School of Biological Sciences, Monash @MonashBiol

How do organisms maintain fitness in a fluctuating environment? @upama.bsky.social and colleagues found that trade-offs in reproductive allocation in mosquito fish depend on sex and age. besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirec...
@bbmwong.bsky.social @mikejennions.bsky.social

Brooke Zanco and co-authors found flies fed low cholesterol diets have greater levels of gut permeability and epithelial cell disorganisation than those fed high cholesterol diets. Lifespan was maximised on a high cholesterol diet www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Identifying the proximate mechanisms that generate plasticity in fecundity for nutrition in Drosophila melanogaster Abstract. Nutrition is an important determinant of an animal’s survival and fitness. Phenotypic plasticity allows a genotype to adjust life history traits

Andre Alves et al used isogenic lines of D. melanogaster to analyse the source of genetic variation for egg laying plasticity. They looked at how ovariole number, food intake, and protein-to-egg conversion efficiency impacted fecundity.
academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-...

A recent review demonstrates that rivers exert a pervasive influence on seabird ecology. The authors conclude that rivers and their plumes are critical coastal features shaping seabird habitat use, diet, health, and demographic outcomes. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

Check out the press release on how locality data from social media can capture faster and broader expansion of an #invasive #butterfly species in Asia and Australia. (6/6) @monashscience.bsky.social www.monash.edu/science/news...

Weijie Wen and colleagues highlight that intricate gut phage bacteria-bacteria crosstalk may dictate disease severity, offering new insights into personalized treatments for Crohn’s disease.
www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...

Sally Potter et al use museum specimens to study the connectiveness and genetic diversity of rock wallabies in the arid areas of Australia. Island populations have low genetic diversity compared to more recently fragmented mainland populations. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Do little penguins always forage in the same areas? Lilia Guillet et al tracked 422 little penguins over 13 years and found penguins consistently spent more time in the productive areas but in poor years they foraged farther from the colony, with lower breeding success. hal.science/hal-05495230...

How big is small when talking about patch size? And does it change if you are looking at biodiversity versus ecosystem services? David Deane and colleagues describe an objective method for discerning patch size in terms of ecological phenomena. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

Vagrancy is the occurrence of an individual out-side its regular, known geographical range. Simon Gorta et al studied gadfly petrels, and found potential for vagrancy events to provide insight when assessing seabirds as indicators of environmental change onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

A very cool molecular machine, the bacteriophage JS1, has taught us several surprising things

doi.org/10.1128/mbio... #MicroSky @stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social @monashbiol.bsky.social @macsys.bsky.social

JS1 is a #phage that does not respect host species boundaries, but it does look stylish as it binds, enters in and kills them all.

doi.org/10.1128/mbio... @macsys.bsky.social @staph-papers.bsky.social @monashbiol.bsky.social

Woman in black rimmed glasses and a hat against a light grey to blue gradient background. Black text next to her reads: #IDWGS 11 Feb "Be curious and take maths. Curiosity drives science and maths underpins every discipline." Dr Lesley Alton, ARC Future Fellow, School of Biological Sciences.

#IDWGS Dr Lesley Alton studies how animal adapt to climate warming @monashbiol.bsky.social Her advice to future scientists: “Be curious and take maths.” Read more 👉 www.monash.edu/science/news...

The first seminar of the year will be held on 26th February 2026 1pm AEST. The speaker will be Deepa Agashe from the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, India. Sign up to the above email announcements to receive the zoom link.

PopBio on the Dark Side shines a light on population biology researchers based in the Asia-Pacific, i.e., the ‘dark side’ when seminars are streaming from other time zones. We meet on the last Thursday of every month 1pm AEST. forms.gle/gPZmcBnFYcWk... or follow us @pop-bio.bsky.social

Emily Blackburn announced as the 2025 Dan Gilmore Scholarship recipient - Biosis The 2025 Daniel Gilmore Scholarship winner is Emily Blackburn, who is currently completing her Honours at Monash University on the Leadbeater Possum.

Our team at @monashbiol.bsky.social have had some exciting grant wins over Dec/Jan!

First up, Honours student Emily Blackburn was awarded the Daniel Gilmore Scholarship in support of her research on the critically endangered Leadbeater’s Possum: www.biosis.com.au/emily-blackb... #ozmammals

PhD student Tucksaorn (Orn) Bhummakasikara was awarded a Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment for her project "Genomics to inform recovery and management of the threatened Australian Pookila"! @monashbiol.bsky.social #ozmammals #ozrodents

PhD student Camille Kynoch (cosupervised in our lab) was awarded a Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment for her project "Breeding on Borrowed Time: Managing Flatback Sea Turtles Amid Climate Driven Male Scarcity". @monashbiol.bsky.social www.ecolsoc.org.au/grants-award...

What's more fun than writing this paper is the brilliant minds of @plosbiology.org @roliroberts.bsky.social coming up with ways to deal with BlueSky's censorship.
Men with surfboards, could this paper be anymore aussie? @ceb-uwa.bsky.social @monashbiol.bsky.social @biologyanu.bsky.social

We know bees are important, but do we know how to identify them? Robert Moore, Vanessa Kellerman, Scarlett Howard and co-authors have a new web-based tool that makes bee identification simple, rapid, and accessible. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Additive genetic variance for fitness maintained by balancing selection Abstract. Levels of additive genetic variation for fitness (${{V}_A}( w )$) and its components (e.g., viability, fertility) appear to be high in nature, su

Additive genetic variance for fitness maintained by balancing selection url: academic.oup.com/evolut/artic...

Juan Valbuena-Fernandez and co-authors find that urgent integration of climate projections into conservation planning, alongside enhanced protections against illegal trade, is critical to safeguarding bluetongue lizard species.

How well can we replicate physiological responses across species and across universities? Lesley Alton & co. found that metabolic scaling relationship and the mass-independent rates of energy use in response to food restriction was consistent across universities. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41552934/

Information sharing matters. This is open access. Isabelle Onley, Phil Cassey and Melodie McGeoch are Australian.

January issue: Perspective from Melodie McGeoch on how ecological drivers are shaping terrestrial biodiversity change in Antarctica. 🧪🌎
Web link: go.nature.com/3ZgxzSu
Readcube: rdcu.be/eZInQ

When, and how, should we do a Rapid Evidence Assessment? Angus Webb Carly Cook & co-authors provide a standardized definition that will improve transparency and facilitate decisions about the appropriate levels of rigor required for environmental decision-making
www.proquest.com/openview/146...

How do interactions between temperature, urban gradient, and light type impact the phototactic response in native and non-native bees? Emily Watson and co-authors found honeybees were faster under all conditions. doi.org/10.1016/j.ji...

Why don't we use behavioural ecotoxicological studies in environmental management? Michael Bertram & colleagues assess whether behavioral measures are relevant at the population level. They conclude that, yes, they are and they are underutilised. doi.org/10.1021/acs....
@bbmwong.bsky.social

You have heard of the gut microbiome but what do we know about plant microbiomes? Christopher Blake & colleagues examined the bacteria in the rhizosphere of Canola and suggest scope for better design interventions that support sustainable crop production. doi.org/10.1016/j.bc...

Was Darwin wrong? Hermaphrodites found to be more energy efficient than animals with two sexes Hermaphrodites may have an unexpected evolutionary advantage over animals with separate sexes, they use significantly less energy to live.

Was Darwin wrong? Hermaphrodites found to be more energy efficient than animals with two sexes
monash.edu/science/news...