UNSW Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Oceans are becoming hotter, long-term trends show - ABC listen Matthew England is studying global changes in ocean heat and circulation. The AMOC - the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation is showing signs of slowing, and as it does, impacts are being felt...

This week I joined the wonderful Robyn Williams on the ABC Science Show to discuss our recent North Atlantic Nature paper plus a range of other topics — marine heat waves, polar vortex wobbles, the AMOC, and the deep cost of climate inaction. Part 2 airs next week.  
www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

Will hailstorms get worse with climate change? What causes hailstorms, where they hits hardest, and how climate change affects them. Dr Tim Raupach unpacks the science, risks and modelling on Totally Cooked.

I had the pleasure of joining @sarahinscience.bsky.social and @instrachan.bsky.social on the Totally Cooked podcast from @21stcenturyweather.bsky.social to talk about hail - how it forms, where it hits, and how climate change might affect it. Listen here: 21centuryweather.org.au/engage/total...

Rockabye baby: the ‘love songs’ of lonely leopard seals resemble human nursery rhymes Leopard seals in Antarctica live solitary lives. But the simple patterns of their underwater song, akin to nursery rhymes, bring mates from across the seas.

Thrilled to see my work featured in @aunz.theconversation.com !!! 🦭🎶

Rockabye baby: the ‘love songs’ of lonely leopard seals resemble human nursery rhymes
theconversation.com/rockabye-bab...

Outstanding to see three finalists for the 2025 Eureka Prizes from @unswbees.bsky.social - #3 Jodi Rowley who has done so much for conservation and understanding of our threatened frog species

Outstanding to see three finalists for the 2025 Eureka Prizes from @unswbees.bsky.social - #2 Aaron Eger, Founder of kelpforest.alliance.com

Outstanding to see three finalists for the 2025 Eureka Prizes from @unswbees.bsky.social - #1 @cariocamayer.bsky.social and team with the fantastic @livingseawalls.bsky.social project

As US climate data-gathering is gutted, Australian forecasting is now at real risk

For decades, Australia has relied on data from US satellites, floats and monitoring programs. Planned deep cuts put Australian forecasting at risk.

Citizen science behind countless new discoveries An international team of researchers, including two from UNSW, have quantified the impact community driven nature identification app iNaturalist is having on scientific research.

www.unsw.edu.au/newsroom/new...

Effects of phylogenetic distance, niche overlap and habitat alteration on spatial co-occurrence patterns in Neotropical bats and birds | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Ecological interactions influence which species can coexist locally, but assessing the effects of interactions on species distributions at landscape to regional scales has proven challenging. Here, we...

Pleased to share that I have a new paper out today. This paper took over seven years to complete but we are very pleased with the outcome!
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Changes in Hail Damage Potential in Major Australian Cities With Global Warming Hail damage increases with larger hailstones or stronger coincident winds, yet climate change effects on these factors remain uncertain Convection-permitting downscaled simulations projected chan...

New paper! Dr Joanna Aldridge and I simulated hailstorms in a warmer world over major Australian cities. We project increased hailstone size around Sydney/Canberra, Melbourne and Perth, and increased frequency around Sydney/Canberra and Brisbane. agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

Brace yourself for ‘giant hail’ as storms increase along east coast As the atmosphere becomes warmer and wetter, some Australian cities will face more hailstorms while others will be hit with larger stones as well.

Predictions of more damaging hail for our big cities. Latest research from @timraupach.com @ccrc.bsky.social

UNSW ecologist awarded 2025 International Cosmos Prize Professor David Keith joins Sir David Attenborough and Dr Jane Goodall as a recipient of the prestigious award, recognised for advancing a future where humanity and nature can thrive together.

Professor David Keith has been awarded the 2025 International Cosmos Prize, one of the world’s most esteemed honours in environmental and ecological research.

Feral-free zones spark small mammal boom in Australian desert A 26-year study at the Arid Recovery Reserve reveals how removing invasive predators like cats and foxes triggers a dramatic reshaping of desert small mammal communities.

Long-term evidence for the benefits of feral removal in our arid zone. New paper from Katherine Moseby et al. in Proc Royal Soc B - royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... #wildoz

Counterintuitive Range Shifts May Be Explained by Climate Induced Changes in Biotic Interactions Climate change is expected to drive species uphill, poleward or into deeper waters. Yet many are shifting in toward the equator, downhill or to shallower waters, which is opposite to the expected dir...

🌎 My first paper is out in @globalchangebio.bsky.social ! We propose the Interaction Opportunists Hypothesis: changes in biotic interactions may drive species downhill, equatorward, or to shallower waters under #ClimateChange. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #RangeShifts #Ecology

Marine heatwaves as hot spots of climate change and impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services - Nature Reviews Biodiversity Marine heatwaves (MHWs) have become more intense and widespread globally, affecting species, ecosystems and people. After summarizing how and why MHWs are changing, this Review explores these impacts ...

New global review in Nature Reviews Biodiversity, incl. CCRC’s Alex Sen Gupta, shows marine heatwaves are reshaping ecosystems from coral bleaching to kelp loss disrupting fisheries,food webs & coastal livelihoods. Urgent need to cut emissions, build resilience & adapt fast.
doi.org/10.1038/s443....

Mauna Loa Observatory captured the reality of climate change. The US plans to shut it down Cutting data climate collection – as the Trump administration is now trying to do – is like breaking a thermometer to avoid knowing you’ve got a fever.

The Mauna Loa Observatory, home of the iconic Keeling Curve is at risk of shutdown. A new Conversation piece by CCRC's Alex Sen Gupta, @katrinmeissner.bsky.social & @timraupach.com explains why this matters for climate science. Don’t miss it.

theconversation.com/mauna-loa-ob...

The climate wild cards still missing from our models Climate models have been remarkably effective at projecting global warming trends, but they still fail to fully capture some crucial processes that could dramatically accelerate climate change, accord...

Key climate wild cards like tipping points and abrupt shifts are still missing from many models. A new piece by CCRC’s @katrinmeissner.bsky.social & Steven Sherwood explains why accounting for these uncertainties is essential.

Read the full piece here: www.unsw.edu.au/newsroom/new...

TOP 5 2025: WINNERS - ABC listen The ABC is pleased to introduce the 2025 winners in Science, Humanities and Arts Top5 programs.The successful applicants will spend two weeks in residence at ABC Radio National.

Congratulations to Dr Chantelle Doyle @saltandbrine.bsky.social - joining ABC's Top5 Science program for 2025 www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

Nature Finds A Way : Guest : Inna Osmolovsky Science, Actually Presents : The Nerd and the Scientist · Episode

This week's guest, plant ecologist @innaosmol.bsky.social explains how #ClimateChange is forcing tree lines both toward the poles and uphill, as they try to reach cooler temperatures.
🧪🔬🌲
open.spotify.com/episode/6tgt...

UNSW School of BABS Special Seminar Peer review meltdown Carl T. Bergstrom, University of Washington Host/Chair Prof Mark Tanaka Monday 23 June 2025 1pm-2pm Mathews Theatre C You’ve seen it yourself. Peer review is coming apart at the seams. Editors face a mighty struggle to recruit reviewers. Researchers are overwhelmed with review requests. Authors wait months or longer for low-quality reviews of their work. In this talk, I present a series of simple mathematical models to illustrate what is happening and why. (1) An elite journal relies on peer review to identify the top papers; knowing the quality of the peer review process, authors self-screen and send only their best work to this journal. But when the reward from publishing in the elite journal increases, submission volume increases. (2) When submission volume increases, review quality drops as the most qualified reviews are no longer available — but we prove that when review quality drops, submission volume necessarily increases as more authors try to sneak in undeservedly. This feedback process swamps the journals with submissions and erodes the quality of review. (3) We next consider what happens as elite journals proliferate and show that, paradoxically, as the number of elite journals increases, researchers self-screen more assiduously, but the review load continues to increase. To illustrate the consequences, we consider welfare measures for authors, reviewers, and readers. (4) Finally, we explore the way in which aggressive desk rejection policies can partially check this peer review meltdown. 

Australian friends!

I'm going to be visiting Sydney in just over a week. I'll be at UNSW on June 23-25th and Macquarie on June 26-27th.

I'd love to catch up with people in person, and also will be giving (at least) two talks at UNSW.

The first is science-of-science modeling talk, on June 23:

We're delighted to announce the reappointment of @jwmorganecology.bsky.social and @markooiecol.bsky.social as Co-Editors-in-Chief of Australian Journal of Botany!
Their continued leadership ensures the journal remains at the forefront of botanical research in Australia and beyond 🌱 📖

Unapproved rewilding stirs debate over ethics and animal welfare Amid an extinction crisis, some amateur conservationists are taking matters into their own hands, releasing threatened animals on their properties. It's skirting rules and worrying scientists. But the...

Includes commentary from Richard Kingsford on the challenges with unapproved rewilding efforts www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06...

Congratulations #ChloeRenn for publishing undergraduate research on invasive #Caulerpa algae in Sydney seagrass🌱🇦🇺. Thanks #PaulGribben, #ZiggyMarzinelli, #KatieDafforn, @unswbees.bsky.social for hosting Chloe's #international placement. 🌍 @plymbiomarsci.bsky.social link.springer.com/article/10.1...

🗺️ Ever wander to a new place and think, "Hmm I wonder what birds/plants/[insert favourite taxonomic group] I can find here?" 🔍

We built {infinitylists} 📋 to help nature lovers create personalised, location-based taxon lists! 🌏

Mosaic of three images. Top left, someone holding a mobile phone using the infinitylists Shiny app. Top right, two botanists on a boardwalk in a Melaleuca swamp in northern Sydney, looking closely at a small plant on the ground. Bottom, pink flowers from a rosy sundew (Drosera spatulata). Photo credits (clockwise from top left): Kate Mesaglio, Hervé Sauquet, Thomas Mesaglio

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

Outstanding to see Professor Richard Kingsford honoured with an AM in today’s King’s Birthday Honours - distinguished service to conservation biology, to environmental sustainability research, and to freshwater biodiversity and ecosystems governance