chelid turtle species that occurs in small streams throughout Colombia and Brazil river basins. The team combine conventional and molecular cytogenetic procedures to show the species has an ancestral micro XY sex chromosome system. This system recruited distinct repeat motifs before it diverged from several South America and Australasian species. The authors argue propose that such a system dates back to the earliest lineages of the chelid species before the split of South America and Australasian lineages. Read more in the journal Cells 2020(9):2088 doi:10.3390/cells9092088

07.01.2022 A trifecta for the IAE today. First is a paper from Hugh Allen, Richard Duncan, Peter Unmack and Mark Lintermans documenting the spawning and reproductive ecology of the Stocky Galaxias, Galaxia tantangara (class photo Hugh), including reproductive development, timing of spawning and a description of a spawning site. This is important information for the conservation of this recently described fish, restricted to restricted to a 3 km reach of a small headwater stream in the u...pper Murrumbidgee River catchment of south eastern Australia. You can read move in Fish Biology, https://doi.org/10.1111/jfb.14603. Second is an article by Richard Duncan and his colleagues from Landcare Research NZ on how naturalised plants can transform the composition and function of the New Zealand flora. New Zealand has a high proportion of endemic plant species but has been invaded by almost the same number of non-native plant species. You can read more about it in Biological Invasions (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-020-02393-4. Third is an article by Tariq Ezaz and recent IAE visitor Kornsorn Srikulnat and their colleagues on sex specific DNA sequences in the Green Iguana. This lizard has XY sex chromosomes showing close homology to Chicken chromosome 15, but surprisingly the sex linked markers generated by DArTSeq identified regions not homologous to Chicken 15. This suggests that the lizard sex chromosome sequences homologous to Chicken 15 lie outside the non-recombining region of the lizard sex chromosomes. Chromosome rearrangements have presumably brought together the sex determining region (likely derived from ancestral chromosome(s) now with homology to at least sex Chicken chromosomes including one with homology with Chicken Z) and the region homologous to Chicken 15. Read more about it in Frontiers in Genetics https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2020.556267. And finally, to establish among other things, that I cannot count, Thomas Madsen, Arthur Georges and their European colleagues revisit the the European Adder to show that a genetic rescue initiative has long term benefits. They report on a study of an isolated, and initially severely inbred, adder population in southernmost Sweden spanning 37 years (1981 to 2017). In spite of a population bottleneck (80% reduction of adder numbers in 2009 and 2010), population genetic heterozygosity, a measure of genetic diversity, was higher in 2017 than in 2005, a testimony to the long term benefits on the initial rescue. You can read more about this in Current Biology 30:R1297-R1299 just out today.

06.01.2022 Congratulations to IAE researchers Richard Duncan and Lizzie Wandrag for the contribution to a recent paper that appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Using data gathered from around the world, including from on our own University of Canberra campus, the consortium of authors found that long-distance dispersal and repeated introductions by humans have shaped adaptive potential in a globally-distributed invasive weed, the Ribwort Plantain. Hum...an-mediated gene flow can release invasive plants from environmental constraints. It seems that some plant species,do not need strong demographic changes in their new home to overcome environmental constraints that exist in the native range; simply mixing genetic stock from multiple populations can provide an adaptive advantage. Great stuff. The paper is open access and a good read. PNAS 2020 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1915848117.

06.01.2022 Some welcome news! At least 6 of 11 rare Rosenberg's Goannas being monitored through our joint citizen science project with the Institute for Applied Ecology, U...niversity of Canberra, ACT Parks and Conservation Service, and Australian National University have survived the Orroral Valley Fire. A small volunteer team - led by Dr Don Fletcher - recently visited one area of Namadgi's Naas Valley covered by the project, where 8 goannas had been fitted with GPS tracking devices, and found 6 alive. The fate of the remaining 2 is unknown as yet. The team will check on the remaining goannas when post-fire and Covid-19 conditions permit. The team also recorded their observations on fire and flood damage and early recovery in the area (images: J Brickhill/D Fletcher). If you would like to see their full report, please visit: https://www.npaact.org.au//First%20post-fire%20vists%20to% Please note: The team had special permission from ACT Parks to enter Namadgi National Park and included members with extensive experience in post-fire conditions. NPP remains closed to the public at present, due to hazards posed by falling trees, damaged roads, etc. Australian Alps national parks Molonglo Conservation Group Conservation Council ACT Region Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve ACT Landcare and Waterwatch Mountain Journal ACT Reptile Enthusiasts Reptiles australia ACT Herpetological Association Wild Magazine Australian Citizen Science Association #namadgi #herpotologists #namadginationalpark #naasvalley #conservation #environment #rosenbergsmonitor #lizards #lizardsaustralia #canberra #australiancapitalterritory #hiking #bushwalking #orroralvalleyfire #australianbush #reptiles

06.01.2022 Head starting project led by POM Nature Park, Exxon Mobil PNG, and the IAE at University of Canberra hits the news, in PNG and in our own Canberra Times. https://www.canberratimes.com.au//pig-nosed-turtle-popula/

05.01.2022 Another paper out today from the IAE invasives team appearing as early view in the journal Ecology. The authors, Richard Duncan, emeritus Jim Hone, alumnus Nick Dexter and Adrian Wayne from the WA Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions bring their collective expertise to understanding how threatened populations are likely to recover using fox control in Australia as the main example. Successful conservation management is often based on the principle that sma...ll or declining populations can recover if we identify and remove the factors that caused them to decline in the first place. But what form will that recovery take? The results suggest that a substantial proportion of populations recovering after removal of a threatening process are likely to exhibit eruptive dynamics, and that managers of recovering or translocated populations should anticipate this outcome in conservation planning. You can read more about it in the paper: https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com//10.1/ecy.3175 Happy reading .....

04.01.2022 Good to see the second paper to come out of the thesis of Berenice Talamantes, this time on using representational genome sequencing to identify novel thermophilic bacteria in artesian hot springs the Australian outback. Her work emerged from a UC-Industry collaboration with Diversity Arrays Technology Pty Ltd. I think we would all be aware of the incredible value these organisms have delivered humankind, because of the thermostability of their enzymes, so the more we know of them the better. You can read all about it in the open access BMC Microbiology. https://bmcmicrobiol.biomedcentral.com//10.1186/s12866-020

03.01.2022 In late 2019, members of the EcoDNA research team, went over to an international aquarium trade facility in Bangkok, Thailand to test their environmental DNA extraction methods for use in an Australian biosecurity context. Read more about their visit on the Centre for Invasive Species Solutions news site below.

03.01.2022 Our new VC, Paddy Nixon, making a new friend on his tour of our facilities.

03.01.2022 Fires are an important disturbance in Australian and other landscapes that potentially impact stream organisms and ecosystems via multiple mechanisms. (a) Increased water temperatures during the fire, and subsequently from loss of shade from streamside vegetation. (b) Catchment scale reductions in water quality from inputs of organic matter, sediments, ash and nutrients and altered water quantity because of vegetation loss. (c) Changes in local stream habitat because of alter...ed sediment and flow regimes, coupled with organic and nutrient inputs. Following fires, populations of stream organisms can recover via multiple mechanisms e.g. the local reproduction of surviving individuals, drifting downstream from upstream (refuges) and insects dispersing aerially from nearby (unburnt) catchments. The potential for organisms to exploit these recovery mechanisms varies widely depending on the taxa involved and the nature of the sites locally and within the landscape. Previous studies of the effects of fires on stream organisms have reported highly variable outcomes in terms of impacts and recovery of stream organisms. Ben Kefford of the IAE and his team argue that this variability is is caused by failure to adequately account for the multiple mechanisms by which fires affect stream organisms and their recovery. This thinking is the basis of a successful application by Ben, just awarded, from the Hermon Slade Foundation to test the relative importance of mechanisms by which fires impact stream macro-invertebrates and their recovery. Ben has baseline data from stream sites before and after the recent major fires in south eastern NSW and the ACT, providing a unique opportunity to understand the degree of thermal disturbance and the ability of taxa to survive these conditions. Congratulations Ben. [Photo: David Menzel]

02.01.2022 RE: https://uctalent.canberra.edu.au//494678/software-developer We are looking for a software developer to carry the development of the R package dartR forward. It is a half time position funded by CSIRO. Please share this post if you think your network of contacts might include people interested in applying for the position. dartR (available through CRAN) is used for preliminary analysis of SNP and P/A data generated by Diversity Arrays Technology (https://www.diversityarra...ys.com/), though it is increasingly being used to analyse SNP genotypes generated from other sources (e.g. Stacks). The successful applicant will be well versed in programming in the R language and demonstrated experience with best practice and writing structured, intelligible code that is adequately commented. The salary range is $87,805 - $95,123pa plus market loading which will be commensurate with the successful applicants’ skills and experience. This is a fixed-term part-time (0.5 FTE) opportunity for 2 years with a commencement date of October. Refer to the link above for full details. Could be a fun job.

02.01.2022 This is a good listen if only to hear of the Insurance Industry’s Manhattan Project on climate change. Remarkable how when future action really matters (getti...ng premiums right) and there is a real cost of inaction, rationality prevails, they turn to science, unimpeded by political interference. See more

01.01.2022 With wildlife under increasing pressure, whether from habitat loss, changes in the water table or threats from invasive species, conservation translocation is a valuable and increasingly popular tool for wildlife management. Read more about Dr Elise Furlan's study that was published in the Journal of Applied Ecology last week! #WorldWildlifeDay2020

01.01.2022 Great to be part of this, albeit a very sobering story. IAE alumna Carla Eisemberg also among the authors. Hopefully this will bring global attention to the plight of these ancient pondorous creatures.