Tammy Steeves

Given the use of GenAI among political parties and all that entails, your periodic reminder that we have an Open Letter signed by over 20 AI experts calling on AI regulation. So far only the Green Party has committed to this. Please share among your networks and sign if you haven't already #nzpol

'Okea ururoatia’: the role of Indigenous activism in the restoration and protection of nature Abstract. Indigenous peoples advocate for environmental and social justice in distinctive ways that may also benefit the conservation and restoration of bi

Great question 🤓 Short answer: caring for nature is a job for many & extends beyond western science. For a transdisciplinary contribution that is as timely as it is thoughtful 👀 the latest from Erana Walker, Murray Cox, Hēmi Whaanga & @cillaw.bsky.social 🔥

royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article...

Climate change impacts are here now We need to plan and act

I'm on the Coromandel Peninsula, and what else is there to do when unable to leave but write about the weather and climate change:

drbex.substack.com/p/climate-ch...

'Okea ururoatia’: the role of Indigenous activism in the restoration and protection of nature Abstract. Indigenous peoples advocate for environmental and social justice in distinctive ways that may also benefit the conservation and restoration of bi

I want to talk about one of my previous PhD students and now collaborator, Erana Walker. Mostly to celebrate the release of a new paper out today 🧵🧪. royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article...

Pangenomics transforms evolutionary biology | Royal Society This Theo Murphy meeting organised by Dr Joana Meier, Dr Henry North and Dr Charlotte Wright, will showcase cutting-edge pangenome tools, applied uses of pangenomes which are transforming health and a...

Are you excited about pangenomics? If so, join us in Edinburgh on 8-9th June to discuss the latest methods & insights from using these approaches across biodiversity! More details here:

royalsociety.org/science-even...

Organised together with @henrylnorth.bsky.social & @joanameier.bsky.social!

Anthropogenic change and the loss of behavioural diversity Abstract. Behavioural diversity is an important but understudied facet of biodiversity that enables wildlife populations to cope with rapidly changing envi

What are the causes & consequences of behavioural diversity loss in a changing world? And how do we harness this knowledge for conservation? New open access paper led by @odedberger-tal.bsky.social with David Saltz and @mrmic1.bsky.social

#BobWongLab

royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026 The Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026 explores cutting-edge knowledge of complex systems & complexity & how this knowledge is used to drive system change.

We've just published the programme for the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026, and registrations are open 👀

#cccss26 #complexsystems

www.tepunahamatatini.ac.nz/conferences/...

Unrecognised DNA Degradation in Flash‐Frozen Genetic Samples in Natural History Collections Optimal preservation of tissues from the field to long-term cryo-storage is paramount to securing genetic resources for research needs. DNA preservation techniques vary, with flash freezing currently...

Flash-frozen tissues are considered the gold standard for DNA—but our analysis of field-collected samples found surprising degradation.
Preserving in buffer before freezing may be more robust in real-world conditions.
👉 doi.org/10.1111/1755...
#Museomics #Genomics #Fieldwork #DNApreservation

cover of the Dec 2025 issue of Trends in Ecology and Evolution highlighting our recent publication "The social dimensions of conservation translocations" featuring a beautiful little bird, a black robin, perched on a tree trunk. Two bands are visible on her left leg (red, silver).

What are the ‘social dimensions’ of moving species for conservation and why does engaging with them matter?

This is the focus of our new paper doi.org/10.1016/j.tr... on the cover of the Dec issue of TREE @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social led by @aisrayne.bsky.social

🙏 to Kevin Parker for the 📷

Team fish - we need your help! We are trying to build a database of all the fish chromosome-scale genomes where sex chromosomes have been identified. Have you build one or some? Do you know someone who has? Can you post the link in the comments? Please spread the word and repost! Thank you!

Accurate Runs of Homozygosity Estimation From Low Coverage Genome Sequences in Non‐Model Species Runs of homozygosity (ROH) are increasingly being analysed using whole genome sequences in non-model species as a measure of inbreeding and to assess demographic history, thus providing useful inform...

Accurate Runs of Homozygosity Estimation From Low Coverage Genome Sequences in Non-Model Species
#popgen #consgen
doi.org/10.1111/1755...

Two kākāpō chicks in a nest. Credit: Andrew Digby

Stoked that the Kākāpō Files from Radio NZ will be back this summer. Follow to hear how this #kakapo breeding season - likely to be the biggest ever - unfolds! #conservation
www.rnz.co.nz/national/pro...

Hybrids Along a Natural‐Anthropogenic Gradient: Improving Policy and Management Across All Levels of Biodiversity Hybridization has long been a central topic in evolution and conservation. Recent developments in genomics have increased the ability to detect hybridization, defined here as breeding between species....

We have another publication out! 🎉🎉🎉
“Hybrids along a natural–anthropogenic gradient: improving policy and management across all levels of biodiversity.”
We explore how to deal with hybrids in conservation — scientifically and practically. A thread 🧵
conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

This report just posted addresses one of the biggest questions that countries always ask about the genetic diversity indicators: how often and how much monitoring is needed for the Ne500 indicator, in realistic situations? ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v... @katherinehebert.bsky.social

Conserving Genetic and Genomic Diversity in Accordance with the Global Biodiversity Framework Adopted in December 2022, the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) under the Convention on Biological Diversity outlines a visionary road map guiding humanity's relationship wit...

We have just published a landmark article on genetic diversity and global biodiversity policy, focusing on the CBD. We aim to help researchers, practitioners, & other interested parties understand the KMGBF and achieve its commitments. www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

Conserving Genetic and Genomic Diversity in Accordance with the Global Biodiversity Framework Adopted in December 2022, the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) under the Convention on Biological Diversity outlines a visionary road map guiding humanity's relationship wit...

New publication out, highlighting the link between genetic diversity (GD) and policy! 🧬📜

"Conserving genetic diversity in accordance with the Global Biodiversity Framework"
www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

We summarize the highlights in this thread. 🧵

Siouxsie Wiles: Why I’m crowdfunding despite winning my legal battle 'Between the ERA and the Employment Court, my husband and I have spent over $632,000.'

Morning peeps! I’ve written a piece for @thespinoff.bsky.social on why I ended up taking legal action against my employer and a little bit about how it played out. The whole story needs a book to tell but this is a good start 😂 thespinoff.co.nz/society/01-1... thespinoff.co.nz/society/01-1...

Exciting day today. Not only is it Halloween, but my crowdfunding campaign is also live! Please support me by making a pledge and/or sharing on all your socials and with your friends, family, and colleagues. Thanks to everyone offering rewards. You rock! www.pledgeme.co.nz/projects/852...

Q&A: inbreeding and its implications for conservation - BMC Biology Inbreeding depression plays a role in the decline, endangerment, and extinction of small populations, and thus inbreeding has received much attention in conservation biology. The term inbreeding is us...

Our Q&A article on inbreeding for conservation is out in BMC Biology!

We discuss some important key concepts related to inbreeding in the light of new genomic tools and what it means for conservation when we want to improve species survival.

#consgen

bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

New Zealand’s invasive starlings on the cover of Molecular Ecology! 🐦🧬

This collaborative project unpacks the invasion history of starlings in Aotearoa New Zealand, combining population genomics with historical records of human-mediated translocations.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Hoiho - the world’s rarest penguin, fewer than 150 mainland pairs left

🐧We researched one of the world’s rarest #penguins. The yellow‑eyed penguin (aka hoiho/takaraka) isn’t one homogeneous species after all!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

#hoiho #conservation #genomics #birds #nzwildlife #endangered #wildlife #nature

🧵1/
Excited to share our new paper in Molecular Biology & Evolution!
👉 [https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf250]
It started as a lab-meeting sanity check for another project — and ended up turning into a new way to interpret machine-learning models in population genomics.

📹 In collaborative wildlife conservation, Indigenous Peoples and Western science partners increasingly balance principles of open data with Indigenous Data Sovereignty. Potential tension is explored and nine recommendations to advance resolution provided➡️https://buff.ly/TOJHc4s

A mosaic of modular variation at a single gene underpins convergent plumage coloration The reshuffling of genomic variation from multiple origins is an important contributor to phenotypic diversification, yet insights into the evolutionary trajectories of this combinatorial process and ...

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Big shakeup for NZ's research funding - Expert Reaction - Science Media Centre The Government will consolidate decision-making for New Zealand's science research funding as part of its new science system strategy. Research Funding New Zealand will be a new independent board that...

Big shakeup for NZ’s research funding – Expert Reaction

Whimsical photo of a karure | kakaruia | Chatham Island black robin courtesy of Kevin Parker. Features as a wee black bird with four leg bands: white over orange on the left leg and red over white on the right leg. Sneaky tufts of feathers peak out from otherwise borb-like body, encouraged by the unseen wind.

What are the ‘social dimensions’ of moving species for conservation and why does engaging with them matter?

This is the focus of our new paper doi.org/10.1016/j.tr... published in @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social olevo.bsky.social led by ever talented @aisrayne.bsky.social

📷 Kevin Parker

Equity in science is a beautiful lie — and I’m done pretending Science isn’t really moving towards equity; institutions are just perfecting the appearance of equity. We need to build an alternative system.

"But it exposed how the system works: extract specialist knowledge at low cost and mostly without giving credit, repackage it into global claims and call it collaboration. I declined." @darmenteras.bsky.social

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

New manuscript out today in @ecol-evol.bsky.social, led by my grad student Anais. We collated data from thousands of recent animal pop-gen studies to test 3 simple hypotheses: does genomic (1) diversity decrease (yes), (2) differentiation increase (yes), both with increased IUCN-endangerment?

YouTube video by University of Otago - Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka Inaugural Professorial Lecture – Professor Priscilla Wehi

In an inaugural lecture, newly-minted professors often talk about their journey. But our co-director @cillaw.bsky.social used hers to challenge us to reimagine who we are as New Zealanders, and how that relates to the work we do as researchers and scientists → www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPcK... 🧪 🧵

Fitness benefits of genetic rescue despite chromosomal differences in an endangered pocket mouse Two-thirds of Earth’s species have undergone population declines, leaving many vulnerable to genomic erosion and inbreeding depression. Genetic rescue can boost the fitness of small populations, but p...

Excited to share our new paper on genetic rescue in the Pacific pocket mouse! To conserve this endangered species, we sought to understand whether small populations at risk of outbreeding depression are better managed in isolation or with gene flow. @science.org
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...