Do invasive exotic and native freshwater plant species respond similarly to low additional nitrate doses?
By: Gufu, Guyo D., Anthony Manea, Louisa Vorreiter, and Michelle R. Leishman. Aquatic Botany 151 (2018): 1-8. | Find with Google Scholar »
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Hi all,
Last week of this teaching session – I hear sighs of relief around the department in the calm before the storm of exam marking and finalisation of grades! It certainly finished with a bang for BIOL364 Symbiosis in Health & Disease students who held their OneHealth Antibiotic Resistance Science Fair in the courtyard on Tuesday, which was a great event – lots of happy and engaged students and staff, with a free lunch – what’s not to love?
Next week we will have the Unofficial Opening of the New Biosciences Building in the Fauna Park – there will be lunch provided, cake and ribbon cutting and general celebration – all welcome! (register below please)
Finally, if you missed the Department meeting on Tuesday, you can catch up here
cheers,
Michelle
Save the Date
This coming week 12th – 16th November
Tues 13th: 205b ‘unofficial’ building opening celebration lunch; 12.30 pm – 2.00 pm; Fauna Park Biosciences building (205 Culloden Rd), Dining Area. Register here – https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Z9NPTBR
Wed 14th: Department Morning Tea; 10.30am; 14EAR (E8A) 280 Biology Tea Room.
Wed 14th: Department Seminar – Professor Luciano Beheregaray, Flinders University; 1.00pm – 2.00pm; 14EAR (E8A) 280 Biology Tea Room.
Thu 15th: Biology Social Club; 5.00pm – 7.00pm; Biology Courtyard.
Following week 19th November – 23rd November
Wed 21st: Department Morning Tea; 10.30am; 205b Culloden Rd, Dining Area (New Fauna Park Building).
Wed 21st: Department Seminar – Professor Martin Hermy, KU Leuven; 1.00pm – 2.00pm; 14EAR (E8A) 280 Biology Tea Room.
Future Events
Dec 4th: Exam Meeting; 11 am – 1 pm; 14EAR (E8A) 280 Biology Tea Room.
Dec 4th: EOY Lunch; 1 pm – 4 pm; Fauna Park, Biosciences building – 205b Dining Area – Register here – https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LDP8PPV
Dec 10-11th: Department Retreat for academic staff; MQ city campus.
Want to know what Department seminars are coming up? You can check out the Dept webpage at any time!
General News and Announcements
Congratulations to Lizzy Lowe & partner Tom
Riley was born Monday November 5th with standard metrics at 3.5kg and 48cm long. The whole family is back home and doing well!
Click on picture for larger image.
Christmas Hamper Collection for North Ryde Community Aid – Macquarie University is collecting items for North Ryde Community Aid. Hampers are put together for frail and elderly residents of North Ryde who are living independently. Biology will have a collection box in the tearoom for donations.
Suitable items include:
- Non-perishable food and drink
- Festive snacks and sweets
- Toiletries
- Puzzles and games
- Festive decorations
Items collected and packed 14 December. Hampers delivered 17/18 December – volunteers wanted. Email <samantha.newton@mq.edu.au> for more information.
Christmas Hamper Program – North Ryde Community Aid – 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.
While we organise the logistics & advertising materials of the drive, please save the following dates:
- Campaigning and collection from Monday 5th November (drop off locations to be confirmed).
- 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).
New Equipment in PGF – We now have a LI-COR portable leaf area meter (LI3000C) available for use in Plant Growth Facility and for field experiments. This leaf area meter can digitize the area, length and width of leaves in a non-destructive way. 
https://www.licor.com/env/products/leaf_area/LI-3000C/
This equipment is housed in Plant Growth Facility F5A433. For training and use, contact Muhammad Masood.
Email: <muhammad.masood@mq.edu.au>
Extension: 8217
Vision for Sustainability – Biological Sciences (Draft for comment) – The Sustainability Working Group has developed the following draft vision to capture our intentions for achieving environmental and social sustainability in Biology. Please email <samantha.newton@mq.edu.au> to provide feedback.
We are a diverse, vibrant community, united by our interest and curiosity for living systems. We create a better future through collaboration, accountability and sharing of knowledge and resources.
We achieve this by:
- Embedding environmental sustainability in our curriculum
- Reducing waste and energy emissions from our operations
- Having a diverse, vibrant, engaged, integrated and caring community
Outreach T-Shirt Design Competition – Each year a huge number of you volunteer your time and expertise for outreach events on behalf of the Department, but many are denied official university t-shirts because you are not full time staff, or because you are students! So we are subverting the system and taking back control by designing our own Biology Outreach T-shirts! So, if you are a creative artistic person send us your artwork; a line drawing that captures the research we do as a department. The outreach committee will then send the best designs out to the department to vote, and the winner will have their design printed on the T-shirts that we will use for outreach. They will also receive a $50 gift voucher and a copy of the outreach t-shirt!
Full details and template – Biology Outreach T-Shirt Competition.
Join in the Super Spring Scoop with Scoop a Poop! – Do you have possums in your backyard or a nearby park? Do you own a smartphone or tablet? Then YOU can contribute to the Scoop a Poop project this Spring! Collect possum poop and we will screen it for antibiotic resistance genes.Pick up your Scoop a Poop kits in the foyer of 6 Wally’s Walk (E8B) – look near the Plant of the Week display. Please make sure you fill in your details on the sign-up sheet. Kits are available to pick up from 5-27 Nov. Please return kits (to the same point) by 30 Nov. You will also need the Scoop a Poop app – download it on the App Store or Google Play Any questions? Contact Koa Webster on ext. 6289 or koa.webster@mq.edu.au
Gofundme, please donate what you can to help out a sick student – One of our PhD students, Muzahid Islam, has suffered a serious illness, requiring two urgent operations on a swollen kidney. Muzahid will not only be out of action for a while, but he and his family—they welcomed a baby daughter into the world in January—will be out of pocket for a large expense, over $10,000, because Muzahid’s health insurance only covers a minority of the medical expenses. As a result, we are rallying to raise some funds to defray Muzahid’s medical costs, via a gofundme page: https://www.gofundme.com/make-time-for-muzahid
High School Students Work Experience – Activities Needed – Do you have any field or lab activities happening 19-23 November? Do you want some free labour? We will be hosting 10 High School students for work experience, so if you are planning field work, field/lab work prep, or any lab activities and would like free help during this time, please read the information on the link below and contact Kath McClelland via email – katherine.mcclellan@mq.edu.au. Please click here for more information about work experience activities.
SEMINARS AND WORKSHOPS
Biological Sciences Weekly Seminar: Wednesday, 14th November 2018, 1 – 2pm, 14EAR (E8A) 280 Biology Tea Room.
Speaker: Associate Professor Luciano Beheregaray, Flinders University. Title: Genomics, adaptation and the evolutionary management of wildlife.
Speaker: Associate Professor Luciano Beheregaray, Flinders University. Title: Genomics, adaptation and the evolutionary management of wildlife.
Biological Sciences Weekly Seminar : Wednesday, 21st November 2018, 1 – 2pm, 14EAR (E8A) 280 Biology Tea Room.
Speaker: Professor Martin Hermy, KU Leuven. Title: Historic ecosystems inspiring the development of novel ecosystems – the example of extensive green roofs
Speaker: Professor Martin Hermy, KU Leuven. Title: Historic ecosystems inspiring the development of novel ecosystems – the example of extensive green roofs
More information on these and all department seminars ON OUR WEBPAGE HERE
Molecular Sciences Seminars
Date/Time/Venue: Monday, 15th November 2018, 11.00am – 12.00pm, 4WW (F7B) 322 Seminar Room.
Date/Time/Venue: Monday, 15th November 2018, 11.00am – 12.00pm, 4WW (F7B) 322 Seminar Room.
Speaker: Professor Adrian Goldman, Department of Biosciences, University of Helsinki (Finland) and School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Leeds (UK). Title: Progress towards novel inhibitors of protozoan parasites. https://goto.mq/6q
Date/Time/Venue: Thursday, 22nd November 2018, 11.00am – 12.00pm, 4WW (F7B) 322 Seminar Room.
Speaker: Professor Douglas R. MacFarlane, Australian Centre for Electromaterials Science, School of Chemistry, Monash University. Title: Materials Chemistry for Sustainable Energy Storage. https://goto.mq/7n
Date/Time/Venue: Thursday, 22nd November 2018, 1.00pm – 2.00pm, 4WW (F7B) 322 Seminar Room.
Speaker: Professor Jiří Barek, UNESCO Laboratory of Environmental Electrochemistry, Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Czech Republic. Title: New Electrode Materials and Arrangements for Large Scale Monitoring of Environmental Pollutants. https://goto.mq/6s
Data Carpentry with R Workshop – scheduled on 28-29 November 2019 in Room 149, 7 Wally’s Walk.
Led by Dr Peter Humburg, the workshop is targeted primarily at higher degree research students and early career researchers but open to all. It will be the final training run by our team this year so if you haven’t completed a Data Carpentry workshop before, we encourage you to register ASAP. A nominal fee of $25 will cover lunch over the two days. Registration details are on the Eventbrite page. Refer to the workshop webpage for information on course schedule, syllabus and laptop instructions.
Ecological Strategies Across Bacteria and Archaea Via Measurable Traits Workshop – MU Species Spectrum Research Centre
Date/Time/Venue: Wednesday, 14th November 2018, 11 am – 5 pm, 14EAR (E8A) 280 Biology Tea Room.
This workshop is associated with a Macquarie-group project to compare ecological strategies via measurable traits as widely as possible across bacteria and archaea. During Wednesday participants will give short informal talks introducing themselves and their research interests, and indicating what they would be interested to see the project achieve. If you wish to attend, please email jacqui.smith@mq.edu.au by 7 November 2018. More information about schedule and speakers here.
Futures of Neurorobotics
Date/Time/Venue: Monday, 19th November 2018, 10.30am – 5.00pm, Senate Room (16 Wally’s Walk, room 310).
The workshop explores how robotics and computer science can accelerate understanding the brain, how understanding the brain can accelerate robotics, and the futures of autonomous robotics. The workshop will consider the scientific, ethical and philosophical challenges posed by new developments in A.I. and autonomous machines. Click here to register for the ‘Futures of Neurorobotics’ workshop.
HDR OPPORTUNITIES
PhD Opportunity with ANSTO, CSIRO and Dr Chariton’s Environmental Genomics, Ecology and Ecotoxicology Lab (EGEEL) – Prospective PhD students in receipt of a Research Training Program (RTP) scholarship will be eligible for an ANSTO top-up scholarship ($7,500 per year). Supervision of the student will be shared between Macquarie University and Dr. Tom Cresswell’s lab at ANSTO. The research focus is on assessing the ecotoxicological and radiological effects of naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) scale on aquatic organisms. Such scale exists in many sub-sea oil and gas pipelines and an assessment of the potential effects to marine biota is important during the decommissioning of such infrastructure. It appears that there is a large gap in this type of assessment globally so the outcomes of this project have far-reaching consequences. It is envisaged that the project will provide for a more valid assessment of the risk posed by sub sea oil and gas scale to aquatic organisms as compared with current methods which rely on default/reference parameters which may greatly misinterpret the risk. It is intended that this will enable improved strategies to be developed and potentially implemented, creating large cost-saving for both industry and government, whilst demonstrating environmental protection (stakeholder acceptance). Specifically, the project will address a critical step in achieving this goal: developing a data set of bioaccumulation (transfer) and organ distribution of NORM scale within pipe to bottom-dwelling (benthic) organisms from oil and gas distribution lines under several scenarios of pipe usage. The project will also seek to assess the relative importance of the chemotoxicity and radiotoxicity of scales to colonising marine organisms.
For more details please contact Anthony Chariton <anthony.chariton@mq.edu.au>.
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
06 Nov 2018 Department Meeting Slides
Biosciences Building Meeting Room Bookings – A new calendar has been created to manage the new meeting rooms and dining areas in the 205B Building. Meeting rooms are G05 (4 people), G06 (4 people), G28 Boardroom (20 people boardroom style, has AV), G26 Dining area (book for functions). There is also a calendar for the meeting table in 205A. If you wish to use the room, please send an email to fse.bio-adm@mq.edu.au with your meeting details and one of the admin team will book it for you.
Fauna Park Gates – Now that construction fence around the new building, 205B, has been removed, the FP side gate has been re-locked. The black personnel gate at the rear of W19F should remain closed but unlocked during the day and Security will lock this in the evenings. The gate should remain locked on weekends and public holidays. Then – to ensure the Fauna Park doesn’t become a short-cut for pedestrians – the gate into the 209 Culloden Rd car park will be closed, but not locked, during the day. Sorry for the inconvenience when driving in and out but now there is hardly anyone around the cottages, the risk to the animals has increased slightly. Again, this gate should remain locked on weekends and public holidays. As always, please keep internal gates closed but not locked in case a child ended up down at the lungfish dams. Thanks for your cooperation.
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.
Last Photo Competition of the Year – NOVEMBER 2018 – go into the draw to win a $100 Gift Card this month and the theme is SPRING! 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 must have been taken in the last five years. Please follow the dropbox file request link to submit your images.
Submission close: 30 NOVEMBER 2018. You can enter as many photos as you like – one entry to the draw per photo with caption info, good luck!
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
NPWS Bandicoot Surveys Volunteers Needed in November – Lee DeGail (NPWS Ranger) is looking for volunteers to assist with upcoming surveys for bandicoots and other wildlife. Surveys take place in National Parks around Sydney and are a great opportunity to get up close and personal with our native wildlife.It is also a great opportunity to connect with the National Parks and Wildlife Service to chat about other opportunities if you are thinking about a career along these lines. Days are 0530-0900 and evenings 2200-0130 or thereabouts. First day (Mon 12/11) is set up from 1000 to 1400 and last day (Thurs 14/11) is cleanup 0900 to 1200. Please contact Lee DeGail at <Lee.DeGail@environment.nsw.gov.au>. Or ask Alex Carthey <alexandra.carthey@mq.edu.au> if you have any questions before contacting Lee.
BLOGS AND OTHER THINGS OF INTEREST
Plant of the Week – click on thumbnail to enlarge the image
This week – Silky Oak – Grevilla robusta
We are so accustomed to having a wide range of Grevillea species, hybrids and varieties planted in our gardens, that it comes as quite a surprise that the tallest of all, Grevillea robusta, the Silky Oak, is not related to any other species of Grevillea, nor are there any records of natural hybrids.
Careers Reading
https://www.abc.net.au/life/should-you-take-a-job-you-dont-really-want/9914774
http://www.abc.net.au/life/how-to-advance-career-without-managing-people/9879400
Sophisticated Psychological Algorithm Confirms that Some People are Jerks
Room available December/January in the Central Coast – Laura’s room will be available for rent in the months of December and January. Her three-bedroom house is located at Woy Woy, a nice 7 minutes bike ride from the train station. Rent is $135/week including services. If interested and/or for more details please send her an email to <laura.fernandez@hdr.mq.edu.au>.
Laminated Posters Free to a Good Home – The Herbarium has posters of New South Wales national parks and other biological topics – free! Most are laminated. Excellent for display purposes, or perhaps useful for schools. Please contact Alison Downing or Karen Marais on x 8197
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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New Publications
Integrated evidence reveals a new species in the ancient blue coral genus Heliopora (Octocorallia)
By: Richards, Z.T., Yasuda, N., Kikuchi, T., Foster, T., Mitsuyuki, C., Stat, M., Suyama, Y. and Wilson, N.G., 2018. Scientific reports, 8(1), p.15875. | Find with Google Scholar »Are geomorphological typologies for estuaries also useful for classifying their ecosystems?
By: Mahoney, Peter C., and Melanie J. Bishop. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems. | Find with Google Scholar »In the Media
Culum Brown was interviewed on ABC The World Today and Triple J Hack
Associate Professor Culum Brown from the Department of Biological Sciences was interviewed on ABC The World Today and Triple J Hack regarding understanding shark behaviour to prevent attacks on humans.
Jane Williamson was interviewed on ABC’s 7:30 Report
Associate Professor Jane Williamson from the Department of Biological Sciences was interviewed on ABC 7:30 regarding the effectiveness of drumlines to prevent shark attacks, and the recent cluster of shark bites in the Whitsundays.
Culum Brown was interviewed on CBC The Current
Associate Professor Culum Brown from the Department of Biological Sciences was interviewed on CBC The Current about whether fish can feel pain.