Simon Haberle

Lots of charcoal particles observed in our daily pollen count slides from 8th January. These particles are likely derived from the northward spread of smoke (visible over the ACT) from the extensive bushfires in Victoria.

For advice see lnkd.in/gSgTTHxY from ACT Health

Maps are from the Bureau of Meteorology regional patterns of reduced rainfall and reduced root level soil moisture, particularly in the Canberra region during spring and early summer.

Why is it so?

Low post - mid November grass pollen counts appear to be driven by:
- reduced rainfall and low root level moisture in the Canberra region during spring and early summer
- this led to reduced grass growth and below average pollen production through the second half of the season.

The figure depicts the cumulative pollen count curve from October to December 2025 and compares it to all other years with data. The 2025 October to early November counts tracked those from previous above average years (2020-2023). However, by mid November the daily counts began to stabilise to moderate-low levels and the cumulative curve plateaus to eventually reach below average levels by the end of December. An inset histogram graph depicts the proportion of recorded grass pollen levels (LOW, MODERATE, HIGH, EXTREME) for 2025 compared to El Niño and La Niña years showing that 2025 lies between the proportions that characterise El Niño years vs. La Niña years.

The Canberra grass pollen daily count for 2025 started with a bang and ended with a whimper.
- strong grass pollen season began in late September
- by mid November the daily counts began to plateaus to reach below average levels by end of December.
- only 3 EXTREME grass pollen days were recorded.

🔥 Call for Abstracts – #EGU26 Interdisciplinary Session: Cultural Pyroscapes Through Time ITS3.5/BG5.6 🔥 📅 Deadline 15/01/2026.

@gilromera.bsky.social @hcadd.bsky.social @thatpollenguy.bsky.social
👉[https://lnkd.in/eWYtRsge]

#Wildfire #Palaeoecology #Archaeology #ClimateChange #FireEcology

Elevated Cupressaceae pollen appear a week earlier than reported last year (2024). Overall, a wet winter this year and the prospect of above average rainfall and warm temperatures in the September to November period (BOM forecast) point to a challenging hay fever season ahead.

It seems a little early to start talking about the pollen-hay fever season in Canberra, but over the weekend we saw the first hint of elevated pollen levels in Cupressaceae pollen (Cypress pine family) - 14 grains/m3 - still LOW, but hinting at the beginnings of elevated levels to come.

See the full paper here, led by Matthew Adeleye, with images of remnant pedestals left after the peat fires.

Adeleye, M.A., et al. (2025) Palaeoecological Analyses Reveal Recent Fires Have Destroyed Late-Holocene Peat Deposits in Tasmania's Largest Ramsar Reserve. Austral Ecology, 50: e70087

Palaeoecological Analyses Reveal Recent Fires Have Destroyed Late‐Holocene Peat Deposits in Tasmania's Largest Ramsar Reserve Australian peat-forming wetlands, including those in Tasmania's largest Ramsar reserve—Lavinia State Reserve (LSR), are under threat from climate change, wildfires and human activities. A palaeoecolo....

Our latest paper on degradation of peatland systems on King Island (Lutruwita/Tasmania) shows how vulnerable peatlands are under current land management practices. Is the sudden loss if ~4000 years of peat from this site a “canary in the coal mine” for Tasmania/Australia?

doi.org/10.1111/aec....

Migrating bogong moths use the stars and Earth’s magnetic field to find ancestral summer caves each year

theconversation.com/migrating-bo...

Bogong moths use a stellar compass for long-distance navigation at night - Nature Every spring, Bogong moths use the starry night sky as a compass to navigate up to 1,000 km towards their alpine migratory goal.

Bogong moths use a stellar compass for long-distance navigation at night

Each spring, billions of Bogong moths migrate up to 1,000 km

They use stellar cues and the Earth’s magnetic field for long-distance nocturnal navigation towards a specific destination.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#ICCB2025 great to be able to present alongside Ramya Bala Prabhakaran, Meghna Agarwala, and Patrick Moss in the “using Palaeoecology for Fire Management and Landscape Conservation” session today (organised by Ramya).

#ICCB2025 Looking forward to presenting “Palaeoecological records from peat mounds in Tasmania as a tool to advance endangered bird research and inform conservation strategies” as part of the Palaeoecology and Conservation Biology session on Thursday June 19, 2.15 PM - 3:15 PM, Meeting Room P4

Connections and collections: Pope Leo, the PM and the ethics of diplomatic gift exchange - ABC Religion & Ethics Contemporary gifts made by Indigenous artists carry the legacy of colonisation. The ethics of gift exchange need to be discussed more openly — which might include public discussion about how and why c...

Connections and collections: The pope, the prime minister and the ethics of diplomatic gift exchange by @anu-chl.bsky.social Research Fellow Dr Katherine Aigner and Prof Kylie Message-Jones www.abc.net.au/religion/pop...

Study authors Katharine Napora, Ph.D., and Craig Jacobs, stand on the base on an ancient Bald Cypress tree hauled up from the Altamaha Wildlife Management Area on the Georgia coast. Credit: Florida Atlantic University

Does climate play a role in tree longevity?

A paleo study in Georgia suggests that might be a possibility: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Another great deep-time palynology paper by Mike MacPhail from the ANU PalaeoWorks Lab @palaeoworks.bsky.social
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Fossil pollen from Goat Paddock Crater, Kimberley Plateau, are restricted to the Late Cretaceous Epoch.

=> meteor impact during/before the Mesozoic.

Decreasing hazard functions (blue lines) characterize the bouts of all behavioral states in (A) meerkats, (B) coatis, and (C) hyenas.

Pollen grains from 123 million years ago show the grooved shape characteristic of eudicots. The findings, from the Lusitanian Basin of Portugal, are the earliest known tricolpate pollen and provide insight into the diversification of flowering plants. In PNAS: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Was extinction of New Zealand's avian megafauna an unavoidable consequence of human arrival? Human overexploitation contributed strongly to the loss of hundreds of bird species across Oceania, including nine giant, flightless birds called moa.…

Was extinction of New Zealand's avian megafauna an unavoidable consequence of human arrival?

Using process-explicit ecological models, the authors show that Moa persistence was not compatible with even low rates of hunting.

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

The FIRST International Conference on Palaeogenomics will happen in Stockholm, Sweden, June 23-26, 2026!

Topics will encompass all corners of ancient DNA research, from humans to wildlife and sediments🧬🦣💀🦠

Save the dates ✅

Check the website icp2026.palaeogenomics.org and follow us for updates!

Hazy morning in eastern NSW as outback dust reaches Tasman Sea A huge dust storm whipped up in South Australia on Monday has swept over Sydney and other areas of NSW on Tuesday morning.

The dust originated from drought-stricken parts of SA and VIC as a strong cold front past over SE Australia. Observations from Canberra Airport reported haze overnight, with visibility reduced to 5-6 km for more than one hour as the dust blew over the ACT.

www.weatherzone.com.au/news/hazy-mo...

Wondering what was in the air during the dust storm that passed over Canberra this week?

Our daily pollen monitoring slide collected on the morning of the 27/5/25 shows the dense brown particles captured over the event. The fine particles of dust can be seen at 400x magnification.

Ancient pollen reveals stories about Earth’s history, from the asteroid strike that killed the dinosaurs to the Mayan collapse Palynologists who study tiny pollen fossils share 4 stories found in grains that fell hundreds to millions of years ago.

theconversation.com/ancient-poll...

Episode 203: Madeleine Bessell‑Koprek and the Paleoecology of Long Island, Australia The Long Island History Project · Episode

Great podcast by Madeleine Bessel-Koprek, ANU PhD student, with a fascinating discussion about her research on reconstructing the past vegetation and fire history of Long Island (Tasmania).

Outreach stretching 16,750km to the southern shores of Long Island (New York, USA)!

spotify.link/aRpInNUeCTb

Supper happy to announce that Dael Sassoon’s documentary Echoes of the Rainforest will be screened at this year’s @egu.eu conference, at the GeoCinema session in room E1 on Tuesday 29 April, 18:50-19:20. Please come along and spread the word for a good turnout! #EGU #MSCA @geo3bcn-csic.bsky.social

Check it out! New speleothem magnetism paper from semi-arid Australia. Led by postdoc Tom Mallet in my #ARC-DECRA www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Under Bass Strait's surface lies a vast land humans once called home The mountain peaks of a landscape now under water are all that remains visible of a once grassy plain that connected Tasmania to mainland Australia.

Under Bass Strait's surface lies a vast land humans once called home

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03...

Humans in Africa’s wet tropical forests 150 thousand years ago.

The onset of human occupations at Bété I found to be ~150 ka, linking them with Homo sapiens. Plant wax biomarker, stable isotope, phytolith and pollen analyses all point to a wet forest environment.

rdcu.be/ebrSR

The summer Elm pollen season is well underway this year with an early start in late January and EXTREME levels experienced over the last few day.

Extended and elevated tree pollen seasons in winter and summer are becoming increasingly common in Canberra.

The potential of using magnetic susceptibility to identify past wildfires in Australia Fully understanding the causes and frequency of wildfires has never been more important than it is today, with potentially thousands of lives at risk from wildfire smoke in Australia alone. Until now ...

Congratulation to Annika Herbert, @palaeoworks.bsky.social and @ciehf.bsky.social postdoc fellow, on her first sole-author publication!
A review of the potential of using magnetic susceptibility to create records of ancient Australian bushfires. Enjoy!

www.publish.csiro.au/WF/WF24093

Pollen analysis as a tool to advance avian research and inform conservation strategies Ornithologists use many methods to advance understanding of birds and inform conservation strategies. These include field methods (e.g. censusing, ringing), laboratory analysis (e.g. molecular taxono...

#Australian #ornithologists, can you see benefits in collaboration with a palynologist to better understand bird habitats, movement, migration, diet/feeding strategies, by using pollen analysis? (dm me for the paper, if you can't get past paywall) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1... 🧪🦉🦆🦅🦜