Belinda Medlyn
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bmedlyn.bsky.social
Belinda Medlyn
@bmedlyn.bsky.social

Professor, Ecosystem Modelling, Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney U. Ecophysiologist and #DeadTreeDetective

Belinda Medlyn FAA is a plant physiologist, ecologist and mathematical modeller. Her research explores how plants, and particularly trees, respond to increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide. .. more

Environmental science 53%
Agriculture 15%
Save the date! 47th New Phytologist Symposium on 'Extreme Heat: extending the thermal limits of life'. Explore how extreme heat affects plants that underpin ecosystem productivity.
2-5 June 2026, Cordoba, Spain.
@newphyt.bsky.social

www.newphytologist.org/events/47-nps
Extreme Heat: extending the thermal limits of life
www.newphytologist.org
Check out our latest updates!

🌱 New Phytologist #TansleyMedal application deadline
🌱 Upcoming New Phytologist Now webinar
🌱 An exciting announcement from Plants, People, Planet
🌱 Details of next year's New Phytologist Symposium on extreme heat

...and more:

📨 www.newphytologist.org/news/latest-...

Reposted by Belinda E. Medlyn

Exciting PhD opportunity advertised by superstar colleague Prof. Rachael Gallagher "Genomic and trait-based indicators of restoration success" (collaboration with Botanic Gardens of Sydney). See attached image. Contact Rachael directly for more information (email in advert). Closes 30th Nov.

Reposted by Belinda E. Medlyn

Yesterday we were treated to an inspirational seminar from Dr Laura Williams from @westsyduhie.bsky.social all about the importance of tree diversity, novel ways to quantify it and its consequences for how forests function. Good luck with the richly-deserved DECRA Laura!!! Ping @bmedlyn.bsky.social

NB Applicants must have working rights in Australia

One more! Here the stellar Laura Williams leads a review of detection + attribution of change in Australian vegetation. The upshot: with current monitoring, it's remarkably difficult to attribute effects of climate - which has important consequences for management

The arboretum has been even more heavily affected by drought this year - sad to see, but fascinating from a research perspective

Drought sensitivity in eucalypts is climate‐adapted and consistently influenced by wood density - great work by PhD student Victoria Perez-Martinez at @deannicolle1.bsky.social Currency Creek Arboretum during the Tinderbox drought

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Drought sensitivity is climate‐adapted and consistently influenced by wood density and maximum height in eucalypts
Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Analysis of eddy-covariance C and water fluxes during the Australian Tinderbox drought of 2017-2019 showed remarkable resilience and recovery in most Australian forest types. Great work from @clares-hydro.bsky.social and OzFlux community

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
The Response and Recovery of Carbon and Water Fluxes in Australian Ecosystems Exposed to Severe Drought
We examined flux data across a range of Australian ecosystems exposed to severe drought over two years (2018-19). The driest ecosystems experienced large productivity declines, but intermediate ecosy...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Postdoctoral position in Forest Monitoring available. Know your way around spatial datasets? Join us to help monitor changes in Australia's precious forest estate! @westsyduhie.bsky.social
jobs.smartrecruiters.com/WesternSydne...
Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Forest Monitoring
Company Description: Western Sydney University is a modern, forward-thinking, research-led institution at the heart of Australia’s fastest-growing and most economically significant region. With 11 cam...
jobs.smartrecruiters.com
📢🌿Available #traits #FunctionalTraits PhD position in my group @westsyduhie.bsky.social, closes 30th Oct. Topics: “Climate adaptations in Australian native grasses”; OR “Plant resource economics”. Apply via WSU Online Portal. Eligibility and other key info here: wrightlab.wordpress.com/news/

Reposted by Belinda E. Medlyn

Environmental conditions drive variation in C4 photosynthetic capacity more than species traits

Fan, et al.

📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

#PlantScience @yuzhenfan.bsky.social
Fabulous #PhD project opportunity on #Eucalypt diversity - super interesting project plus you get to work with the truly amazing Laura Williams
PhD opportunity available at @westsyduhie.bsky.social with the brillant Dr Laura Williams - hyperspectral data and process-based modelling of tree diversity 🌳🌲 please share with your networks tinyurl.com/ms6mjz8y
PhD opportunity available at @westsyduhie.bsky.social with the brillant Dr Laura Williams - hyperspectral data and process-based modelling of tree diversity 🌳🌲 please share with your networks tinyurl.com/ms6mjz8y

Reposted by Belinda E. Medlyn

Oceania Ecological Forecasting Initiative seminar this afternoon 3pm AEDT!
Nick Clark, UQ will speak on "Ecological forecasting with Dynamic Generalized Additive Models"
ecoforecast.org/oceania-ecol...

Reposted by Belinda E. Medlyn

Indigenous pyrodiversity promotes plant diversity 🌏🧪
doi.org/10.1016/j.bi...

Reposted by Belinda E. Medlyn

Great to collaborate on another brilliant ECR-led paper on vegetation-carbon-climate dynamics over deep time!

@julrogger.bsky.social et al. propose that the thermal adaption capacity of plants is an important carbon cycle feedback.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Linking source-sink relationships and phenology: Internal physiological drivers of leaf development in trees: Understanding the relationship between non‐structural carbohydrates and leaf phenology
Internal physiological drivers of leaf development in trees: Understanding the relationship between non‐structural carbohydrates and leaf phenology
Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Reposted by Belinda E. Medlyn

My first post here!

In our latest paper we observe wood densities ranging from 0.16g/cc (lighter than styrofoam!) to 1.48g/cc (heavier than some sedimentary rock!) 😮

Globally, wood in tropical forests is up to 30% denser than in boreal forests
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The global distribution and drivers of wood density and their impact on forest carbon stocks - Nature Ecology & Evolution
Wood density is an important plant trait. Data from 1.1 million forest inventory plots and 10,703 tree species show a latitudinal gradient in wood density, with temperature and soil moisture explainin...
www.nature.com

Reposted by Belinda E. Medlyn

Check out this recent paper by Dr. Jaclyn Corbin et al. in Plant, Cell and Environment showing how leaf reflectance can predict interactive genetic and environmental effects on tree phenotypes: doi.org/10.1111/pce....

#OpenAccess #PlantBiology #Botany

Reposted by Belinda E. Medlyn

Global patterns of stand-replacing disturbances in forests. The data covers all regions and forested biomes. This is an amazing piece of work! 🌏🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Landscape patterns in stand-replacing disturbances across the world’s forests - Nature Sustainability
Forests are subject to natural and human-induced disturbances, which can be important in shaping their form and function. In this study, the authors examine the landscape patterns of global forest dis...
www.nature.com

Reposted by Belinda E. Medlyn

New paper by Alina Cansler and colleagues:
"Drought before fire increases tree mortality after fire".

I ❤️ results-oriented titles!

#Wildfire 🔥🌏🧪
Drought before fire increases tree mortality after fire
Fire and drought are expected to increase in frequency and severity in temperate forests due to climate change. To evaluate whether drought increases the likelihood of post-fire tree mortality, we us...
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Excited to share our new #Nature article published yesterday. It showed that rainfall variability is almost as important as total annual rainfall amount in determining global vegetation dynamics.

Led by Feldman, with Konings, Gentine, Cattry, Smith, Biederman, Chatterjee, Joiner & Poulter
Excited to share that our paper on alpine vegetation dynamics on Australian mountain summits is out now! 🏔️ Huge thanks to coauthors @jwmorganecology.bsky.social, @susannavenn.bsky.social, and @jcamac.bsky.social

Reposted by Belinda E. Medlyn

Great paper by @Jesse Radolinksy, Michael Bahn and our colleagues showing how important changes in soil water mixing are: Drought in a warmer, CO2-rich climate restricts grassland water use and soil water mixing | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Drought in a warmer, CO2-rich climate restricts grassland water use and soil water mixing
Soil water sustains terrestrial life, yet its fate is uncertain under a changing climate. We conducted a deuterium labeling experiment to determine whether elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), w...
www.science.org

Reposted by Belinda E. Medlyn

We are reading this paper - again! - for lab meeting this week. It’s so good and essential that it requires periodic revisiting, esp. as new folks join my group. Generates great discussion and introspection.

The authors also approach the topic with refreshing humility.

doi.org/10.1002/ecy....
A practical guide to selecting models for exploration, inference, and prediction in ecology
Selecting among competing statistical models is a core challenge in science. However, the many possible approaches and techniques for model selection, and the conflicting recommendations for their us...
doi.org
Happy to share a new paper, "Effects of Hot Versus Dry Vapor Pressure Deficit on Ecosystem Carbon and Water Fluxes," led by the amazing Miriam Johnston w/ @mallorybarnes.bsky.social and others agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

Reposted by Belinda E. Medlyn

It's here! The moment we've all been waiting for!
Here are the ten contenders for #EucalyptoftheYear2025: The Travel Edition.

This year, instead of celebrating species, the Eucalypt of the Year vote will honour some of the best spots to holiday among the gum trees!

1/11
#NationalEucalyptDay2025
Excited about our new paper asking: Why does the growth of most life have an optimal temperature below 40°C? We argue the average maximum oceanic temperatures of <37°C for 2+ billion years drove evolution of the temperature optima of prokaryotes. 1/5
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Earth's Climate History Explains Life's Temperature Optima
We propose that the origin of the temperature optima of life results from two discrete evolutionary selection pressures that constrained the evolution of fundamental biochemistry and growth of most l...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com