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BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT MATTERS | April 13, 2018

 

Dear all,

The mid-semester break is almost upon us, meaning a short respite for unit convenors (apart from the on-campus sessions for externals of course!) and graduation ceremonies non-stop. Ours is next Wednesday 18 April at 2.30pm – we are still looking for lots more people in the procession, so if you are an academic or postdoc then please sign up by emailing graduation@mq.edu.au ASAP. Dr Rebecca Spindler (Science Director Bush Heritage, formerly Taronga Conservation Society) will be the guest speaker at the ceremony. And while on L&T things, don’t forget to come along to the L&T special seminar on Tuesday on engaging large cohorts of students – it should be fantastic!

I will be away for the next two weeks enjoying the wonders of the botanical diversity hotspot that is SW Western Australia – Mel Bishop and Mariella have the reins and will take good care of everything I’m sure!

Cheers,

Michelle

Save the Date

This coming week 16th – 20th April

Tue 17th: L&T Special Seminar Commitment, engagement and learning in a large cohort of students by Maurizio Manuguerra; 1 – 2pm; 6WW (E8C)-212 for (sign up here).

Wed 18th: Department Morning Tea; 10.30am – 11.30am; Biology Tea Room. (supported by Logical Freight Solutions)

Wed 18th: Biological Sciences Graduation Ceremony; 2.30pm; Location 14SCO (E7B) main hall.

 

Following week 23rd – 27th April

Wed 25th: ANZAC Day – Public Holiday

Thu 26th: R Users Group; 3.00pm – 5.00pm; Biology Tea Room.

 

Department Seminar Series

Wed May 2nd: Department Seminar – Lisa Schwanz, UNSW; 1.00pm – 2.00pm; Biology Tea Room.

Wed May 16th: Department Seminar – Assoc. Prof. Michael Renton, School of Plant Biology, The University of Western Australia; 1.00pm – 2.00pm; Biology Tea Room.

Wed May 23rd: Department Seminar – Prof. Michael Bunce, School of Plant Biology, ARC Future Fellow Trace and Environmental DNA (TrEnD) laboratory, & Australian Wildlife Forensic Services (AWFS) Department of Environment and Agriculture, Curtin University; 1.00pm – 2.00pm; Biology Tea Room.

Wed June 6th: Department Seminar – Prof. Saul Cunningham, Fenner School, ANU; 1.00pm – 2.00pm; Biology Tea Room.

General News and Announcements

COMINGS AND GOINGS

New Biological Sciences Terrestrial Fieldwork Manager
This week we welcome Josh Griffiths as the newest member of the Biology technical staff team. Josh will also manage the role of the terrestrial fieldwork manager.

Josh joins us from UNSW where he recently submitted his PhD thesis investigating evolutionary and ecological factors favouring allocation to sexual and clonal reproduction in plants. He comes with a strong background in plant ecology and evolutionary biology.  Josh has lots of experience as a technician supporting first year biology courses at UNSW.
Josh will be based in E8A 106, so please say hello when you pass by and make him feel welcome!

 

 

RESEARCH STORIES, OUTCOMES AND OPPORTUNITIES

Publication Spotlight

A new publication just out by Jen McGowan, postdoc on the Wild Ark project lead by Linda Beaumont

 “Ocean Zoning within a Sparing versus Sharing Framework”  recently published in Theoretical Ecology.

In this paper Jen and her colleagues:

  • apply the broad concepts from the terrestrial sparing vs. sharing debate to the sea and propose it as a framework to inform marine zoning based on three possible management strategies, establishing: no-take marine reserves, regulated fishing zones, and unregulated open-access areas.
  • develop a general model that maximizes standing fish biomass, given a fixed management budget while maintaining a minimum level of fisheries harvest.
  • found that when management budgets are small, sea-sparing (no-take marine reserves and open-access zones) is the optimal management strategy  because for all parameters tested, reserves are more cost-effective at increasing standing biomass than traditional fisheries management. For larger budgets, the optimal strategy switches to sea-sharing because, at a certain point, further investing to grow the no-take marine reserves reduces catch below the minimum harvest constraint.
  •  illustrate how general rules of thumb derived from plausible, single-purpose models can help guide marine protected area policy under our novel sparing vs. sharing framework. This work is the beginning of a basic theory for optimal zoning allocations and should be considered complementary to the more specific spatial planning literature for marine reserve as nations expand their marine protected area estates.

 McGowan J, Bode M, Holden, M, Davis K, Krueck N, Beger M, Yates K & HP Possingham (2018) Ocean zoning within a sparing vs. sharing framework. Theoretical Ecology. doi.org/10.1007/s12080-017-0364-x

Biology HDR Grants for Fieldwork and Conference Attendance NOW AVAILABLE!

The Department has two grants available for post-graduate students, with applications for both closing on 30 April, 2018. These are amazing opportunities that enable post-grads to extend their research. The Rice Memorial Field Research Award is open to any PhD candidate who is undertaking fieldwork – irrespective of the field. Up to $2000 is available to help with the costs of fieldwork. The Milthorpe Memorial Award in Plant Biology is open to HDR students researching any aspect of plant biology, which can include plant-animal interactions, etc. Up to $2500 is available to help with research costs or conference attendance.

These Awards can greatly enhance the quality of your research, so be sure to submit your application by 30 April 2018. For further details, see the attached forms or email <linda.beaumont@mq.edu.au>. Rice Memorial Field Research Proposal Award_2018  Milthorpe Award Application_2018

Hidden Figures in STEM

The Hidden Figures in STEM exhibition was run as part of the celebrations for International Women’s Day. If you missed it, A4 copies of the posters have now been put up in the Tea Room Corridor, E8A (14EAR) 2nd floor. The exhibition consists of biographies of women scientists whose contributions and discoveries were ignored, dismissed, or even stolen. Come learn about the amazing discoveries these women made!

Seeking Interviewees for a Research Project: Communities of Coping in Academia

Faiza Asif is a Master of Research (MRes) student in the School of Management in the Faculty of Business & Economics, Macquarie University, who is conducting a study about communities of coping in academia (i.e., employees seeking each other’s support; Korczynski, 2003) and how they help academics to cope with the emotional labour requirements of their teaching role. Emotional labour refers to ” the management of feeling to create a publicly observable facial and bodily display” (Hochschild, 1983, p. 7). She is hoping to interview 15 academics in order to fulfill the requirements of her degree.

To be considered for this research, the interviewees need to have a balanced or a teaching only workload. The interview will last between 30-60 minutes and can be conducted at a time that works best for the staff member. People can find this kind of interview quite enjoyable because it gives them a chance to talk about their own thoughts/feelings about their academic role in a confidential environment.
Below is the Participation information and consent form (PICF) that provides further details of the project. If you would like to be interviewed as part of the project, or get further information, please contact Faiza via e-mail, <faiza.asif@students.mq.edu.au>.
PICF

Conference Sponsorship Program

The Office of the NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer is pleased to advise that applications are now open for the Conference Sponsorship Program round for conferences being held between June 2018 and June 2019. Please visit our website at http://www.chiefscientist.nsw.gov.au/investing-in-science/conference-sponsorship-program for further details on eligibility and how to apply.
To submit an application, please email raap.grants@industry.nsw.gov.au by COB Friday 20 April.

2018 Research Grant Opportunities from the Royal Zoological Society of NSW

Each year, RZS NSW coordinates two grant schemes dedicated to furthering the field of Australian zoology and conservation biology. Both of these programs are aimed at supporting young researchers. Please feel free to contact Dr Martin Predavec <office@rzsnsw.org.au> should you have any questions about these opportunities.

Small and short-term grants

The Ethel Mary Read Research Grant Fund aims to support short term research projects and student researchers working in any aspect of zoology within Australasia. Nine grants of up to $1500 are made available each year. The grant may be used to bridge a gap in existing funding, instigate pilot studies, alleviate fieldwork travel costs or support major equipment purchases. Applicants must be a member of RZS NSW to apply. Applications close on April 30th 2018 and grant recipients will be contacted in July 2018. More information including application details can be found at http://www.rzsnsw.org.au/emr

Postgraduate and early career researcher grants

In partnership with Paddy Pallin and the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife, RZS NSW is offering annual grants of up to $7000 for field-based ecological research. The objective of the grant program is to provide financial support for conservation‐based research of Australian ecosystems that will ultimately lead to tangible outcomes for management. Grants are open to postgraduate students or early career researchers with less than 3 years of research-related experience post-PhD. Applicants must be a member of RZS NSW and be enrolled with, or employed by, an Australian University or research institution. Applications for these grants will open in August 2018. More information can be found at http://www.rzsnsw.org.au/paddy-pallin-research-grants

Participate in the Falling Walls Lab Australia 2018

The Academy invites applications from Australian researchers, postdocs and students, entrepreneurs, engineers and innovators from all areas to attend the Falling Walls Lab Australia 2018. Deadline for applications is 5pm (AEST) Monday 28th May 2018. 20 contestants will be invited to participate in this challenge with each required to give a 3 minute presentation on their research work, business model, social idea or initiative based on the “Which walls will fall next” concept. Candidates should be research active in any field of the natural sciences, including technology, engineering and medicine as well as social sciences and humanities. Follow this link to view more information and to apply.

SoS Science and Research – Call for Proposals

OEH is now calling for proposals for projects under the SoS Science and Research Plan. The SoS Science and Research Plan addresses critical program level knowledge needs and aligns with the SoS aim to improve the maximum number of species in the wild over the next 100 years. As such projects must benefit multi-species and/or ecological communities and maintain a collaborative approach between external partners and OEH. Proposals that focus on single species will not be considered.

Research priorities for the 2018/19 round of grants are:

  • Adaptive capacity of threatened species and threatened ecological communities
  • Monitoring, evaluation and reporting (MER)
  • Fire
  • Research grant pool

For the 2018/19 financial year there is an allocation of $400,000 for new projects.

The research project application and assessment process is set out in the attached SoS Science & Research Plan and Implementation Plan 2017/18. Please read the attached guiding documents carefully before preparing and submitting a proposal. If re-applying please ensure you have addressed previous feedback and that projects align with priority research themes for this year. Proposals can be submitted electronically to me via email using the attached template. The deadline for submitting a proposal is Sunday 13th May 2018. For information on the SoS Program visit http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/topics/animals-and-plants/threatened-species/saving-our-species-program. If you require further information or assistance with your project proposal, please contact <Bryony.Horton@environment.nsw.gov.au>. SoS Science and Research Plan-Jul2016 Proposal template 2018_19 SoS Science and Research Implementation Plan – 201718

Ecological Society of Australia Grant Opportunities for HDR Students – As an added bonus, the dept will match funds up to $3k for successful applicants.

https://www.ecolsoc.org.au/news/2018/02/holsworth-round-1-applications-now-open https://www.ecolsoc.org.au/awards-and-prizes/student-awards-and-grants/jill-landsberg-trust-fund-scholarship

Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund: Supporting Conservation of Threatened Species

Deadline: Saturday, June 30, 2018

Applicants are invited to apply for the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund that has been established to provide targeted grants to individual species conservation initiatives, recognize leaders in the field and elevate the importance of species in the broader conservation debate. Its focus is global and eligibility for grants will extend to all plant, animal and fungi species conservation efforts, without discrimination on the basis of region or selected species. The Fund intends to be as flexible and accommodating as possible when reviewing applications, and to take into account as many different factors as is reasonable when assessing the merit of a suggested project. To support this and to try to streamline the application process, the review process is kept comparatively simple.
Funding Information
The Fund maximum grant size is $25,000, and any application asking for more than this from the Fund will be rejected. The total budget of a project can be higher if there are other sources of funding.
Eligibility Criteria
– Anyone directly involved in species conservation can apply to the Fund for a grant.
– The Fund will consider grants for the conservation of any threatened or poorly known animal, plant or fungus species.
– The Fund is primarily interested in situ species conservation work, but will consider applications for an ex situ project where it is demonstrated to be critical to the survival of the species concerned.
– Language: Applications must be submitted in English.
– Currency: Budgets must be submitted in US Dollars.
 How to Apply
Interested applicants must fill the application form via given website.
For more information, please visit Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund.

LEARNING AND TEACHING

Call Out for Industry Partners!

We want to improve the employability of our Master of Conservation Biology graduates by giving them opportunities to work with partner organisations outside of Macquarie University, as part of their coursework degree. If you have already established a relationship with an someone within an organisation (e.g. OEH, Nature Conservancy, Australian Museum, etc…) please let us know! Fill in the database here, and please indicate if you think they might be interested in having internship students.

SEMINARS AND WORKSHOPS

MolSci Special Seminar

Date/Time/Venue: Monday, 16th April 2018, 1 – 2pm, 4WW (F7B) 422 APAF seminar room

Speaker:  Dr Denis Bauer from CSIRO.

Title: How novel compute technology and artificial intelligence transforms life science research. For more information visit – https://goto.mq.edu.au/6k

Australian Mangrove and Saltmarsh Network conference

The Department of Environmental Sciences is hosting the annual “Australian Mangrove and Saltmarsh Network” conference here at Macquarie University on 17-18 of April, with two field days following. The draft program is attached. Registration can be for the full meeting or a single day at this link.

Research Enrichment Program – Outlook Conference

July 24-25, Incubator Building, Macquarie University – “The Future of the Human Landscape”

The Outlook Conference will bring together leading thinkers in diverse disciplines, spanning molecules to landscapes, and from scientific, historical and social viewpoints. The objective is to immerse participants in the frontiers of adjacent, and more distant disciplines. Speakers will present their vision for humanity’s future. These talks will not recount personal research findings, but will be future-scoping exercises. Our goal is to identify promising areas for high level trans-disciplinary collaboration, for novel applications, and to expose postgraduate students and early career researchers to different ways of thinking. To register, email <fse.rep-admin@mq.edu.au>. Research Enrichment Program Outlook Flyer

Writing Workshops – resting next week!

Running weekly for most of the year: Fridays 2-4pm in room 6SR (E8B) 111. Convened by Ken Cheng. These writing workshops are meant for HDR students and early-career researchers. In these face-to-face encounters, writing at any stage of any genre is welcome, from first draft to final polish, from empirical paper to literature review to popular news story. Ken envisages personal feedback linked perhaps with rounds of revisions on selected passages during the session. The aim is not just to get stuff written, but to write everything well. Those interested in attending a session should email Ken Cheng <ken.cheng@mq.edu.au> by Wednesday 12:00-noon, preferably with a draft attached of what they are working on and some indication of what they especially need help with.

The Australian Eye-Tracking Conference 2018 (AusET2018) – Framing the Future of Eye-Tracking Research
Thursday 26 April – Saturday 28 April 2018, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia www.mq.edu.au/eye-tracking
The Australian Eye-Tracking Conference 2018 is an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary conference with the primary goal of providing a forum for cutting-edge eye-tracking research. The program is now available at http://www.cvent.com/events/the-australian-eye-tracking-conference-2018/agenda-9ba7562aa2724595af27d6f9e039f7cc.aspx Registrations are now open. If you want more information, please contact “Leidy Castro-Meneses” <leidy.castro-meneses@mq.edu.au>.

ADMIN THINGS
WHS Notes

1. The WHS committee has finished most of the office inspections now and is working through laboratory inspections now. Thanks for you cooperation, and please engage constructively with us on any remedial actions noted in the reports to make our working environment safer.
2. The minutes from the last Faculty WHS Committee can be found here.
3. Lab Essential – Just after the last staff meeting (3rd April) you would have received an email from the Dean requesting that you complete the new process “Lab Essentials”. If anyone has already logged in and completed the necessary hurdles, well done! If you identified any issues in the process then please let me (simon.griffith@mq.edu.au) know as we are providing feedback to the Faculty. We are all going to have to comply with this new process by the August deadline and we will work on a way to try and streamline this process for you all. We will endeavour to identify a date in May to workshop this together, although this might be delayed given that there seem to be some technical issues with the current version.
PURE Training
The PURE system is used to manage researcher profiles, outputs including publications, funding applications, awards, projects and reports. Do you feel like you could use some more PURE training? Please register your interest via an email to jenny.ghabache@mq.edu.au

Are you getting credit for your Outreach Activities? Have participated in an activity for Biology recently?
Don’t forget to fill in the super-quick form here – ACCESS OUTREACH FORM HERE

Photo Competition – April 2018 –  Enter to win a $100 Gift Card this month!

This month’s theme is ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL
Your images could be used on our Department website, this newsletter, on our social media and in other biology publications. A lucky person’s name will be drawn each month, and they will receive a $100 Gift Card! Criteria: you must provide caption information including details of what/where/who(names of people)/date & you must have taken all photos & the image was taken in the last five years. Please follow the dropbox file request link to submit your images. Submission close: 30 APRIL 2018 You can enter as many photos as you like – one entry to the draw for each good photo, good luck!

Also, we have a winner!  Last month’s ‘Summer’ photo theme draw was won by Michelle Power! Here she is being all excited about her win (while at Avalon Airport).

Respect. Now. Always. Programme –  More information click here. Respect@MQ Workshops– More information click here.

Administration Staffing Updates

Minor changes to admin staff will result in reduced staff availability as of April, so please make an effort to plan your admin needs and avoid potential delays to your request.

Changes:

Sharyon O’Donnell – Unavailable/On Leave from Monday 26 March until Friday 6 April, returning Monday 9 April

Julian May – Unavailable/On Leave from Thursday 29 March until Friday 27 April, returning Monday 30 April

Adyen De Courcey – On Leave for 3 months, please direct your enquires to the fse.bio-adm@mq.edu.au

For any administration enquiries please email them to fse.bio-adm@mq.edu.au as this is seen by all administrative staff. The most appropriate person will reply to your email.

Location-W (Fauna Park) Admin Support
Monday, Wednesday & Friday from 10am – 1pm in W19F

Deliveries
You will notice that we have placed a red “transfer Box” in W19F, put anything in this box that needs to be delivered to the E8 area location. We also have a red “Transfer Box” in E8B Level 2 location, which is for goods to betaken to the W location. These boxes will be emptied every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 10am. Deliveries from the main “MQ” store will be delivered daily. Any questions please contact Sharyon O’Donnell

Building Name Changes – Cheat Sheet – If you are trying to identify buildings on campus with new names or old names, please use this link to convert them from old to new or vice versa.

Correct Method for Submitting to Department Matters

Department Matters submissions now have their own email address.  Please send all future submissions to the newsletter to <fse.bionewsletter@mq.edu.au>!

Also, please see the following to correctly format your additions, and keep them rolling in!

You may have noticed that we try to keep all the articles to the same format for the Department Matters, however, rest assured, they do NOT all turn up in this format! To help keep your Department Matters looking as good as possible, when sending in additions to the Newsletter, please try to keep these formatting guidelines in mind.

  1. Please write in third person. The information is coming from the Newsletter, not directly from you.
  2. Do not use fancy text formatting. Bold heading, normal text, and only italics or bold to highlight. No font size changes will make it through, sorry.
  3. If sending via email, set your email output to basic. HTML output will add all sort of formatting that will have to be removed before your article can go into the newsletter.

Keeping to these guidelines will streamline your article’s addition to the newsletter. Thank you.

  

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SUSTAINABILITY

Is our “research waste” helping local wildlife?

During this week’s heatwave, a large flock of galahs and our “resident couple” of yellow-masked plovers have been spotted in the Plant Growth Facility drinking water running off our glasshouses. Have you ever wondered how (an unfortunate) by-product of our research can be a important resource for our urban wildlife? Alessandro Ossola, Centre for Smart Green Cities

BLOGS AND OTHER THINGS OF INTEREST

Plant of the Week!

For this week – Protea – 

Have you noticed that bouquets of Australian Natives invariably include Australian Banksias together with various combinations of Protea, Leucodendron and Leucospermum? The latter are certainly natives, but they’re natives of southern Africa, not Australia.

Charity Event at Atlassian, April 19

Hugh Burley recently joined the committee of a philanthropic organisation called 10*10, which organises crowd funding events for small charities. They organised one last November which raised about $22k for charities helping refugees, families affected by domestic violence and young girls in need of mentoring. It was a fantastic event so he volunteered again. On Thursday 19th of April (from about 6.30-9pm), there will be another event at Atlassian on George St (very good view from up there). The premise is that 10 committee members invite at least 10 friends to attend and support the charities (also lots of networking, good food and drinks, etc.). The format is similar to a ‘Dragon’s Den’ forum, where charities pitch to the audience and are asked questions from a leading member of the business and/or philanthropic community (this time it will be Fred Schebesta, the founder of finder.com.au). 10*10 aims to support emerging charities where donations can make a big impact, rather than established charities. So no Red Cross sized organisations!

Charities are Barayamal https://www.barayamal.com.au/team/  John Mac http://johnmacfoundation.org/  Dandelion https://dandelionsupport.org.au/

To attend costs $100 (100% tax deductible), and on the night you can choose which charity your donation goes to. We’ve received great sponsorship to date from a number of groups, so all alcohol, food and catering is included (a friend of mine is doing the food, it will include brownies). Here is the event page: https://10×10.pozible.com/project/10×10-sydney-19-april  If you have any questions please contact Hugh Burley <hugh.burley@mq.edu.au>.

March for Science Australia, Saturday, 14th April 2018.

SCIENCE, NOT SILENCE

The March for Science celebrates the public discovery, distribution, and understanding of scientific knowledge as crucial to the freedom, success, health, and safety of life on this planet. We are a nonpartisan group, marching to demand action in the following areas: Literacy, Communication, Policy, and Investment. More info https://marchforscienceaustralia.org/

New Publications

The need for spatially explicit quantification of benefits in invasive-species management

By: Januchowski‐Hartley, Stephanie R., Vanessa M. Adams, and Virgilio Hermoso. Conservation Biology (2017). | Find with Google Scholar »

Variability in diatom and silicoflagellate assemblages during mid-Pliocene glacial-interglacial cycles determined in Hole U1361A of IODP Expedition 318, Antarctic Wilkes Land Margin

By: Armbrecht, Linda H., Vikki Lowe, Carlota Escutia, Masao Iwai, Robert McKay, and Leanne K. Armand. Marine Micropaleontology 139 (2018): 28-41. | Find with Google Scholar »

Feeding Relationships among Six Seagrass-associated Fishes in the Northeastern Gwangyang Bay, Southern Korea

By: Park, Joo Myun, Seok Nam Kwak, and In-Seong Han. Ocean Science Journal (2017): 1-10. | Find with Google Scholar »

Vessel-associated cells in angiosperm xylem: Highly specialized living cells at the symplast-apoplast boundary

By: Morris, Hugh, Lenka Plavcová, Mustapha Gorai, Matthias M. Klepsch, Martyna Kotowska, H. Jochen Schenk, and Steven Jansen. American journal of botany (2018). | Find with Google Scholar »

The secondary impact of mining on primates and other medium to large mammals in forest reserves in southwestern Ghana

By: Owusu, Erasmus H., Benjamin Y. Ofori, and Daniel K. Attuquayefio. The Extractive Industries and Society (2017). | Find with Google Scholar »

Ocean zoning within a sparing vs. sharing framework

By: McGowan J, Bode M, Holden, M, Davis K, Krueck N, Beger M, Yates K & HP Possingham (2018) Theoretical Ecology. doi.org/10.1007/s12080-017-0364-x | Find with Google Scholar »

In the Media

Recent Completions