The toxicological effect of Ruta graveolens extract in Siamese fighting fish: a behavioral and histopathological approach
By: Forsatkar, Mohammad Navid, Mohammad Ali Nematollahi, and Culum Brown. Ecotoxicology 25, no. 4 (2016): 824-834. | Find with Google Scholar »
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Dear all,
Coming up next week is our regular monthly department meeting when you can get updates, news and discussion on department and university issues, including a presentation from Michael Hitchens from the Faculty on the new assessment policy that starts next semester – essential information for all unit convenors.
Our newest member of academic staff, Dr Kirsten Bilgmann (replacing Renee Catullo in a 2 year position) starts next week – if you see her around please make her welcome!
I encourage teaching staff to use the resources of the new L&T team (developing assessments, iLearn, etc) before everyone else realises they are here – email them on fse-LT@mq.edu.au
Finally don’t forget to send news and things of interest to Hannah (hannah.woodrow-clark@mq.edu.au) to post on the department’s Facebook page and to follow us @MQBiology on twitter!
cheerio
Michelle
Save the Date
This coming week 2nd – 6th May
Mon 2nd; Training sessions: Academic promotions – applying made easy – Research Impact Data; 1:00 – 2:00pm; Library, Level 4, Room M4.02.
Tue 3rd; Departmental Meeting; 1:00 – 2:00pm; E8A-280 (tea room).
Wed 4th; Bioline Morning Tea 10:30am – 12:20pm; E8A-280 (tea room).
Wed 4th; Departmental Seminars by Dr Shaoxiu Ma & Dr Anna Ukkola; 1:00 – 2:00pm; E8A-280 (tea room).
The following week 9th – 13th May
Tue 10th; Supervisor training module: Assessing and ranking prospective domestic and international PhD students; 1:00 – 2:00pm; E8A-280 (tea room).
Wed 11th; Departmental Seminar: Professor Russ Babcock (CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere – Brisbane); 1:00 – 2:00pm; E8A-280 (tea room).
Coming up
Wed 15th – Fri 17th June; 2016 Annual HDR Conference; 9am onwards each day; Location E8A labs.
Aug 20th; Open Day
General News and Announcements
Training sessions: Academic promotions – applying made easy – Research Impact Data:
To assist with academic promotion application, Research Librarians are conducting training sessions on research impact data and methods of collection.
These sessions will show you how to effectively use and gather data from:
- Scopus
- Thomson Reuters ‘Web of Science’
- Google Scholar
When: Monday 2 May 2016
Time: 1-2 pm
Where: Library, Level 4, Room M4.02
RSVP: Susan Shrubb (susan.shrubb@mq.edu.au) or call ext 4389.
Supervisor Training Module: Assessing and ranking prospective domestic and international PhD students
Day/Time/Location: 10 May, 1 pm in the tea room (E8A-280)
Presenters/panel: Linda Beaumont, Martin Whiting, John Alroy and Adam Stow. Jane Yang from the faculty will also be on hand.
The current application system for postgrads is a little opaque to most academics in the department. We will begin by explaining the entry requirements into the PhD program and the difference between direct-entry PhD vs MRes year 2 + PhD. We will then discuss what makes a competitive candidate and how candidates are ranked in the system. This presentation will be an extension of what Linda Beaumont gave at the research retreat at the end of last year. We will also explain what’s required of potential supervisors with respect to data entry and we will discuss how members of the HDR committee can work with academics to ensure their candidates are given the best possible chance of winning a scholarship.
This Week’s Departmental Seminar
Day/Time: Wednesday, 4th May / 1-2pm
Location: E8A-208 (tea room)
Speakers: Dr Anna Ukkola, Macquarie University and Shaoxiu Ma, UNSW
Dr Shaoxiu Ma
Title: Earlier green-up and spring warming amplification over Europe
Abstract: The onset of green-up of plants has advanced in response to climate change. This advance has the potential to affect heat waves via biogeochemical and biophysical processes. Here, a climate model was used to investigate only the biophysical feedbacks of earlier green-up on climate as the biogeochemical feedbacks have been well addressed. Earlier green-up by 5 to 30 days amplifies spring warming in Europe, especially heat waves, but makes few differences to heatwaves in summer. This spring warming is most noticeable within 30 days of advanced green-up and is associated with a decrease in low and middle-layer clouds and associated increases of downward short wave and net radiation. We find negligible differences in the southern hemisphere and low latitudes of the northern hemisphere. Our results provide an estimate of the level of skill necessary in phenology models to avoid introducing biases in climate simulations.
Dr Anna Ukkola
Title: Land surface models systematically overestimate the severity of seasonal-scale droughts
Abstract: Land surface models (LSMs) form an integral part of global climate models used to project future water resources. We evaluated 8 different LSMs for simulating evapotranspiration (ET) during periods of drought across six flux tower sites. We show that LSMs simulated twice as many drought days as observed, pointing to large and systematic biases across LSMs when simulating water and energy fluxes under water-stressed conditions. This results in part from inadequate representations of vegetation-water relationships during drought in the models. The overestimation of drought severity undermines our confidence in the models’ capability in simulating realistic vegetation and hydrological responses to drought under a changing climate and has wider implications for phenomena sensitive to soil moisture, including heat waves.
Plant of the Week – Port Jackson Fig, Ficus rubiginosa
More information from the Hornsby Council.
Lecturer B position (6 months): Development of an online curriculum to support PACE internships
Expressions of interest are sought from appropriately qualified academic staff currently working at Macquarie University to undertake a curriculum development project arising from objectives in the Learning and Teaching Framework.
The primary purpose of the fixed term appointment (by secondment) will be to develop one or more fully designed and operational undergraduate academic units, to be offered online in modularised format. The unit(s) will be designed to support student learning for undergraduates undertaking professional internships as part of the PACE initiative.
The position can be filled on either a part-time or full-time basis and is for a fixed term period of 6 months (by secondment). Applications close 12 May.
Details of the position and online application available at http://jobs.mq.edu.au/cw/en/job/497009/lecturer-in-pace
Contact Lindie Clark <lindie.clark@mq.edu.au> with any questions.
Introducing Nature Ecology & Evolution
Life’s form, function and future
Nature Ecology & Evolution will be an online monthly journal presenting the best research across the full spectrum of ecology and evolutionary biology, encompassing approaches at the molecular, organismal, population, community and ecosystem levels, as well as the importance of biodiversity for human society. The cutting-edge research will be complemented by expert reviews and comment that help place the research in context for researchers and policy makers interested in all aspects of life’s diversity – past, present and future.
Now open for submissions. Consider the journal for your next research paper!
Follow us: @NatureEcoEvo
Cut for a Cause
Natasha Iles, the amazing team leader from Campus Travel is chopping her metre long locks with the hopes to raise funds for 2 causes;
- Assisting a child with cerebral palsy potentially walk and
- Youngcare Australia – independent living for Australians with different needs
Natasha will be donating her hair to a charity that makes wigs for children affected by illness.
Click here if you would like to contribute your share for these causes.
https://www.gofundme.com/eydeqndg
Sydney Chapter – Society for Conservation Biology
We kindly invite you to join us for our next Conservation Café on the 7th of May @ 10am at the Education Precinct in Centennial Park. This is a free event and includes morning-tea nibblies.
Bob Makinson, Vice-President of the Australian Network for Plant Conservation has over 30 years of experience in plant conservation and taxonomy. He is an expert on the plant disease Myrtle Rust and will tell us about some base studies of plant conservation in Australia and give us an overview of some of the biological and political factors involved in it.
There will also be a Mother’s Day plant sale in the nursery at the Education Precinct. A great opportunity to combine learning with pleasure/shopping 🙂
Please download our flyer,
and RSVP on eventbrite (https://conservationcafemay16.eventbrite.com.au)
Greg Mills Memorial Fund Digital Display Screen – A Call For Images
Do you have terrific photos of your work or your study animals/plants, or fantastic shots of your field sites? Or do you have terrific images of life around the Biological Sciences Department? Well then we have a place for your to show off your photographic prowess!
You may have noticed that the Greg Mills Memorial Fund Display Screen has had some new images added to the rotation of late? Well we want more! So contact <ray.duell@mq.edu.au> and arrange to supply your favourite shots for inclusion!
Graduate volunteering enquiry (Michael Davis)
Having just graduated with Bachelor of Biodiversity and Conservation, I am looking to expand my skills and experience in ecological sampling. I am interested in volunteering to assist with research being carried out by any academics or students, particularly in the areas of freshwater ecology, terrestrial vegetation ecology, or related fields of study. I would also be keen to undertake any practical experience assisting ecological consultancy professionals in the field. If you know of anyone undertaking work in these areas, I would be enthusiastic to offer my assistance. I can be contacted via email at <michaeljdavis.1989@gmail.com>, or by phone on 0431 574 253.
ISPG – Product Evaluation
In the Library we are now carrying out 3 yearly evaluation reviews of all our major resourcing products and we have begun with products that are performing very poorly in terms of usage.
ISPG (Independent Scholars Publishing Group) is now currently being reviewed prior to the end of its current licencing contract. As part of the evaluation we would like to know why and how the Department uses ISPG and if there is any other product that could replace it that you may know of for your purposes.
There is no single link that I can send to you for ISPG. The journals that we subscribe to via this group are as follows (each linked).
American Journal of Neuroradiology
British Journal of General Practice
Drug Metabolism and Disposition
European Journal of Endocrinology
Journal of Molecular Endocrinology
Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
Limnology & Oceanography: Fluids & Environments
Peritoneal Dialysis International
The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
The British Journal of Psychiatry
The Journal of Experimental Biology
If you use any of these journals (and ISPG), could you please respond with:
- your name
- why or how do you use ISPG?
- do you know of any other product on the market that could achieve a similar function?
Please respond to Fiona Jones <fiona.jones@mq.edu.au>. If you’re able to reply by next Wednesday (4th May) that would be very helpful. We greatly appreciate your input into these evaluations.
The Conversation
James Camac recently published with Dick Williams a conversation piece on climate change and the Australian Alps
New Publications
Freshwater Swamp Forest Trees of Bangladesh Face Extinction Risk from Climate Change
By: Deb, Jiban Chandra; Rahman, H. M. Tuihedur; Roy, Anindita WETLANDS Volume: 36 Issue: 2 Pages: 323-334 Published: APR 2016 | Find with Google Scholar »Individual recognition based on communication behaviour of male fowl
By: Smith, Carolynn L., Jessica Taubert, Kimberly Weldon, and Christopher S. Evans. Behavioural processes 125 (2016): 101-105. | Find with Google Scholar »A simple Bayesian method of inferring extinction: reply
By: Alroy, John. ECOLOGY Volume: 97 Issue: 3 Pages: 798-800 Published: MAR 2016 | Find with Google Scholar »Biology of angel sharks (Squatina sp.) and sawsharks (Pristiophorus sp.) caught in south-eastern Australian trawl fisheries and the New South Wales shark-meshing (bather-protection) program
By: Raoult, Vincent, Vic Peddemors, and Jane Williamson. Marine and Freshwater Research (2016). | Find with Google Scholar »GoPros™ as an underwater photogrammetry tool for citizen science
By: Vincent Raoult, Peter A. David, Sally F. Dupont, Ciaran P. Mathewson, Samuel J. O’Neill, Nicholas N. Powell, Jane E. Williamson. (2016) Peerj https://peerj.com/articles/1960/ | Find with Google Scholar »In the Media
David Wells spoke with Australian Geographic about brush turkeys
David Wells from the Department of Biological Sciences spoke with Australian Geographic about brush turkeys, which are making a comeback in Australian east coast suburbs.