Telemetry reveals existing marine protected areas are worse than random for protecting the foraging habitat of threatened shy albatross (Thalassarche cauta)
By: Mason, Claire, Rachael Alderman, Jennifer McGowan, Hugh P. Possingham, Alistair J. Hobday, Michael Sumner, and Justine Shaw. Diversity and Distributions 24, no. 12 (2018): 1744-1755. | Find with Google Scholar »
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Hi all,
A busy week – great end of year function after the grading meeting – looking forward to next weeks dept retreat.
cheers,
Michelle
-click thumbnail for a larger image-
Save the Date
This coming week 10th – 14th December
Dec 10-11th: Department Retreat for academic staff; MQ city campus.
Dec 12th: MRes Poster Session (July starting students); 9.30am – 10.30am; 14EAR (E8A) 280 Biology Tea Room (morning tea provided).
Dec 12th: Sustainability Silver Accreditation Morning Tea; 10.30am; 14EAR (E8A) 280 Biology Tea Room.
Dec 12th: MU Species Spectrum Research Centre end-of-year event; 11.00am-1.00pm (including lunch); ‘Senate Room’ (16 Wally’s Walk, room 310).
Dec 12th: MU Species Spectrum Research Centre after-event toast; 3.30pm onwards; MQ Campus Commons Ubar.
Dec 13th: aaRgh R drop in help; 3.00pm – 4.00pm; 14EAR (E8A) 280 Biology Tea Room.
Dec 13th: Biology Social Club; 5.00pm – 7.00pm; Biology Courtyard.
Following week 17th – 21st December
It’s oh so quiet…
Future Events
Dec 24, 2018 – Jan 1 2019 Inclusive – University shutdown.
2019
Feb 14th: 6WW (E8C) Digital Teaching Lab Induction; 9.00am – 11:30am; 6WW (E8C) – 106.
Feb 15th: 4WW (F7B) Digital Teaching Lab Induction; 9.30am – 11:30am; 4WW (F7B) – 105.
Feb 19th: 14EAR (E8A) Digital Teaching Lab Induction; 9.00am – 12:00pm; 14EAR (E8A) – 120 (Red Lab).
General News and Announcements
Accommodation Wanted – Oscar Perez-Priego, his partner Rocio & their two young boys are arriving in Sydney on Jan 10th (Oscar will be joining Ian Wright’s lab for a three-year position). The family is looking for short-term accommodation, for the first few weeks when they arrive, and also looking for long-term accommodation in a suburb accessible to MQ by public transport. If you know of any great opportunities for the Perez-Priegos, could you please let Oscar know? <opriego@bgc-jena.mpg.de>. Many thanks!
Marine Fieldwork Approvals for December – Your friendly marine fieldwork manager, Nick Harris, will be away from the 7th of December until the New Year. For all marine fieldwork approvals, please see Josh Griffiths in the interim. For any proposed boating, snorkelling or diving fieldwork in December, please see Nick before the 4th to discuss.
Sustainability Silver Accreditation Morning Tea – With thanks to the hard work of the Sustainability Working Group, and input from many people across the department, Biology has been successful in achieving Silver accreditation for Sustainability and it the first academic department in the university to achieve this status. We will celebrate this achievement at the department morning tea on Wednesday 12th December at 10:30am, in the Biology Tearoom. Please join us for cake and presentation.
Christmas Hamper Program – North Ryde Community Aid – Last day to donate: Monday 10th December (MORNING!)
Christmas is just around the corner and North Ryde Community Aid is now gearing up for their annual Christmas Hamper Program. Since 2016, MQ Uni has done a fantastic job to band together to contribute generously to this great cause. Once again, Sustainability will be helping to organise MQ staff participation in the North Ryde Community Aid Christmas Hamper collection, packing and delivery. Its a fantastic event, and a great way to give back this Christmas. 2018 Xmas Hamper suggestions
While we organise the logistics & advertising materials of the drive, please save the following dates:
- Packing Hampers on Friday 14th December.
- Delivery on Monday 17th and Tuesday 18th December (in groups of 2 or 3 take several hampers and deliver them to homes around Ryde. Volunteers would travel in their own car).
SEMINARS AND WORKSHOPS
Registrations open for Wildlife Translocation Health Symposium in February 2019 – The Symposium will provide a comprehensive review of the health disciplines that should be taken into consideration during translocations and intensive wildlife management actions, along with some key note addresses about the ecology of translocations and disease ecology. Carl Jones, Chief Scientist with Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, will be delivering the translocation ecology keynote. Carl has extensive experience with intensive wildlife recovery programs on Mauritius, Africa and the UK.
Personal meetings can be organised with ecologist Carl Jones the following morning for select personnel who are involved in wildlife translocation or similar intensive management.
Invitation from the MUSSRC Executive Committee — MU Species Spectrum Research Centre end-of-year event. 11.00am-1.00pm (including lunch) on Wednesday the 12 December in the ‘Senate Room’ (16 Wally’s Walk, room 310).
This event will celebrate the achievements of the Research Centre supported working groups as they apply the trait-based approach to a wide range of organisms and systems. Lunch will be provided. Please RSVP to <fse.species-spectrum-admin@mq.edu.au> and let us know if you have any dietary requirements we can cater for. Please also pass this invitation to your colleagues. Everyone is warmly invited.
Invitation from the REP Executive Committee — REP end-of-year thank you catch-up. To all Research Enrichment Program friends and supporters, please join us on the 12th December 2018, from 3:30pm onwards at the MQ Campus Commons Ubar to raise a toast (of whichever beverage you choose) to the Program, and your support of it, in 2018. There will be no formalities – we will book a table where we can come together and a catch-up with each other. No need to RSVP. Everyone is warmly invited.
HDR OPPORTUNITIES
Session 1, 2019 Casual Teaching Applications are Now Open – Applications close Friday 21 December 2018.
Click here to apply. Please contact <caitlin.kordis@mq.edu.au> with any questions.
Are you a HDR student? Need help with writing? – HDR Mentors in collaboration with HDR Learning Skills is running another round of Peer Writing Assistance (PWA) for the rest of the year! This program is designed to support MRES and HDR candidates in managing thesis writing and research-related concerns. All peer writing assistants have undergone training for their role and are current PhD candidates at Macquarie. Registrations are now open for individual consultation bookings. If you are interested, please go to book in for a 30-minute session with a PWA. If you have questions about the PWA program please email <hdrmentors@mq.edu.au>.
also…
Weekly Writing Workshops for HDR Students and Early Career Researchers – Convened by Ken Cheng – Running weekly for most of the year: Fridays 2-4pm in room E8B 111.
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. If you are interested in attending a session email Ken Cheng <ken.cheng@mq.edu.au> by Wednesday 12:00-noon, preferably with a draft attached of what you are working on and some indication of what you especially need help with.
ADMIN THINGS
Travel Bookings Absence on Duty (AOD) Submissions – Due to the recent trend of last-minute AOD requests, any late submissions will not be approved. Please give a minimum of 3 weeks before you travel domestically, and 6 weeks internationally, for approvals to be processed and bookings made for you. The more notice you give, the easier it is, and the better prices you can get.
Not receiving general emails? – We have had some trouble with the email lists. If you or anyone you know seems to have dropped off the email lists to receive department seminar notices, Department Matters, etc, please email or drop in to see Jenny Ghabache in the admin office.
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
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.
OPPORTUNITIES
Position Available – Future Earth Australia is advertising a research and policy position at 0.8FTE (https://www.science.org.au/about-us/careers/research-and-policy-officer-future-earth-australia). This person would work closely with the CEO and the FEA team, as well as across a broad stakeholder group. The closing date in 11 January 2019.
Title: BirdLife Australia Volunteering – The BirdLife Discovery Centre in Newington Armory, Sydney Olympic Park, is looking for volunteers. The Discovery Centre is open on the weekends from 10.00 am until 4.00 pm. There are no live birds but plenty of displays of stuffed ones; lots of things for kids to do and short videos to watch. There is also live streaming on the internet of the White-bellied Sea Eagles’ nest in the forest behind the Discovery Centre. There is also a free guided bird walk the last Sunday of each month (except December which, this year, will be on Sunday 16th) commencing at the Visitors Centre next to the bicycle hire at the wharf. Some knowledge of the common, local Australian birds would be required.
If interested please contact the volunteer coordinator Deborah Harris via email <daisyproctor@yahoo.co.uk>.
Call for Students & Volunteers for Plant-Pollinator Research – Prof Graham H. Pyke, UTS, is looking for Students and Volunteers to be involved in Plant-Pollinator research, focusing on plants of the genus Blandfordia, also known as Christmas Bells. Field trip timings starting late November through to the end of Janurary, 2019. If this sounds interesting, please read the following documentation, and then contact contact Graham at <Graham.Pyke@uts.edu.au> for more information on trips.
Call for students & volunteers – Christmas Bells 2018-2019 #1 Sep 2018 General information re trips to Pt Macquarie #02 – Jan 2018 Photos re research at Pt Macquarie – Nov 2018
BLOGS AND OTHER THINGS OF INTEREST
Plant of the Week – click on thumbnail to enlarge the image
The Christmas festive season provides us all with a wonderful opportunity to catch up with friends and spend time with family. This week we feature some of the flowering plants from Australia and around the world that delight us at this time of year: New South Wales Christmas Bush, Poinsettias from Mexico, Blue and white Agapanthus from South Africa and New Zealand Christmas Bush. At this time we would also like to thank all those who have encouraged us and contributed in some way to this year’s stories, especially Jenny Ghabache and Ray Duell, Gina Hammond (Psychology), Leigh Staas, Karen Marais, Monika King, Muhammad Masood, David Edgecombe, Ross Peacock, Bill Chapman, Wade Tozer, Marie Herberstein, Lorraine Hardwick, Dick Frankham and Nola Hancock.
Mindfulness Meditation Practice Group, for HDR students and staff Mindfulness Meditation Practice Group flyer
There are still places available in the mindfulness meditation practice group. If you’re interested in learning mindfulness meditation, or would like a little time out to break up your work day, please come along.
When and where:
Tuesday 11 December, 11am-12pm, 12SW 435
Registration: https://myrdc.mq.edu.au Enquiries: <michelle.jamieson@mq.edu.au>
When and where:
Tuesday 11 December, 11am-12pm, 12SW 435
Registration: https://myrdc.mq.edu.au Enquiries: <michelle.jamieson@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>
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.
- Please write in third person. The information is coming from the Newsletter, not directly from you.
- 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.
- 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.
- Keep your submission short and direct (two paragraphs) and if possible provide a document, email or link where readers can get more information. Any long submissions will be cropped.
Keeping to these guidelines will streamline your article’s addition to the newsletter. Thank you.
Have You Missed Out on an Issue of Department Matters? Back issues can be found at this newsletter archive link for your reading pleasure.
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Robert Harcourt provided comment to ABC The World Today
Professor Robert Harcourt from the Department of Biological Sciences provided comment to ABC The World Today about the imprisonment of dual and foreign nationals in Iran.
Catarina Vila Pouca was featured in Scientific American and Popular Mechanics
Catarina Vila Pouca from the Department of Biological Sciences was featured in Scientific American and Popular Mechanics regarding the effects of warming oceans on sharks’ brains.