Topology, divergence dates and macroevolutionary inferences vary between different tip-dating approaches applied to fossil theropods (Dinosauria).
By: Bapst, D. W., Wright, A. M., Matzke, N. J. and Lloyd, G. T., 2016. Biology Letters, 12, 20160237. | Find with Google Scholar »
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Dear all,
I’m excited about next week’s G2G Outlook on Tuesday and Wednesday – it looks like it will be a great two days of ideas and discussion on the Anthropocene.
cheerio
Michelle
Save the Date
This coming week 25th – 29th July
Mon 25th; E8A Digital Teaching Lab Induction; 9am to 12:10pm; E8A-120.
Tue 26th & Wed 27th; G2G Outlook 2016; 9am – 5pm, W5C 320, 301 & 302.
Wed 27th: Advising day.
Wed 27th: Faculty HDR Commencement; 1pm to 5pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).
Thu 28th; E8C Digital Teaching Lab Induction; 9am – 12:00 midday, E8C-106.
Fri 29th; F7B Digital Teaching Lab Induction, 9:30am – 11am; F7B-105/108.
Sun 31st; Applications for international PhD scholarships due.
Following week 1st – 5th August
Tuesday 2nd: Department meeting E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).
Thu 4th: Morning tea at the Plant Growth Facility to celebrate the commissioning of the new growth cabinets; 10am.
Thu 4th: HDR Completion Seminar – Elke Vermeulen; 3pm – 3:30pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).
Coming up
Aug 20th; Open Day.
Sept 15th; Department Secret Safety Activity
Sept 19th: ECR research showcase day.
Sept 20th: Graduation for biological sciences, 2.30-4pm.
Oct 26th; Faculty Safety day
Oct 31st: Applications for domestic (APA) PhD scholarships due.
General News and Announcements
Round 2, Departmental Strategic Research Funding closes 29 July
A reminder to continuing academics that Round 2 of the Departmental Strategic Research Funding closes on the 29th July, so time to finalise your applications! Applications can be for up to $5000 for the activities listed in the Department of Biological Sciences Strategic Research Funding rules. The application process is not onerous (<1 page). The scheme was under-subscribed in round 1, so chances are that if you propose something worthwhile that conforms with the funding rules, you are likely to be funded! Any questions about eligibility should be directed to Melanie (melanie.bishop@mq.edu.au).
MQ Research Scholarships
Please see the Macquarie Research Scholarships Summary Table (Final 2016-7-19) for Macquarie University research scholarships. Summary information of the scholarship criteria, application process and value are shown by cohort over time.
Sustainability initiative needs assistance
In 2014 the Department conducted an overview of sustainability initiatives. Now is the time to follow this up with a strategic approach to improving sustainability within Biological Sciences.
Why is this important?
The need to be more socially and environmentally responsible and aware is a major concern for staff across campus, yet staff feel unsure how to address sustainability as part of their day-to-day undertakings. Target Better Futures leverages what Biology is already good at (or an expert in) to provide guidance to others on how to act sustainability.
Attached is an overview with more information about how Target: Better Futures will work. There will be also a short presentation at the Department meeting on 4th August. If you’re interested in being more involved, please email Samantha Newton and Michelle Leishman.
Target Better Futures Overview
Completion Seminar
Time/Day/Location: Thursday 4th August, 3pm – 3:30pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).
Speaker: Elke Vermeulen
Title: Diversity of protozoan parasites in a threatened marsupial (Petrogale penicillata) which is part of a conservation program
Supervisors: Dr. Michelle Power and Dr. Mark Eldridge
Abstract:
Biodiversity is declining world-wide and conservation management aims to maintain or increase diminished populations but often overlooks a significant portion of the ecosystem: parasite communities. Some parasites are highly host specific and their relationship with their host has been recognised as an important driver of biodiversity. However, the specificity of the parasite to a particular host population may lead to a negative impact on the parasite community due to management practices such as captive breeding and translocation. Furthermore, atypical contact with humans and other animals may introduce novel parasites as well as induce stress in the host, lowering the efficiency of the immune system.
To examine the impact of a current conservation program on the parasite community of a threatened animal, we examined the genetic diversity and prevalence of three protozoan parasites in differently managed and wild populations of the brush-tailed rock-wallaby (BTRW, Petrogale penicillata). The prevalence, determined through PCR and Sanger sequencing, of Cryptosporidium and G. duodenalis was low (7.1% and 6.3% respectively). The anthropozoonotic species / assemblages of these parasites (C. meleagridis and G. duodenalis assemblages A and B) were identified in all population categories.
The prevalence of Eimeria following a flotation technique was almost ubiquitous (92%) and there was no significant effect on infection intensity. The genetic community analysis using next generation sequencing (NGS) on the Illumina MiSeq platform revealed great diversity and richness in Eimeria communities, which was maintained throughout all population categories. Being the first study to utilise NGS to examine Eimeria communities, this study revealed that much of the genetic diversity of Eimeria in wildlife is still unknown.
The conservation management program for BTRW maintained the diversity and community structure of the specialist parasite while no anthropozoonotic parasites were introduced. Many parasites are highly host specific and unique to Australian wildlife and are thus just as threatened as their hosts. Therefore, we propose large scale studies of parasite communities in animals that are part of conservation management, using similar approaches as utilised in this study.
Fieldwork incident
There has recently been a rather serious fieldwork incident involving injury and an accident in a hired vehicle. We are pleased to report that all parties are now ok, home and safe. However, it has become apparent that our university insurance policies and covers are not as cut and dry as we thought so please be rigorous in your risk management and fieldwork applications.
The fieldwork managers are working together with Risk and Assurance to make sense of these gaps in our understanding about insurance covers in the case of an incident requiring emergency response. We will be asking Risk and Assurance for a clear guideline document and will be working to get this circulated to you all as soon as possible. In the meantime if you are unsure about anything please do not hesitate to chat with any of us.
In regards to hiring rental vehicles for travel or fieldwork, please see Hannah Woodrow Clark for bookings. In light of the recent incident we need to be more diligent in checking various aspects of the booking and insurances and Hannah has a checklist of what must be considered when hiring vehicles through rental agencies.
Thank you
Sarah
Sarah
Biology Safety Alert
R User’s Group Update
Next R Users Group Meeting upcoming! It will take place Tuesday 26.07.2016 in the Biology Tearoom as usual. Ina Geedicke will introduce some tools to create maps using R. So everyone who always wanted to start creating beautiful maps or is doing this already on a daily basis is very welcome.
2017 Scholarship schedule and award conditions
Please see the Macquarie Research Scholarships Summary Table (Final 2016-7-19) for information on Macquarie University research scholarships. Summary information of the scholarship criteria, application process and value are shown by cohort over time.
To all S2 Academic Staff:
This is a reminder for units with external sessions, if you have less than 15 students for OnCampus sessions (OCS), there is no provision for technical support for the weekend OCS. Technical staff will prepare all material on Friday for small classes.
If you are likely to cancel the OCS due to low enrolment, could you please let Rekha know. If you see any issue with this, please contact Rekha.
All users of E8C photocopier:
There is no ventilation in the E8C level 1 copier. We have put in a request for the exhaust fan to property, but till then we would appreciate if you can follow the simple guidelines as per below.
“If you are printing more than 50 papers, please do the printing either before 9 am or after 4 pm. Please leave the door open while printing”.
CSIRO seeking scientists and mathematicians for schools program
Join an on-campus information session on Wednesday 27 July for the CSIRO’s Scientists and Mathematicians in Schools (SMiS) program.
Public Consultation on the Structural Review of NHMRC’s Grant Program
Do you apply for NHMRC grants? If so, you may be interested in the proposed changes to the structure of their grants program. The Consultation Paper is attached, including some Frequently Asked Questions, f you have feedback please provide it using the template attached and send to to sci.research@mq.edu.au by Monday, 15 August.
Opportunities at University of Groningen
Associate Dean HDR Tracy Rushmer recently came to the department to present information on collaborative opportunities with University of Groningen, particularly for cotutelle students. Their research areas strongly overlap with ours, so if you are interested in looking for new opportunities then please check out the information on the Faculty here and the Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences here. They have great facilities and there is likely to be funding for travel and priority for HDR scholarships.
As well, MQ has a staff exchange agreement with University of Groningen which provides opportunities for our academic staff to teach Various Biology/Life Sciences courses in their second semester (around 1 February – 1 April , around 15 April – 15 June), with the possibility to prepare a portfolio afterwards and get a University Teaching Qualification.
Please contact Tracy Rushmer for further information.
Short-term Student Accommodation needed
My new PhD Student, Sonu Yadav, will be arriving from India in mid-late August for a project on the landscape genomics of grasshoppers. She is looking for, in the first instance, short-term accommodation (1-3 weeks) on arrival. If you have a room for rent during this time please email me and I will put you in touch with Sonu. Thanks, Rachael Dudaniec
Plant of the Week – Alan Cunningham’s Grevillea – Grevillea rosmarinifolia.
MQMarine Social Friday Seminar 29th July
MQMarine Social Friday is back on the 29th of July with a seminar by postdoctoral researcher Johann Mourier from the Biology department.
Join us for a relaxed Friday afternoon at the Staff Cafe (Level 3, W5A) learning about the behavioural ecology of sharks and mingling over canapes and drinks. We will be there from 3:30-5:30pm, with Johann speaking from 4-5. Landlubbers welcome! Please join us!
Behavioural ecology of sharks: From individual to population structure
Part1
How natural nearly undisturbed reef shark populations should look like? An example from French Polynesia
The extent of the global human footprint limits our understanding of what is natural in the marine environment. Remote near-pristine areas provide some baseline expectations for biomass and suggest that predators dominate, producing an ‘inverted biomass pyramid’. The southern pass of Fakarava atoll – a Biosphere Reserve in French Polynesia – hosts an average of 600 reef sharks, 2-3 times the biomass/ha documented for any other reef shark aggregations. This huge biomass of predators makes the trophic pyramid inverted. Bioenergetics models indicate the sharks require ~ 90 tons of fish/year while the total fish production in the pass is ~ 17 tons/year. Energetic theory shows that such trophic structure is maintained through subsidies and empirical evidence suggests sharks must engage in wide ranging foraging excursions to meet energy needs. We used underwater surveys and acoustic telemetry to assess shark residency in the pass and feeding behavior, and bioenergetics models to understand energy flow. Contrary to previous findings, our results highlight that sharks may overcome low local energy availability by feeding on fish spawning aggregations which concentrate energy from other local trophic pyramids. Fish spawning aggregations are known to be targeted by sharks, but were previously believed to play a minor role representing occasional opportunistic supplements. This research demonstrates fish spawning aggregations can play a significant role in the maintenance of local inverted pyramids in pristine marine areas. Conserving fish spawning aggregations can help conserve shark populations, especially if combined with shark fishing bans.
Part2
Application of social networks to investigate the socio-ecology of sharks
The interaction between individuals has important implications for the structure and dynamics of populations. Social organization can be highly variable, ranging from solitary individuals to complex societies, depending on the species and environmental contexts. While sociality in terrestrial animals has been extensively studied, marine species have received much less attention – except iconic social structures, such as schools of fishes or pods of marine mammals. The development of social network theory is now providing behavioural ecologists important tools to investigate aspects of the cryptic social life of elusive marine animals such as sharks. My research has built on this foundation to better understand how individual behaviour influences population structure in sharks. Using different tools such as photo-identification, telemetry, and genetic analysis, I have been investigating the role of individual interactions in the behavioural ecology of sharks, which provides important implications into the understanding of the evolution of sociality and vulnerability of these organisms.
Biography:
Originated from France, Johann has always been intrigued by the ocean and especially by sharks. After studying at an agronomic school in Bordeaux, he moved on to study fisheries science in Rennes (France) and investigated the behavioural ecology of great white sharks in South Africa in 2005. He then moved to French Polynesia for a Master’s and then a PhD between 2007 and 2011 during which time, he developed innovative tools (including social network analysis and genetic parentage assignment) and studied the behavioural ecology of reef sharks. He is also the scientific advisor of the Shark Observatory of French Polynesia (ORP), a network of shark observers spread across the islands of French Polynesia since 2011. Currently, Johann resides in Sydney where he is a post-doctoral fellow at Macquarie University in the Behaviour, Ecology, and Evolution of Fishes (BEEF) Laboratory.
Casual Employment Opportunity – PACE Internships Project
There is a casual employment opportunity with the Internships Project currently in progress in PACE. The position will provide administrative support to Judy Hutchison, who is steering this project and will be part-time for 2 days per week for a total of 34 days, commencing in late July.
We are trying to locate a potential candidate to fill this role and want to ask for your help. If you know of someone who may be interested in this type of opportunity we would like to hear about them. We would also be grateful if you would circulate this casual opportunity through your own networks.
Any enquiries about the role can be directed to Judy Hutchison, Senior Project Manager, Internships on <judy.hutchison@mq.edu.au> or 9850 6485.
Sydney Chapter – Society for Conservation Biology
We kindly invite you to join us for our next Conservation Café on the 6th August @ 10am at the Education Precinct in Centennial Park.
Conservation Café is a monthly event open to anyone! Hosted by the Sydney Society for Conservation Biology, the event aims to celebrate the incredible work being done by our region’s conservation professionals in an informal setting.
This August, come hear from Macquarie University’s Dr. Rachael Dudaneic about the iconic Darwin’s finches and the devastating threat they face from the introduced parasitic fly, Philornis downsi.
The consequences of the accidental introduction of this fly to the Galapagos Islands around 1962 has presented an unprecedented challenge to ecologists, with larvae killing >50% of finch chicks.
Rachael has been on the frontline of the conservation efforts to mitigate the impacts of the fly, and will be discussing two decades of research on this parasitism. Her talk will provide a real and raw synthesis of what we know about this interaction and the possible avenues and needs for conservation management. You can find out more about Rachael’s research at dudanieclab.weebly.com.
Get your tickets on Eventbrite (link: https://conservationcafeaugust16.eventbrite.com.au) ! Spaces are limited. Please download our flyer (attached) or share on social media (@sydneySCB https://www.facebook.com/sydneyscb/) and help us advertise!
Complimentary tea, coffee and snacks provided by Sydney-SCB with re-usable cups available for purchase towards our conservation projects.
Conservation Cafe August 2016_1page
Invitation: meet Dr Ellen Jorgensen from New York City’s community biolab, Genspace, on Friday 19 August
Dr Ellen Jorgensen, the founder of New York City’s community biolab, Genspace, will be in Sydney as Inspiring Australia’s guest during Sydney Science Festival. Genspace is a nonprofit organisation dedicated to promoting citizen science and access to biotechnology.
The facility offers hands-on courses to the public, provides extracurricular experiences for students, and encourages scientific entrepreneurship, particularly in the fields of molecular and synthetic biology. Genspace was founded by a group of science enthusiasts who come from different professions – artists, engineers, writers and biologists.
Among four Sydney events that Ellen will participate in is DNA Groundswell, a session especially designed for science communicators and researchers to discuss how they might incorporate open access programs into their work.
Ellen will be joined by local biohacker Meow-Ludo Meow-Meow, Co-founder of Sydney’s BioFoundry.
When: 10 am, Friday 19 August
Where: Royal Botanic Garden Sydney
Cost: $15 – includes light refreshments and networking after formal proceedings
New Publications
In the Media
Professor Michelle Leishman was featured on Australasian Leisure Management.
Professor Michelle Leishman from the Department of Biological Sciences was featured on Australasian Leisure Management regarding the new $10 million research consortium to change the way we green public spaces.