Geographical patterns of root nodule bacterial diversity in cultivated and wild populations of a woody legume crop
By: Ramoneda, Josep, Johannes J. Le Roux, Emmanuel Frossard, Beat Frey, and Hannes Andres Gamper. FEMS Microbiology Ecology (2020). | Find with Google Scholar »
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Message from the HoD
Dear all,
A big ‘thank you’ to everyone that assisted with the Exec Dean’s tour of Biology on Friday and helped to showcase all the amazing research that we do here. I haven’t had much time to reflect on things as HoD since starting in the role, but I felt an enormous sense of pride in our Department listening to some of our team talk to Magnus about not just their own projects but the work of their colleagues. We are facing a tough and uncertain future in the higher education sector, but I believe if we can work together with the passion and ethos on show today, we will be in far better shape to weather the turbulence ahead.
Enjoy all the latest news from around the Department and have a great weekend.
Cheers
Nathan
Save the Date
Next Week
Wed 12th Aug: Department Seminar, 1pm – 2pm (via Zoom – more details below)
Thurs 13th Aug: R Users Group help session, 2pm – 4pm (via Zoom – more details below)
Future Events
Sat 15th August: MQ’s Open Day (online)
15 August – 15 September: Sydney Science Trail (more info below)
Weekly Events
Wed: Department Seminars ARE BACK via Zoom
Wed: Shut Up and Write sessions – now online!
General News and Announcements
Remembering Our Nonna, Mother Teresa
It is with great sadness to let you know that one of our ex-colleagues and Biology family member’s Teresa Potalivo passed away last week.
Teresa was part of the Faculty and Biology family for 11 years from 2004 to 2015 and before that in Purchasing for 22 years from 1981 to 2004.
She retired twice, once from Purchasing and lastly from Biology in 2015.
Those of you who were lucky enough to meet Teresa will remember her kindness, warmth, work dedication, her delicious biscuits and so much more.
A digital card will be created and sent to the family with your messages of condolences. Please submit your message to Calli Miller <calli.miller@mq.edu.au>
Baby News
Congratulations to postdoc. Laura Ryan (Hart/Neurobiology lab) on the safe arrival of twin girls Sunny and Nyla on Wednesday 5th August. Mother and babies doing well.
Sydney Science Trail
As part of National Science Week from August – September this year, the Australian Museum and Royal Botanic Garden will celebrate contemporary Australian science through a wide range of activities, talks, panel conversations and shows presented by researchers, academics, scientific institutions and industry sponsors.
Biology contributed with a Blog – ‘A Day in the Life of…’ By Professor Ken Cheng, as well as a Virtual Tour of the Living Seawalls project by Melanie Bishop, Katherine Dafforn (Earth & Environmental Sciences) and Maria Pozzo.
See the full program and details:
DIY Face Mask challenge
There have been a few great submissions for the Department DIY Face Mask Challenge.
Michelle Power and Georgina Binns made a short video discussing how they created their own masks, with tips and tricks to make your own.
Here is a photo of Laura Hurley wearing a home made birds of North America mask her cousin sent her. It is two layers with pocket access so you can put in a third more filtering layer and a pipe cleaner for tightening around nose. She suggests googling mask ear savers. “I have to say using ear savers do make longterm mask wear of any sort more tolerable, especially if you have sensitive ears. I have seen other ideas for ear savers from a Money in a barrel money to 3D printed ones that look more like a comb. I like the bowed ribbon because it is easily adjustable, but I’ve also seen people with strips of ribbon/fabric with buttons sewn on that they hook the loops over.
We would love to see more DIY mask updates. Send a photo and blurb to: <fse.bionewsletter@mq.edu.au>
Plant of the Week
This Week: Fuchsia excorticata
New Zealand’s Fuchsia excorticata is unique. It’s the only Fuchsia that grows as a tree. In native forests, the trees are spectacularly beautiful, remarkably distinctive for their reddish-brown peeling bark. The flower colour changes from purple and green to deep crimson as the flower matures, and would you believe it, they have blue pollen! Biogeographically, Fuchsia is really interesting too: most are from South America, 3 species and one natural hybrid from New Zealand, one species from Tahiti, and fossils are known from Australia. Plant of the week – Fuchsia excorticata – a NZ tree with close ties to Nothofagus
OPPORTUNITIES
Trust for Nature – Partnership Manager Job
- Join an organisation that safeguards a future for Victoria’s unique natural environment
- Play a vital role in developing and delivering a major donor and bequest program with a team passionate about enabling people and nature to live and thrive in harmony
- 12 month fixed term full time position
More information can be found on the Trust for Nature website.
Download the position description
Please send in a cover letter, address the key selection criteria of the position description, your CV and the contact details of three referees by 11.59pm, August 9 to recruitment@tfn.org.au.
For further information contact Stephen Thuan, by email to recruitment@tfn.org.au.
SEMINARS AND WORKSHOPS
Biological Sciences Seminar – Date/Time: Wednesday, 12th August; 1pm – 2pm. Speaker: Prof. Mark Elgar Title: The evolutionary significance of insect antennal morphology: natural selection of design solutions Venue: Zoom link will be sent out via email prior to Seminar.
AARGH: R-Users Group (RUG) Help Session
Do you have a problem with data analysis? You might want to give R a go which is a fantastic analytical and plotting tool. For all your R-related queries, drop by the ‘Ask An R Geek for Help’ (aaRgh) session where you can get one-on-one assistance. Or just come by, have some tea, and work on your code.
We welcome R users with any level of experience. If you’re new to R, then it’s a great place to develop a support network – we all learned R at some point, and we know how frustrating it can be sometimes!
Date: Thursday 13 August 2020. Time: 2 PM to 4 PM
Venue: Zoom meeting – please register for this workshop at https://bit.ly/MQCoders_Zoom. After you register you will receive a confirmation email with information about joining the meeting.
If you have not yet joined our Slack workspace you can do so here https://mqcoders.slack.com/. This follows a stack-exchange format, and anyone can post questions and answers – all questions across all platforms are permitted as long as they’re about data/stats. If you would like some help from the MQ R user group community try posting your problem on our #rhelp Slack channel. We also post on Slack about our upcoming events.
We encourage your participation and look forward to seeing you online!
Online Statistics Workshops
Insight Research Services Associated is proud to be presenting three workshops online in October/November 2020. 2020.11 Insight Online
* October 24/25: A Gentle Introduction to Statistics in SPSS and R
* October 28/29: Introduction to Linear and Logistic Regression
* November 4/5: Introduction to Longitudinal Data Analysis
These workshops are aimed at non-statisticians as well as statisticians new to these fields. Please read the attached flyer for more information, or visit our website at <https://insightrsa.com/workshops/upcoming>. For questions please contact Mark Griffin at m.griffin@insightrsa.com or by phone on 0448 176 926.
To keep up to date with the training programs being delivered by Insight please consider joining our email list at <https://insightrsa.com/connect-with-us>.
National Science Week Event – COFFEE IN THE STUDIO || with Michael Gillings and Laura Jade
There is a special programme for National Science Week (15-23 August) called COFFEE IN THE STUDIO. It is a series of online events where artist / scientist Steven Durbach hosts conversations with some of Australia’s most interesting artists and scientists.
You are invited to a conversation with Michael Gillings and Laura Jade. Michael is an eminent Molecular Evolutionary Biologist from Macquarie University with a deep interest in the relationship between art and science and Laura Jade, an artist whose work is profoundly connected to science.
Think of da Vinci. At once an artist and a scientist. These days it often seems that these are seen as different realms. Come listen to Michael and Laura challenge that notion.
WHEN: Friday 21 August; 2pm-3pm
Follow this link to BOOK and also learn more about the COFFEE IN THE STUDIO series.
ADVENTURES ABROAD IN SCIENCE – Live interviews with Intrepid Women (free event)
Canberra produces some superb scientists who end up having amazing adventures in the science world. In these two forums you will meet women who have gone to all kinds of places around the world – remote locations, like Antarctica and PNG, or to the most amazing telescopes, labs or hadron colliders. Find out about their adventures, their discoveries and the funny tales that have happened on the road to their fascinating career.
REGISTER: Saturday 15th, 9 AM AEST – https://tinyurl.com/Women-Adventures-Sat
Sunday 16th, 6.30 PM AEST – https://tinyurl.com/Women-Adventures-Sun
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/702066670353421
SUPPORTED by National Science Week, Boardroom Media, and Smiths Alternative
Venture Café – will be convening their community online, via Zoom, and offering the #ThursdayGathering programming in a Virtual format.
For more information visit: https://venturecafesydney.org/whats-on-this-week
HDR NEWS AND OPPORTUNITIES
PhD scholarships available in Biological Sciences
We have several PhD scholarships available in our lab for enthusiastic students.
Can trees using groundwater be detected using DNA? A key question for managing the health of groundwater dependent vegetation is determining if and when plants are using groundwater. Traditionally this has been determined by testing for the presence of groundwater within the plant tissues using water isotope analysis. This project will develop and trial a novel approach; testing for the presence of trees in groundwater using eDNA. Working with MQ and NSW DPIE staff, the project has scope for the successful candidate to shape the research to explore questions of vegetation ecology and the use of eDNA in environmental monitoring.
How does groundwater pumping affect groundwater ecosystems? The over-abstraction of groundwater is a global problem yet its impacts on the ecosystems most affected are poorly known. This project combines laboratory and field studies to look at changes in groundwater level on the biology, ecology and functioning of aquifers. The project is part of a large collaboration with NSW DPIE, UNSW, BOKU University (Vienna) and Western Washington University. There are 3 PhD positions available that will cover aspects of microbial and invertebrate ecology (including eDNA analysis), hydrogeology, geochemistry and modelling.
Scholarship type: Domestic Scholarship (direct entry to PhD, or MRes Yr2 + PhD)
Projects will be supervised by Grant Hose, Kath Korbel, Anthony Chariton and NSW DPIE staff
Contact Grant Hose – <grant.hose@mq.edu.au> for more information.
THIS AND THAT
Outreach Activities
Have You Participated in an Activity for Biology Recently? Don’t forget to fill in the super-quick form here – ACCESS OUTREACH FORM HERE
Call out for Social Media Content
We are looking to feature a different student each week on the Biology Social Media accounts. If you would like to share your research or fieldwork with the public, please send photos and a short blurb about your work to Calli Miller: <calli.miller@mq.edu.au>
Correct Method for Submitting to Department Matters
Department Matters submissions now have their own email address. Please send all your news items for the newsletter to <fse.bionewsletter@mq.edu.au>
Have You Missed Out on an Issue of Department Matters? Back issues can be found at this newsletter archive link for your reading pleasure.
New Publications
On the origin of hyolith helens
By: Skovsted, Christian B., Mónica Martí Mus, Zhiliang Zhang, Bing Pan, Luoyang Li, Fan Liu, Guoxiang Li, and Zhifei Zhang. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology (2020): 109848. | Find with Google Scholar »Lizard Embryos Prioritize Posthatching Energy Reserves over Increased Hatchling Body Size during Development*
By: Murphy, Kaitlyn M., Rajkumar S. Radder, Richard Shine, and Daniel A. Warner. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology 93, no. 5 (2020): 339-346. | Find with Google Scholar »Elevational partitioning in species distribution, abundance and body size of Australian alpine grasshoppers (Kosciuscola)
By: Yadav, Sonu, Adam Stow, and Rachael Y. Dudaniec. Austral Ecology (2020). | Find with Google Scholar »Global status and conservation potential of reef sharks
By: MacNeil, M. Aaron, Demian D. Chapman, Michelle Heupel, Colin A. Simpfendorfer, Michael Heithaus, Mark Meekan, Euan Harvey et al. Nature (2020): 1-6. | Find with Google Scholar »Macroecological patterns in flower colour are shaped by both biotic and abiotic factors
By: Dalrymple, Rhiannon L., Darrell J. Kemp, Habacuc Flores‐Moreno, Shawn W. Laffan, Thomas E. White, Frank A. Hemmings, and Angela T. Moles. New Phytologist. | Find with Google Scholar »Impact of 2019-2020 mega-fires on Australian fauna habitat
By:Ward, Michelle, Ayesha IT Tulloch, James Q. Radford, Brooke A. Williams, April E. Reside, Stewart L. Macdonald, Helen J. Mayfield et al. Nature Ecology & Evolution (2020): 1-6. | Find with Google Scholar »A continuous-time state-space model for rapid quality control of argos locations from animal-borne tags
By: Jonsen, Ian D., Toby A. Patterson, Daniel P. Costa, Philip D. Doherty, Brendan J. Godley, W. James Grecian, Christophe Guinet et al. arXiv preprint arXiv:2005.00401 (2020). | Find with Google Scholar »Glycera sheikhmujibin. sp. (Annelida: Polychaeta: Glyceridae): A New Species of Glyceridae from the Saltmarsh of Bangladesh
By: Hossain, M. Belal, and Pat Hutchings. Diversity 12, no. 6 (2020): 213. | Find with Google Scholar »Tradeoffs between dispersal and reproduction at an invasion front of cane toads in tropical Australia
By: Kelehear, Crystal, and Richard Shine. Scientific Reports 10, no. 1 (2020): 1-7. | Find with Google Scholar »In the Media
Associate Professor Nathan Hart was interviewed on Prime 7 News regarding research into whether sharks attack surfers mistaking them for seals.
Read more »
Dr Vanessa Pirotta was interviewed on Channel 7 News about a mother whale who rescued her calf at Manly Beach after getting too close with beachgoers.
Read more »
Prasanth Subramani was invited to be on the grant review panel for Cystic Fibrosis Australia towards the 2020 Abbie Fennessy Memorial Fellowship
Read more »
Honorary Postdoctoral Associate Alison Downing was interviewed by Graham Ross on Radio 2GB on 2nd August, on Caffeine, Citrus and Honey Bees.
Professor Culum Brown provided comment to ABC News regarding two shark attacks off Tasmania.
Read more »
Professor Culum Brown was featured on Radio New Zealand and News Hub regarding the intelligence of fish.
Read more »
Associate Professor Nathan Hart was featured in the Sunday Telegraph and syndicate publications regarding research into whether sharks attack surfers mistaking them for seals.
Read more »