Holly Kirk

Nature-Water Design: Integrating biodiversity and water sensitive urban design The global rise of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) presents a key opportunity to find synergies between social and environmental objectives of urban deve…

New paper from almost-finished-her-PhD Fiona Hoegh-Guldberg! @icon-science.bsky.social

Recognising that water sensitive #urbanDesign often overlooks #biodiversity, Fi introduces a joint BSUD & WSUD framework, to improve outcomes for nature, water and people.
🌏🧪
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Did u know? I read this week that we shouldn't approach gardening as *gardening*, we should consider it as habitat restoration. Nature desperately needs us to bring back meadows,ponds,wildflowers & shelters for small souls that underpin the world we're lucky to call home. Go, restore. 🌿🌱🇬🇧🌱🌍🪲🦋🐛🪰🐦‍⬛🦔🦎🐸

Tomorrow I'll be presenting at #VicBioCon! I've got a speed talk in Plants and Pollinators 1 (at 11:45am) and have a poster that evening at 5pm. Come say hi and ask me about my Acacias! 😊

Waves excitedly 👋

A blue and yellow graphic with a cutout portrait photo of Holly smiling at the camera. Repeating text behind the photo says "panel" four times with a blue flower and green stem wrapped around it on the left. A text tag to the right says "panel one". Beneath the photo Dr Holly Kirk's name is listed.

Introducing Dr Holly Kirk, one of our panelists for "Challenges & Opportunities in Urban Areas"! Holly is an urban ecologist researching and teaching in the School of Design and the Built Environment at Curtin University, specialising in the application of ecology to urban planning and design. 🧵

Oooh, great work team, I'm excited to read and cite!!

Are green firebreaks a useful fire management tool under climate change in southeastern Australia? Fire management under changing climatic conditions presents several challenges, including the need to manage fire regimes for multiple objectives, suc…

Are green firebreaks a useful fire management tool under climate change in southeastern Australia?

TLDR: yes, in many scenarios, especially when used in conjunction with other fire mitigation measures

by @ericamarshall.bsky.social @trentpenman.bsky.social

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Native predators like owls and goannas are dying from eating poisoned rats and mice. Wildlife experts are shocked the government won’t ban these toxic compounds.

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

Yes, feral cats and foxes really have driven many Australian mammals to extinction Decades of evidence link foxes and feral cats with extinctions of Australian mammals. Claims these introduced predators aren’t responsible don’t stack up.

Feral cats and foxes really have driven many Australian mammals to extinction. Claims these introduced predators aren't responsible don't stack up. Protecting our unique species will be even harder if feral cats and foxes are given a free pass to keep killing. 🌐🌎
theconversation.com/yes-feral-ca...

New paper!🖥️

Tracking terrestrial wildlife with environmental DNA: Methods designed by and for Indigenous organizations🧬 🏔️

This research provides a robust and unique comparison of eDNA sampling methods for the detection of terrestrial species 🦌

Read more: buff.ly/D7iwFqJ

Picture with a large orange and black wasp at the top and a larger pale brown spider at the bottom. The wasp is standing over the spider

Came across this Orange Spider Wasp (Heterodontonyx bicolor) just as she was paralysing this unfortunate Huntsman spider, who she’ll now seal into a nest along with an egg that she lays.

Nature can seem brutal at times!

#ausinverts #wildoz #spider #arachnid #wasp #Hymenoptera #nature #inaturalist

Soft fuzzy jumping spider with black legs and a bright red "cap" CNN a bright red booty visible behind him. He's peering at you from a dry oak leaf

View of the lad from behind, as he peers at something to upper right of frame. The top of his entire body is just bright velvety red

Day 25 of my 2025 Favorites: the most festive of boys

Phidippus cardinalis. Just a lovely little velvet ant mimic lad. That red is so striking in the sandy scrub. ❤️
#EmotionalSupportSpood #InverteFest
Merry Whatever-The-Hell-You're-Doing-Today Day to you all

Figure 2. Picture showing a geographic visualization of the seven categories of spillover from protected areas They include (1) physical spillovers, (2) ecological spillovers, (3) societal and sociocultural spillovers, (4) economic spillovers, (5) political and/or legislative spillovers, (6) management spillovers, and (7) spillovers to physical infrastructure. These categories are explained in more detail in the text.

Our new review lays out a framework for understanding the social-ecological benefits of protected areas to their surroundings - just published in One Earth:
www.cell.com/one-earth/ab...
doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2025.101462

A magpie that has been coming to an elderly couples home for 16 years came in yesterday and despite hoping and trying in the end she couldn’t be saved. We usually only do this for pets but 16 yrs is a long time, they loved her. They’re going to bury her tomorrow.

Oh no, this is so heartbreaking but also so special and lovely.

I completely agree that we do not recognize enough the impact that our immediate bird neighbors have on our lives.

Thank you for tagging me ❤️🪶

Also - I accidentally dropped a Star Trek reference - did you hear it!?

So once a Trekkie always a Trekkie too I guess 😆🤷‍♀️

127 Pelagics | Weekend Birder Pelagic trips take you far offshore to the seabirds most of us never get to see. Dr Holly Kirk shares what turns up at the continental shelf, how to spot albatrosses and petrels, and how to prepare so...

Once a seabirder always a seabirder 😊

It was such a pleasure (and a privilege) to contribute to this episode on pelagic #seabird trips.

I think lots of beginner birders are pelagic-curious so hopefully this encourages some folks give it a go!
🪶🌏
www.weekendbirder.com/podcast/127-...

Cartoon of stylised drawings of a pig seen head on (labelled Pig) and a hedge (labelled hege) seen in section. The area where they overlap forms the shape of a hedgehog. Caption: VENN DIAGRAM

www.worldofmoose.com/collections/...

Women are often disproportionately impacted by biodiversity loss, but simultaneously sidelined when it comes to decision-making at various levels. 🌱

In episode 3 of the IPBES podcast, Brit Garner discusses this in more depth with Nadia Sitas and Nita Shashidharan.

🎧 natureinsight.podbean.com

😆
I think it's more a forgetting what I'm doing and getting distracted kind of thing

It's been one of those "eat my breakfast at 12pm, eat my lunch at 4pm" kind of days...

Palestinians are highly educated and academic, despite 80+ years of brutal occupation, aparthied and genocide.
As an Indigenous person I respect this so much. It's a beautiful way to resist and persist.

“First, reduce “statistical machismo”, or the tendency to adopt and advocate for more complex approaches for their own sake rather than because they are the best tool for the job”… I mean…

I am glad to see this piece out in Frontiers. Ecologists must consider why we do what we do in the 1st place!

Long-sought environmental law reform is finally here. But will the compromise deal actually protect nature? After years of failed attempts, Australia’s environmental laws are finally getting an overhaul. But will they stop the damage done to nature?

Our rapid assessment of the #EPBC Act reform package that's set to pass the senate theconversation.com/long-sought-... - Led by Justine Bell-James, with @drphilmccormack.bsky.social @yungenchee.bsky.social and me. #ESA2025 @aunz.theconversation.com @biodivcouncil.bsky.social @ecolsocaus.bsky.social

Judy has matched her dress colour to the mustard yellow cane toad on her title slide

A once in a lifetime chance to stop the toad invasion. 'Working with Country to save Country' - Martin Bin Rashid, Karajarri

Cane toads are advancing on WA's unique Pilbara region. @judydunlop.bsky.social and her team have a plan to stop them!

@ecolsocaus.bsky.social #ESA2025 🌏 we're hearing about the Toad Containment Zone - creating a waterless barrier across the Pilbara to stop the invasion.
🐸

Fungi, algae and flowers might be different kingdoms but Phillipa doesn’t want to hear it!! #ESA2025

What does the climate risk assessment mean for environmental law?

Some novel legal ideas in the new SA Biodiversity Act

@drphilmccormack.bsky.social unpacks environmental legal instruments, recent law reforms & highlights opportunities.

We need to be ambitious, especially in the face of climate change.

She describes the process of creating the new SA Biodiversity Act, including new key terms and definitions!
🍄🌱🦠

Phil on stage in front of her title slide 'Laws that take us somewhere... good?'

Good law is at least little subjective

"Ferocious love" of the places & things we care about

@drphilmccormack.bsky.social frames her work in environmental law and climate justice through her love of nature, which we share @ecolsocaus.bsky.social #ESA2025 🌏

I'm off to seek a career in show business this afternoon!

James on stage in front of his title slide, which reads 'Mobilising private land conservation to secure Australia's ecological future

James speaks to slides which suggest a paradigm shift from protect jewels to protect + restore + manage

This morning @ecolsocaus.bsky.social #ESA2025 James Brazill-Boast shares the impact that private land conservation can have.
60% of Australia = privately owned!
🌏
He highlights we need to move away from the idea that conservation only protects 'jewels', to one where we also restore the shabby bits.