Can we stop justifying every habitat type in terms of being a ‘great carbon store’ There is more to biodiversity than storing carbon

An amazing effort from Flinders University honours student Alfie Lem to produce such an interesting paper on whether restoration plantings cause soil microbiota recovery. In short: not great amounts of recovery observed over 6 years --> details here onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.111…

We used soil bacteria to track post-mining ecosystem recovery. Effective rehab set a trajectory of #restoration over 40-60 yr. Accounting for variable outcomes our novel microbiota analysis found 'simplicity on the far side of complexity'. With partners... authors.elsevier.com/a/1eccP14Z6tlA…

About 40-60 years ⏱️ That's about how long it takes for soil microbiota to recover from mining impacts with high quality rehabilitation, according to our recent paper --> sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

here is a quick thread for anybody who didn't read the 3 ipcc reports published in the last year (hello, politics, business and news editors) summarizing what hundreds of the world's top scientists concluded in their mega-review of the academic literature on climate change 1/

Our recent paper (and my first as lead!) is now online. We show bacterial communities in rehabilitated sites become more like those in reference sites with time, but point to high variability within multiple ref sites. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.111…

PhD ch3 soil microbiota translocation field experiment on Bush Heritage’s stunning Fitz-Stirling reserves is all setup, thanks to an excellent team of volunteers. Back in 3 months to monitor seed germination and one year for repeat soil sampling.

👀👀 Can you believe your eyes? The team at at Monjebup experienced a jaw-dropping moment last week when they peered into a nest box only to discover a Southwestern Spiny-tailed Gecko cosied up with a family of Western Pygmy Possums! 🤯🤯 📸 1: Kelsey Lambert 📸 2: Alex Hams

🥁Meet Shawn Peddle (Shawn Peddle), PhD candidate Flinders University. Shawn will be presenting on "Agricultural land-use legacies present unique challenges for the restoration of soil microbiota" #ESASCBO2022 Program: kaigi.eventsair.com/QuickEventWebs…

.Shawn Peddle gave us a nice snapshot of his PhD project chapter on better understanding post agricultural land use legacies on soil bacterial diversity in Western Australia. Make sure to check out his poster for more information #ESASCBO2022

A great week at #ESASCBO2022. Survived my first conference presentation, met so many wonderful people and researchers, and was even awarded the ESA EMR student prize for an outstanding poster presentation! Cheers to the ESA and Bush Heritage for all the support!🎉

Are you based in South Australia and think HDR stipends should be raised? Students, staff and alumni of SA universities can sign this petition to help #RaiseTheRTP Disclaimer: this was not created by stipend_tracker, but we are always happy to share! forms.gle/gM2LBJDrLa3VFE…

How can #microbes play a crucial role in restoring ecosystems? Check out our new paper led by Jake Robinson in Trends in Ecology & Evolution to find out!!

Our New Phytologist Ecological Society of Australia #ESAus22 meeting report is more like a mini review and out now. 🥳 Integrating soil microbial communities into fundamental ecology, conservation, and restoration: examples from Australia - Birnbaum - New Phytologist - nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/np…

🩺🧬 “HEALTHY MICROBIOMES” 🔬🦠 We know they are important! But how do we define & measure them? We show a new way to assess the genetic capacity of gut & soil metagenomes (=DNA of entire communities) to process compounds linked to human health & disease doi.org/10.1016/j.scit…

Huge congrats to @RileyJHodgson for publishing his first PhD chapter on how aridity strengthens the core rhizosphere microbiome of kangaroo grass Thank you to all the funders and supporters of his work Read the open access paper here: sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

Happy to see my #PhD review chapter out today in Biological Reviews! We cover how soil microbes can facilitate #restoration success and highlight research priorities to improve their integration into practice. Check it out!